Mood

_mood_

Noun.

Pronunciation: muːd.

Plural: moods.

Etymology: from Anglo-Saxon mod (= mind).

1. Mind, thought; --it is now obsolete.

2. a. A state of mind, with respect either to attitude or feeling.

Synonyms: temper, humor.

Translation: humeur, in French; humor, in Spanish; umore, in Italian.

Half an hour later he was riding homeward in a mood quite novel to his experience. He pushed his horse to a keen trot, as if by fierceness of motion to keep pace with the fiery influence that was kindling all his nerves.

Francis Parkman… Vassall Morton

One day he paced his cell in a mood of more than usual depression.

Francis Parkman… Vassall Morton

And leaving the hotel, he walked up the crowded sidewalk of Broadway, in a mood any thing but tranquil.

 Francis Parkman… Vassall Morton

Morton walked the street, on the next day, in a mood less grave than had lately been his wont, but in one of any thing but self-approval.

Francis Parkman… Vassall Morton

But the music changed, and her mood changed with it.

B. M. Bower… Jean of the Lazy A

Gray came into the kitchen after a while to warm himself over the stove. He was still a little bit unsteady on his feet, and his head felt queer; but he assumed a certain gayety and insisted upon bearing an awkward hand with the cooking and the dishes. He had never seen Allie as she was now, nor in a mood to compare with this, and for the first time he realized how fully she had developed.

Rex Beach… Flowing Gold

Being in an artistic mood, he was greatly attracted by these old-fashioned structures and felt quite an unreasoning desire to enter them.

Anna Green… A matter of millions

Marsha was in a talkative mood.

Bryan Smillie… A Time for Evron

He procured from Paris no less than nine large-paper copies of the first edition, and had them bound in different colours, so that they might suit his various moods.

Oscar Wilde… The Picture of Dorian Gray

Her alternate moods of melancholy and of mirth. 

Edgar  Poe

b. A state of mind suitable for doing something; --found in the phrases “in a mood for” and “in a mood to”, “in no mood to”, where the word “suitable” is understood as omitted.

She sat on the ledge of the stove, resting her feet on the lower ledge, bending towards her audience with the light of a little tin lamp thrown upon her. Always when she was in a mood for story-telling she took up this position.

Maxim Gorky… My childhood

We slept in our tents pretty soundly, and when the dragoman roused us at six o'clock, we were not in a mood for getting up. We rose however, and took our breakfast without delay.

Thomas Knox… The oriental world

I was in no mood to laugh and talk with strangers.

Mary Shelley… Frankenstein

He was in a mood for talk.

Arthur Doyle… Sir Nigel

Straight he went there, and when he came within the gate he paused, considering whether he should ask at the lodge for some direction to the grave.  But he was less than ever in a mood for asking questions, and he thought, “I shall see something on it to know it by.”

Charles Dickens… Somebody's Luggage

Mr. Thornton was annoyed more than he ought to have been at all that Mr. Bell was saying. He was not in a mood for joking.

Elizabeth Gaskell… North and South

c. In plural: morose state of mind.

Words derived from mood: moody, moodily, moodiness.