mouldwarp

plural mouldwarps · alternative modiwarp · alternative molewarp · alternative moldwarp · alternative modiwort · alternative moldiwarp · alternative moudiwarp · alternative moudiwart · alternative moudiewarp · alternative mouldiwarp · alternative mowdiwart · alternative mowdiwort

1. archaicregionalA mole, Talpa europaea.

   as the moldiwarp in Æsop told the fox […], you complain of toys, but I am blind, be quiet […].

   1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC, partition II, section 3, member 1, subsection i

   2 more examples

   For either they be puffed vp vvith pride, / Or fraught vvith enuie that their galls do ſvvell, / Or they their dayes to ydleneſſe diuide, / Or drovvnded lie in pleaſures vvaſtefull vvell, / In vvhich like Moldvvarps nouſling ſtill they lurke, / Vnmyndfull of chiefe parts of manlineſſe, / And do themſelues for vvant of other vvorke, / Vaine votaries of laeſie loue profeſſe, […]

   1595, Ed. Spencer [i.e., Edmund Spenser], Colin Clouts Come Home Againe, London: […] T[homas] C[reede] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, signature D3, verso

   "Yi, an' there's some chaps as does go round like moudiwarps." He thrust his face forward in the blind, snout-like way of a mole, seeming to sniff and peer for direction.

   1913, D[avid] H[erbert] Lawrence, Sons and Lovers, London: Duckworth & Co. […], →OCLC