ME'ACOCK, noun An uxorious, effeminate man. [Not used.]

ME'ACOCK, adjective Lame; timorous; cowardly. [Not used.]

MEAD, noun [Latin madeo, to be wet.] A fermented liquor consisting of honey and water, sometimes enriched with spices.

MEADOW, noun med'o. A tract of low land. In America, the word is applied particularly to the low ground on the banks of rivers, consisting of a rich mold or an alluvial soil, whether grass land, pasture, tillage or wood land; as the meadows on the banks of the Connecticut. The word with us does not necessarily imply wet land. This species of land is called, in the western states, bottoms, or bottom land. The word is also used for other low or flat lands, particularly lands appropriated to the culture of grass.

The word is said to be applied in Great Britain to land somewhat watery, but covered with grass.

MEADOW means pasture or grass land, annually mown for hay; but more particularly, land too moist for cattle to graze on in winter, without spoiling the sward.

[Mead is used chiefly in poetry.]

MEAD'OWY, adjective Containing meadow.

ME'AGER, adjective [Latin macer; Gr. small; allied to Eng. meek.]

1. Thin; lean; destitute of flesh or having little flesh; applied to animals.

Meager were his looks,

Sharp misery had worn him to the bones.

2. Poor; barren; destitute of richness, fertility, or any thing valuable; as a meager soil; meager limestone.

3. Barren; poor; wanting strength of diction, or richness of ideas or imagery; as a meager style or composition; meager annals.

ME'AGER, verb transitive To make lean. [Not used.]

ME'AGERLY, adverb Poorly; thinly.

ME'AGERNESS, noun Leanness; want of flesh.

1. Poorness; barrenness; want of fertility or richness.

2. Scantiness; barrenness; as the meagerness of service.

MEAK, noun A hook with a long handle.

MEAL, noun

1. A portion of food taken at one time; a repast. It is customary in the U. States to eat three meals in a day. The principal meal of our ancestors was dinner, at noon.

2. A part; a fragment; in the word piece-meal.

MEAL, noun [Latin mola, mollis; Eng.mellow.]

1. The substance of edible grain ground to fine particles, and not bolted or sifted. meal primarily includes the bran as well as the flour. Since bolting has been generally practiced, the word meal is not generally applied to the finer part, or flour, at least in the United States, though I believe it is sometimes so used. In New England, meal is now usually applied to ground maiz, whether bolted or unbolted, called Indian meal or corn-meal. The words wheat-meal, and rye-meal are rarely used, though not wholly extinct; and meal occurs also in oatmeal.

2. Flour; the finer part of pulverized grain.

[This sense is now uncommon.]

MEAL, verb transitive To sprinkle with meal or to mix meal with. [Little used.]

ME'ALINESS, noun The quality of being mealy; softness or smoothness to the touch.

ME'ALY, adjective Having the qualities of meal; soft; smooth to the feel.

1. Like meal; farinaceous; soft, dry and friable; as a mealy potato; a mealy apple.

2. Overspread with something that resembles meal; as the mealy wings of an insect.

MEAN, adjective [Latin communis, vulgus, minor and minuo.]

1. Wanting dignity; low in rank or birth; as a man of mean parentage, mean birth or origin.

2. Wanting dignity of mind; low minded; base; destitute of honor; spiritless.

Can you imagine I so mean could prove,

To save my life by changing of my love?

3. Contemptible; despicable.

The Roman legions and great Caesar found

Our fathers no mean foes.

4. Of little value; low in worth or estimation; worthy of little or no regard.

We fast, not to please men, nor to promote any mean worldly interest.

5. Of little value; humble; poor; as a mean abode; a mean dress.

MEAN, adjective [Latin medium, medius.]

1. Middle; at an equal distance from the extremes; as the means distance; the mean proportion between quantities; the mean ratio.

According to the fittest style of lofty, mean or lowly.

2. Intervening; intermediate; coming between; as in the mean time or while.

MEAN, noun The middle point or place; the middle rate or degree; mediocrity; medium. Observe the golden mean

There is a mean in all things.

But no authority of gods or men

Allow of any mean in poesy.

1. Intervening time; interval of time; interim; meantime.

And in the mean vouchsafe her honorable tomb.

Here is an omission of time or while.

2. Measure; regulation. [Not in use.]

3. Instrument; that which is used to effect an object; the medium through which something is done.

The virtuous conversation of christians was a mean to work the conversion of the heathen to Christ.

In this sense, means, in the plural, is generally used, and often with a definitive and verb in the singular.

By this means he had them more at vantage.

A good character, when established, should not be rested on as an end, but employed as a means of doing good.

4. Means, in the plural, income, revenue, resources, substance or estate, considered as the instrument of effecting any purpose. He would have built a house, but he wanted means.

Your means are slender.

5. Instrument of action or performance.

By all means, without fail. Go, by all means.

By no means, not at all; certainly not; not in any degree.

The wine on this side of the lake is by no means so good as that on the other.

By no manner of means, by no means; not the least.

By any means, possibly; at all.

If by any means I might attain to the resurrection of the dead. Philippians 3:11.

MEANtime

MEANwhile, in the intervening time. [In this use of these words there is an omission of in or in the; in the meantime.]

MEAN, verb transitive preterit tense and participle passive meant; pronounced ment. [Latin mens; Eng.mind; Latin intendo, propono.]

1. To have in the mind, view or contemplation; to intend.

What mean you by this service? Exodus 12:26.

2. To intend; to purpose; to design, with reference to a future act.

Ye thought evil against me, but God meant it for good. Genesis 1:1.

3. To signify; to indicate.

What mean these seven ewe lambs? Genesis 21:29.

What meaneth the noise of this great shout in the camp of the Hebrews? 1 Samuel 4:6.

Go ye, and learn what that meaneth-- Matthew 9:13.

MEAN, verb intransitive To have thought or ideas; or to have meaning.

MEAN'DER, noun [the name of a winding river in Phrygia.]

1. A winding course; a winding or turning in a passage; as the meanders of the veins and arteries.

While lingering rivers in meanders glide.

2. A maze; a labyrinth; perplexity; as the meanders of the law.

MEAN'DER, verb transitive To wind, turn or flow round; to make flexuous.

MEAN'DER, verb intransitive To wind or turn in a course or passage; to be intricate.

MEAN'DERING, participle present tense or adjective Winding in a course, passage or current.

MEAN'DRIAN, adjective Winding; having many turns.

ME'ANING, participle present tense Having in mind; intending; signifying.

ME'ANING, noun That which exists in the mind, view or contemplation as a settled aim or purpose, though not directly expressed. We say, this or that is not his meaning

1. Intention; purpose; aim; with reference to a future act.

I am no honest man, if there by any good meaning towards you.

2. Signification. What is the meaning of all this parade? The meaning of a hieroglyphic is not always obvious.

3. The sense of words or expressions; that which is to be understood; signification; that which the writer or speaker intends to express or communicate. Words have a literal meaning or a metaphorical meaning and it is not always easy to ascertain the real meaning

4. Sense; power of thinking. [Little used.]

ME'ANLY, adverb [See Mean.] Moderately; not in a great degree.

In the reign of Domitian, poetry was meanly cultivated. [Not used.]

1. Without dignity or rank; in a low condition; as meanly born.

2. Poorly; as meanly dressed.

3. Without greatness or elevation of mind; without honor; with a low mind or narrow views. He meanly declines to fulfill his promise.

Would you meanly thus rely

On power, you know, I must obey?

4. Without respect; disrespectfully. We cannot bear to hear others speak meanly of our kindred.

ME'ANNESS, noun Want of dignity or rank; low state; as meanness of birth or condition. Poverty is not always meanness; it may be connected with it, but men of dignified minds and manners are often poor.

1. Want of excellence of any kind; poorness; rudeness.

This figure is of a later date, by the meanness of the workmanship.

2. Lowness of mind; want of dignity and elevation; want of honor. meanness in men incurs contempt. All dishonesty is meanness

3. Sordidness; niggardliness; opposed to liberality or charitableness. meanness is very different from frugality.

4. Want of richness; poorness; as the meanness of dress or equipage.

MEANT, preterit tense and participle passive of mean.

MEAR. [See Mere.]

MEASLE, noun mee'zl. A leper. [Not in use.]

MEASLED, adjective mee'zled. [See Measles.]

Infected or spotted with measles.

MEASLES, noun mee'zles; with a plural termination.

1. A contagious disease of the human body, usually characterized by an eruption of small red points or spots, from which it has its name.

2. A disease of swine.

3. A disease of trees.

MEASLY, adjective mee'zly. Infected with measles or eruptions.

MEASURABLE, adjective mezh'urable. [See Measure.]

1. That may be measured; susceptible of mensuration or computation.

2. Moderate; in small quantity or extent.

MEASURABLENESS, noun mezh'urableness.

