mouse-hunt, noun

Forms:
Also mouse-and.
Origin:
South African Dutch, English, Middle DutchShow more Calqued on South African Dutch muishond, see muishond. Cf. dialectal English mousehunt (adaptation of Middle Dutch muushont) weasel.
obs.
muishond sense 1. Also attributive.
1850 R.G.G. Cumming Hunter’s Life I. 103The whole ground was undermined with the holes of colonies of meercat or mouse-hunts.
1853 F.P. Fleming Kaffraria 67The Mustela-Furo, or Wild Ferret, more commonly called the Mouse-hunt, or Merecat, is also very plentiful.
1856 R.E.E. Wilmot Diary (1984) We rode away again reaching Sundays River with no greater incident than stopping for the purpose of..a hunt after a large red pole-cat, known here by the name of ‘mousehunt’.
1862 A.W. Drayson Tales at Outspan 347‘Piet,’ an old Hottentot of my uncle’s,..had as many dodges for defeating the Kaffirs, stalking an ostrich, or trapping a mouse-hunt, as any jackal has for stealing chickens.
1871 J. McKay Reminisc. 16Having found a large mouse-and hole, they threw him in head foremost, and there let him lie, with his posterior sticking up.
muishond sense 1. Also attributive.
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mousebird, nounn.moz, nounn.
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