minx
Part of speech: noun
verb
Morphological type: simple
Etymology: PIE word
 *ǵʰmṓ
The origin of the noun is uncertain. The following possible derivations have been suggested:
* A variation of minikin (“(obsolete) young person, especially a young woman; small or insignificant person, thing, or amount”) + a variation of -s (suffix forming hypocoristic nouns (nicknames)) (compare minckins, a variant of minikin).
* From Dutch mens, mensch (“human being, person; (derogatory, informal) woman”) (obsolete), Middle Dutch minsc, minsce, minsch; or from German Low German minsch, minsk, Middle Low German minsche (“hussy, wench”), all ultimately from Proto-Germanic *manniskaz (“human”, adjective), from *mann- (“human being, person; man”) (possibly from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰmṓ (“earthling”), *men- (“to mind; to think; spiritual activity”), or *mon- (“human being; man”)) + *-iskaz (suffix meaning ‘characteristic of, pertaining to’ forming adjectives).
The verb is derived from the noun.
Inflected forms:
form: minxes
pos: noun
tags: plural
form: minxes
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: minxing
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: minxed
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: minxed
pos: verb
tags: past
Senses:
gloss: A flirtatious, impudent, or pert young woman.
pos: noun
examples: In an other corner, Mistris Minx, a marchants wife, that will eate no cherries, forsooth, but when they are at twentie shillings a pound, that lookes as simperingly as if she were besmeard, and iets it as gingerly as if she were dancing the canaries, […]
How Huſſie! was there ever ſuch a provoking Minx?
Miſs Herbert. So good, Mr. gallant, gay Lothario of ſixty-five, a good morning to you. [Exit. Miſs Herbert. / Old Manly. A ſaucy minx.
Miss Squeers made no more direct reply than surveying her former friend from top to toe, and elevating her nose in the air with ineffable disdain. But some indistinct allusions to a ‘puss,’ and a ‘minx,’ and a ‘contemptible creature,’ escaped her; and this, together with a severe biting of the lips, great difficulty in swallowing, and very frequent comings and goings of breath, seemed to imply that feelings were swelling in Miss Squeers’s bosom too great for utterance.
"Thy own tongue blister the roof of thy mouth!" cried Mrs. Glendinning, in a half-stifled, whispering scream. "'Tis not for thee, hired one, to rail at my son, though he were Lucifer, simmering in Hell! Mend thy manners, minx!"
Hopkins says she is a dressed-up little minx who runs after all the young men in the parish; but really, from what I see and hear from other persons, I think she is a good girl enough.
Others were pert little minxes, and were amusingly condescending to their friends and relatives; but when it came to the feast all the innocent little airs and graces were left aside, and the saucy tapo enjoyed her pig and yams as naturally as the hungriest boy there.
A widow with a child was at a disadvantage with these pretty little minxes, she thought. But in these exciting days her widowhood and her motherhood weighed less heavily upon her than ever before.
Single, and generally on the make, she was alternatively an angel, a devil and a minx.
As women glide from their twenties to thirties, Shazzer argues, the balance of power subtly shifts. Even the most outrageous minxes lose their nerve, wrestling with the first twinges of existential angst: fears of dying alone and being found three weeks later half-eaten by an Alsatian.
We're quite a powerful group, us wrinkly teenagers, us pre-menopausal minxes.
Both girls [in Joseph Haydn's Le pescatrici] reveal themselves as minxes.
gloss: A promiscuous woman; also, a mistress (“the other woman in an extramarital relationship”) or a prostitute.
pos: noun
tags: dated
derogatory
examples: Well, yet at length the houre came that flattered him with grace, / Who all too haſtie hide him ſelfe to his appointed place. / Arrived there, a pretie minx (directed wel before) / Unto a lodging brought this lord, and locked faſt the dore. / When he was ſafe, awaye ſhe went, for joy Alberto hopt, / But ſee, a chaunge! too late he ſpyde he was in priſon popt. / The windowes made of yron barres, the walles of ſtone and clay, / A bed he found, but farre unfit he thought for Venus play.
[W]hat did you meane by that ſame handkercher, you gaue mee euen now? […] this is ſome minxes token, and I muſt take out the worke; there, giue it the hobby horſe, whereſoeuer you had it, I'le take out no worke on't.
If thou be abſent long, thy wife then thinkes, / Th'art drunke, at eaſe, or with ſome pretty minkes, / 'Tis well with thee, or elſe beloued of ſome, / Whil'ſt ſhee poore ſoule doth fare full ill at home.
They are a couple of alluring wanton Minxes.
He to his ardent love ſhall win the fair, / From beauty's queen, to her who ſcrubs the ſtair, / From the Kept-miſtreſs, or the Counteſs vain, / Down to the tawdry Minx in Drury Lane.
For my part, if I understand these sphinxes, / These living riddles called Olympian Gods, / I think they are in love with mortal minxes; / (It would not be the only time by odds;) […]
There wasn't an Archimandrite of Dane's Island and the townlands nor a minx from the Isle of Woman […] would come next or nigh him, […]
Tragically forgot to take drying washing down off rack over Aga and a pair of my very large knickers was perilously close to brushing the top of his hair as he came in. […] I quickly swapped them with a pair of ELDEST's teeny-weeny ones, so he thinks he might be marrying into a family of sex minxes who stay that way well into middle age.
gloss: A pet dog.
pos: noun
tags: obsolete
examples: And of doggues there ben diuerſe ſortes mo then one: For ther be hariers, or buckhoundes, there by ſpanyels made to the hawke, or for taking of foule, ther be ſhepeherdes curres, there are tye dogges or maſtifes for keepinge of houſes, there ben litle minxes, or pupees that ladies keepe in their chaumbers for eſpecial iewels to playe withall. And ſo, to one demaunding what maner a dogge he, for his part was, he feactely aunſwered and ſaied: when I am hungry I am a litle mynxe ful of play, and when my bealy is full, a maſtife.
gloss: Used transitively when followed by it: to behave like a minx, that is, in a flirtatious and impudent manner.
pos: verb
tags: ambitransitive
examples: [He] knows the dress of every girl he meets— / In fact could cut you out the very plan, / Each article could name, and tell you every shade, / Whether adorning minxing miss or ancient maid!
Alison might have, if she hadn't minxed herself out of a job.
She grabbed desperately at the pistol, singeing hot, and she and Ginny fell to the floor, Marion on top and looking down at twisty little Ginny, that minxing blond thrush, now beneath her, churning under her and spitting and hacking and cursing Marion and cursing her so.
It's just a late date. It's like I'm Carrie Bradshaw, minxing it around Manhattan.
Moonface minxed and flashed her red nails like a dancer, chameleon that she was.
Sadly, I was the one minxing around, so I was inevitably going to meet a horrible death.
gloss: To make (someone) like a minx; (intransitive) to become like a minx.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: Whether you're sipping fine bubbly from a crystal flute while having your nails minxed, or soaking in a heavenly milk bath, a visit to Miss Fox is your ticket to forget your worries and simply indulge.
Related words: lolita
troublemaker
Derived words: minxish
minxishly
minxishness
minxlike
minxship
minxy
Translations: