mufti

plural muftis · alternative muftee · alternative mufty

1. countableIslamA Muslim scholar and interpreter of sharia law, who can deliver a fatwa.

   1 more example

   Mujtahidd's online claims have prompted an aggressive backlash against social media from the Saudi religious establishment. The grand mufti of Saudi Arabia, Sheikh Abdul-Aziz al-Sheikh, said in January that Twitter was a platform for "promoting lies" and a "dangerous practice" that should be avoided by Muslims. Commentators have described the phenomenon as symbolic of the growing political debate about use of Twitter in Saudi Arabia.

   2012 April 19, Josh Halliday, “Free speech haven or lawless cesspool – can the internet be civilised?”, in the Guardian

2. AustraliaNew ZealandUKuncountableA civilian dress when worn by a member of the military or the police, or casual dress when worn by a pupil of a school who normally would wear uniform.

   The sailors in mufti returned with 140 quarts of Bar's Leak, half of which was poured into the condenser.

   2002 April 3, Dave Wilma, “First nuclear submarine U.S.S. Nautilus visits Seattle and crew secretly buys Bar's Leak on June 3, 1958”, in HistoryLink.org: Essay 3739

   3 more examples

   He had a suit of summer mufti, and a broad-brimmed blue beaver hat looped with leaves broken from the hedgerows in the lanes, and a Leander scarf tucked full of flowers: loosestrife, meadowrue, orchis, ragged-robin.

   1919, Ronald Firbank, Valmouth, hardback edition, Duckworth, page 91

   The innate reluctance of the Englishman to make himself conspicuous has stood him here in good stead. Except on special occasions, the British officers are almost always in mufti.

   1921 October, Maxwell H. H. Macartney, “An Ex-Enemy in Berlin to-Day”, in The Atlantic

   The neutrality, however, causes some peculiar situations, such as that arising from the prohibition of uniforms other than those of the Eireann Defence Forces and the Diplomatic Corps. This would be simple if no one from Eire were a sailor, soldier, or airman in the British Forces, but thousands of them are, and as such they may not wear mufti unless on leave from the B.E.F.

   1940 May, “The Irish Railways Today”, in Railway Magazine, page 295

   Synonyms: civvies

1. abbreviationacronymAcronym of Minimum Use of Force and Tactical Intervention.