Mickle

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ˈmɪkÉ™l/
• Rhymes: -ɪkÉ™l

Alternative forms

• meikle
• muchell obsolete

Origin

From Middle English mikel, muchel, mochel, mukel, from Old English miċel, myċel or Old Norse mikill, both from Proto-Germanic *mikilaz.

Full definition of mickle

Adjective

1. (now chiefly Scotland and Northumbria) Large, great.
• 1932, Lewis Grassic Gibbon, Sunset Song:at gloaming a shepherd would see it, with its great wings half-folded across the great belly of it and its head, like the head of a meikle cock, but with the ears of a lion, poked over a for tree, watching.
2. (now chiefly Scotland and Northumbria) Much; a great quantity or amount of.
• 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, III.7:Full many wounds in his corrupted flesh
  He did engrave, and muchell blood did spend ….

Usage notes

Use in Northumbrian is occasional, the term muckle is more common.

Derived terms

• overmickle

Noun

1. (chiefly Scotland) A great amount.Many a little makes a mickle.
2. (Scotland) A small amount.

Derived terms

• many a mickle makes a muckle