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Mum   Listen
noun
Mum  n.  A sort of strong beer, originally made in Brunswick, Germany. "The clamorous crowd is hushed with mugs of mum."






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Mum" Quotes from Famous Books



... it, Elly Precious—darlin' dear! Now I shall wrap you in a beautiful soft blanket and sing you a jiggy tune! Before I dress you in horrid, bothery sleeves, we'll rock, and rock, you and make-believe mum-mum!" ...
— Miss Theodosia's Heartstrings • Annie Hamilton Donnell

... your pardon, mum!" he gasped. "I 'adn't an idea in me 'ead there was any one there, least of all you on your knees. I just come backin' out ...
— Captain Jim • Mary Grant Bruce

... agitations. The jolly Guelphs had it their own way more or less in the city; those that were Ghibelline in principle or Ghibelline by sentiment were wise enough to keep their opinions to themselves. Such exiled Ghibellines as had been permitted to return kept very mum and snug. The Reds and the Yellows wore a show of peace, and the city would have appeared to any stranger's eyes to be a very marvel of union and agreement. Under these circumstances it was thought by many, and indeed boldly asserted by many, that it would be a good opportunity to take advantage ...
— The God of Love • Justin Huntly McCarthy

... other. "If I didn't know enough to keep mum about most of the things I hear, there'd be some fine hair-pulling ...
— Jerusalem • Selma Lagerlof

... unknown on the American stage," answered Mr. Softly Bishop. "But before we go any further I'd perhaps better tell you a secret." His voice and his gaze dropped still lower. "She's a particularly fine girl, and it won't be my fault if I don't marry her. Not a word of course! Mum!" He turned away, while Mr. Prohack was devising a ...
— Mr. Prohack • E. Arnold Bennett

... "Well, mum, it'd be difficult to take it from her now. She's that wrapped in it." ... And so she was.... Rose stood to Angelina for ...
— The Golden Scarecrow • Hugh Walpole

... bridge, but the chill was not gone from the air, and George felt greatly relieved when Sweetwater paused in the middle of a long block before a lofty tenement house of mean appearance, and signified that here they were to stop, and that from now on, mum was to be ...
— Initials Only • Anna Katharine Green

... wordes but mum My think I heare mast welth cum Knele downe and say sum deuout orison That they may heare vs pray Now Iesu saue ...
— The Interlude of Wealth and Health • Anonymous

... after what you've told me about him. I won't think it, until, at least, we get more information. It was my fault for leaving it around that way. It's too bad! Dad will sure be sorry to hear it's gone. I'm going to keep mum about it—maybe it will ...
— Andy at Yale - The Great Quadrangle Mystery • Roy Eliot Stokes

... well to say 'must.' But you know what Mum is: if she thinks a thing is for our good, do it she will," said ...
— The Terrible Twins • Edgar Jepson

... their French friend to talk when he had brought his mother round. BUT HE NEVER WOULD—they might bet their pile on that! He never did, in the strange sequel—having, poor young man, no mother to bring. Moreover he was quite mum—as Delia phrased it to herself—about Mme. de Brecourt and Mme. de Cliche: such, Miss Dosson learned from Charles Waterlow, were the names of his two sisters who had houses in Paris—gleaning at the same time the information that one of these ladies ...
— The Reverberator • Henry James

... my coat and laid it on a bench. I reckon they saw that I was in earnest, and they just sat as mum as mice. Then the little man said, in a quieter sort ...
— When London Burned • G. A. Henty

... "Well, mum, the County Club, in session down to the store, delegated me to call on you. Leastway, I done told them I reckoned no one else but me should ...
— A Son of the Hills • Harriet T. Comstock

... "why, set me down afore the kitchen fire, an' mek me happetizin' afore he sets to work to eat me. How be you, mum?" ...
— Aunt Rachel • David Christie Murray

... let up he remained convinced that "Da" had done a dreadful thing. Though he did not wish to bear witness against her, he had been compelled, by fear of repetition, to seek his mother and say: "Mum, don't let 'Da' hold me down ...
— Forsyte Saga • John Galsworthy

... hand at cheatin' all round up at the school! What? In course you ain't saying nice things agin me all over the place—and in course some of us wouldn't like to see you get a reg'lar good hiding, wouldn't we? Bless you, I knows all about it; but I'm mum, never fear!" ...
— The Fifth Form at Saint Dominic's - A School Story • Talbot Baines Reed

... I had throttled her the night she described the scene of the murder! But mum; here comes the prisoner. By Jove! how well he looks! how bravely he bears up against his fate! Does not the sight of that proud pale face make you feel ...
— Mark Hurdlestone - Or, The Two Brothers • Susanna Moodie

... childer, when they would not speak. I try to rouse him up a bit, and I think he likes having me with him, but still he's as gloomy and as dull as can be. 'T was only yesterday he took me to the works, and you'd ha' thought us two Quakers as the spirit hadn't moved, all the way down we were so mum. It's a place to craze a man, certainly; such a noisy black hole! There were one or two things worth looking at, the bellows for instance, or the gale they called a bellows. I could ha' stood near it a whole day; and if I'd a berth in that place, I should like to be bellows-man, ...
— Mary Barton • Elizabeth Gaskell

... eyes. He had been rumbling through the Strand for thirty years. "Lor', mum," he said, "legs ain't ...
— The So-called Human Race • Bert Leston Taylor

... "mum's the word; you are not to let it out to a soul. You and Mike shall come with us, and Miss Nora ...
— Light O' The Morning • L. T. Meade

... then." He put them in his trouser pocket beside the other one. "That's all right, missy," he said, in a beery whisper. "I won't say anything now to Muster Girdlestone about this job. He'd be wild if he knew, but mum's the word with William Stevens, hesquire. Lor', if this ain't my wife a-comin' out wi' my dinner! Away with ye, away! If she seed me a-speakin' to you she'd tear your hair for you as like as not. She's jealous, that's what's the matter wi' her. If she sees a woman ...
— The Firm of Girdlestone • Arthur Conan Doyle

