Careful Words

mouse (n.)

mouse (v.)

  She watches him as a cat would watch a mouse.

Jonathan Swift (1667-1745): Polite Conversation. Dialogue iii.

Hanging of his cat on Monday
For killing of a mouse on Sunday.

  The old proverb was now made good, "the mountain had brought forth a mouse."

Plutarch (46(?)-120(?) a d): Life of Agesilaus II.

'T was the night before Christmas, when all through the house

Not a creature was stirring,—not even a mouse;

The stockings were hung by the chimney with care,

In hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there.

Clement C Moore (1779-1863): A Visit from St. Nicholas.

The mouse that always trusts to one poor hole

Can never be a mouse of any soul.

Alexander Pope (1688-1744): The Wife of Bath. Her Prologue. Line 298.

The mouse that hath but one hole is quickly taken.

George Herbert (1593-1632): Jacula Prudentum.

The mouse that always trusts to one poor hole

Can never be a mouse of any soul.

Alexander Pope (1688-1744): The Wife of Bath. Her Prologue. Line 298.

  Consider the little mouse, how sagacious an animal it is which never entrusts its life to one hole only.

Plautus (254(?)-184 b c): Truculentus. Act iv. Sc. 4, 15. (868.)