mickle

See also muckle

English

Alternative forms

• meikle
• muchell (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English mikel, muchel, mochel, mukel, from Old English miċel, myċel, (now chiefly Northumbrian and Scottish), from Proto-Germanic *mikilaz.

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ˈmɪkəl/
• Rhymes: -ɪkəl

Adjective

mickle (comparative more mickle, superlative most mickle)

1. (now chiefly Scotland and Northumbrian) Large, great.
   • 1932, Lewis Grassic Gibbon, Sunset Song:

     at gloaming a shepherd would see it, with its great wings half-folded across the great belly of it and its head, like the head of a meikle cock, but with the ears of a lion, poked over a for tree, watching.

2. (now chiefly Scotland and Northumbrian) A great quantity or amount of.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, III.7:

     Full many wounds in his corrupted flesh / He did engrave, and muchell blood did spend […].

Usage notes

Use in Northumbrian is occasional, the term muckle is more common.

Noun

mickle (uncountable)

1. (chiefly Scotland) A great amount.

   Many a little makes a mickle.

Usage notes

• The form Many a mickle makes a muckle is a common misunderstanding.

Derived terms

• many a mickle makes a muckle

References

• mickle in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913

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Scots

Etymology

From Old English miċel, myċel.

Adjective

mickle (comparative mair mickle, superlative maist mickle)

1. much, great

Noun

mickle (uncountable)

1. a great amount