maffick

/ˈmæfɪk/

maffick verb: to celebrate a victory in a boisterous manner.

Verb

maffick (third-person singular simple present mafficks, present participle mafficking, simple past and past participle mafficked)

(historical, intransitive) To celebrate a victory in a boisterous manner.
- […] we crown our work by putting into our children’s hands a book that reeks of Jingoism, Imperialism, and Patriotism; that “mafficks” on every other page, that sings the glories of all the ruffianly kings who bore rule in the Dark Ages, and never fails to applaud their most disreputable military...1906, Arthur Machen, chapter 5, in Dr. Stiggins: His Views and Principles, London: Francis Griffiths, page 116
- […] father has given a day from business, mother has helped, even those shiny-headed nuts, the sons, have condescended to assist, and now villadom, feeling a little safer, is ready with the dinner-bell, its characteristic instrument of music, to maffick at the victories it has done its best to...1914, H. G. Wells, chapter 3, in The War That Will End War, London: F. & C. Palmer, page 22

Noun

maffick (plural mafficks)

(historical) The boisterous celebration of a victory.
- But far the greater number of the inhabitants lead a sober life, only breaking out into occasional excess on “mafficks” of authorised national rejoicing, on the days of public holiday, or on the last night of the year, and other periods of unusual solemnity.1901, Charles Masterman, “Realities at Home”, in The Heart of the Empire, London: Unwin, page 25
- War gives to them something of the excitement of the public-house; and much as I hate the passion of jingoism among those to whom fortune has given the education and opportunity to think, I recognise that a slum “on the Maffick” was a thing far less degrading to human nature than the calculations...1904, Brougham Villiers, chapter 2, in The Opportunity of Liberalism, London: Unwin, page 29

Forms of maffick

Verb
third-person singular present	mafficks
present participle	mafficking
past participle	mafficked
past	mafficked
Noun
plural	mafficks

Origin of maffick

Back-formation from Mafeking, humorously treated as if it were a present participle (mafficking), from the celebrations in London after the relief of Mafeking during the Boer War.

Words formed from maffick

mafficker

Words that rhyme with maffick

3 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about maffick

What does maffick mean?: Maffick means to celebrate a victory in a boisterous manner.
What part of speech is maffick?: Maffick can be a verb or a noun.
How do you pronounce maffick?: Maffick is pronounced /ˈmæfɪk/.
What is the past tense of maffick?: The past tense of maffick is mafficked.

Words near maffick in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: maffick (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Cite this entry: “maffick.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/maffick. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.