subs. (common).—A hypocrite. [From Bickerstaff’s play, The Hypocrite.] Also as adj.
1823. GROSE, A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue (3rd ed.), s.v.
1866. G. A. SALA, A Trip to Barbary, p. 130. There was a sanctified MAWWORM expression, too, about this fellow, which filled you with a strong desire to fling him overboard.
1871. G. ELIOT, Middlemarch, Bk. I. ch. ii. A man naturally likes to look forward to having the best. He would be the very MAWWORM of bachelors who pretended not to expect it.
1891. Licensed Victuallers’ Gazette, 17 April. Superintendent S— is no MAWWORM, And it must have gone very much against the grain.
