Meanings
- historicaluncountablenauticalThe act of carousing on icebound Greenland whaling ships.
"Just because I had one gin before and a couple of glasses of claret during you thought I'd been mallemaroking."
1958, “Punch”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name), volume 235, page 3191 more example
[…] they were willing to endure so much physical hardship out of loyalty to Emperor Franz Joseph. Indeed, such is their sense of duty that they even indulge in some muted mallemaroking to celebrate the Emperor's birthday.
2006, Katrin Maria Kohl, Ritchie Robertson, A History of Austrian Literature 1918-2000, page 243
Origin
- Frenchmarotte“jester's sceptre”
- Englishmallemaroking
Generally considered to derive from Dutch, although a specific etymon is unclear. Century and some other old dictionaries derive it from a confusion of two similar Dutch words, namely *mallemerok (“foolish woman”) (from malle (“foolish”) + *marok, from French marotte (“jester's sceptre”)) and *mallemok (“sailor of a whaling vessel”), but the first of those words is not attested, and the second is not attested with the claimed meaning (but see mollymawk). Compare mallemolen.
More words from French
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
mallemaroking. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/mallemaroking
“mallemaroking.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/mallemaroking. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “mallemaroking,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/mallemaroking.
Source: mallemaroking on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.