mud-hen

Definitions

noun The common gallinule, Gallinula galeata.
noun Also mud-pullet.
noun The American coot, Fulica americana.
noun Same as marsh-hen .
noun A bivalve mollusk of the family Veneridæ and genus Tapes. It is common along the European coasts on sandy bottoms near low-water mark. See hen, n., 4.
noun A woman who dabbles in stock-gambling.
noun Clapin, Americanisms.

Sorry, no etymologies found.

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The last time I did such a dumb thing, the Zouve .58 caliber musket decked me on the Texas hillside, and I literally sunk the mud-hen I was aiming at, with a huge splash.

Flying Ramrods and Broken Noses 2009
The last time I did such a dumb thing, the Zouve .58 caliber musket decked me on the Texas hillside, and I literally sunk the mud-hen I was aiming at, with a huge splash.

Flying Ramrods and Broken Noses 2009
Just then I saw a little mud-hen light on some sage-brush about thirty yards away.

Mark Twain: A Biography 2003
Out of their loutish ingenuity came a great number of picturesque names for natural objects, chiefly boldly descriptive compounds: bull-frog, canvas-back, mud-hen, cat-bird, razor-back, garter-snake, ground-hog and so on.

Chapter 2. The Beginnings of American. 3. New Words of English Material Henry Louis 1921
Just then I saw a little mud-hen light on some sage-brush about thirty yards away.

Mark Twain, a Biography. Complete Albert Bigelow Paine 1899
Just then I saw a little mud-hen light on some sage-brush about thirty yards away.

Mark Twain, a Biography — Volume I, Part 1: 1835-1866 Albert Bigelow Paine 1899
Ye long-horned, mackerel-back cross between a shanghai rooster an 'a mud-hen, I'll skin ye alive in about a minute! "

A Man of Two Countries Alice Harriman 1893