11/22/2017 Mouse | Define Mouse at Dictionary.

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mouse
[noun mous; verb mouz]
Examples Word Origin
See more synonyms on Thesaurus.com (http://www.thesaurus.com/browse/mouse)

noun, plural mice [mahys] (Show IPA)

1. any of numerous small Old World rodents of the family Muridae, especially of the genus Mus, introduced widely in other parts of the world.

2. any similar small animal of various rodent and marsupial families.

3. a quiet, timid person.

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4. Computers. a palm-sized, button-operated pointing device (http://www.dictionary.com/browse/pointing-device) that can be used to move, select,
activate, and change items on a computer screen.
Compare joystick (http://www.dictionary.com/browse/joystick) (def 2), stylus (http://www.dictionary.com/browse/stylus) (def 3).

5. Informal. a swelling under the eye, caused by a blow or blows; black eye.

6. Slang. a girl or woman.

verb (used with object), moused, mousing.

7. to hunt out, as a cat hunts out mice.

8. Nautical. to secure with a mousing (http://www.dictionary.com/browse/mousing).

verb (used without object), moused, mousing.

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11/22/2017 Mouse | Define Mouse at Dictionary.com

9. to hunt for or catch mice.

10. to prowl about, as if in search of something:

The burglar moused about for valuables.

11. to seek or search stealthily or watchfully, as if for prey.

12. Computers. to use a mouse to move the cursor on a computer screen to any position.

The weirdest jobs that actually exist (http://www.dictionary.com/e/s/odd-jobs/?src=dcom-serp-tab)

Origin of mouse

Middle English (http://www.dictionary.com/browse/middle-english) Old English (http://www.dictionary.com/browse/old-english)

900

before 900; Middle English mous (plural mis), Old English ms (plural ms); cognate with German Maus, Old Norse ms, Latin ms, Greek ms

Related forms

mouselike, adjective

Can be confused

mice (http://www.dictionary.com/browse/mice), mouses.

mouse, mousse (http://www.dictionary.com/browse/mousse).

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, Random House, Inc. 2017.
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Examples from the Web for mouse

Contemporary Examples

So Western governments are caught in a cat-and-mouse game and at times it is unclear who is the cat and who the mouse.

ISIS Has a Message. Do We? (http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/12/08/isis-has-a-message-do-we.html?source=dictionary)

(http://www.thedailybeast.com?
source=dictionary)
Jamie Dettmer (http://www.thedailybeast.com/contributors/jamie-dettmer.html?source=dictionary)
December 8, 2014

Even the original score to the song labels the singing parts, mouse (the woman) and Wolf (the man).

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 11/22/2017 Mouse | Define Mouse at Dictionary.com

The Most WTF Covers of Baby, Its Cold Outside, Everyones Favorite Date-Rape Holiday Classic (http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/11/19/the-most-wtf-covers-of-baby-
(http://www.thedailybeast.com?
it-s-cold-outside-everyone-s-favorite-date-rape-holiday-classic.html?source=dictionary)
source=dictionary)
Kevin Fallon (http://www.thedailybeast.com/contributors/kevin-fallon.html?source=dictionary)
November 19, 2014

The episode was titled Cat and mouse and it follows in the pattern of classic Serlingesque plot twists.

How a War-Weary Vet Created The Twilight Zone (http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/11/13/how-a-war-weary-vet-created-the-twilight-zone.html?source=dictionary)

(http://www.thedailybeast.com?
source=dictionary)
Rich Goldstein (http://www.thedailybeast.com/contributors/rich-goldstein.html?source=dictionary)
November 13, 2014

The weirdest jobs that actually exist (http://www.dictionary.com/e/s/odd-jobs/?src=dcom-serp-tab)

In the event, in the long cat and mouse game that Stalin played with him, the cat did not pounce.

When Stalin Met Lady Macbeth (http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/11/09/when-stalin-met-lady-macbeth.html?source=dictionary)

(http://www.thedailybeast.com?
source=dictionary)
Brian Moynahan (http://www.thedailybeast.com/contributors/brian-moynahan.html?source=dictionary)
November 9, 2014

In another study, children saw a puppet show where a mouse was eaten by an alligator.

Why Are Millennials Unfriending Organized Religion? (http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/11/09/why-are-millenials-unfriending-organized-religion.html?source=dictionary)

(http://www.thedailybeast.com?
source=dictionary)
Vlad Chituc (http://www.thedailybeast.com/contributors/vlad-chituc.html?source=dictionary)
November 9, 2014

Historical Examples

Lockwood continued to watch Duncan with the air of a cat eyeing a mouse.

The Fortune Hunter (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/9747/9747-h/9747-h.htm)

Louis Joseph Vance

It is better to be torn to pieces at a spring, than to be a mouse at the caprice of such a cat.'

Little Dorrit (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/963/963-h/963-h.htm)

Charles Dickens

Then the cat carried the mouse to the house in which the chest stood.

