# What's a moochee **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 10, 2003, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-a-moochee/212400 "2003-11-10T15:02:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![naomi2003](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/439d5e/32.png) [@naomi2003](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/naomi2003)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2003, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-a-moochee/212400/1 "2003-11-10T15:02:11Z")
I am english and moochee is not a word I have heard before. What does it mean? ---
**Author:** ![Aankh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ebca7d/32.png) [@Aankh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aankh)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2003, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-a-moochee/212400/2 "2003-11-10T15:07:51Z")
I’m Indian (Asian) and around where I live, _moochee_ is what kids call a moustache. Does that fit the context? ---
**Author:** ![edwino](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/35a633/32.png) [@edwino](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/edwino)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2003, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-a-moochee/212400/3 "2003-11-10T15:43:08Z")
[Backup point guard](http://www.nba.com/playerfile/moochie_norris/index.html?nav=page) for the Houston Rockets? A moocher is one who lives off of friends. Maybe one of those friends he is living off of would be a moochee. ---
**Author:** ![Coffeeguy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/958977/32.png) [@Coffeeguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Coffeeguy)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2003, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-a-moochee/212400/4 "2003-11-10T16:00:37Z")
I think it may mean “cat” in Russian. But don’t cite me on it. —CoffeeGuy ---
**Author:** ![Coffeeguy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/958977/32.png) [@Coffeeguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Coffeeguy)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2003, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-a-moochee/212400/5 "2003-11-10T16:04:15Z")
Russian for “cat” seems to be “Motchka”. :smack: nevermind. —CoffeeGuy ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2003, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-a-moochee/212400/6 "2003-11-10T16:13:31Z")
**Naomi** , it might be helpful if you provide some context for your question. As you can see, it might be one of many things. It’s not a common American slang word that’s for sure. My first guess is that it might be someone who’s being mooched off of. “To mooch” is to routinely “bum” or “touch” one’s friends – ask for spare cigarettes, ask to have one’s costs covered for a night out (or even to expect it without asking), or even to stay at someone’s apartment, and graze from the fridge, and never pay the favours back. Someone who does this is a “moocher.” I suppose a writer or speaker might call the victim of such behaviour a “moochee,” although this isn’t a commonly used word. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2003, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-a-moochee/212400/7 "2003-11-10T17:37:21Z")
“Moochie” was also a character in several early Walt Disney TV serials. Clearly, we need a context here. ---
**Author:** ![toadspittle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c0e974/32.png) [@toadspittle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/toadspittle)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2003, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-a-moochee/212400/8 "2003-11-10T18:53:24Z")
Was it “mochi”? (a rice dessert) [http://www.humnet.ucla.edu/humnet/folklore/folk15/Cindy%20Wong/home.html](http://www.humnet.ucla.edu/humnet/folklore/folk15/Cindy%20Wong/home.html) Or “muchi”? (hot curry powder) [http://www.moscowfood.coop/archive/curry.html](http://www.moscowfood.coop/archive/curry.html) Or “Moochi”? (a N.Z. fashion firm) [http://www.thread.co.nz/article/391](http://www.thread.co.nz/article/391) or possibly it means “ignorant” or roly-poly (muchi-muchi): [http://home.swipnet.se/~w-66939/uy/uytv2.html](http://home.swipnet.se/~w-66939/uy/uytv2.html) ---
**Author:** ![Coffeeguy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/958977/32.png) [@Coffeeguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Coffeeguy)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2003, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-a-moochee/212400/9 "2003-11-10T21:26:42Z")
If you rearrange the letters, you can spell “echo Moe”. Doe the original context in any way refer to the bartender from the Simpsons? —CoffeeGuy ---
**Author:** ![Ike\_Witt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ike_witt/32/283_2.png) [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2003, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-a-moochee/212400/10 "2003-11-10T23:16:45Z")
The Moche were a pre-Incan civilization from the northern coastal region of Peru. They made some of the best ceramics anywhere. ---
**Author:** ![F.U.Shakespeare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/aca169/32.png) [@F.U.Shakespeare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/F.U.Shakespeare)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2003, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-a-moochee/212400/11 "2003-11-11T02:32:36Z")
**Coffeeguy** , you may be on to something – my ex-girlfriend was American-born Russian-Jewish, and she and her mother used the word (they spelled it ‘mooschie’) as a generic term for cat. She also named her cat Mooschie, and sometimes used ‘moosch’ as a verb for ‘pet a cat’. ---
**Author:** ![AskNott](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asknott/32/5790_2.png) [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2003, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-a-moochee/212400/12 "2003-11-11T03:53:59Z")
A couple of years ago, some of the guys I was eating lunch/drinking with convinced our two favorite waitresses it was “no panties Wednesday.” The gals went along with it, and after trips to the ladies’ room, they said they weren’t wearing any. After a while, Kim put hers back on. She explained the panties “keep my moochie from munching.” She was wearing snug jeans, and apparently, the undies kept the jeans from working into her Wonderful Place. Maybe Russian slang and English slang both use “moochie” to mean “cat/pussy.” ---
**Author:** ![toadspittle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c0e974/32.png) [@toadspittle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/toadspittle)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2003, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-a-moochee/212400/13 "2003-11-13T19:44:49Z")
naomi2003–no clarification on the context of this? ---
**Author:** ![Harriet\_the\_Spry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e56c9b/32.png) [@Harriet\_the\_Spry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harriet_the_Spry)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2003, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-a-moochee/212400/14 "2003-11-13T21:46:25Z")
Is this a flash of brilliance or what? In any incident of mooching, you have a moocher and a moochee. “Moochee” isn’t a real word, but the construction is borrowed from lessor and lessee (leasing) and similar word pairs. As in, when the moocher comes around begging, the moochee should stand up for himself. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2003, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-a-moochee/212400/15 "2003-11-14T14:36:37Z")
Sorry, but I beat you to it, Harriet (see above).