English Dictionary

malkin

/ˈmɔːlkɪn/

noun

(now archaic, regional) A (stereotypical name for a) lower-class or uncultured woman; a kitchenmaid; a slattern. / (now regional) A mop, especially one used to clean a baker's oven.

The malkin was a term used to refer to a lower-class woman in the 16th century.

意味（1）

(now archaic, regional) A (stereotypical name for a) lower-class or uncultured woman; a kitchenmaid; a slattern.

Ȝe ne haue na more meryte · in masse ne in houres / Þan Malkyn of hire maydenhode · þat no man desireth.

Ȝe ne haue na more meryte · in masse ne in houres / Þan Malkyn of hire maydenhode · þat no man desireth. You gain no more merit from mass or your prayers / Than Malkin from her maidenhood, which no man desires.

意味（2）

(now regional) A mop, especially one used to clean a baker's oven.

She had no sooner said so, but they all vanished saving onely one Peter Grospetter, whom a little after she saw snatch'd up into the aire, and to let fall his Maulkin (a stick that they make clean Ovens withall) and her self was also driven so forcibly with the wind, that it made her almost Lose her breath.

意味（3）

(obsolete, nautical) A mop or sponge attached to a jointed staff for swabbing out a cannon.

意味（4）

(now archaic, regional) A scarecrow.

意味（5）

(now rare) A cat.

Now she was strong enough to walk and watch them circling in the sky or to sit in the arbour at the end of the long lawn and, with the sunlight smouldering in her dark-red hair and lying wanly over the area of her face and neck, watch the multiform and snow-white convolutions of her malkins.

意味（6）

(Scotland, Northern England) A hare.

There was milk punch and spiced whisky, a smell of goose and maukin roasting on the spit.