The Chinese Fairy Book (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/29939/29939-h/29939-h.htm)

Various

The mouse gnawed a hole in the chest, and fetched out the ring.

The Chinese Fairy Book (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/29939/29939-h/29939-h.htm)

Various

That thing had me fooled; I thought at first it was a Russian mouse hound.

Ruggles of Red Gap (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/9151/9151-h/9151-h.htm)

Harry Leon Wilson

British Dictionary definitions for mouse

mouse
noun (mas) (pl) mice (mas)

1. any of numerous small long-tailed rodents of the families Muridae and Cricetidae that are similar to but smaller than rats See also fieldmouse
(/browse/fieldmouse), harvest mouse (/browse/harvest-mouse), house mouse (/browse/house-mouse) related adjective murine

2. any of various related rodents, such as the jumping mouse

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11/22/2017 Mouse | Define Mouse at Dictionary.com

3. a quiet, timid, or cowardly person

4. (computing) a hand-held device used to control the cursor movement and select computing functions without keying

5. (slang) a black eye

6. (nautical) another word for mousing (/browse/mousing)

The weirdest jobs that actually exist (http://www.dictionary.com/e/s/odd-jobs/?src=dcom-serp-tab)

verb (maz)

7. to stalk and catch (mice)

8. (intransitive) to go about stealthily

9. (transitive) (nautical) to secure (a hook) with mousing

Derived Forms

mouselike, adjective

Word Origin

Old English ms; compare Old Saxon ms, German Maus, Old Norse ms, Latin ms, Greek ms

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
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Word Origin and History for mouse

n.

Old English mus "small rodent," also "muscle of the arm," from Proto-Germanic *mus (cf. Old Norse, Old Frisian, Middle Dutch, Danish, Swedish
mus, Dutch muis, German Maus "mouse"), from PIE *mus- (cf. Sanskrit mus "mouse, rat," Old Persian mush "mouse," Old Church Slavonic mysu,
Latin mus, Lithuanian muse "mouse," Greek mys "mouse, muscle").

Plural form mice (Old English mys) shows effects of i-mutation (http://www.etymonline.com/imutate.php). Contrasted with man (n.) from 1620s.
Meaning "black eye" (or other discolored lump) is from 1842. Computer sense is from 1965, though applied to other things resembling a mouse in
shape since 1750, mainly nautical.

Parturiunt montes, nascetur ridiculus mus [Horace]

v.

"to hunt mice," mid-13c., from mouse (/browse/mouse) (n.). Related: Moused; mousing.

Online Etymology Dictionary, 2010 Douglas Harper

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mouse in Science

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 11/22/2017 Mouse | Define Mouse at Dictionary.com

mouse (mous) (http://content.dictionary.com/help/dictionary/ahsd/pronkey.html)

Plural mice (ms) or mouses
A hand-held input device that is moved about on a flat surface to direct the cursor on a computer screen. It also has buttons for activating computer
functions. The underside of a mechanical mouse contains a rubber-coated ball that rotates as the mouse is moved; optical sensors detect the
motion and move the screen pointer correspondingly. An optical mouse is cordless and uses reflections from an LED to track the mouse's movement
over a special reflective mat which is marked with a grid that acts as a frame of reference.
The American Heritage Science Dictionary
Copyright 2002. Published by Houghton Mifflin. All rights reserved.
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mouse in Culture

mouse definition

A common device that allows the user to reposition an arrow on their computer (http://www.dictionary.com/browse/computer) screen in order to
activate desired applications. The term mouse comes from the appearance of the device, with the cord to the main computer being seen as a tail of
sorts.

Note: The user usually sends signals to the computer when the user depresses or clicks a switch. A number of slang terms, such as click on
X or click and drag have arisen from the appearance of symbols on a screen when a mouse is used.

The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition

Copyright 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Slang definitions & phrases for mouse

mouse
noun

1. A bruise near the eye, caused by a blow; black eye (/browse/black-eye), shiner (/browse/shiner): One of the Kid's eyes has a little mouse
under it (1842+)

2. A young woman: a little mouse I got to know up in Michigan/ I'm pouring Dom Perignon and black eggs into this little mouse (1655+)

3. A term of endearment for a woman: Just stepping out for a minute, mouse (1520+)

The Dictionary of American Slang, Fourth Edition by Barbara Ann Kipfer, PhD. and Robert L. Chapman, Ph.D.
Copyright (C) 2007 by HarperCollins Publishers.
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Idioms and Phrases with mouse

mouse
see:
play cat and mouse (/browse/play--cat--and--mouse)
poor as a churchmouse (/browse/poor-as-a-churchmouse)
quiet as a mouse (/browse/quiet-as-a-mouse)

also see under:

mice (/browse/mice)

The American Heritage Idioms Dictionary

Copyright 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.

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