mouse
Noun
- A small rodent, commonly found in homes or fields.
- any of numerous small rodents typically resembling diminutive rats having pointed snouts and small ears on elongated bodies with slender usually hairless tails
- a swollen bruise caused by a blow to the eye
- person who is quiet or timid
- a hand-operated electronic device that controls the coordinates of a cursor on your computer screen as you move it around on a pad; on the bottom of the device is a ball that rolls on the surface of the pad
- "a mouse takes much more room than a trackball"
- Any small rodent of the genus Mus.
- A member of the many small rodent and marsupial species resembling mice, typically having a small body, dark fur, long tail, and nocturnal sleeping pattern compared to rats.
- A quiet or shy person.
- (plural mice or mouses) An input device that is moved over a pad or other flat surface to produce a corresponding movement of a pointer on a graphical display.
- A pointer.
- A facial hematoma or black eye.
- A turn or lashing of spun yarn or small stuff, or a metallic clasp or fastening, uniting the point and shank of a hook to prevent its unhooking or straightening out.
- A familiar term of endearment.
- A match used in firing guns or blasting.
- A small model of (a fragment of) Zermelo-Fraenkel set theory with desirable properties (depending on the context).
- A small cushion for a woman's hair.
- Part of a hind leg of beef, next to the round.
Verb
Verb Forms: moused, mousing, mouses
- To hunt for or catch mice.
- to go stealthily or furtively
- manipulate the mouse of a computer
- To move cautiously or furtively, in the manner of a mouse (the rodent) (frequently used in the phrasal verb to mouse around).
- To hunt or catch mice (the rodents), usually of cats.
- To close the mouth of a hook by a careful binding of marline or wire.
- To navigate by means of a computer mouse.
- To tear, as a cat devours a mouse.
Examples
- Captain Higgins moused the hook with a bit of marline to prevent the block beckets from falling out under slack.
- He found the word MOUSE, but playing MICE would have earned him more points.
- move the mouse over the icon
- my mouse needs new batteries
- The cat would mouse around the house, much like he’d mouse for high-scoring words on the board.
Origin / Etymology
From Middle English mous, from Old English mūs, from Proto-West Germanic *mūs, from Proto-Germanic *mūs, from Proto-Indo-European *múHs.
Cognates
Germanic cognates include Old Frisian mūs, Old Saxon mūs (German Low German Muus), Dutch muis, Old High German mūs (German Maus), Old Norse mús (Swedish mus, Danish mus, Norwegian mus, Icelandic mús, Faroese mús).
Indo-European cognates include Ancient Greek μῦς (mûs), Latin mūs, Spanish mur, Armenian մուկ (muk), Old Church Slavonic мꙑшь (myšĭ) (Russian мышь (myšʹ)), Albanian mi, Persian موش (muš), Northern Kurdish mişk, Sanskrit मूष् (mūṣ).
The computing sense was coined by American engineer Bill English in 1965 and first used publicly in a publication titled "Computer-Aided Display Control", in reference to the similarity with the animal.
Scrabble Score: 7
mouse: valid Scrabble (US) TWL Wordmouse: valid Scrabble Word in Merriam-Webster MW Dictionary
mouse: valid Scrabble Word in International Collins CSW Dictionary