mort, n.¹ — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

mort n.¹

also maut

[ety. unknown; ? SE mort, a salmon in its third year, i.e. the popular equation of women with fish; Ribton-Turner, A History of Vagrants (1887), suggests Welsh modryb, a matron, morwyn, a virgin]

a woman, esp. a prostitute.

c.1566		Harman Caveat for Common Cursetours in Viles & Furnivall (1907) 76: The arche and chiefe walkers that hath walked a long time, whose experience is great, because of their continuinge practise, I meane all Mortes and Doxes, for their handsomnes and diligence for making of their couches.
1596		Nashe Have With You to Saffron-Walden in Works III (1883–4) 38: Other more rascally hedge rak’t vp terms, familiar to none but roguish morts and doxes.
1608		Dekker Belman of London (3rd) D1: This Palliard neuer goes without a Mort at his heeles whom he calles his wife.
1612		Dekker ‘Canting Song’ O per se O O1: Bing out bien Morts and toure, bing out of the Rome-vile: And towre the coue, that cloyde your duds vpon the chates to trine.
1622		Beaumont & Fletcher Beggar’s Bush II i: His own dear dell, doxy, or mort.
1637		Dekker ‘Canting Song’ in Eng. Villainies (8th edn) O2: Niggling thou (I know) dost love, else the Ruffin cly thee Mort.
1641		R. Brome Jovial Crew Act II: I think my Mort is in drink.
1654		Mercurius Fumigosus 14 30 Aug–6 Sept. 120: The PY-WOMEN in, next Bartholmow-Faire, from Bawde to Whore, and from Whore to Mob, and from Mob to Mort have such Rum trading, that Sodom and Gomorrah are now as empty of traders, as great Bedlam is of honesty.
1669		W. Winstanley New Help To Discourse 132: Palliards, who are also called Clapper-dugeons, are such as with their Morts beg from door to door.
1679–80		‘Jenny’s Answer to Sawney’ in Ebsworth Roxburghe Ballads (1893) VII:1 16: I bid him gang, from whence he came, and to the London Mort declare, / He had wrong’d me.
1688		R. Holme Academy of Armory Ch. iii item 68c: Canting Terms used by Beggars, Vagabonds, Cheaters, Cripples and Bedlams. [...] Mort, a Woman, a Pink.
c.1698		B.E. Dict. Canting Crew n.p.: Morts, Yeomen’s Daughters; also a Wife, Woman, or Wench.
1707		‘Maunder’s Praise of His Strowling Mort’ in Farmer Musa Pedestris (1896) 34: Wapping thou I know does love, / Else the ruffin cly the mort.
1709		N. Ward Compleat and Humorous Account of Remarkable Clubs (1756) 230: We’ll stay at Home, tope humming Boose, / And hug our Mauts and Doxies.
1714		A. Smith Lives of Most Noted Highway-men, etc. I 79: Their Mort, that is to say, their Strumpet or trull (in the canting Tongue).
1725		‘Canter’s Serenade’ in Farmer Musa Pedestris (1896) 43: Ye morts and ye dells / Come out of your cells, / And charm all the palliards about ye.
1734		C. Johnson Hist. of Highwaymen &c. 105: Henceforth it shall be lawful for thee to cant, and to carry a Doxy or Mort along with thee.
1737, 1759, 1760, 1776		Bailey Universal Etym. Eng. Dict. [as cit. c.1698].
1747		Life and Character of Moll King 12: I’ll derrick, my Blood, if I tout my Mort, I’ll tip her a Snitch about the Peeps and Nasous.
1754		Scoundrel’s Dict.
1785		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue n.p.: Their morts are their butchers, who presently make bloody work with what living things are brought them.
1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue (3rd edn) n.p.: Mort. A woman or wench; also a yeoman’s daughter.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum [as cit. 1796].
1822		(con. early 17C) W. Scott Fortunes of Nigel II 131: ‘Tour out,’ said the one ruffian to the other; ‘tour the bien mort twiring at the gentry cove!’.
1834		(con. 1737–9) W.H. Ainsworth Rookwood (1857) 168: The women were equally enchanted – equally eloquent in the expression of their admiration. ‘What ogles!’ cried a mort.
1851		G. Borrow Lavengro I 217: I suppose you would have him [...] hear all I may have to say to my two morts.
1867		W. Phillips Lost in London I i: A civil soft spoken lad as knows a mort.
1895		C. Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 50: Mort, a woman.
1933		M. Marshall Tramp-Royal on the Toby 268: A packman and his mort are telling each other off.
1936		J. Curtis Gilt Kid 231: Who the hell had ever heard of a screwsman rolling up to his mort’s ken with a bunch of violets. Sounded silly, nancy.
1968		A. Burgess Enderby Outside in Complete Enderby (2002) 306: The beerlout’s spew where the nightmort roves.

In compounds

mort dell (n.)

an unmarried woman or virgin girl who accompanies a mendicant villain.

1592		Greene Quip for an Upstart Courtier G3: The pedlar [...] walketh the Countrey with his docksey at the least, if he haue not two his mortes dels, and Autem mortes.
1871		C. Hindley Old Book Collector’s Misc. 75: mort dell. — An unmarried wench.

mort wap-apace (n.) [wap v. and SE apace according to B.E.; but Dekker, O Per Se O (1612), a primary source for B.E., suggests that the phr. was anecdotal, noting that ‘there was an abram, who called his mort Madam Wap-apace’; all subseq. uses are glossarial]

(UK Und.) an experienced prostitute or sexually active woman.

1612		Dekker O Per Se O n.p.: And (as I haue heard) there was an abram, who called his mort Madam Wap-apace.
c.1698		B.E. Dict. Canting Crew n.p.: Wap, c. to Lie with a Man. [...] Mort wap-apace, c. a Woman of Experience, or very expert at the Sport.
1725		New Canting Dict. [as cit. c.1698].
1737, 1759, 1760, 1776		Bailey Universal Etym. Eng. Dict. [as cit. c.1698].
1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1980		Maledicta IV:2 (Winter) 197: Still, when she meets a whisker-splitter, a mort wap-apace usually prefers to be fettled properly.

mort n.1

In compounds

mort n.¹