See Also: Town Mouse and the Country Mouse, the(dictionary)
mouse(dictionary)
sea mouse(medicine)
NOD Mouse(health)
mouse(1)(dictionary)
mouse(2)(dictionary)
xid mouse(medicine)
mouse(encyclopedia)
mouse mat(dictionary)
Mouse-ear(medicine)

mouse(1) (iou)



mouse noun. , in sense 4 also mouses.
[Old English mus, pl. ms = Old Frisian, Old Saxon, Old High German mus (Dutch muis, German Maus), Old Norse mus, from Germanic from Indo-European base repr. also by Latin mus, Greek mus.]
I.
Any of various small rodents, mostly of the family Muridae, usu. having a pointed snout and relatively large ears and eyes, and typically living on seeds and nuts. Also, any of various animals resembling these, as a shrew, a vole. OE.
deer mouse, field mouse, flying mouse, harvest mouse, house mouse, jumping mouse, marsupial mouse, pocket mouse, waltzing mouse, white mouse, etc.
a. A term of endearment esp. for a woman or child: darling, pet. Long rare. E16.
Dickens Not low this morning I hope? You ought not to be, dear Mouse.
b. Orig., a person or thing likened to a mouse in being small or insignificant. Now, a quiet, timid, or retiring person. L16.
Douglas Clark He was an uncouth bully, she was a mouse, a nonentity.
In full mouse-colour. A shade of grey with a yellowish-brown tint. Also, a light dull brown shade esp. of hair. E17.
Any of various objects regarded as resembling a mouse in shape or appearance; spec. (a) Nautical a small collar made with yarn round a wire or rope and intended to hold an eye etc. in place; (b) Computing a small hand-held device moved over a flat surface to produce a corresponding movement of a cursor or arrow on a VDU, usu. having fingertip controls for selecting a function or entering a command. M18.
Mini-Micro Systems Using the mouse to..select, a user can bring a 'page' to the top of the screen.
A small humped cowry, Cypraea mus, cream with brown markings. E19.
A small greyish-brown noctuid moth, Amphipyra tragopoginis, which runs away when disturbed. Also more fully mouse moth. E19.
A lump or discoloured bruise, esp. one on or near the eye and caused by a blow; a black eye. slang. M19.
II.
A muscle. Long obsolete exc. as passing into sense 9. OE.
spec. Any of various muscular parts of meat. Long dial. L16.
Phrases: country mouse fig. a person from a rural area unfamiliar with urban life, as distinguished from town mouse below. mouse and man every living thing. play cat and mouse: see CAT noun1. quiet as a mouse very quiet. strong enough to trot a mouse on, thick enough to trot a mouse on: see TROT verb. town mouse an inhabitant of a city familiar with urban life, as distinguished from country mouse above.
Comb.: mousebird any of various long-tailed fruit-eating birds of the African genus Colius (and family Coliidae), with soft hairlike plumage; also called coly; mouse-colour: see sense 3 above; mouse-coloured adjective of mouse-colour; mouse deer = CHEVROTAIN; mouse-dun mouse-colour; mouse-ear any of various plants with softly hairy leaves resembling a mouse's ear; esp. (a) (more fully mouse-ear hawkweed) any of several stoloniferous plants of the genus Pilosella, allied to the hawkweeds; spec. P. officinarum, common in dry grassland; (b) (more fully mouse-ear chickweed) any of various small plants of the genus Cerastium, of the pink family, with white flowers resembling chickweed; (c) a forget-me-not, esp. Myosotis scorpioides; (d) (more fully mouse-ear cress) thale cress, Arabidopsis thaliana; mouse-eared adjective having an appendage resembling a mouse's ear; mouse-eared bat, any of numerous bats of the genus Myotis, esp. the Eurasian M. myotis, brown with greyish-white undersides, a rare visitor to Britain; mouse-fish (a) = SARGASSUM fish; (b) a slim, brightly coloured Indo-Pacific fish, Gonorhynchus gonorhynchus, which burrows in sand on the seabed; mouse-hare = PIKA; mouse-hawk a bird of prey that catches mice; spec. the short-eared owl, Asio flammeus; mouse-hole noun & verb (a) noun a hole used or made by a mouse for habitation or passage; a very small hole; (b) verb trans. & intrans. make a mouse-hole (in); make a narrow passage or tunnel (through); mouse-hunt noun1 (obsolete exc. dial.) an animal that hunts mice, spec. a weasel; mouse-hunt noun2 a hunt for a mouse or mice; mouse-lemur any of various small Madagascan lemurs of the family Cheirogaleidae, esp. of the genus Microcebus; mouse moth: see sense 6 above; mouse mat a piece of rigid or slightly resilient material on which a computer mouse is moved; mouse opossum = MANICOU; mouse pad = mouse mat above; mouse potato [after COUCH potato] slang a person who spends large amounts of leisure time using a computer; mouse pox Veterinary Medicine infectious ectromelia; mousetail a plant of damp fields, Myosurus minimus, of the buttercup family, with a long spike of tiny flowers.
mousekin noun (rare) = mouseling M19.
mouselet noun (rare) (a) = reed dagger s.v. REED noun1; (b) = mouseling: M19.
mouselike adjective resembling (that of) a mouse; esp. very small, very quiet: M19.
mouseling noun a young or small mouse M19.
mouseship noun (rare) (a) the condition of being a mouse; (b) (with possess. adjective, as
your mouseship etc.) a mock title of respect given to a mouse: E18.