mammock meaning (obsolete): definition, etymology and quotations

mammock

noun

UK /ˈmamək/ · US /ˈmæmək/

Etymology From mam (of obscure origin) + -ock (diminutive suffix).

Dialectal, Obsolete A shapeless piece; a fragment.

"Can. Let me be torn into mammocks with wild Bears if I make not a gallemaufry of thy heart"1600, John Day, The Blind Beggar of Bednal-Green:
The bird liveth by the scraps, and feedeth upon the leavings of that monster, who gently receiveth him into his mouth, and suffers him to pecke his jawes and teeth for such mamockes [translating morceaux] of flesh as sticke betweene them[…].1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 12, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book II, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC:

1 more example

"Then, by St. Thomas of Canterbury," replied Gurth, "we will have the castle, should we tear it down with our hands!" / "We have nothing else to tear it with," replied Wamba; "but mine are scarce fit to make mammocks of freestone and mortar."1819, Walter Scott, Ivanhoe:

verb

Etymology From mam (of obscure origin) + -ock (diminutive suffix).

Dialectal, Obsolete To tear to pieces.

Chiefly North Carolina

I saw him run after a gilded Butterfly, & when he caught it, he let it go againe, and after it againe, and ouer and ouer he comes, and vp againe: catcht it again: or whether his fall enrag'd him, or how 'twas, hee did so set his teeth, and teare it. Oh, I warrant how he mammockt it.c. 1608–1609 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedy of Coriolanus”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, (please specify the act number in uppercase Roman numerals, and the scene number in lowercase Roman numerals):
to keep off the profane touch of the Laicks, whilst the obscene, and surfeted Priest scruples not to paw, and mammock the sacramentall bread, as familiarly as his Tavern Bisket1641, John Milton, Of Reformation:

3 more examples

Yet, in the meaning of presumptuous, "bold" could reveal the poet's ambivalence, since in their impudence the navvies took liberties with nature by mammocking it. Another reservation could be the implied contrast with Harry […]1987, Dutch Quarterly Review of Anglo-American Letters: DQR, page 104:
However, his own son has been pulling wings off butterflies, torturing them, mammocking them in his teeth, letting them go, capturing them again, mammocking them, and so on.2015, Tina Packer, Women of Will: Following the Feminine in Shakespeare's Plays, page 244:
I smiled at her and she smiled back, her mouth sticky with strawberry jam from a piece of toast she was mammocking.2020, Bradley W. Wright, Enigma Variations: