Mosey
name, verb ·Uncommon ·College level
Definitions
- 1 To set off, get going; to start a journey. US, dialectal, intransitive
"Haven't got time. I must mosey up to the North End to see a man who has got a lovely throat. Nobody can find out what is the matter. He has puzzled all the doctors."
- 2 walk leisurely wordnet
- 3 To go off quickly: to hurry up. US, dialectal, intransitive
- 4 To amble; to walk or proceed in a leisurely manner. US, dialectal, intransitive
"We'll mosey along toward the river. Kinder take it easy an' drift the herd down slow so as to let the cattle put on flesh."
- 1 A surname.
Example
More examples"Tom decided to mosey on over to Mary's place."
Etymology
Unknown. Originally attested in Southern US dialects. Suggested origins include: * Spanish vamos (compare vamoose) * British dialectal mosey about (“walk around at leisurely pace”) * an Algonquian term for "walk" (compare Ojibwe bimose (“she or he walks along”)) * proper name Mosey, pet form of Moses, in reference to the biblical Exodus which he led
From a pet form of the personal name Moses.
Related phrases
More for "mosey"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.