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mosey

/ˈmoʊ.zi/verb, adjective, noun

mosey is a verb meaning “To set off, get going; to start a journey” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled M-O-S-E-Y and has 2 syllables, and it appears about once in every 7 million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data).

What does mosey mean?

verb

  1. 1

    USTo set off, get going; to start a journey.

  2. 2

    USTo go off quickly: to hurry up.

  3. 3

    USTo amble; to walk or proceed in a leisurely manner.

adjective

  1. 1

    UKHairy, furry.

  2. 2

    Close, muggy; misty, hazy.

noun

  1. 1

    IrelandA fool, an idiot.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

How do you pronounce mosey?

  • US /ˈmoʊ.zi/

Mosey has 2 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-mosey.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Forms of mosey

  • moseys present, singular, he/she/it, plural
  • moseying participle, present
  • moseyed participle, past
  • mosy
  • mozey
  • mozy
  • more mosey comparative
  • most mosey superlative
  • mawsy
  • moosy
  • moozy

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

How common is mosey?

Mosey appears about once in every 7 million words in written English, the 76,798th most frequent word form in the list.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

Mosey in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Germanstarten, beginnen (to set off), losrennen (to go off quickly), schlendern (to amble)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

Where does mosey come from?

Unknown. Originally attested in Southern US dialects.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).