Massa


Also found in: Thesaurus, Medical, Acronyms, Encyclopedia, Wikipedia.

Massa

(Italian ˈmassa)
n
(Placename) a town in W Italy, in NW Tuscany. Pop: 66 769 (2001)
Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014
References in classic literature ?
In these excursions he was usually accompanied by an old negro, called Jupiter, who had been manumitted before the reverses of the family, but who could be induced, neither by threats nor by promises, to abandon what he considered his right of attendance upon the footsteps of his young "Massa Will." It is not improbable that the relatives of Legrand, conceiving him to be somewhat unsettled in intellect, had contrived to instil this obstinacy into Jupiter, with a view to the supervision and guardianship of the wanderer.
"Dey aint no tin in him, Massa Will, I keep a tellin on you," here interrupted Jupiter; "de bug is a goole bug, solid, ebery bit of him, inside and all, sep him wing - neber feel half so hebby a bug in my life."
"Why, to speak de troof, massa, him not so berry well as mought be."
- he aint find nowhar - dat's just whar de shoe pinch - my mind is got to be berry hebby bout poor Massa Will."
"Why, massa, taint worf while for to git mad about de matter - Massa Will say noffin at all aint de matter wid him - but den what make him go about looking dis here way, wid he head down and he soldiers up, and as white as a gose?
"No, massa, dey aint bin noffin unpleasant since den - 'twas fore den I'm feared - 'twas de berry day you was dare."
"Massa Tom done called fo' me, dat's what he done!" broke in the petulant voice of Eradicate.
massa Stubb say dat you can fill your dam bellies up to de hatchings, but by Gor!
No use goin' on; de dam willains will keep a scrougin' and slappin' each oder, Massa Stubb; dey don't hear one word; no use a-preachin' to such dam g'uttons as you call 'em, till dare bellies is full, and dare bellies is bottomless; and when dey do get em full, dey wont hear you den; for den dey sink in de sea, go fast to sleep on de coral, and can't hear not'ing at all, no more, for eber and eber.
massa Richard, maybe a ten rod,” cried the black, bending under one of the horses, with the pretence of fastening a buckle, but in reality to conceal the grin that opened a mouth from ear to ear.
yes, massa Richard,” said the black, a little confused; for, as Richard did all the flogging, he stood in great terror of his master, in the main—” Yes, sir, I b’lieve he be.”
Before coming to England he had caused to be whipped to death sundry 'Natives'--nomadic persons, encamping now in Asia, now in Africa, now in the West Indies, and now at the North Pole--vaguely supposed in Cloisterham to be always black, always of great virtue, always calling themselves Me, and everybody else Massa or Missie (according to sex), and always reading tracts of the obscurest meaning, in broken English, but always accurately understanding them in the purest mother tongue.