Moth, 1) the insect Tinea: “thus hath the candle singed the m.” Merch. II, 9, 79. Figuratively, an idle eater, a parasite: all the yarn she (Penelope) “spun in Ulysses' absence did but fill Ithaca full of --s,” Cor. I, 3, 94.*“if I be left behind, a m. of peace,” Oth. I, 3, 257.
2) the smallest thing imaginable, atom, mote (M. Edd. mote): “you found his m.; the king your m. did see; but I a beam do find in each of three,” LLL IV, 3, 161. “a m. will turn the balance,” Mids. V, 324. that there were but a m. in yours (eye), “a grain, a dust, a gnat, a wandering hair,” John IV, 1, 92. “therefore should every soldier wash every m. out of his conscience,” H5 IV, 1, 189. “a m. it is to trouble the mind's eye,” Hml. I, 1, 112.
Name of diminutive persons; of the page in LLL I, 2, 80. LLL I, 2, 80 III, 115. III, 115* of a fairy: Mids. III, 1, 165.
Shakespeare Lexicon. Alexander Schmidt. Berlin. Georg Reimer. 1902.
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