mommick

English

Etymology

Apparently a variant of mammock.

Verb

mommick (third-person singular simple present mommicks, present participle mommicking, simple past and past participle mommicked)

1. (dialectal, transitive, including Ocracoke Island North Carolina) To harass or bother (someone or something).
   • 1960, Vinnie Williams, Walk Egypt, page 178:

     The big woman wheeled on the tumbling children in the car. "Billie-Dove Newsome, min' you manners. Ramon-Novarro, quit mommicking de dog!" She turned back.

   • 2007, Wild Horses of Shackleford Banks, →ISBN:

     Using a bit of Down East vernacular, as if talking about a family member, she adds, “Leo's used to me mommicking [teasing] him—treating him like a baby.”

2. (dialectal, transitive) To beat up or rough up (someone).
   • 1968, William Dean Howells, The Altrurian romances, volume 20, page 430:

     Evelith Strange writes to Mrs. Makely from Altruria: Do you still keep on murdering and divorcing, and drowning and burning, and mommicking, and maiming people by sea and land? Has there been any war since I left?

   • 1998, Cruelty to Animals and Interpersonal Violence: Readings, page 24:

     "Mommick him up good, because you've got to go to jail anyhow."

   • 2014, Richard Chase, American Folk Tales and Songs, →ISBN, page 21:

     "He was too mean for Hell, having people mommicked and gaumed up the way he did.”

   • about 1980, Connie McElroy, 'Twas a Night Afore Chistmas, Son: or A Harkers Island Christmas:

     I heard him hollar as he sank out of sight, "My Lord Honey, haint I been momicked this night."

3. (dialectal, Appalachia, Southern US, chiefly North Carolina) To mess up; to bungle or ruin by bungling.
   • 1994, Gail Godwin, A Mother and Two Daughters, →ISBN, page 420:

     "I don't fault her for effort," said one man, the oldest at the table, "but she's wanting to do it all by herself, then she mommicks thing up."

   • 2009, Peter F. Hamilton, The Neutronium Alchemist, →ISBN:

     And anyway, his presence seemed to mommick up electricity. So he stuck to walking.

Alternative forms

• mommuck, mummock

Noun

mommick

1. (dialectal, Appalachia, Southern US, chiefly North Carolina) A mess, a disorderly state or thing.
   • 2010, Julianna Baggott, The Madam: A Novel, →ISBN, page 21:

     As soon as she walks up the porch steps and opens the screen door, she knows that Henry is already home. Amid the noisy mommick, she can sense his humming presence.

   • 2012, Christine Blevins, The Turning of Anne Merrick, →ISBN:

     "It's all such an awful mommick..." Anne shrugged. "Trapped on a sinking ship..."

   • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:mommick.

Related terms

• mammock