also MA-LE-GRUBBLES, MOULDY-GRUBS, MULLEYGRUBS,
MULLIEGRUMS, MULLIGRUMPHS (Sc.), MULLYGRUBS
ETYMOLOGY
alteration (probably influenced by grub) of earlier mulliegrums, perhaps alteration (perhaps influenced by obsolete English mully (dusty, mouldy), from English mull + -y) of megrims (low spirits)
EXAMPLE (for n. 1.)
“… Hee was as good as his word, and had no sooner spoke the worde, but he did as he spoke. with a heauy heart to the pallace the yeoman of the mouth departed, and rehearsed this second il successe, wherwith Peters successour was so in his mulliegrums that he had thought to haue buffeted him, & cursed him with bell, book, & cndle ; but he ruled his reaso[n], & bad him, thgh it cost a million, to let him haue that third that rested behind, and hie him expeditely thither, lest some other snatched it vp, and as fast from thence againe, for hee swore by his triple crowne, no crumme of refection woulde he gnaw vpon, till he had sweetened his lippes with it. …”
From: Lenten Stuffe
By Thomas Nashe, 1599
“The Praise of the Red Herring”
Lexicophilia 