subs. (common).—1. A saddle-horse.
1856. WHYTE-MELVILLE, Kate Coventry, i. We ride many an impetuous steed in safety and comfort that a man would find a dangerous and uncontrollable MOUNT.
1873. BROUGHTON, Nancy, vi. ‘His horses would certainly carry me: I wonder would he give me a MOUNT now and then.’
2. (venery).—1. A wife or mistress; and (2) an act of coition. [Cf. Mrs. MOUNT in Richard Feverel.]
3. (old cant).—A bridge.
Verb. (common).—1. To wear; to carry as an equipment.
1822. MOORE, Life, 26 March. Weather like midsummer: the dandies all MOUNTING their white trousers.
1847. THACKERAY, Vanity Fair, viii. One is bound to speak the truth as far as one knows it, whether one MOUNTS a cap and bells or a shovel-hat.
2. (theatrical).—To prepare for representation on the stage.
1880. Athenæum, 6 March, p. 322. As regards MOUNTING and general decorations the revival is superior to any previous performance of As You Like It.
3. (old).—To swear falsely; to give false evidence: for money.
1789. G. PARKER, Life’s Painter, p. 159, s.v.
1819. J. H. VAUX, Memoirs, s.v. MOUNT, to swear, or give evidence falsely for the sake of a gratuity. TO MOUNT FOR a person is also synonymous with bonnetting for him.
1859. G. W. MATSELL, Vocabulum; or, The Rogue’s Lexicon, s.v. MOUNT. To give false testimony.
1593. SHAKESPEARE, Venus and Adonis.
| Her champion MOUNTED for the hot encounter … | |
| He will not manage her, although he MOUNT her. |
1620. MIDDLETON, A Chaste Maid in Cheapside, v. 4. A woman may be honest according to the English print, when she’s a whore in the Latin; so much for marriage and logic: I’ll love her for her wit. I’ll pick out my runts there; and for my mountains, I’ll MOUNT— [So in original, but the play on words is clear.]
1629. JONSON, The New Inn [CUNNINGHAM, ii. 344], i. 1.
| Instead of backing the brave steed o’ mornings, | |
| [My copy has] to MOUNT the chambermaid. |
1662. Rump Songs, i. p. 358.
| He caught a Foal and MOUNTED her | |
| (O base!) below the Crupper. |
1668. ETHEREGE, She Would if She Could, iii. 2.
| She’s so bonny and brisk, | |
| How she’d curvet and frisk, | |
| If a man were once MOUNTED upon her! |
1715. PENNECUIK, Poems (1815), p. 363. To see old Cuff upon young Helen MOUNTED.
1847. HALLIWELL, A Dictionary of Archaic and Provincial Words, etc., s.v. MOUNT. Futuo.
TO MOUNT THE ASS, verb. phr. (old).—To go bankrupt. [In France it was customary to mount a bankrupt on an ass, face to tail, and ride him through the streets.]
