Mawk

//mɔːk// noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A maggot.
  2. 2
    A slattern. UK, dialectal, obsolete

Etymology

From Middle English mawke, moke, a contraction of mathek, maddok, from Old Norse maðkr (“maggot”), a diminutive of a base from Proto-Germanic *maþô (“worm”) (compare Old English maþa), from Proto-Indo-European *mat-, *mot- used in reference to insects and vermin. Cognate with Danish maddike, Swedish mask, archaic English maddock (modern maggot).

Related phrases

molly-mawk

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