muffishness

“When my father came home we got the talking to, and we said we were sorry – and we really were – especially about Daisy, though she had behaved with muffishness, and then it was settled that we were to go into the country and stay till we had grown into better children.”

The Wouldbegoods

“When my father came home we got the talking to, and we said we were sorry -- and we really were -- especially about Daisy, though she had behaved with muffishness, and then it was settled that we were to go into the country and stay till we had grown into better children.”

The Wouldbegoods

“Everybody knew that had he properly exerted his abilities he was capable of beating almost any boy; so, to quiet his conscience, he professed to ridicule diligence as an unboyish piece of muffishness, and was never slow to sneer at the "grinders," as he contemptuously called all those who laid themselves out to win school distinctions.”

Eric, or Little by Little

“His character was so well-known that it had long been forbidden, under the strictest penalty, for any boy ever to speak to him; yet, strange to say, they seemed to take a pleasure in doing so, and just now particularly, it was thought a fine thing, a sign of "pluck" and "anti-muffishness," to be on familiar and intimate terms with that degraded and villainous scoundrel.”

Eric, or Little by Little

“The girl of the period has done away with such moral muffishness as consideration for others, or regard for counsel and rebuke.”

Modern Women and What is Said of Them A Reprint of A Series of Articles in the Saturday Review (1868)