The quality of admitting mensuration.

MEASURABLY, adverb mezh'urably. Moderately; in a limited degree.

MEASURE, noun mezh'ur. [Latin mensura, from mensus, with a casual n, the participle of metior, to measure; Eng. to mete.]

1. The whole extent or dimensions of a thing, including length, breadth and thickness.

The measure thereof is longer than the earth and broader than the sea. Job 11:9.

It is applied also to length or to breadth separately.

2. That by which extent or dimension is ascertained, either length, breadth, thickness, capacity, or amount; as, a rod or pole is a measure of five yards and a half; an inch, a foot, a yard, are measures of length; a gallon is a measure of capacity. Weights and measures should be uniform. Silver and gold are the common measure of value.

3. A limited or definite quantity; as a measure of wine or beer.

4. Determined extent or length; limit.

Lord, make me to know my end, and the measure of my days. Psalms 39:4.

5. A rule by which any thing is adjusted or proportioned.

God's goodness is the measure of his providence.

6. Proportion; quantity settled.

I enter not into the particulars of the law of nature, or its measures of punishment; yet there is such a law.

7. Full or sufficient quantity.

I'll never pause again,

Till either death hath clos'd these eyes of mine,

Or fortune given me measure of revenge.

8. Extent of power or office.

We will not boast of things without our measure

2 Corinthians 10:13.

9. Portion allotted; extent of ability.

If else thou seekest

Aught not surpassing human measure say.

10. Degree; quantity indefinite.

I have laid down, in some measure the description of the old world.

A great measure of discretion is to be used in the performance of confession.

11. In music, that division by which the motion of music is regulated; or the interval or space of time between the rising and falling of the hand or foot of him who beats time. This measure regulates the time of dwelling on each note. The ordinary or common measure is one second.

12. In poetry, the measure or meter is the manner of ordering and combining the quantities, or the long and short syllables. Thus, hexameter, pentameter, Iambic, Sapphic verses, etc. consist of different measure

13. In dancing, the interval between steps, corresponding to the interval between notes in the music.

My legs can keep no measure in delight.

14. In geometry, any quantity assumed as one or unity, to which the ratio of other homogeneous or similar quantities is expressed.

15. Means to an end; an act, step or proceeding towards the accomplishment of an object; an extensive signification of the word, applicable to almost every act preparatory to a final end, and by which it is to be attained. Thus we speak of legislative measures, political measures, public measures, prudent measures, a rash measure effectual measures, inefficient measures.

In measure with moderation; with excess.

Without measure without limits; very largely or copiously.

To have hard measure to be harshly or oppressively treated.

Lineal or long measure measure of length; the measure of lines or distances.

Liquid measure the measure of liquors.

MEASURE, verb transitive mezh'ur. To compute or ascertain extent, quantity, dimensions or capacity by a certain rule; as, to measure land; to measure distance; to measure the altitude of a mountain; to measure the capacity of a ship or of a cask.

1. To ascertain the degree of any thing; as, to measure the degrees of heat, or of moisture.

2. To pass through or over.

We must measure twenty miles to day.

The vessel plows the sea,

And measures back with speed her former way.

3. To judge of distance, extent or quantity; as, to measure any thing by the eye.

Great are thy works, Jehovah, infinite

Thy power; what thought can measure thee?

4. To adjust; to proportion.

To secure a contended spirit, measure your desires by your fortunes, not your fortunes by your desires.

5. To allot or distribute by measure

With what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again. Matthew 7:2.

MEASURED, participle passive mezh'ured. Computed or ascertained by a rule; adjusted; proportioned; passed over.

1. adjective Equal; uniform; steady. He walked with measured steps.

MEASURELESS, adjective mezh'urless. Without measure; unlimited; immeasurable.

MEASUREMENT, noun mezh'urment. The act of measuring; mensuration.

MEASURER, noun mezh'urer. One who measures; one whose occupation or duty is to measure commodities in market.

MEASURING, participle present tense mezh'uring. Computing or ascertaining length, dimensions, capacity or amount.

1. adjective A measuring cast, a throw or cast that requires to be measured, or not to be distinguished from another but by measuring

ME'ATED, adjective Fed; fattened. [Not used.]

ME'ATY, adjective Fleshy, but not fat. [Local.]

ME'AZLING, participle present tense Falling in small drops; properly mizzling, or rather mistling, from mist.

