messan
Americannoun
Etymology
Origin of messan
First recorded in 1490–1500; from Scots Gaelic measàn “pet”
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Ah!" said Mackenzie, picking up his pen again, "the Glenkens messan!
From The Men of the Moss-Hags Being a history of adventure taken from the papers of William Gordon of Earlstoun in Galloway by S. R. (Samuel Rutherford) Crockett
He gave a charge on his lands to a goldsmith at York to pay for my up-bringing, and I verily believe thought no more of me than if I had been a messan dog.
From The Herd Boy and His Hermit by Charlotte Mary Yonge
Hardly a tyke or messan but's awa' to Peden to get her whaulpies named at the Holy Linn!
From The Men of the Moss-Hags Being a history of adventure taken from the papers of William Gordon of Earlstoun in Galloway by S. R. (Samuel Rutherford) Crockett
"They are good enough lads, Sholto and Laurence both, but they will be for ever gnarring and grappling at each other like messan dogs round a kirk door."
From The Black Douglas by Frank Richards
They led three hundred horses forth, Milk white was every one; But the first sank down like a messan dog That Swayne laid the saddle on.
From The King's Wake and Other Ballads by Thomas James Wise
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
