Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A dialectal (Scotch) form of mickle.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective obsolete Much.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective large, massive; much
  • verb US, dialectal To latch onto something with the mouth.
  • verb rare To talk big; to exaggerate.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun (often followed by `of') a large number or amount or extent

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Old English miċel, myċel.

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word muckle.

Examples

  • Then she gave him Donal's school-slate, with a sklet-pike, and said, "Noo, mak a muckle A, cratur."

    Sir Gibbie George MacDonald 1864

  • Evidently "muckle" could not be the dinner-horn, so Harvey passed over the maul, and Dan scientifically stunned the fish before he pulled it inboard, and wrenched out the hook with the short wooden stick he called a "gob-stick."

    Captains Courageous Rudyard Kipling 1900

  • Dan peered down into the water alongside, and flourished the big "muckle," ready for all chances.

    Captains Courageous Rudyard Kipling 1900

  • Rashes. 1870 version [ "muckle"] in MacLennan SNR (1909),

    Craw Killed the Pussy 1847

  • Alex Massie also asks:Jeremy Clarkson is a muckle tube.

    Public sector strikes - Wednesday 30 November 2011

  • "Aye, weel, mony a mickle mak's a muckle, as Papa used to say."

    Watershed 2010

  • And and and when I broke up, I was all in a fuddle, a fussle—a muckle.

    Wildfire Sarah Micklem 2009

  • Many proverbs use alliteration: "Many a mickle (little) makes a muckle (lot)," rhyme: "Man proposes, God disposes," parallelism: "Nothing ventured, nothing gained," ellipsis: "First come, first served," etc.

    The Nature Of Proverbs 2009

  • And and and when I broke up, I was all in a fuddle, a fussle—a muckle.

    Wildfire Sarah Micklem 2009

  • And and and when I broke up, I was all in a fuddle, a fussle—a muckle.

    Wildfire Sarah Micklem 2009

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.

  • Historical meaning is 'a little', as in this sample from 1860:

    I hadna been a wife a week but only four,

    When mournfu' as I sat on the stane at the door,

    I saw my Jamie's wraith, for I couldna think it he

    Till he said, I'm come hame to marry thee.

    O sair, sair did we greet, and muckle did we say;

    We took but ae kiss, and I bade him gang away.

    I wish that I were dead, but I'm no like to dee;

    And why was I born to say, Wae's me?

    I gang like a ghaist, and I carena to spin;

    I daurna think on Jamie, for that wad be a sin;

    But I'll do my best a gude wife aye to be, 35

    For auld Robin Gray he is kind unto me.

    - Lady A. Lindsay, 'Auld Robin Gray'.

    August 11, 2008