mammock
/ˈmamək/US/ˈmæmək/
mammock noun: a shapeless piece; a fragment.
Noun
mammock (plural mammocks)
- A shapeless piece; a fragment.
- "Can. Let me be torn into mammocks with wild Bears if I make not a gallemaufry of thy heart"1600, John Day, The Blind Beggar of Bednal-Green
- The bird liveth by the scraps, and feedeth upon the leavings of that monster, who gently receiveth him into his mouth, and suffers him to pecke his jawes and teeth for such mamockes [translating morceaux] of flesh as sticke betweene them[…].1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 12, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book II, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC
Verb
mammock (third-person singular simple present mammocks, present participle mammocking, simple past and past participle mammocked)
- To tear to pieces.
- I saw him run after a gilded Butterfly, & when he caught it, he let it go againe, and after it againe, and ouer and ouer he comes, and vp againe: catcht it again: or whether his fall enrag'd him, or how 'twas, hee did so set his teeth, and teare it. Oh, I warrant how he mammockt it.c. 1608–1609 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedy of Coriolanus”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward]...
- to keep off the profane touch of the Laicks, whilst the obscene, and surfeted Priest scruples not to paw, and mammock the sacramentall bread, as familiarly as his Tavern Bisket1641, John Milton, Of Reformation
Examples of mammock in a sentence
- Yet, in the meaning of presumptuous, "bold" could reveal the poet's ambivalence, since in their impudence the navvies took liberties with nature by mammocking it.1987, Dutch Quarterly Review of Anglo-American Letters: DQR, page 104:
- However, his own son has been pulling wings off butterflies, torturing them, mammocking them in his teeth, letting them go, capturing them again, mammocking them, and so on.2015, Tina Packer, Women of Will: Following the Feminine in Shakespeare's Plays, page 244:
- I smiled at her and she smiled back, her mouth sticky with strawberry jam from a piece of toast she was mammocking.2020, Bradley W. Wright, Enigma Variations:
Synonyms of mammock
13 more synonymsFewer synonyms
Forms of mammock
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | mammocks |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | mammocks |
| present participle | mammocking |
| past participle | mammocked |
| past | mammocked |
Origin of mammock
From mam (of obscure origin) + -ock (diminutive suffix).
Questions about mammock
- What does mammock mean?
- Mammock means a shapeless piece; a fragment.
- How do you use mammock in a sentence?
- Yet, in the meaning of presumptuous, "bold" could reveal the poet's ambivalence, since in their impudence the navvies took liberties with nature by mammocking it.
- What part of speech is mammock?
- Mammock can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce mammock?
- Mammock is pronounced /ˈmamək/ (UK).
- What is the plural of mammock?
- The plural of mammock is mammocks.
Words near mammock in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: mammock (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:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-mammock.wav.
Cite this entry: “mammock.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/mammock. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.