mouse

Less common meanings

4. 4
   shy personnouncountable

   A timid, quiet, or shy person.

   She seemed a mouse at first, but proved fearless once the pressure was on.

   The new intern was a complete mouse during the morning meetings.

   Similarwallflower

5. 5
   creepverbintransitive

   To move cautiously or furtively, like a mouse, most often in the phrase "to mouse around."

   The children moused quietly past their parents' bedroom door.

   I tend to mouse around the kitchen at midnight, hunting for a snack.

   Similarcreep, sneak, tiptoe, steal

6. 6
   hunt (cats)verbintransitive

   Of a cat, to hunt or catch mice.

   Barn cats mouse through the winter to keep the rodent population down.

   A cat that will not mouse is of little use on a working farm.

   UsageOften in go mousing: the cat went mousing in the barn.

   Note

   One of the oldest jobs the word does, in use since the twelfth century. Because the subject is almost always a cat, a sentence like the cat will not mouse judges its usefulness as much as its habits. Source

   Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 1 fact

   • The hunting sense of mouse dates to the twelfth century. en.wiktionary.org
7. 7
   black eyenouncountable

   A swelling or bruise on the face, especially a black eye.

   He woke up the morning after the brawl with a purple mouse under his eye.

   Between rounds, the cutman pressed cold metal to the mouse so her eye wouldn't swell shut.

   UsageRingside talk; outside boxing, black eye or bruise is the ordinary word.

   Similarshiner, bruise

   Note

   Fight vocabulary rather than medical language: the swelling that rises on a boxer's face, usually around the eye, after a punch. Source

   Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 2 facts

   • In boxing, mouse means a facial hematoma or black eye. en.wiktionary.org
   • A punch can cause facial swelling, commonly around the eye. wbaboxing.com
8. 8
   noun

   A cut of beef taken from the hind leg, lying next to the round.
9. 9
   noun

   A length of slow match used to set off a firearm or a blasting charge.
10. 10
    noun

    A binding of spun yarn or a metal clasp joining the point and shank of a hook to keep it from unhooking or bending open.
11. 11
    verb

    To secure the open part of a hook, or the pin of a shackle, by binding it with marline, wire or a tie so it cannot slip or work loose.
12. 12
    noun

    In set theory, a small model of part of Zermelo-Fraenkel set theory chosen for its desirable structural properties.
13. 13
    noun

    A small cushion placed under a woman's hair to add height or fullness.
14. 14
    nounobsolete

    An affectionate name used for a sweetheart or dearly loved companion.

    Let the bloat King tempt you again to bed, / Pinch wanton on your cheek, call you his mouse

    c. 1599, William Shakespeare, Hamlet
15. 15
    verbobsolete

    To tear or rip apart, in the manner of a cat tearing at a mouse.

    [Death] mousing the flesh of men.

    c. 1596, William Shakespeare, “The Life and Death of King Iohn”