malkin
[maw-kin, mawl-, mal-]
- an untidy woman; slattern.
- a scarecrow, ragged puppet, or grotesque effigy.
- a mop, especially one made from a bundle of rags and used to clean out a baker's oven.
- a cat.
- a hare.
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Also mawkin.
Origin of malkin
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for malkin
Contemporary Examples
The Malkin family, through Malkin Securities, owns 10 million square feet of real estate, including the Empire State Building.
Hannity and Malkin can still rant, but somewhere, Jack Murtha is watching, with a smile.
Today Malkin says this anecdote— highlighted in her Wikipedia entry —has been largely mischaracterized by the mainstream media.
Malkin also likes to get out of her house and do shoe-leather reporting, albeit with ideological intent.
The recipient of occasional death threats, Malkin has twice felt the need to move her family to undisclosed locations.
Historical Examples
Malkin is a man of singular temper, judgment, and firmness of nerve.
Life and Letters of Lord MacaulayGeorge Otto Trevelyan
I wish his Malkin was re-established at Tournay—and so I believe does he.
The floods descended from the congregated sisterhood at Malkin tower.
Lancashire Folk-loreJohn Harland
Malkin was one of the few English female names with this appendage.
Curiosities of Puritan NomenclatureCharles W. Bardsley
Miss Malkin came and atoned for her historic glance in the shop.
The Price of LoveArnold Bennett
malkin
Word Origin
C13: diminutive of Maud
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Word Origin and History for malkin
n.
also mawkin, "a slattern; woman of the lower classes," late 13c., from fem. proper name Malkyn, a diminutive of Mault "Maud" (see Matilda). Also attested from c.1200 as the proper name of a female specter. Sense of "untidy woman" led to meaning "mop, bundle of rags on a stick" (used to clean ovens, artillery pieces, etc.), c.1400.
MALKINTRASH. One in dismal garb. ["Dictionary of Buckish Slang, University Wit, and Pickpocket Eloquence," London, 1811]
Attested as the name of a cat since 1670s (perhaps earlier as Grimalkin, 16c.); cf. Serbo-Croatian mačka "cat," originally a pet-name form of Maria. Also used in Scotland and northern England as the name of a hare (1724).
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper