Mouse n.; pl. Mice
 1. Zool. Any one of numerous species of small rodents belonging to the genus Mus and various related genera of the family Muridae.  The common house mouse (Mus musculus) is found in nearly all countries.  The American white-footed mouse, or deer mouse (Peromyscus leucopus, formerly Hesperomys leucopus) sometimes lives in houses.  See Dormouse, Meadow mouse, under Meadow, and Harvest mouse, under Harvest.
 2. Naut. (a) A knob made on a rope with spun yarn or parceling to prevent a running eye from slipping. (b) Same as 2d Mousing, 2.
 3. A familiar term of endearment.
 4. A dark-colored swelling caused by a blow. [Slang]
 5. A match used in firing guns or blasting.
 Field mouse, Flying mouse, etc. See under Field, Flying, etc.
 Mouse bird Zool., a coly.
 Mouse deer Zool., a chevrotain, as the kanchil.
 Mouse galago Zool., a very small West American galago (Galago murinus). In color and size it resembles a mouse. It has a bushy tail like that of a squirrel.
 Mouse hawk. Zool. (a) A hawk that devours mice. (b) The hawk owl; -- called also mouse owl.
 Mouse lemur Zool., any one of several species of very small lemurs of the genus Chirogaleus, found in Madagascar.
 Mouse piece Cookery, the piece of beef cut from the part next below the round or from the lower part of the latter; -- called also mouse buttock.


 Har·vest n.
 1. The gathering of a crop of any kind; the ingathering of the crops; also, the season of gathering grain and fruits, late summer or early autumn.
    Seedtime and harvest . . . shall not cease.   --Gen. viii. 22.
    At harvest, when corn is ripe.   --Tyndale.
 2. That which is reaped or ready to be reaped or gathered; a crop, as of grain (wheat, maize, etc.), or fruit.
    Put ye in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe.   --Joel iii. 13.
 To glean the broken ears after the man
 That the main harvest reaps.   --Shak.
 3. The product or result of any exertion or labor; gain; reward.
    The pope's principal harvest was in the jubilee.   --Fuller.
    The harvest of a quiet eye.   --Wordsworth.
 Harvest fish Zool., a marine fish of the Southern United States (Stromateus alepidotus); -- called whiting in Virginia. Also applied to the dollar fish.
 Harvest fly Zool., an hemipterous insect of the genus Cicada, often called locust. See Cicada.
 Harvest lord, the head reaper at a harvest. [Obs.] --Tusser.
 Harvest mite Zool., a minute European mite (Leptus autumnalis), of a bright crimson color, which is troublesome by penetrating the skin of man and domestic animals; -- called also harvest louse, and harvest bug.
 Harvest moon, the moon near the full at the time of harvest in England, or about the autumnal equinox, when, by reason of the small angle that is made by the moon's orbit with the horizon, it rises nearly at the same hour for several days.
 Harvest mouse Zool., a very small European field mouse (Mus minutus). It builds a globular nest on the stems of wheat and other plants.
 Harvest queen, an image representing Ceres, formerly carried about on the last day of harvest. --Milton.
 Harvest spider. Zool. See Daddy longlegs.


 harvest mouse
      n 1: any of several small grayish New World mice inhabiting e.g.
           grain fields [syn: American harvest mouse]
      2: small reddish-brown Eurasian mouse inhabiting e.g.
         cornfields [syn: Micromyx minutus]