Chapter Mary Magdalene to Matamore of M by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

Mashackering and Misguggling Mauling and disfiguring.

“I humbly protest against mauling and disfiguring this work; against what the great Walter Scott would, I think, have called mashackering and misguggling, after the manner of Nicol Muschat (in The Heart of Midlothian), when he put an end to his wife Arlie at the spot afterwards called by his name.”- W. E. Gladstone: Nineteenth Century, November, 1885.

Masher A dude (q.v.); an exquisite; a lardy-dardy swell who dresses aesthetically, behaves killingly, and thinks himself a Romeo. This sort of thing used to be called “crushing” or killing, and, as mashing is crushing, the synonym was substituted about 1880. A lady-killer, a crusher, a masher, all mean the same thing.

“The prattle of the masher between the acts.” Daily Telegraph, Oct. 10, 1883.

Mask a Fleet (To). To lock up an enemy's fleet that it cannot put to sea.

Mason and Dixon's Line The southern boundary-line which separated the free states of Pennsylvania from what were at one time the slave states of Maryland and Virginia. It lies in 3943' 26' north latitude, and was run by Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon, two English mathematicians and surveyors (between November 15th, 1763, and December 26th, 1767).

Mass
   High Mass or “Grand Mass” is sung by choristers, and celebrated with the assistance of a deacon and sub-deacon.
   Low Mass is simply read without singing; there is one between these two called the “chanted mass,” in which the service is chanted by the priest.
   Besides these there are a number of special masses, as the mass of the Beatæ, mass of the Holy Ghost, mass of the dead, mass of a saint, mass of scarcity, dry mass, votive mass, holiday mass, Ambrosian mass, Gallic mass, mass of the presanctified for Good Friday, missa Mosarabum, etc. etc.

Mass (The).

“Pope Celestinus ordained the introit and the gloria in excelsis.

“Pope Gregory the Great ordered the kyrie eleison to be repeated nine times, and introduced the prayer.

“Pope Gelasius ordained the Epistle and Gospel.

“Pope Damascus introduced the Credo.

“Pope Alexander put into the canon the following clause: `Qui pridie quam pateretur.'

“Pope Sextus introduced the Sanctus.

“Pope Innocent the pax.

“Pope Leo the Oràte Fratres, and the words in the canon: `Sanctum Sacrificium et immaculatiani Hostram.”'

   E. Kinesman: Lives of the Saints, p. 187 (1623).

Massachusetts was so named from the bay massa [great], wadehuash [mountain], et [near]. The bay-near-the-great-mountain.

Massacre of the Innocents The slaughter of the babes of Bethlehem “from two years old and under,” when Jesus was born. This was done at the command of Herod the Great in order to cut off “the babe” who was destined to become “King of the Jews.”
   Micah v. 2 speaks of Bethlehem as a little place, a small village, probably containing about five hundred inhabitants. It will be easy to calculate the probable number of infants under two years of age in such a village. It would be about ten.