MEDAL'LIC, adjective Pertaining to a medal or to medals.

MEDAL'LION, noun A large antique stamp or medal.

1. The representation of a medallion

ME'DIAL, adjective [Latin medius, middle.] Mean; noting a mean or average.

Medial alligation, is a method of finding the mean rate or value of a mixture consisting of two or more ingredients of different quantities and values. In this case, the quantity and value of each ingredient are given.

ME'DIANT, noun In music, an appellation given to the third above the key-note, because it divides the interval between the tonic and dominant into thirds.

ME'DIATE, adjective [Latin medius, middle.] Middle; being between the two extremes.

Anxious we hover in a mediate state.

1. Interposed; intervening; being between two objects.

Soon the mediate clouds shall be dispelled.

2. Acting by means, or by an intervening cause or instrument. Thus we speak of mediate and immediate cause of its motion; the oar with which a man rows a boat is the immediate cause of its motion; but the rower is the mediate cause, acting by means of the oar.

ME'DIATE, verb intransitive To interpose between parties, as the equal friend of each; to act indifferently between contending parties, with a view to reconciliation; to intercede. The prince that mediates between nations and prevents a war, is the benefactor of both parties.

1. To be between two. [Little used.]

ME'DIATE, verb transitive To effect by mediation or interposition between parties; as, to mediate a peace.

1. To limit by something in the middle. [Not used.]

ME'DIATELY, adverb By means or by a secondary cause, acting between the first cause and the effect.

God worketh all things amongst us mediately by secondary means.

The king grants a manor to A, and A grants a portion of it to B. In this case, B holds his lands immediately of A, but mediately of the king.

MEDIA'TION, noun [Latin medius, middle.]

1. Interposition; intervention; agency between parties at variance, with a view to reconcile them. The contentions of individuals and families are often terminated by the mediation of friends. The controversies of nations are sometimes adjusted by mediation The reconciliation of sinners to God by the mediation of Christ, is a glorious display of divine benevolence.

2. Agency interposed; intervenient power.

The soul, during its residence in the body, does all things by the mediation of the passions.

3. Intercession; entreaty for another.

MEDIA'TOR, noun One that interposes between parties at variance for the purpose of reconciling them.

1. By way of eminence, Christ is the mediator the divine intercessor through whom sinners may be reconciled to an offended God. Tim.2.

Christ is a mediator by nature, as partaking of both natures divine and human; and mediator by office, as transacting matters between God and man.

MEDIATO'RIAL, adjective Belonging to a mediator; as mediatorial office or character. [Mediatory is not used.]

MEDIA'TORSHIP, noun The office of a mediator.

MEDIA'TRESS

MEDIA'TRIX, noun A female mediator.

MEDICAMENT'AL, adjective Relating to healing applications; having the qualities of medicaments.

MEDICAMENT'ALLY, adverb After the manner of healing applications.

MEDICA'TION, noun The act or process of impregnating with medicinal substances; the infusion of medicinal virtues.

1. The use of medicine.

MEDIC'INABLE, adjective Having the properties of medicine; medicinal. [The latter is the word now used.]

MEDIC'INAL, . [Latin medicinalis.] Having the property of healing or of mitigating disease; adapted to the cure or alleviation of bodily disorders; as medicinal plants, medicinal virtues of minerals; medicinal springs. The waters of Saratoga and Ballston are remarkably medicinal

1. Pertaining to medicine; as medicinal days or hours.

MEDIC'INALLY, adverb In the manner of medicine; with medicinal qualities.

1. With a view to healing; as, to use a mineral medicinally

MED'ICINE, noun [Latin medicina, from medeor, to cure; vulgarly and improperly pronounced med'sn.]

1. Any substance, liquid or solid, that has the property of curing or mitigating disease in animals, or that is used for that purpose. Simples, plants and minerals furnish most of our medicines. Even poisons used with judgment and in moderation, are safe and efficacious medicines. Medicines are internal or external, simple or compound.

2. The art of preventing, curing or alleviating the diseases of the human body. Hence we say, the study of medicine or a student of medicine

3. In the French sense, a physician. [Not in use.]

MED'ICINE, verb transitive To affect or operate on as medicine [Not used.]

MEDI'ETY, noun [Latin medietas; from Latin medius, middle.]

The middle state or part; half; moiety. [Little used.]

ME'DIN, noun A small coin.

MEDIO'CRAL, adjective [Latin mediocris.] Being of a middle quality; indifferent; ordinary; as mediocral intellect. [Rare.]

ME'DIOCRIST, noun A person of middling abilities. [Not used.]

MEDIOC'RITY, noun [Latin mediocritas, from mediocris, middling; medius, middle.]

1. A middle state or degree; a moderate degree or rate. A mediocrity of condition is most favorable to morals and happiness. A mediocrity of talents well employed will generally ensure respectability.

Men of age seldom drive business home to the full period, but content themselves with a mediocrity of success.

2. Moderation; temperance.

We owe obedience to the law of reason, which teacheth mediocrity in meats and drinks.

MED'ITATE, verb intransitive [Latin meditor.]

1. To dwell on any thing in thought; to contemplate; to study; to turn or revolve any subject in the mind; appropriately but not exclusively used of pious contemplation, or a consideration of the great truths of religion.

His delight is in the law of the Lord, and in his law doth he meditate day and night. Psalms 1:2.

2. To intend; to have in contemplation.

I meditate to pass the remainder of life in a state of undisturbed repose.

MED'ITATE, verb transitive To plan by revolving in the mind; to contrive; to intend.

Some affirmed that I meditated a war.

1. To think on; to revolve in the mind.

Blessed is the man that doth meditate good things.

MED'ITATED, participle passive Planned; contrived.

MED'ITATING, participle present tense Revolving in the mind; contemplating; contriving.

MEDITA'TION, noun [Latin meditatio.] Close or continued thought; the turning or revolving of a subject in the mind; serious contemplation.

Let the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my strength and my Redeemer. Psalms 19:14.

MED'ITATIVE, adjective Addicted to meditation.

1. Expressing meditation or design.

MEDITERRA'NE

MEDITERRA'NEAN

MEDITERRA'NEOUS, adjective [Latin medius, middle, and terra, land.]

1. Inclosed or nearly inclosed with land; as the Mediterranean sea, between Europe and Africa. [Mediterrane is not used.]

2. Inland; remote from the ocean or sea; as mediterraneous mountains.

MEDITERRA'NEAN

MEDITERRA'NEOUS, a. [L.medius, middle, and terra, land.]

ME'DIUM, noun plural mediums; media not being generally, though sometimes used. [Latin] In philosophy, the space or substance through which a body moves or passes to any point. Thus either is supposed to be the medium through which the planets move; air is the medium through which bodies move near the earth; water the medium in which fishes live and move; glass a medium through which light passes; and we speak of a resisting medium a refracting medium etc.

1. In logic, the mean or middle term of a syllogism, or the middle term in an argument, being the reason why a thing is affirmed or denied.

Nothing can be honorable that violates moral principle.

Dueling violates moral principle.

Therefore dueling is not honorable.

Here the second term is the medium mean, or middle term.

2. Arithmetical medium that which is equally distant from each extreme, or which exceeds the lesser extreme as much as it is exceeded by the greater, in respect of quantity, not of proportion. Thus, 9 is a medium between 6 and 12.

3. Geometrical medium is that wherein the same ratio is preserved between the first and second terms, as between the second and third. Thus, 6 is a geometrical medium between 4 and 9.

In the three last senses or applications, mean is more generally used for medium

4. The means or instrument by which any thing is accomplished, conveyed or carried on. Thus money is the medium of commerce; coin is the common medium of trade among all civilized nations, but wampum is the medium of trade among the Indian tribes, and bills of credit or bank notes are often used as mediums of trade in the place of gold and silver. Intelligence is communicated through the medium of the press.

5. The middle place or degree; the mean.

The just medium of this case lies between pride and abjection.

6. A kind of printing paper of middle size.

MED'LAR, noun [Latin mespilus.] A tree and a genus of trees, called Mespilus; also, the fruit of the tree. The German or common medlar is cultivated in gardens for its fruit.

MED'LE, v.t. To mix; not used, but hence,

MED'LEY, noun A mixture; a mingled and confused mass of ingredients; used often or commonly with some degree of contempt.

This medley of philosophy and war.

Love is a medley of endearments, jars, suspicions, reconcilements, wars--then peace again.

MED'LEY, adjective Mingled; confused. [Little used.]

MEDUL'LAR

MED'ULLARY, adjective [Latin medullaris, from medulla, marrow.]

Pertaining to marrow; consisting of marrow; resembling marrow; as medullary substance.

MED'ULLARY, a. [L. medullaris, from medulla, marrow.]

Pertaining to marrow; consisting of marrow; resembling marrow; as medullary substance.

