subs. (military colloquial).—See quots. 1834 and 1836. Fr. en pékin.
1833. MARRYAT, Peter Simple, II. xii. The governor’s aide-de-camps, all dressed in MUFTI (i.e., plain clothes).
1836. M. SCOTT, Tom Cringle’s Log, ii. The company was composed chiefly of naval and military men, but there was also a sprinkling of civilians, or MUFTERS, to use a West India expression.
1854. THACKERAY, The Newcomes, VII. He has no MUFTI-coat, except one sent him out by Messrs. Stulty, to India in the year 1821.
1857. A. TROLLOPE, The Three Clerks, xxxviii. He was dogged at the distance of some thirty yards by an amiable policeman in MUFTI.
1865. A Son of the Soil, in Macmillan’s Magazine, March, p. 389. He had still a stolen inclination for MUFTI and wore his uniform only when a solemn occasion occurred like this, and on grand parade.
1876. J. GRANT, One of the Six Hundred, i. I relinquished my gay lancer trappings, and resumed the less pretending MUFTI of the civilian.
1884. Notes and Queries, 6 S. IX. 398. MUFTI … the well-known title of a Mahommedan high-priest … officers in India, on returning from their duties … don pyjamas and loose white jackets, and when so arrayed bear a resemblance to the white-robed priests of Islam.
1888. Athenæum, 27 Oct., p. 554, col. 3. An elderly gentleman in MUFTI.