... that Grandma's makin' Loads of mince and pun'kin pies? Don't you smell those goodies cookin'? Can't you see 'em? Where's your eyes? Tell that rooster there that's crowin', Cute folks now are keepin' mum; They don't show how fat they 're growin' When ...
— Cape Cod Ballads, and Other Verse • Joseph C. Lincoln

... should I ever have done without my dearest Mum?' added Ted, with a filial hug which caused both to disappear behind the newspaper in which he had been mercifully absorbed for ...
— Jo's Boys • Louisa May Alcott

... accustomed to bloodshed in their public entertainments. True bravery is not savage but humane. Some of this sanguinary spirit is inherited by the inhabitants of a certain island that shall be nameless—but, mum for that. You will naturally suppose that the Coliseo was ruined by the barbarians who sacked the city of Rome: in effect, they robbed it of its ornaments and valuable materials; but it was reserved for the Goths and Vandals of modern Rome, to dismantle the edifice, and ...
— Travels Through France and Italy • Tobias Smollett

... noated far an wide as a dog doctor, an ladies used to come throo all pairts wi ther pet's to ax Sam's advice. Hahivver ugly a little brute chonced to be brawt, Sam had his nomony ready. "A'a, that is a little beauty, mum, aw havn't seen one like that, mum, aw can't say when, mum. Aw dooant think yo'd like to ...
— Yorksher Puddin' - A Collection of the Most Popular Dialect Stories from the - Pen of John Hartley • John Hartley

... the character of being somewhat loquacious, could not help laughing at this, and said, "Well, I will try for once; so, mum! I am going to ...
— Young Folks Treasury, Volume 3 (of 12) - Classic Tales And Old-Fashioned Stories • Various

... but if he should, 'mum's' the word, mind. We never had naught but just enough to pay for the buryin'. He'll be back again, meek enough, come bedtime, and then you ...
— Dick Lionheart • Mary Rowles Jarvis

... Courier mum—but firm—money all got to stay in Three Counties, no matter who's on top. Last man one Yank too many. Courier may have to ...
— John March, Southerner • George W. Cable

... me up to ten o'clock to-night, mum," said Mr Hutton, as he threw a soiled envelope on the table. "An' if I'm woke up arter, I charge ...
— Sparrows - The Story of an Unprotected Girl • Horace W. C. Newte

... that way pretty often, I shall say it is strategy, and Washington will be safe. And that noble banner, as it were—that banner, as it were—will be a emblem, or rather, I should say, that noble banner—AS IT WERE. My wife says so too. [I got a little mixed up here, but they didn't notice it. Keep mum.] Feller citizens, it will be a proud day for this Republic when Washington is safe. ...
— The Complete Works of Artemus Ward, Part 2 • Charles Farrar Browne

... if angels can look on such sights—never mind! When you're next to blaspheming, it's best to be mum. The parson declares that her woes weren't designed; But, then, with the parson it's all kingdom-come. Lose a leg, save a soul—a convenient text; I call it Tea doctrine, not savouring of God. When poor little Molly wants ...
— The Shaving of Shagpat • George Meredith

... "No, mum," he replied. "It's yours all right. I found it at the shore where a freightin' team left it. I don't generally carry such things. But says I to myself, 'That's fer Widder Bean, and she's goin' to have it to-night if Tim Harking knows anything.' So thar 'tis. ...
— Under Sealed Orders • H. A. Cody

... an' the water tank's near empty, so I'll wish ye good-morning, anyhow, mum!' And this valiant ...
— The Record of Nicholas Freydon - An Autobiography • A. J. (Alec John) Dawson

... death:—for, among friends" (here he lowered his voice, and looked round the kitchen), "she was very whimsical, expensive, ill-tempered, and, I'm afraid, a little—upon the— flightly order—a little touched or so;—but mum for that—the lady is now dead; and it is my maxim, de mortuis nil nisi bonum. The young squire was even then very handsome, and looked remarkably well in his weepers; but he had an awkward air and shambling gait, stooped mortally, and was so shy ...
— The Adventures of Sir Launcelot Greaves • Tobias Smollett

... you would. Well, now—come closer. Mum's the word, eh? I like you, Harry Brooks; and the boys in this town "—he broke off and cursed horribly—"they're not fit to carry slops to a bear, not one of 'em. But you're different. And, see here: any time you're in trouble, just pay a call on me. Understand? Mind you, I make no promises." ...
— Poison Island • Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch (Q)

... you warning this very day, mum, to leave at the end of my month, so I was - on account of me being going to make a respectable young man happy. A gamekeeper he is by trade, mum - and I wouldn't deceive you - of the name of Beale. And it's as true as ...
— Five Children and It • E. Nesbit

... pretty bright surveyor already," Tom declared. "He has been keeping mum about it, but Harry can go out into the country with a transit and run up the field notes for a map about as handily as the next ...
— The High School Boys' Training Hike • H. Irving Hancock

... he swill, this patriarch of the dull, The drowsy Mum—But touc not Maro's skull! His holy barbarous dotage sought to doom, Good heaven! th' immortal classics to the tomb!— Those sacred lights shall bid new genius rise 45 When all Rome's saints have rotted from the skies. Be these your guides, if at the ivy crown You aim; ...
— Essays on Taste • John Gilbert Cooper, John Armstrong, Ralph Cohen

... argument. But the court knew it, bless you, and weakened every time! And Brabant knew it. I just reminded him of it in a quiet way, and its final result, and he said in a whisper, 'You did it, Colonel, you did it, sir—but keep it mum for my sake; and I'll tell you what you do,' says he, 'you go into the law, Col. Sellers—go into the law, sir; that's your native element!' And into the law the subscriber is going. There's worlds of money in it!—whole worlds of money! Practice first in Hawkeye, then in Jefferson, ...
— Innocents abroad • Mark Twain

... ago that we run Skoonly out of town for stealin'! So, I reckon, 'tain't more'n good hoss-sense for you tew be some cautious now that you are gittin' a fortune in gold. Not that thar's any harm in a-tellin' old friends like us, 'cause we knows enough tew keep mum 'bout it," and Ham glanced warningly around the circle of interested faces. "But 'twouldn't be good sense tew let th' hull town know th' size of y'ur pile. It's tew goll durned big an' temptin'. Not that I wants tew scare you, Leetle Woman. Only it's jest good hoss-religion ...
— The Cave of Gold - A Tale of California in '49 • Everett McNeil

... "He says, mum, as he won't go without marryin' somebody, or a gittin' his pay anyway, for it's a nice buryin' job as ...
— Punchinello, Volume 2, No. 37, December 10, 1870 • Various

... and bayonets, On they swung, the drum a-rolling, Mum and sour. It looked like fighting, And they meant ...
— Poems by William Ernest Henley • William Ernest Henley

... sixteenth? She didn't tell. It was doubtless the first. Perhaps everybody knew, for no one was surprised. Even Caniveau kept mum. ...
— Maupassant Original Short Stories (180), Complete • Guy de Maupassant

... house, and a pink, and a green, and a yellow, and a red; that's the way they arrange in all big schools, and I only hope and pray it won't be my fate to be yellow, or what an image I'll look! Other things being equal, Mum dear, kindly say you think the blue house would be best for my health and morals. I want to live in, you understand, not out— that's one ...
— Tom and Some Other Girls - A Public School Story • Mrs. George de Horne Vaizey

... I am rhymer, And now, at least, a merry one, Mr. Mum's Eudesheimer, And the church of St. Geryon, Are the two things alone, That deserve to be known, In the body-and-soul-stinking town ...
— The Humourous Poetry of the English Language • James Parton

... got the jack rigged up!" he whispered presently. "Step in now, Neal, and I'll open it. Have you got your rifle at half-cock? That's right. Be careful. A fellow would need to have his hair parted in the middle in a birch box like this. Remember, mum's the word!" ...
— Camp and Trail - A Story of the Maine Woods • Isabel Hornibrook

... and I've seen what has been done in a good many cases. Of course, you understand, this is all between us! I'm not giving away any of the office secrets to be used against the big fellows. But I'm willing to show that I'm a friend of yours. And I know you'll be a friend of mine, and keep mum. All is, you can get wise from what I tell you and can keep your eyes ...
— Blow The Man Down - A Romance Of The Coast - 1916 • Holman Day

... 'ave a pair on for an hour? Good Sport to-day, Sir! Try a pair on, Mum! (to any particularly stout Lady). Will yer walk inter my porler, Sir? corpet all the w'y! 'Ad the pleasure o' puttin' on your skites last year, Miss! ...
— Punch, Or The London Charivari, Vol. 100., Jan. 10, 1891 • Various

... him hold his peace, and his disgrace will be the less: what! shall we proclaim where we were furnish'd? Mum! mum! ...
— In The Yule-Log Glow, Vol. IV (of IV) • Harrison S. Morris

... I must be mum For how could we do without sugar and rum? Especially sugar, so needful we see; What! Give up our desserts, our ...
— All About Coffee • William H. Ukers

... out a dozen friendly voices. Then Harry Hardwicke stepped up to the shivering wretch who stood gazing on Alan Hawke, now propped up on a doubled-up coat, and rapidly bleeding to death. "I'll keep your secret, and save you yet, if you will disclose the whole, and keep mum!" Jack Blunt nodded, and hung his head ...
— A Fascinating Traitor • Richard Henry Savage

... The Owner of the Hat on the shoulder.) Excuse me, Mum, but might I take the liberty of asking you to kindly remove your 'at? [The Owner of the ...
— Punch, Or The London Charivari, Vol. 100., Jan. 31, 1891 • Various

... always does, mum. Many's the poor brakeman's fingers I've saved by rubbin 'em in some one's thick ...
— Camilla: A Tale of a Violin - Being the Artist Life of Camilla Urso • Charles Barnard

... makes it quite clear what he doesn't believe in, 791 While some, who decry him, think all Kingdom Come Is a sort of a, kind of a, species of Hum, Of which, as it were, so to speak, not a crumb Would be left, if we didn't keep carefully mum, And, to make a clean breast, that 'tis perfectly plain That all kinds of wisdom are somewhat profane; Now P.'s creed than this may be lighter or darker, But in one thing, 'tis clear, he has faith, namely—Parker; ...
— The Complete Poetical Works of James Russell Lowell • James Lowell

... made blunders and became confused in his count and overlooked opportunities, but he covered acres of ground, as Vivian Hastings expressed it, and when, at the end of an hour, they sat down, panting, to rest, young Tilloughby, with painful earnestness, assured him that he had "the mum-mum-makings ...
— The Early Bird - A Business Man's Love Story • George Randolph Chester

... up an' stop interruptin' me, I'll be gol darned ef I don't kick you clean inter the middle uv next week! You ain't ther feller that sot me ter singin', fer your voice is of a diffrunt color than his. Naow you keep mum, ur I'll take this handkerchief off my eyes, spit on my hands, an' sail ...
— Frank Merriwell's Chums • Burt L. Standish

... "If you please, mum," said the voice of a domestic from somewhere round the angle of the door, "number three is ...
— Beyond the City • Arthur Conan Doyle

... when they found it was only us two boys. They greatly added to the enjoyment of the days, and if they had not been such inveterate home letter-writers—a habit of which we were very contemptuous—it would have saved us boys much good-humoured teasing afterwards, for the matron would have been mum and ...
— A Labrador Doctor - The Autobiography of Wilfred Thomason Grenfell • Wilfred Thomason Grenfell

... customers, whose money you're sure of, are so scarce. For without The Hard and—to give everyone their due—without the Island also, where would trade have been in Deadham these ten years and more past? Mum's the word, take it from me,"—and each did take it from the other, with rich conviction of successfully making the best of both worlds, securing eternal treasure in Heaven while cornering excellent profits ...
— Deadham Hard • Lucas Malet

... be much better than the way Miss Grace 'ad it, Mum. In their jackets, Mum, very well. Certainly. That would ...
— The Captives • Hugh Walpole

... the mouth o' the shaft now," said Andy. "They're a-dhraggin' the timbers away; timbers wid the fire in 'em yit. Ye'd be shtartled to see 'em, mum." ...
— Burnham Breaker • Homer Greene

... collar, and I lifted him from the ground, and I threw him out into the street, half-way across it. I heard the bookkeeper say to the clerk that there was always the devil in those mum fellows; but they never ...
— The Story of an African Farm • (AKA Ralph Iron) Olive Schreiner

... I said she wasn't, but she explained, while I sat there rather mum, that there was really another girl, and that the other girl's name was really Jerusha Brown. She was the daughter of the postmaster in the village where Miss Shirley was passing the summer. In fact, Miss Shirley was boarding ...
— Henry James, Jr. • William Dean Howells

... never been classified," retorted Ellen grimly. "She's neither fish, flesh nor fowl. She's taught school; laid out the dead; an' done the Lord only knows what durin' her lifetime. She can turn her hand to most anything; an' they do say she's mum as an oyster, which is a virtue out of the common ...
— The Wall Between • Sara Ware Bassett

... mammy, and gave its sister the slip, and came toddling across the line. And he looked up sudden, at the sound of the train coming, and seed the child, and he darted on the line and cotched it up, and his foot slipped, and the train came over him in no time. O Lord, Lord! Mum, it's quite true, and they've come over to tell his daughters. The child's safe, though, with only a bang on its shoulder as he threw it to its mammy. Poor Captain would be glad of that, mum, wouldn't he? God bless him!" The great rough carter puckered up his manly face, and ...
— Cranford • Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell

... Two or three times nearly all hands agreed to it, with the exception of those who used to slink off during such discussions; and swore that they would not any more submit to being ruled by Jackson. But when the time came to make good their oaths, they were mum again, and let every thing go on the old way; so that those who had put them up to it, had to bear all the brunt of Jackson's wrath by themselves. And though these last would stick up a little at first, and even mutter something about a fight to Jackson; yet ...
— Redburn. His First Voyage • Herman Melville

... his speech was paraded by the press,) lest the fair name of the queen city should suffer abroad. A beautiful farce followed this grave exposition. The board of aldermen, composed of fourteen men of very general standing, remained mum under the accusation for a long time. Its object was to show up the character of a class of officials, whose character and nefarious arts have long disgraced the city. But in order to make a display of his purity, Mr. C—, a gentleman entitled ...
— Manuel Pereira • F. C. Adams

... it is unnecessary. There are plenty of men to do the talking." "But," said common sense, "I don't see why it's a bit more unladylike than the ladies' colloquy at the lyceum was last evening. There were more people present than are here tonight; and as for the men, they are perfectly mum. There seems to be plenty of opportunity for somebody." "Well," said Satan, "it isn't customary at least, and people will think strangely of you. Doubtless it would do ...
— Ester Ried • Pansy (aka. Isabella M. Alden)

... 'Lor, mum,' said the apothecary, 'his brain ain't in working order just at present, and as for his spirit apart from his body, that's an unknown quantity we scientific ...
— A Dozen Ways Of Love • Lily Dougall

... baseball teams, and follows them everywhere in the seasons. You also know that Len is a pretty good friend of mine. If I put Len up to a scheme that will furnish him with good 'copy' for two mornings, he'll put it through for me, and be as mum as an oyster." ...
— The High School Freshmen - Dick & Co.'s First Year Pranks and Sports • H. Irving Hancock

... was the life-breath of freedom— So thought once the Seldens, the Hampdens, the Lockes; But mute be our troops, when to ambush we lead 'em, "For Mum" is the word with us Knights of ...
— The Complete Poems of Sir Thomas Moore • Thomas Moore et al

... "I am writing an article on the 'Rights of Children.' What do you think about it?" Dennis carried his forefinger to his head in search of an idea, for he is not accustomed to having his intelligence so violently assaulted, and after a moment's puzzled thought he said, "What do I think about it, mum? Why, I think we'd ought to give 'em to 'em. But Lor', mum, if we don't, they take 'em, so what's the odds?" And as he left the room I thought he looked pained that I should spin words and squander ...
— Children's Rights and Others • Kate Douglas Smith Wiggin

... I, "he's getten t' mopes, an' what he wants is his libbaty an' coompany like t' rest on us; wal happen a rat or two 'ud liven him oop. It's low, mum," says I, "is rats, but it's t' nature of a dog; an' soa's cuttin' round an' meetin' another dog or two an' passin' t' time o' day, an' hevvin' a bit of a turn-up wi' him like ...
— Indian Tales • Rudyard Kipling

... a trifle, mum," said Beale, very gently and humbly, "to 'elp us along the road? My little chap, 'e's lame like wot you see. It's a 'ard life for the ...
— Harding's luck • E. [Edith] Nesbit

... Why didn't you put me wise? I could have given you the right steer. Have you ever known me handle a job I couldn't make good at? I'm a whole matrimonial bureau rolled into one. I'd have had you prancing to the tune of the wedding march before now. But you kept mum as a mummy. Wouldn't even tell your old pard. Now you've ...
— The Trail of '98 - A Northland Romance • Robert W. Service

... times the price you pay a packman, as is the nat'ral way o' gettin' goods,—an' pays no rent, an' isn't forced to throttle himself till the lies are squeezed out on him, whether he will or no. But lors! mum, you know what it is better nor I do,—you can see through them ...
— The Mill on the Floss • George Eliot

... was all filled with folios and papers; how he studied and wrote and prayed; and during his two hours' daily liberty wandered sadly and in a silent manner about the Castle. For this was all Mistress Ruth had to tell, and of the Prisoner's name, or of his Crime, she was, perforce, mum. ...
— The Strange Adventures of Captain Dangerous, Vol. 1 of 3 • George Augustus Sala

... stickiest thing we've had for some time, as ourselves, the Scotties, and the French are all involved in it. Your people, the East Cheshires, are going over at Fusilier Bluff, after we've blown up a huge mine. Their Brigade Bombers are going to occupy the crater. But, of course, mum's the word." ...
— Tell England - A Study in a Generation • Ernest Raymond

... who had refused us was flabbergasted. "Excuse me a minute, mum!" he muttered, and darted off to return with a young officer before "the Great Somerled" had time to remonstrate. But, instead of devoting undivided attention to the celebrity who must be appeased, the officer looked at me, and ...
— The Heather-Moon • C. N. Williamson and A. M. Williamson

... draws on) Not saying anything, eh? Well, I guess you're wise there. If you keep mum—how are we going to ...
— Plays • Susan Glaspell

... at all. However, since Woggs is there, we must make the best of her. I fancy that she was a year or two younger than Wiggs and of rather inferior education. Witness her low innuendo about the Lady Belvane, and the fact that she called a Countess "Mum." ...
— Once on a Time • A. A. Milne

... she gasped, gazing with bulging eyes on the face of her new employer, "lor', mum, who'd ever 'ave thought you'd been married all ...
— Toaster's Handbook - Jokes, Stories, and Quotations • Peggy Edmund & Harold W. Williams, compilers

... and characteristic manners, the Oneidas eating like gentlemen and talking together in their low and musical voices; the Wyandotte gobbling and stuffing his cheeks like a chipmunk. The Stockbridge Mole, noiseless and mum as the occult and furry animal which gave to him his name, nibbled sparingly all alone by himself, and read in his ...
— The Hidden Children • Robert W. Chambers

... corrupted by servants into 'Ma'am,' and by Mrs. Gamp and her tribe into' Mum,' is in substance equivalent to' Your exalted,' or' Your Highness.' Ma Dame originally meaning high- born or stately, and being applied only to ladies of ...
— Frost's Laws and By-Laws of American Society • Sarah Annie Frost

... When the dinner crowd boarded an up-town car, our man paid fare to the same conductor. He wired me from the Hotel Brunswick a few minutes ago. There is some sort of a caucus going on in Hendricks' office in the capitol, and mum-messengers are ...
— The Grafters • Francis Lynde

... Mum's the word! I gotta be careful. I can't say nothin'; I don't pretend to know nothin'. But I kept my eyes open pretty wide, I tell you. There's detectives workin', too. I been to Wehrhahn, too, an' he told ...
— The Dramatic Works of Gerhart Hauptmann - Volume I • Gerhart Hauptmann

... it! We'll be outside, by the pub at the corner, my pal and me, and—(producing notes)—we'll take it off you agen for thirty pounds, and glad o' the charnce. We want it pertikler, we do, and you can 'elp us, and put ten quid in your own pocket too as easy as be blowed. Ah! here he is! Mum's the word! Round the corner by the ...
— Punch, Or The London Charivari, Vol. 99., December 13, 1890 • Various

... died. Remember what you said then? Now don't think this is good-bye just because I'm sailing but remember the Atlantic Ocean isn't a one way street. Just chalk that up on the wall, and speaking about oceans don't forget about the water by the woodshed and do what I told you. So now good-bye dear old Mum and don't worry, and I won't go near Paris like you said. Hicksville is good ...
— Roy Blakeley in the Haunted Camp • Percy Keese Fitzhugh

... Charles Vapp. "I'm Andy Weber, representing the Boxton Seed Company. A seed man can go anywhere, in the city and the country. I got the outfit from old Boxton himself. He thinks it a good joke and he will keep mum. ...
— The Mansion of Mystery - Being a Certain Case of Importance, Taken from the Note-book of Adam Adams, Investigator and Detective • Chester K. Steele

... "I dont know mum" replies the butler "she is very poor-looking and says she's tramped all the way from Huntsdown to see you, but she wont ...
— Daisy Ashford: Her Book • Daisy Ashford

... kep' mum and dressed the fish myself and fried 'em in butter, only hopin' I wouldn't lose 'em in the fryin' pan, but Josiah didn't seem to relish 'em no better than he would side pork, and agin I felt baffled, and rememberin' the fruit can, a element of guilt also mingled with ...
— Samantha at the St. Louis Exposition • Marietta Holley

... "Little Mum! little Mum! here they are with lots of goodies! Come down and see the fun right away! Quick!" bawled Will and Geordie amidst a general ripping off of papers and a reckless cutting of strings that soon turned the tidy room ...
— Eight Cousins • Louisa M. Alcott

... "Yes, mum," Florrie whispered. She seemed to be incapable of speaking beyond a whisper. But the whisper was delicate and agreeable; and perhaps it was a mysterious sign of her alleged ...
— Hilda Lessways • Arnold Bennett

... eloquence and fire, Approve thy schemes, thy wit admire, Thee with immortal honours crown, While, patriot-like, thou'lt strut and frown. What though by enemies 'tis said, The laurel, which adorns thy head, Must one day come in competition, By virtue of some sly petition: Yet mum for that; hope still the best, Nor let such cares disturb thy rest. Methinks I hear thee loud as trumpet, As bagpipe shrill or oyster-strumpet; Methinks I see thee, spruce and fine, With coat embroider'd richly shine, And dazzle all the idol faces, As through the hall thy worship ...
— Poems (Volume II.) • Jonathan Swift

... "Please, mum, I'se Ophelia. I'se de washerwoman's little girl, an' mama, she sent me to say, would you please to len' her a dime. She got to ...
— Jokes For All Occasions - Selected and Edited by One of America's Foremost Public Speakers • Anonymous

... watches them as Michael inquires: "Whur next, mum?" and bangs the door of the carriage. Then she turns and says to herself: "Huh!" Mrs. Thorpe is that instant observing: "Did you notice that crayon enlargement she had hanging up? Wouldn't it kill you?" To which the other lady responds: "Well, between you and I, Mrs. Thorpe, if I couldn't ...
— Back Home • Eugene Wood

... his head. "No, I've got to do it," he answered. He turned to Dreer. "Will you promise to keep mum about this?" he asked. "If you don't promise, ...
— Left Tackle Thayer • Ralph Henry Barbour

... "Well, mum," said Buffle, with a delighted but sheepish look, which would have become a missionary complimented on the number of converts he had made, "I hev been around a good deal, that's a fact. I reckon I've staked a claim purty ...
— Romance of California Life • John Habberton

... to be aware that anything more was required and his brow darkened. "If it was me," he thought, "how eager I would be to explain what was taking me away from her, but she is mum!" ...
— The Deaves Affair • Hulbert Footner

... carpet we brought out, and I petitioned for a little bay-window, which is to be added; so on my last visit to his timber-yard, the builder said, with an air of great dignity, "Would you wish to see the horiel, mum?" The doors all come ready-made from America, and most of the wood used in building is the Kauri pine from the North Island. One advantage, at all events, in having wooden houses is the extreme rapidity with which they are run up, and there are no plastered walls to need drying. For ...
— Station Life in New Zealand • Lady Barker

... said between smoke puffs. "It seems that t'other night, when I was in my cups at the tavern, Le Neve and the fellow who has Ware Creek parish—I forget his name—must needs come riding by. I was dicing with Paris. Hugon held the stakes. I dare say we kept not mum. And out of pure brotherly love and charity, my good, kind gentlemen ride on to Williamsburgh on a tale-bearing errand! Is that ...
— Audrey • Mary Johnston

... by the heroine of the celebration; she wondered if Cottingham would tell Papa, and if Papa would tell Mother (thus did this child of the 'eighties speak of her parents, the musical abbreviations of a later day, "Mum," and "Dad," not having penetrated the remoteness in which her home was placed); she also wondered if there would be a row about her getting wet. All these things seemed but too probable, but she was ...
— Mount Music • E. Oe. Somerville and Martin Ross

... Buck, who found it hard to understand how a fellow could hide his light under a bushel, and not "blow his own horn," when he had jumped into the river, and pulled out a drowning boy. "Say, is that so too, Fenton; did you keep mum just because Billy here asked ...
— Fred Fenton on the Track - or, The Athletes of Riverport School • Allen Chapman

... along, Mum," called Mr. Coffin to the horror-stricken woman, who stood contemplating the spot where a convulsive floundering and heaving beneath the snow showed that the frozen element had not yet extinguished the fire of passion in the breasts of the buried heroes,—"come right along, and don't be scaart ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 4, No. 25, November, 1859 • Various

... "Mum's the word," said the soldier, taking it. "My name's Ned Travers, and, barring cells for a spree now and again, there's nothing ...
— Captains All and Others • W.W. Jacobs

... difficulty and some danger; for I have not only to impose you upon Dawson as a priest, but also upon Brimstone Bess as one of our jolly boys; for I need not tell you that any real parson might knock a long time at her door before it could be opened to him. You must, therefore, be as mum as a mole, unless she cants to you, and your answers must then be such as I shall dictate, otherwise she may detect you, and, should any of the true men be in the house, we should both come off ...
— Pelham, Complete • Edward Bulwer-Lytton

... volunteer army of American boys, but not once, during fifteen months of British army life, did I hear a discussion of mothers. When the weekly parcels from England arrived and the boys were sharing their cake and chocolate and tobacco, one of them would say, "Good old mum. She ain't a bad sort"; to be answered with reluctant, mouth-filled grunts, or grudging nods of approval. As for fathers, I often thought to myself, "What a tremendous army of posthumous sons!" Months before I would have been astonished at this reticence. But I had ...
— Kitchener's Mob - Adventures of an American in the British Army • James Norman Hall

... we here? Our prodigal son returned, with his pockets full of nuggets from the diggings. Oh, mum's the word, is it?" as Tom laid his finger on his lips. "Come here, then, and let's have a look at you!" and he catches both Tom's hands in his, and almost shakes them off. "I knew you were coming, old boy! Mary ...
— Two Years Ago, Volume II. • Charles Kingsley

... mum," said the man, before drinking; "and may you find such another as yourself to help you when you're in trouble, which Lord send may ...
— An Unsocial Socialist • George Bernard Shaw

... "Mum!" said Peter. "I forgot; but don't it look as if the river was boiling hot and the steam rising, and the fire that hots it was shining up through the cloud? I say, nobody could hear me say that," ...
— Trapped by Malays - A Tale of Bayonet and Kris • George Manville Fenn

... as man power is getting low at Lindow, I'll stay and take care of Mummy. Won't I? We'll do awfully well without them, won't we, Mum? You can drive Dad's Rolls-Royce roadster, and if you leave on the handbrake up-hill, I'll ...
— Joy in the Morning • Mary Raymond Shipman Andrews

... o' speech than you can make pretence to," said the woman abruptly. "I often wonder that of two twin-brothers one should be so glib and t'other so mum-chance." ...
— The Delectable Duchy • Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch

... don't mean you no harm, my pretties, and it's no affair of mine telling the good ladies at Lavender House what I've seen. You cross my hand, dears, each of you, with a bit of silver, and all I'll do is to tell your pretty fortunes, and mum is the word with the gypsy-mother as far as this ...
— A World of Girls - The Story of a School • L. T. Meade

... Pleas I yode tho, {81} Where sat one with a silken hood; I did him reverence, for I ought to do so, And told my case as well as I could, How my goods were defrauded me by falsehood. I got not a mum of his mouth for my meed, And for lack of Money ...
— Playful Poems • Henry Morley

... quire. Let not thy saintship think it meet We drink from well tho' ne'er so sweet, Liquor unworthy priest or parson, If so, your friers will hang an arse on, Who nothing mind, I need not tell ye, Most holy patron, but their belly. So used, they'll ev'ry soul be dumb, No dixit dominus, but ———— mum." ...
— Ebrietatis Encomium - or, the Praise of Drunkenness • Boniface Oinophilus

... remarked the landlady. 'I think I may say that of myself. If I make five or six shillings a week out of my spare room, I don't grumble. But the party as takes it must do their duty on their side. You haven't told me your name yet, mum.' ...
— The Odd Women • George Gissing

... come: wee'll couch i'th Castle-ditch, till we see the light of our Fairies. Remember son Slender, my Slen. I forsooth, I haue spoke with her, & we haue a nay-word, how to know one another. I come to her in white, and cry Mum; she cries Budget, and by that we know ...
— The First Folio [35 Plays] • William Shakespeare

... stone to subdue the flesh, You snap me of the sudden. Ah, I see! 75 Though your eye twinkles still, you shake your head— Mine's shaved—a monk, you say—the sting's in that! If Master Cosimo announced himself, Mum's the word naturally; but a monk! Come, what am I a beast for? tell us, now! 80 I was a baby when my mother died And father died and left me in the street. I starved there, God knows how, a year or two On fig-skins, melon-parings, rinds and shucks, Refuse and rubbish. One fine frosty day, ...
— Selections from the Poems and Plays of Robert Browning • Robert Browning

... "Mum's the word, sir. Always say nothin', that's my motto. Penderfield's daughter at Khopal—at least, he was her father. One dam father's as good as another, as long as he goes to the devil." This may be a kind of disclaimer of inheritance as a factor to be reckoned with, an obscure suggestion ...
— Somehow Good • William de Morgan

... bribed till he was admitted to the secret. It consisted in spelling every word, leaving the five vowels as they are, but doubling each consonant and putting a "u" between. Thus "b" became "bub," "d" "dud," "m" "mum," and so forth, except that "c" was "suk," "h" "hash," "x" "zux," ...
— Two Little Savages • Ernest Thompson Seton

... forsooth; I have spoke with her, and we have a nay-word how to know one another. I come to her in white and cry 'mum'; she cries 'budget,' and by that we know ...
— The Merry Wives of Windsor • William Shakespeare [Craig, Oxford edition]

... it. He is a perfect sphinx. Never before has he opened his mouth so widely, and only an occasion like this could have moved him. You must have unconsciously revealed a hidden law, or else he would have been as mum as ...
— Nature's Serial Story • E. P. Roe

... with tears, and this brat is their source; As it isn't no offspring of ourn—of the fam'ly I mean, Ma'am, in course; But a Brummagem bantling, picked hup, as were not worth its swaddlin' and food, And I never yet knowed any brat from that source as turned out any good. Missis G., Mum, it's all a mistake, as you know in your 'art all the same, For you turned up your nose at the child when JOE CHAMBERLING give him a name, Afore we was thick with his set, when you snubbed him, and laughed him to scorn, And heaped naughty names on this kid, as you swore ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 100, May 9, 1891 • Various

... mother was sitting at her sewing, some one knocked at the door, and who should come in, but the fat cook, with a great goose, fatter than she was; who cried out: 'Only see what a big goost, mum; and only you and Miss Edith to eat it; besides a beef-steak to brile, and peas ...
— The Little Nightcap Letters. • Frances Elizabeth Barrow

... 'Very sorry, mum, but it's clean agin' the law of England. Give me a warrant, and in I come. If you will bring her to the doorstep, I will be ...
— A Duet • A. Conan Doyle

... "'Keep mum, old man, and vote straight for Dan. We'll show old Holway that we can't be led around ...
— The Depot Master • Joseph C. Lincoln

... slip came toddling across the line. He looked up sudden, see'd the child, darted on the line, cotched it up, and his foot slipped and the train came over him in no time. The child's safe. Poor captain would be glad of that, mum, ...
— The World's Greatest Books, Vol IV. • Editors: Arthur Mee and J.A. Hammerton

... now I do believe," says the detective, with an approving toss of the head, "her faculties 'll come right again,—they only wants a little care and kindness, mum." The detective thanks her again and again, then puts the money methodically ...
— Justice in the By-Ways - A Tale of Life • F. Colburn Adams

... 'No, mum—or else, they have said some things about Mr. Huntingdon too.' 'I won't hear them, Rachel; they ...
— The Tenant of Wildfell Hall • Anne Bronte

... be bad, but I didn't think it was as bad as that! I don't blame ye for trying to keep it mum! And ye look as though it tasted bitter coming up. I'll not poison me own mouth." He stood up and yanked the man to his feet. "So I'll call ye Bill the Bomber! Where do ye work, or don't ...
— All-Wool Morrison • Holman Day

... shillings for being drunk and disorderly and obstructing the police in the course of their duty...." She had asked quickly, "What is he like? Does he get violent?" The woman had answered: "Oh no, mum; just silly-like," and had laughed, evidently at the recollection of some ...
— The Judge • Rebecca West

... to-day may be smash to-morrow!" [Meaning, what is of no value now may be precious hereafter.] and he laid his coarse hand on the golden and silky tresses we have described. "'T is a rum business, and puzzles I; but mum's the word for my own little ...
— Paul Clifford, Complete • Edward Bulwer-Lytton

... word." "O yes! you love to banter us poor folk." "Nay, if I've heard a tittle, may I choke!" "Will Caesar grant his veterans their estates In Italy, or t'other side of the straits?" I swear that I know nothing, and am dumb: They think me deep, miraculously mum. And so my day between my fingers slips, While fond regrets keep rising to my lips: O my dear homestead in the country! when Shall I behold your pleasant face again; And, studying now, now dozing and at ease, Imbibe forgetfulness of all this tease? ...
— The Satires, Epistles, and Art of Poetry • Horace

... yode thoo, Where sat one with a sylken hoode; I dyd hym reverence, for I ought to do so, And told my case as well as I coud, How my goods were defrauded me by falshood. I gat not a mum of his mouth for my meed, And for lack of mony I ...
— A Chronicle of London from 1089 to 1483 • Anonymous

... those of the poorer Sort, from a noble Emulation of copying their betters, drink as much Wine as they can; and where their Purses or their Credit will not reach so high, they must have foreign Liquors, tho' they be only Mum or Cyder, Porter or Perry, and seem resolved to shew they are as little afraid of a ...
— A Dialogue Between Dean Swift and Tho. Prior, Esq. • Anonymous

... than it does to-day, then that time in my opinion will offer the psychological moment for you to say what really is in your heart about a third term and thus help not only the party but the League of Nations. Therefore, until the psychological moment comes, the politic thing to do is to keep "mum" about this matter and await the happenings ...
— Woodrow Wilson as I Know Him • Joseph P. Tumulty

... lady; I'll see, if you'll please to walk in," said Martha, a little confused on the score of her kitchen apron, but collected enough to be sure that "mum" was not the right title for this queenly young widow with a carriage and pair. "Will you please to walk in, and ...
— Middlemarch • George Eliot

... not mention your trouble to either of my chums, though for that matter both Toby and Steve would feel just as sorry as I do. Still, there's no way they could help you, and for your sake and peace of mind I'll keep mum." ...
— Jack Winters' Gridiron Chums • Mark Overton

... face of the earth." "What dost say, D'Aubigne?" asked La Force, half asleep. "He says," repeated the King of Navarre, who had heard all, that I am a regular miser, and the most ungrateful mortal on the face of the earth." D'Aubigne, somewhat disconcerted, was mum. "But," he adds, "when daylight appeared, this prince, who liked neither rewarding nor punishing, did not for all that look any the more black at me, or give me a quarter-crown more." Thirty years later, in 1617, after the ...
— A Popular History of France From The Earliest Times - Volume V. of VI. • Francois Pierre Guillaume Guizot

... So at midnight should wait At her garden-gate A carriage to carry the dear, precious freight Of Mrs. McNair who should meet Captain Brown At the Globe Hotel in a neighboring town. A man should be hired To convey the admired. And keep mum as a mouse, and do what ...
— The Feast of the Virgins and Other Poems • H. L. Gordon

... You were the little clerk who sat so mum in the corner, and then cried fy on the gleeman. What ...
— The White Company • Arthur Conan Doyle

... "the Master wants you to just step into the study. He looks like the dead, mum; I think he's had bad news. You'd best prepare yourself for the worst, 'm—p'raps it's a death in the family ...
— The Railway Children • E. Nesbit

... you bite, you men of fangs (That is, of teeth that forward hangs), And charge my dear Ephestion With want of meat? you want digestion. We poets use not so to do, To find men meat and stomach too. You have the book, you have the house, And mum, good Jack, and catch ...
— Calamities and Quarrels of Authors • Isaac D'Israeli

... begin, according to all precedent, if they were really looking out for themselves. Why didn't they sit up straight and firm, with their hands in their muffs and their eyes on hers, and say with a rising inflection and lips that moved as little as possible,—"What wages, mum?" or "What's ...
— The Other Girls • Mrs. A. D. T. Whitney

... "Please, mum, one of the vaiters here knows all about them there places as master talks so much on; p'raps Miss Alice would like ...
— Tales from Blackwood, Volume 7 • Various

... Stomatick Tincture or Bitter Drops." In a handbill, the apothecary did tip his hand to the extent of asserting that his Elixir contained 22 ingredients, but added that nobody but himself knew what they were. The dosage was generous, 50 to 60 drops "in a glass of Spring water, Beer, Ale, Mum, Canary, White wine, with or without sugar, and a dram of brandy as often as you please." This, it was said, would cure any ...
— Old English Patent Medicines in America • George B. Griffenhagen

... sigh! But he shut his eyes vigorously, and received into his big hard fist the Scientist's little white one, and murmured, "All right, mum; whip up lively." ...
— Tin-Types Taken in the Streets of New York • Lemuel Ely Quigg

... feet upon an already burdened household, had become impatient desire by the time I counted out her wages. Yet, here she stands, grim as the sphinx, fixed as Fate, with the inexorable requisition, "Me refrunce, mum!" ...
— The Secret of a Happy Home (1896) • Marion Harland

... just on to noon that day, and the old man was busy 'bout taking a sight o' the sun, the same as you're so handy with, Mister Leigh; so he says to the old lady, 'I'm engaged, mum, at present, but if you axes that man there at the wheel while I goes below, he'll ...
— On Board the Esmeralda - Martin Leigh's Log - A Sea Story • John Conroy Hutcheson

... dreadfully stupid, to-night; you make noise enough when I want to go to sleep: but now, when I am inclined for a little rational conversation, you sit there as mum and ...
— Tales From Catland, for Little Kittens • Tabitha Grimalkin

... to the Bonins; and wherever I go that infernal story follows me up. Well, I'll risk it anyhow, and the first chance that comes along I'll cut Kanaka life and drinking ship's rum and go see old dad and mum to home. Here, Tikena, you Tokelau devil, ...
— The Ebbing Of The Tide - South Sea Stories - 1896 • Louis Becke

... of his fat beeves; a little bit of choice roguery played off upon him by honest Anthony of the tender conscience! Look to it, comrade, he shall know of this before thou canst convey thy cowardly carcase out of his clutches. An' it be thou goest forward—mum!—backward! Ha! have I caught thee, my ...
— Traditions of Lancashire, Volume 1 (of 2) • John Roby

... bright fire was burning, he continued, in an earnest whisper, "This is as good a chance as you will have. Chuck 'em in, and you'll not regret it; but if you have no objections, I should like to read them before you do it. I'll keep mum." ...
— Rodney The Partisan • Harry Castlemon

... be uneasy, mum," said Bob, touching his cap. He saw at once that Mrs. Glegg was a bit of game worth running down, and longed to be at the sport; "we'll stay out upo' the gravel here,—Mumps and me will. Mumps knows his company,—he does. I might hish at him by th' hour together, ...
— The Mill on the Floss • George Eliot



Words linked to "Mum" :   momma, florists' chrysanthemum, florist's chrysanthemum, mama, Dendranthema grandifloruom, female parent, uncommunicative, mother, secretiveness, silent, ma, Chrysanthemum morifolium, mom, keep mum, incommunicative, silence, mummy, secrecy, mamma, mommy, mammy, chrysanthemum



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