muckle

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈmʌkəl/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ʌkəl

Etymology 1

From Middle English mukel, muchel, from the same source as (perhaps a variant of) mickle.

Noun

muckle (plural muckles)

1. (chiefly Scotland) A great amount.

Derived terms

• many a mickle makes a muckle

Adjective

muckle (comparative more muckle, superlative most muckle)

1. (archaic outside Northumbria and Scotland) Large, massive.
   • c. 1930, George S. Morris, song A Pair o Nicky-tams:

     She clorts a muckle piece tae me, wi' different kinds o' jam,
     An' tells me ilka nicht that she admires my Nicky Tams.

2. (archaic outside Northumbria and Scotland) Much.

Verb

muckle (third-person singular simple present muckles, present participle muckling, simple past and past participle muckled)

1. (Vermont, Maine) To latch onto something with the mouth.
   • 1954, Elizabeth Ogilvie, The Dawning of the Day‎, page 199:

     And how'd she get such a holt on you, Terence Campion, let alone the way she's muckled onto those Bennetts?

   • 2002, William G. Wilkoff, The Maternity Leave Breastfeeding Plan‎, →ISBN, page 87:

     Another technique for the baby who is having trouble muckling on involves a breast or nipple shield.

   • 2004, William J. Vande Kopple, The Catch: Families, Fishing, and Faith‎, →ISBN, page 18:

     When an exhausted sucker is hauled to the top of The Wall, usually its muckling circle of a mouth goes into a frenzied sucking spasm.

2. (rare) To talk big; to exaggerate.
   • 1896, W.S. Gilbert, “The Grand Duke, or the Statutory Duel”, in The Complete Plays of Gilbert and Sullivan, published 1941:

     I told him all, / Both bad and good; / I bade him call — / He said he would: / I added much — the more I muckled, / The more that chuckling chummy chuckled!

Synonyms

• (to talk big): mickle

References

• A Dictionary of North East Dialect, Bill Griffiths, 2005, Northumbria University Press, →ISBN
• A List of words and phrases in everyday use by the natives of Hetton-le-Hole in the County of Durham, F.M.T.Palgrave, English Dialect Society vol.74, 1896,
• “muckle”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.

Etymology 2

Noun

muckle (plural muckles)

1. A maul or hammer.
   • 1897, Rudyard Kipling, Captains Courageous:

     Then the caplin moved off, and five minutes later there was no sound except the splash of the sinkers overside, the flapping of the cod, and the whack of the muckles as the men stunned them.

Scots

Determiner

muckle (comparative mair, superlative maist)

1. much

Adjective

muckle (comparative muckler, superlative mucklest)

1. large, great

Alternative forms

• mickle