Inherited from Middle English mous, from Old English mūs, from Proto-West Germanic *mūs, from Proto-Germanic *mūs, from Proto-Indo-European *múHs. Cognates Germanic cognates include Old Frisian mūs, Old Saxon mūs (German Low German Muus), Dutch muis, Old High German mūs (German Maus), Old Norse mús (Danish, Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk, and Swedish mus, Faroese and Icelandic mús). Indo-European cognates include Ancient Greek μῦς (mûs), Latin mūs, Spanish mur, Armenian մուկ (muk), Old Church Slavonic мꙑшь (myšĭ) (Russian мышь (myšʹ)), Albanian mi, Persian موش (muš), Northern Kurdish mişk, Sanskrit मूष् (mūṣ). The computing sense was coined by American engineer Bill English in 1965 and first used publicly in a publication titled "Computer-Aided Display Control", in reference to the similarity with the animal.
Broadly Any mammal of the many rodent families (especially Muridae) that have a small body and a long tail.
Near-synonyms: murine, murid, vole (all parasynonymous with this broad sense)
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Broadly Such a rodent that is of the genus Mus.
At twilight in the summer there is never anybody to fear—man, woman, or cat—in the chambers and at that hour the mice come out. They do not eat parchment or foolscap or red tape, but they eat the luncheon crumbs.1892, Walter Besant, chapter II, in The Ivory Gate […], New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], →OCLC:
A person smeared with the excrement of a mouse was rendered impotent, according to Pliny the Elder.1961, Harry E. Wedeck, Dictionary of Aphrodisiacs, New York: The Citadel Press, page 158:
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In molecular biologist David Sinclair’s lab at Harvard Medical School, old mice are growing young again. […] After injecting the virus into the eye, the pluripotent genes were then switched on by feeding the mouse an antibiotic.2022 June 2, Sandee LaMotte, “The ‘Benjamin Button’ effect: Scientists can reverse aging in mice. The goal is to do the same for humans”, in CNN:
Let the bloat King tempt you again to bed, / Pinch wanton on your cheek, call you his mousec. 1599–1602, William Shakespeare, Hamlet, act 3, scene 4:
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Computing, Engineering, Mathematics, Natural sciences, Physical sciences, Sciences An input device that is moved over a pad or other flat surface to produce a corresponding movement of a pointer on a graphical display.
My mouse needs new batteries.
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Computing, Engineering, Mathematics, Natural sciences, Physical sciences, SciencesBroadly An on-screen pointer controlled by a mouse device.
Nautical, Transport A turn or lashing of spun yarn or small stuff, or a metallic clasp or fastening, uniting the point and shank of a hook to prevent its unhooking or straightening out.
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A match used in firing guns or blasting.
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Mathematics, Sciences, Set theory A small model of (a fragment of) Zermelo-Fraenkel set theory with desirable properties (depending on the context).
Inherited from Middle English mous, from Old English mūs, from Proto-West Germanic *mūs, from Proto-Germanic *mūs, from Proto-Indo-European *múHs. Cognates Germanic cognates include Old Frisian mūs, Old Saxon mūs (German Low German Muus), Dutch muis, Old High German mūs (German Maus), Old Norse mús (Danish, Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk, and Swedish mus, Faroese and Icelandic mús). Indo-European cognates include Ancient Greek μῦς (mûs), Latin mūs, Spanish mur, Armenian մուկ (muk), Old Church Slavonic мꙑшь (myšĭ) (Russian мышь (myšʹ)), Albanian mi, Persian موش (muš), Northern Kurdish mişk, Sanskrit मूष् (mūṣ). The computing sense was coined by American engineer Bill English in 1965 and first used publicly in a publication titled "Computer-Aided Display Control", in reference to the similarity with the animal.
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To move cautiously or furtively, in the manner of a mouse (the rodent) (frequently used in the phrasal verb to mouse around).
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To hunt or catch mice (the rodents), usually of cats.
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Nautical, Transport To close the mouth of a hook by a careful binding of marline or wire.
Captain Higgins moused the hook with a bit of marline to prevent the block beckets from falling out under slack.
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Computing, Engineering, Mathematics, Natural sciences, Physical sciences, Sciences To navigate by means of a computer mouse.
I had just moused to the File menu and the pull-down menu repeated the menu bar's hue a dozen shades lighter.1988, MacUser, volume 4:
Unlike the Flamenco work, the Relation Browser allows users to quickly explore a document space using dynamic queries issued by mousing over facet elements in the interface.2009, Daniel Tunkelang, Faceted Search, page 35:
[Death] mousing the flesh of men.c. 1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life and Death of King Iohn”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene i]: