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 An effeminate person; a milk-sop (q.v.).

1811. Lex. Bal., s.v.

1849. Thackeray, Pendennis, xxxi. You have been bred up as a molly-coddle, Pen, and spoilt by the women.

1859. Matsell, Vocabulum, s.v.

1860. G. Eliot, Mill on the Floss, ix. Such a thin-legged silly fellow as his uncle Pellet—a molly-coddle in fact.

1864. Hamilton Aïdé, Mr. & Mrs. Faulconbridge, I. 279. You young men are such a set of molly-coddles.

1883. Daily News, 2 July, p. 5, col. 2. Attempts are sometimes made to dismiss as molly-coddles those who protest against the mania for indiscriminate mountaineering.

2. (old).—A prostitute; a moll (q.v.). For synonyms see Barrack-hack and Tart.

1719. Durfey, Pills to Purge, i. 5. Town follies and cullies, and molleys and Dolleys.

3. (old).—A sodomite; a Mary-Ann (q.v.).—Grose (1785).

1811. Lex. Bal., s.v.

4. (old).—A country wench.

Molly-coddle, verb. (common).—To pamper. Also moddley-coddley.

1870. Dickens, Mystery of Edwin Drood, ii. Don't moddley-coddley, there's a good fellow. I like anything better than being moddley-coddleyed.

1895. Referee, 29 Dec., p. 5, col. 2. Who treats of molly-coddling regulations.

Molly-coddlish, adj. (common).—Effeminate. Also Mollyish.

1801. Dibdin, The Frisk. 'Jack at the Opera.' If it wan't for the petticoat gear, With their squeaking so mollyish, tender, and soft, One should scarcely know ma'am from mounseer.

1883. Referee, 25 March, 7, 4. I daresay to make even such remarks as I have is only the sign of a molly-coddlish mind.

Mollygrubs. See Mulligrubs.

Molly Maguires, subs. (obsolete).—1. An Irish secret society (c. 1843) formed to intimidate bailiffs and process-servers.

1868. Trench, Realities of Irish Life, vi. 'These molly maguires were generally stout active young men, dressed up in women's clothes, with faces blackened or otherwise disguised; sometimes they wore crape over their countenances, sometimes they smeared themselves in the most fantastic manner with burnt cork about their eyes, mouth, and cheeks. In this state they used suddenly to surprise the unfortunate grippers, keepers, or process-servers, and either duck them in bog-holes, or beat them in the most unmerciful manner, so that the molly maguires became the terror of all our officials.'

2. (American).—A secret society formed in 1877 in the mining districts of Pennsylvania. The members sought to effect their purpose by intimidation, carried in some cases to murder. Several were brought to justice and executed.

1867. Hepworth Dixon, New America, ii. 28. The judge who tried the murderer was elected by the Molly Maguires; the jurors who assisted him were themselves Molly Maguires. A score of Molly Maguires came forward to swear that the assassin was sixty miles from the spot on which he had been seen to fire at William Dunn and the jurors returned a verdict of Not Guilty.

Molly-puff, subs. (old).—A gamblers' decoy.

1629. Shirley, Wedding, iv. 3. Thou molly-puff, were it not justice to kick thy guts out?

Molly's-hole, subs. (venery).—The female pudendum. For synonyms see Monosyllable.

Molocker, subs. (common).—See quots. Also as adj. and verb.