mickle

adj

1. (Northern-England, Northumbria, Scotland, archaic, especially)(Very) great or large.

   “Oh mickle is the powerfull grace that lies / In hearbes, plants, ſtones, and their true qualities: / For nought ſo vile, that vile on earth doth liue, / But to the earth ſome ſpeciall good doth giue: […]”

   “O Jupiter! whose ſtrength is mickle, / Was ever man in ſuch a pickle!”

   “In the Den of Kinraddie one such beast had its lair […] and 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 fir tree, watching.”

adv

1. (Scotland, archaic)To a great extent.

   “They ſay here, […] that ye deſired not the king and England to agree, becauſe it would rack the noblemen, […] I anſwered in your name that I was aſſured you had never ſpoken it. Mr. Archibald [Douglas] is the ſpeaker of it, who I aſſure your lordſhip has been a poiſon in this matter, for they lean very mickle to his opinion.”

   “[…] I livd in a house by the Tower, which has not been repaird since Robert Consull of Gloucester repayrd the castle and wall; here I livd warm, but in my house on the hyll the ayre was mickle keen, […]”

   “[…] I am without fenzeitnes of hart and ſpreit; and of gude reſſoun, thocht [though] my meritis were mickle greiter than of the maiſt profit that ever was, […]”

   “That I wad wi' a' my heart; and mickle obliged to your honour for putting me in mind o' my bounden duty.”

2. (obsolete)Frequently, often.

noun

1. (Scotland, archaic, countable, uncountable)A great amount.

   “Many a little makes a mickle.”

   “Neurthelesse little or mickle, something or nothing, substaunce or shadow take all in good part, my meaning is by a fewe wordes to wynne credit to this works, not so much for mine owne Englishe Translation as for the singular commendation of them, challenged of dutie and desart.”

   “In a word, I muſt know what I may gaine, little or much: for the henne layes aſwell vpon one egge as many, and many littles make a mickle, and whilſt ſomething is gotten, nothing is loſt.”

   “Many of the great fortunes in this country have been built up of pence and halfpence—I might also say of farthings. The odd halfpenny and three-farthings that you see (if you look close) upon the ticketed article in the shop-window, forms one of the littles; and a profit of hundreds of pounds, or often thousands, at the end of the year, forms the mickle.”

2. (Scotland, archaic, countable, uncountable)A small amount.

   “While we boast of our farming, we must repeat again and again, the secret of our prosperity. It is a regular rotation of crops, making a little out of many articles, rather than attempting to make much of one; remembering the Scotch proverb, that "many a mickle makes a muckle"; […]”

3. (countable, obsolete, uncountable)Great or important people as a class.
4. (countable, obsolete, uncountable)Greatness, largeness, stature.

det

1. (Northern-England, Northumbria, Scotland, archaic, especially)Much; a great quantity or amount of.

   “There was mickle melody at that Childës [Jesus Christ's] birth, / All that were in heaven's bliss, they made mickle mirth.”

   “Full many wounds in his corrupted fleſh / He did engraue, and muchell blood did ſpend, / Yet might not doe him die, but aie more freſh / And fierce he ſtill appeard, the more he did them threſh.”

   “Hees forc't to trot with fardle at his backe, / From houſe to houſe, demaunding if they lacke / A poore yong man that's willing to take paine, / And mickle labour, though for little gaine.”

   “Becauſe they did not faithfully believe, and hope that he / Could alwaies help and ſuccor them in their neceſſitie. / Wherefore he did command the clouds, forthwith they brake in ſunder, / And rain'd down Manna for them to eat, a food of mickle wonder.”

2. (Northumbria, Scotland, archaic)Most; the majority of.

   “[H]e that tellt me saw wi' his ain ee'n, an' heard wi' his ain ears, the mickle part o' what I'm gaun to say—an' what he didna see or hear hissell, he learned frae those wha'd kent a' frae the beginnin'”

pron

1. (Scotland, archaic)A great extent or large amount.

   “Seek mickle, and get ſomething; ſeek little, and get nothing.”

name

1. A surname.