This seems to be originally Scottish. See also EENAMOST.

1

1800.  

        First with a kiss he stopp’d my breath,
  And softly said, “Sweet creature, why?”
And though he squeez’d me most to death,
  I could not help it, no, not I.
Farmer’s Register, Greensburg, Pa., Nov. 8.    

2

1802.  

        I sacrificed to foolish whim
  (What Belle can e’er forsake it?)
To make myself genteel and slim,
  I stript myself most naked.
Pennsylvania Intelligencer, Lancaster, Sept. 8.    

3

1803.  You know how it most makes you blind, in winter, to look on the snow.—The Port Folio, iii. 97 (Phila.).

4

1815.  Dorothy vows she will heat some water and scald any man that comes for any further taxes. I’m most afraid to see a stranger ride up.—Mass. Spy, June 14.

5

1824.  Two days scarce elaps’d—the eggs were most gone.—Id., Jan. 14: from the N.H. Gazette.

6

1830.  I’m plagued most to death with these ere pesky sore eyes.—Id., Oct. 13.

7

1835.  They say you can do most any thing, when you set out.—‘Col. Crockett’s Tour,’ p. 218 (Phila.).

8

1835.  I reckon he drank most two quarts of it [catmint tea] through the night.—A. B. Longstreet, ‘Georgia Scenes,’ p. 211. [For fuller quotation see ROCK.]

9

1837.  I can’t get behind the counter to tend the customers, without most backing the side of the house out.—J. C. Neal, ‘Charcoal Sketches,’ p. 113.

10

1840.  Most to[o] much of a cross to come forward here.—Letter of Orson Hyde and John E. Page, April 28: Millennial Star, Nov., p. 184.

11

1842.  It ’s ’most dark; that ’s better than day-light if you should happen to change color.—Knick. Mag., xix. 71 (Jan.).

12

[1848.  I guess we’re a most a splendid example to them thunderin old monarchies.—Punch, Nov. 11, Cartoon.]

13

1849.  I sometimes think I would give most any thing to hear again at midnight the cry of Yale! Yale!—Yale Lit. Mag., xiv. 186 (Feb.).

14

1853.  The devil is carrying his operations most too far.—Dow, Jun., ‘Patent Sermons,’ iii. 214.

15

1858.  “Most too liberal.”—Head-line, Oregon Weekly Times, April 3.

16

1878.  We had a real good sermon to-day, didn’t we? I call that a most an excellent sermon; but ’twan’t real perfect; of course, there ain’t nothin’ human that is.—Rose T. Cooke, ‘Happy Dodd,’ chap. vii.

17

1878.  I’m free to say I didn’t altogether and tee-totally agree with her at the fust: but she was a most a master hand for sense.—Id., ch. xiv.

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