or muckinder, muckinger, mucketer, subs. (old cant).—A handkerchief. [From Sp. mocadero (influenced by MUCK), from muco = mucus.] For synonyms, see WIPE.

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  1468.  Coventry Mysteries, ‘Christ Disputing in the Temple,’ p. 190.

        Goo hom, lytyl babe, and sytt on thi moderes lappe,
  And put a MOKADOR aforn thi brest;
And pray thi modyr to fede the with the pappe.

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  1598.  FLORIO, A Worlde of Wordes, s.v. Bavaro, a bib or MUCKENDER.

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  1600.  The Weakest goeth to the Wall. sign. I. 2 b.

        Onely vpon his MUCKITER and band he had an F.
By which I did suppose his name was Ferdinand.

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  1607.  MARSTON, What You Will, ii., 1. Wipe your Nose: fie on your sleeve, where’s your MUCKENDER your Grand-mother gaue you?

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  1608.  MIDDLETON, A Trick to Catch the Old One, iv. 5. One must wipe his mouth for him with a MUCKINDER.

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  1612.  CHAPMAN, The Widow’s Tears, iv. 1, p. 327 (Plays, 1874). To which all the Paphian widows shall, after their husbands funerals, offer their wet MUCKINDERS, for monuments of the danger they have past.

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  1633.  JONSON, The Tale of a Tub, iii. 1.

        Be of good comfort; take my MUCKINDER;
And dry thine eyes.

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  1658.  CORBET, On Dr. Corbet’s Marriage.

        You knew her little, and when her
Apron was but a MUCKENDER.

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  1668.  J. WILKINS, An Essay Towards a Real Character, Alphabetical Dictionary. MUCKETER, wiping (thing).

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  1719.  D’URFEY, Wit and Mirth; or Pills to Purge Melancholy, v. 220. … And now and then with a greasie MUCKENDER wipe away the dripping that bastes their Foreheads.

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  1785.  GROSE, A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, s.v.

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  1830.  LAMB, The Pawnbroker’s Daughter, i. 2.

        Scarce three clean MUCKINGERS a week
Would dry the brine that dew’d my cheek.

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  1847.  HALLIWELL, A Dictionary of Archaic and Provincial Words, etc., s.v. MUCKINDER. … The term is still in use, but generally applied to a dirtied handkerchief.

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