mot

A witty remark; a witticism; a bon mot.

Here and there turns up a […] savage mot.

‘He comes from Montreal, in Canada.’ ‘Why?’ she said, repeating Dr Johnson's mot with a forced sneer.

A word or a motto; a device.

1597–1598, Joseph Hall, Virgidemiarum With his big title, an Italian mot

Tarquin's eye may read the mot afar.

A note or brief strain on a bugle.

Comrades, mark these three mots — it is the call of the Knight of the Fetterlock

A woman; a wife.

Come wed, my dear, and let's agree, / Then of the booze-ken you'll be free; / No sneer from cully, mot, or froe / Dare then reproach my Bess for Joe; / For he's the kiddy rum and queer, / That all St. Giles's boys do fear.

And we shall caper a-heel-and-toeing, / A Newgate hornpipe some fine day; / With the mots, their ogles throwing, / Tol lol, &c. / And old Cotton humming his pray.

A prostitute.

A landlady.

After some altercation with the "mot" of the "ken" (mistress of the lodging-house) about the cleanliness of a knife or fork, my new acquaintance began to arrange "ground," &c., for the night's work.

The ancient Canaanite god of death and the underworld.