Adjacent Words

Mouse definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

MOUSE, n. plu.mice. [L. mus; The L. mus forms muris in the genitive, and the root is not obvious.]
1. A small animal of the genus Mus, inhabiting houses. The name is also applied to many other species of the genus, as the field mouse, meadow mouse, rock mouse, etc.
2. Among seamen, a knob formed on a rope by spun yarn or parceling.
MOUSE, v.i.. mouz. To catch mice.
MOUSE, v.t. mouz. To tear, as a cat devours a mouse.
To mouse a hook, with seamen, is to fasten a small line across the upper part to prevent unhooking.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: any of numerous small rodents typically resembling diminutive rats having pointed snouts and small ears on elongated bodies with slender usually hairless tails
2: a swollen bruise caused by a blow to the eye [syn: shiner, black eye, mouse]
3: person who is quiet or timid
4: a hand-operated electronic device that controls the coordinates of a cursor on your computer screen as you move it around on a pad; on the bottom of the device is a ball that rolls on the surface of the pad; "a mouse takes much more room than a trackball" [syn: mouse, computer mouse] v
1: to go stealthily or furtively; "..stead of sneaking around spying on the neighbor's house" [syn: sneak, mouse, creep, pussyfoot]
2: manipulate the mouse of a computer

Merriam Webster's

I. noun (plural mice) Etymology: Middle English, from Old English m?s; akin to Old High German m?s mouse, Latin mus, Greek mys mouse, muscle Date: before 12th century 1. any of numerous small rodents (as of the genus Mus) with pointed snout, rather small ears, elongated body, and slender tail 2. a timid person 3. a dark-colored swelling caused by a blow; specifically black eye 4. plural also mouses a small mobile manual device that controls movement of the cursor and selection of functions on a computer display II. verb (moused; mousing) Date: 13th century intransitive verb 1. to hunt for mice 2. to search or move stealthily or slowly transitive verb 1. obsolete a. bite, gnaw b. to toy with roughly 2. to search for carefully — usually used with out

Oxford Reference Dictionary

n. & v. --n. (pl. mice) 1 a any of various small rodents of the family Muridae, esp. of the genus Mus. b any of several similar rodents such as a small shrew or vole. 2 a timid or feeble person. 3 Computing a small hand-held device which controls the cursor on a VDU screen. 4 sl. a black eye. --v.intr. also 1 (esp. of a cat, owl, etc.) hunt for or catch mice. 2 (foll. by about) search industriously; prowl about as if searching. Phrases and idioms: mouse-coloured 1 dark-grey with a yellow tinge. 2 nondescript light brown. mouse deer a chevrotain. mouse hare a pika. Derivatives: mouselike adj. & adv. mouser n. Etymology: OE mus, pl. mys f. Gmc

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Mouse Mouse, v. i. [imp. & p. p. Moused; p. pr. & vb. n. Mousing.] 1. To watch for and catch mice. 2. To watch for or pursue anything in a sly manner; to pry about, on the lookout for something.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Mouse Mouse (mous), n.; pl. Mice (m[imac]s). [OE. mous, mus, AS. m[=u]s, pl. m[=y]s; akin to D. muis, G. maus, OHG. & Icel. m[=u]s, Dan. muus, Sw. mus, Russ. muishe, L. mus, Gr. my^s, Skr. m[=u]sh mouse, mush to steal. [root]277. Cf. Muscle, Musk.] 1. (Zo["o]l.) Any one of numerous species of small rodents belonging to the genus Mus and various related genera of the family Murid[ae]. The common house mouse (Mus musculus) is found in nearly all countries. The American white-footed, or deer, mouse (Hesperomys leucopus) sometimes lives in houses. See Dormouse, Meadow mouse, under Meadow, and Harvest mouse, under Harvest.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Mouse Mouse, v. t. 1. To tear, as a cat devours a mouse. [Obs.] ``[Death] mousing the flesh of men.'' --Shak. 2. (Naut.) To furnish with a mouse; to secure by means of a mousing. See Mouse, n., 2.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(mice) Note: The plural 'mouses' can be used for meaning 2. 1. A mouse is a small furry animal with a long tail. ...a mouse running in a wheel in its cage. N-COUNT 2. A mouse is a device that is connected to a computer. By moving it over a flat surface and pressing its buttons, you can move the cursor around the screen and do things without using the keyboard. N-COUNT 3. game of cat and mouse: see cat

Easton's Bible Dictionary

Heb. 'akhbar, "swift digger"), properly the dormouse, the field-mouse (1 Sam. 6:4). In Lev. 11:29, Isa. 66:17 this word is used generically, and includes the jerboa (Mus jaculus), rat, hamster (Cricetus), which, though declared to be unclean animals, were eaten by the Arabs, and are still eaten by the Bedouins. It is said that no fewer than twenty-three species of this group ('akhbar=Arab. ferah) of animals inhabit Palestine. God "laid waste" the people of Ashdod by the terrible visitation of field-mice, which are like locusts in their destructive effects (1 Sam. 6:4, 11, 18). Herodotus, the Greek historian, accounts for the destruction of the army of Sennacherib (2 Kings 19:35) by saying that in the night thousands of mice invaded the camp and gnawed through the bow-strings, quivers, and shields, and thus left the Assyrians helpless. (See SENNACHERIB.)

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

v. n. 1. Catch mice. 2. Peer, search, pry about, look closely.

1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue

To speak like a mouse in a cheese; i.e. faintly or indistinctly.

Foolish Dictionary

The frequent cause of a rise in cotton.

Moby Thesaurus

Milquetoast, baby, bantam, banty, big baby, black eye, black-and-blue mark, bruise, busybody, button, chick, chicken, chicken liver, chit, contusion, coward, creep, diminutive, ecchymosis, featherweight, fingerling, fraid-cat, fraidy-cat, funk, funker, gal, girl, glide, invertebrate, jellyfish, lady friend, lass, lightweight, lily liver, milksop, mini, minikin, minnow, minny, modest violet, nose, nubbin, peewee, poke, pony, pry, runt, scaredy-cat, shiner, shrimp, shrinking violet, sissy, slide, slip, small fry, snip, snippet, snook, tit, wart, weak sister, weakling, white feather, white liver, wisp