Mohock


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Mohock

(ˈməʊhɒk)
n
(Historical Terms) (in 18th-century London) one of a group of aristocratic ruffians, who attacked people in the streets at night
[C18: variant of Mohawk1]
Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

Mo•hock

(ˈmoʊ hɒk)

n.
one of a group of aristocratic ruffians who attacked people at night on the streets of London in the early 18th century.
[1705–15; variant of Mohawk]
Random House Kernerman Webster's College Dictionary, © 2010 K Dictionaries Ltd. Copyright 2005, 1997, 1991 by Random House, Inc. All rights reserved.
References in classic literature ?
The Bohuns had been Mohocks under Queen Anne and Mashers under Queen Victoria.
View in context
IN THE EARLY MONTHS OF 1712, rumours began to circulate in London that a club of wealthy rakes, who called themselves the Mohock Club in emulation of a tribe of violent `savages' in America, were roaming the streets of the capital at night, blackguarding, assaulting and beating innocent passers-by.
Monsters and Moral Panic in London
Deriving their name from the Mohawk people - a Native American tribe - the Mohocks were allegedly a gang of aristocratic ruffians who terrorised the streets of early 18th century London.
A to Z of gang; As Peaky Blinders returns, we take a look at history's hooligans; With BBC crime drama Peaky Blinders back for a fifth series, JULIAN HUMPHRYS of BBC History Revealed guides us through the dark alleys of Britain's criminal underworld
The media have also created fears of youth gangs; for example, the "Mohocks" of London around 1712 were a fiction promoted by the newspapers.
A History of Violence: From the End of the Middle Ages to the Present
Early modem London was in fact troubled by gangs of aristocratic young men, who adopted such names as Tityre-tus and Mohocks; the roarers of city comedy seem often to be their hapless imitators.
Language & literature
He does not represent any recognizable group of New World savages, some of whom like the Mohocks were brought over and paraded in London as an exhibit in the early years of the eighteenth century--hence the name of the unruly gang of rich young men, the "Mohocks" alluded to in one of Joseph Addison's Spectator papers.
Splenetic ogres and heroic cannibals in Jonathan Swift's A Modest Proposal (1729)
Indeed, the satirist Jonathan Swift reveals in his diaries for 1711 that gangs of young men known as Mohocks were terrorizing the streets of London.
Guns and gangs: a deadly duo: two new books have different takes on a worrisome Canadian trend