Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A high muckamuck.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun US, dialectal Food.
  • noun idiomatic, irreverent A person in a position of power, authority, or status.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Short for high muckamuck.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Chinook Jargon muckamuck ("food"). In the sense "person of authority", it is short for "high muckamuck", from Chinook Jargon hayo muckamuck ("plenty to eat, plenty of food"). See muckety muck. The ultimate source of the word is unclear; it is possible it was invented in Chinook Jargon rather than taken into the jargon from another language.

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Examples

  • I always thought this burg was Mecca for complainers, and anathema for lemmings and sheep who roll over for any scheming muckamuck who comes along.

    The "Go Back to Kansas" Argument Brooks of Sheffield 2008

  • She wriggled forward, hoping she wasn't already too close to the muckamuck.

    Asimov's Science Fiction 2004

  • The muckamuck was nowhere to be seen, though its fearmonger had come to rest in a rosebush.

    Asimov's Science Fiction 2004

  • The flunkies had left their muckamuck exposed, but it had also turned its glistening head in their direction.

    Asimov's Science Fiction 2004

  • Now Wyrzbowski could see the muckamuck, resplendent in the egg-sack slime of its body suit, wielding its red fearmonger while flunkies covered its spindle-shanked ass.

    Asimov's Science Fiction 2004

  • Carrying a bunch of regular slaves, but forward was a batch that were a gift from the Satrap of Jamaillia himself to some high muckamuck in Chalced.

    Ship Of Magic Hobb, Robin 1998

  • “Related to a former muckamuck and another former muckamuck, families with places in Rhinebeck and Newport, apartments in the Dakota—”

    The Women’s Room Marilyn French 1977

  • “Related to a former muckamuck and another former muckamuck, families with places in Rhinebeck and Newport, apartments in the Dakota—”

    The Women’s Room Marilyn French 1977

  • “Related to a former muckamuck and another former muckamuck, families with places in Rhinebeck and Newport, apartments in the Dakota—”

    The Women’s Room Marilyn French 1977

  • She apparently has her own way in everything now, the old chief being quite satisfied to get his rations of muckamuck and tobacco without troubling himself as to how it is provided.

    Official Report of the Exploration of the Queen Charlotte Islands for the Government of British Columbia 1882

Comments

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  • In collins 7th edition

    and means food also a verbal sense to eat

    Chinook jargon

    May 16, 2009

  • In collins 7th edition

    and means food also a verbal sense to eat

    Chinook jargon

    May 16, 2009