Mahound

//məˈhuːnd// noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    Muhammad, believed by medieval Europeans to be a demon or god that Muslims worshipped. archaic

    "But, when he to himselfe returnd againe, / All full of rage he gan to curse and sweare, / And vow by Mahoune that he should be slaine."

  2. 2
    The Devil. Ireland, Scotland, archaic

    "And there were vessels that are wrought by magic of Mahound out of seasand and the air by a warlock with his breath that he blares into them like to bubbles."

  3. 3
    A generic pagan god or idol believed by medieval Europeans to be worshipped by various villains such as Herod I. obsolete

Synonyms

All synonyms
mohammad

Example

More examples

"But, when he to himselfe returnd againe, / All full of rage he gan to curse and sweare, / And vow by Mahoune that he should be slaine."

Etymology

From Middle English Mahown, from Anglo-Norman Mahun, Old French Mahum, Mahom, shortened from Mahomed (“Muhammad”) (see Muhammad for more). Compare mammet.

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.