[‘ /trans./ To smother, muffle up; to encumber, burden.']
Pronunciation: Brit. /ˈmʌɪðə/, U.S. /ˈmaɪðər/
Forms: 18 *mayther*, 18 *meither*, 18 *meyther*, 18– *mither*, 18– *myther*.
Etymology:Variant of moider v.
orig. Eng. regional (north. and midl.).
*1.* /trans./ To smother, muffle up; to encumber, burden.
1847 J. O. Halliwell /Dict. Archaic & Provinc. Words/ II, /Mither/, to muffle up; to smother; to encumber. Northampt.
1888 S. O. Addy /Gloss. Words Sheffield/ 149 A Derbyshire woman said that a child was ‘mythered up in clothing’ when it was too much wrapped up.
1995 J. M. Sims-Kimbrey /Wodds & Doggerybaw: Lincs. Dial. Dict./ 193/1 /Mither/… 1) To smother, or be smothered in. ‘Mithered in mook…’ 2) To lumber with. ‘‘E got mithered wiyall ‘er stuff anall when she went, ‘e did.’
*2.* /trans./ To bother, pester, worry, irritate.
1848 E. C. Gaskell /Mary Barton/ I. vi. 90 Don’t mither your mammy for bread, here’s a chap as has got some for you.
1879 G. F. Jackson /Shropshire Word-bk./ 286 Them women’s clack mītherd the poor chap tell ‘e didna know whad ‘e wuz sayin’.
1887 T. Darlington /Folk-speech S. Cheshire/, Ye meithern me wi’ yur ledden.
1901 M. Franklin /My Brilliant Career/ xxiv. 206 A jargon of such terms that were enough to mither a Barcoo lawyer.
1976 R. Scollins & J. Titford /Ey up, mi Duck!/ I. 58 ‘Don’t myther me’ (Don’t bother me.) A variation on the rather more familiar dialect words, ‘moither’, and ‘moider’.
1992 B. Elton /Stark/ (BNC) 174 The ‘stuff to do’ pile..would mither her whenever she felt good, deliberately deflating her.
*3.* /intr./ To ramble, be delirious; to ‘go on’; to complain, make a fuss, whine.
1887 T. Darlington /Folk-speech S. Cheshire/, Hey begun meither abowt some owd mon.
1887 T. Darlington /Folk-Speech S. Cheshire/ 259, I shanna meither wi’ ye.
1903 /Eng. Dial. Dict./ IV. 145/2 [Warks.] I was tossing about and mithering all night.
1989 /Times/ 10 June 10/7 It’s no use mithering on about individual freedom.
1998 /Observer/ 15 Feb. 24/6 The throng of pale grey Brummie lawyers sipping champagne and mithering..about how poor they are.
Derivatives
ˈmithered adj.
1848 E. C. Gaskell /Mary Barton/ I. vi. 90 (note) ‘I’m welly mithered’—I’m well nigh crazed.
/a/1973 J. R. R. Tolkien in C. Tolkien /Hist. Middle Earth/ (1989) VII. xvi. 334 Sam..stepped away, so sudden and grim was his master’s face. ‘The poor dear is still mithered,’ he thought.
2001 /Observer/ 18 Mar. (Life Suppl.) 10 Up all night trying to persuade his mithered wife to come to bed, he’d think of the lines from Lear.
ˈmithering adj. and n.
1887 F. T. Havergal /Herefordshire Words & Phrases/ 22/1 /Maythering/, babbling as an imbecile.
1896 J. Ackworth /Clog Shop Chron./ 239 His muther’s a meytherin owd maddlin.
1987 /Punch/ (Student Issue) 43/4 Listening to Mick the barman’s mithering.
1991 /Independent/ (Nexis) 26 Sept. 15 The mithering Mancunian has got his support act..together this time.
1993 R. Hamilton /Spinning Jenny/ (BNC) 190 There’d be all that mithering again, and Jenny was past coping with it.