verb. (common).—To decamp; TO AMPUTATE (q.v.); to SKEDADDLE (q.v.).
1781. G. PARKER, A View of Society, II. 231. He preferred MIZZLING off to France.
1789. G. PARKER, Life’s Painter, p. 143, s.v.
1821. P. EGAN, Real Life in London, i. 224. He tipp’d the slavey a tanner and MIZZLED.
1823. GROSE, A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue (3rd ed.), s.v.
1823. BADCOCK (‘Jon Bee’), Dictionary of the Turf, etc., s.v.
1821. W. T. MONCRIEFF, Tom and Jerry, p. 6. Tom. That will do—now then Dicky, MIZZLE!—be scarce!—broom! Prince. Wouldn’t intrude a moment, gentlemen, good morning—order my carriage.
1830. HOOD, On a Royal Demise.
| How Monarchs die is easily explained, | |
| And thus it might upon the tomb be chiselled; | |
| ‘As long as George the Fourth could reign he reigned, | |
| And then he MIZZLED.’ |
1830. DICKENS, Pickwick Papers, p. 74 (ed. 1847). ‘How you run on,’ said Rachel. ‘Run on—nothing to the hours, days, weeks, months, years, when we ’re united—run on—they’ll fly on—bolt—MIZZLE—steam-engine—thousand-horse-power—nothing to it.’
1842. R. H. BARHAM, The Ingoldsby Legends, ‘The Lay of St. Cuthbert.’ ‘Cut your stick, sir—come, MIZZLE!—be off with you!—go!’
1841. HOOD, in Comic Almanack, 256, ‘Twelfth Night.’
| But, oh! pride, pride must have a fall; | |
| Her cash he soon got through: | |
| And then, one mizzling Mich’lmas day, | |
| The Count he MIZZLED too. |
1848. J. STIRLING COYNE, Binks the Bagman, i. Binks. Sanguinary scoundrel! you have murdered that angelic woman. Begone—abscond—dissolve—MIZZLE!
1844. C. SELBY, London by Night, i. 1. Jack. Hawkhurst! (Aside.) I’d butter MIZZLE.
1849. DICKENS, David Copperfield, p. 202. Now you may MIZZLE, Jemmy, and if Mr. Copperfield will take the chair I’ll operate on him.
1851–61. H. MAYHEW, London Labour and the London Poor, iii. 154. Of course I MIZZLED, for fear of a stone or two.
1853. The Comic Almanack, p. 52. ‘The Vulture.’
| ‘Smith!’ I cried,… ‘I’m ill—and joking set apart, your horrid smoking | |
| Irritates my cough to choking. Having mentioned it before, | |
| Really, you should not compel one—Will you MIZZLE—as before?’ | |
| Quoth the Vulture, ‘Never more!’ |
1853. SURTEES, Mr. Sponge’s Sporting Tour, i. Soapey Sponge, as his good natured friends called him, was seen MIZZLING along Oxford St., wending his way to the west.
1857. New York Herald, 17 June. They say the treasurer has MIZZLED, and as there is a small sum of a hundred thousand dollars missing, the presumption is not a very violent one.
1859. G. W. MATSELL, Vocabulum; or, The Rogue’s Lexicon, s.v.
1863. C. READE, Hard Cash, III. 77. ‘How dare you eat it there,’ said Hayes brutally: ‘take it to your own crib: come, MIZZLE.’ And with that he lent him a contemptuous kick behind.
