mawk

noun — 2 senses

mawk

noun

/mɔːk/

Etymology From Middle English mawke, moke, a contraction of mathek, maddok, from Old Norse maðkr (“maggot”), a diminutive of a base from Proto-Germanic *maþô (“worm”) (compare Old English maþa), from Proto-Indo-European *mat-, *mot- used in reference to insects and vermin. Cognate with Danish maddike, Swedish mask, archaic English maddock (modern maggot).

1

A maggot.

Obsolete except in dialects

2

UK, Dialectal, Obsolete A slattern.

Derived terms
mawkish, mawky, mollymawk

Entry derived from the Wiktionary, under licence CC BY-SA 4.0 — list of authors.