MEDUL'LIN, noun [Latin medulla.] The pith of the sunflower, which has neither taste nor smell. It is insoluble in water, ether, alcohol and oils, but soluble in nitric acid, and instead of yielding suberic acid, it yields the oxalic.

MEE'KEN, verb transitive mee'kn. To make meek; to soften; to render mild.

MEE'KLY, adverb Mildly; gently; submissively; humbly; not proudly or roughly.

And this mis-seeming discord meekly lay aside.

ME'GRIM, noun [ Latin hemicrania, half the head.] Properly, a pain in the side of the head; hence, a disorder of the head; vertigo.

MELANAGE, noun melanj'. A mixture. [Not English.]

MELANAGOGUE, noun melan'agog. [Gr. black, and to drive.]

A medicine supposed to expel black bile or choler.

MELANCHO'LIOUS, adjective Gloomy. [Not in use.]

MELANIT'IC, adjective Pertaining to melanite.

MEL'ASSES, noun sing. [Gr. black, or honey.] The sirup which drains from Muscovado sugar when cooling; treacle.

ME'LIORATE, verb transitive [Latin melior, better.] To make better; to improve; as, to meliorate fruit by grafting, or soil by cultivation. Civilization has done much, but christianity more, to meliorate the condition of men in society.

Nature by art we nobly meliorate

ME'LIORATE, verb intransitive To grow better.

ME'LIORATED, participle passive Made better; improved.

ME'LIORATING, participle present tense Improving; advancing in good qualities.

The pure and benign light of revelation has had a meliorating influence on mankind.

MELIORA'TION, noun The act or operation of making better; improvement.

MELIOR'ITY, noun The state of being better. [Not in use.]

MELL, verb intransitive To mix; to meddle. [Not in use.]

MELL, noun [Latin mel.] Honey. [Not English.]

MELLIF'EROUS, adjective [Latin mel, honey, and fero, to produce.]

Producing honey.

MELLIFICA'TION, noun [Latin mellifico.] The making or production of honey.

MELLIF'LUENCE, noun [Latin mel, honey, and fluo, to flow.]

A flow of sweetness, or a sweet smooth flow.

MELLIF'LUENT

MELLIF'LUOUS, adjective Flowing with honey; smooth; sweetly flowing; as a mellifluous voice.

MELLIF'LUOUS, a. Flowing with honey; smooth; sweetly flowing; as a mellifluous voice.

MELLIT'IC, adjective Pertaining to honey stone.

MEL'LOWY, adjective Soft, unctuous.

MELOCOTO'NE, noun [Latin malum cotoneum, quince-apple. Cotomeum is probably our cotton, and the fruit so named from its pubescence.]

A quince. But the name is sometimes given to a large kind of peach.

MELO'DIOUS, adjective [See Melody.] Containing melody; musical; agreeable to the ear by a sweet succession of sounds; as a melodious voice; melodious strains.

And music more melodious than the spheres.

MELO'DIOUSLY, adverb In a melodious manner; musically.

MELO'DIOUSNESS, noun The quality of being agreeable to the ear by a sweet succession of sounds; musicalness.

MEL'ODIZE, verb transitive To make melodious.

MEL'ODRAME, noun [Gr. a song, and drama.] A dramatic performance in which songs are intermixed.

MEL'ODY, noun [Gr. a limb, or a song, an ode; Latin melos.]

An agreeable succession of sounds; a succession of sounds so regulated and modulated as to please the ear. To constitute melody the sounds must be arranged according to the laws of rhythms, measure, or the due proportion of the movements to each other. melody differs from harmony, as it consists in the agreeable succession and modulation of sounds by a single voice; whereas harmony consists in the accordance of different voices or sounds. melody is vocal or instrumental.

To make melody in the heart, to praise God with a joyful and thankful disposition, ascribing to him the honor due to his name. Ephesians 5:19.

MEL'ON, noun [Latin melo; Gr. an apple; Latin mollis.] The name of certain plants and their fruit, as the water-melon, the musk-melon.

MEL'ROSE, noun [mel and rose.] Honey of roses.

MELT, verb transitive [Eng.smelt, smalt. We have in these words decisive evidence that s, in smelten, etc. is a prefix. melt in English, is regular, forming melted for its past tense and passive participle. The old participle molten, is used only as an adjective.]

1. To dissolve; to make liquid; to liquefy; to reduce from a solid to a liquid or flowing state by heat; as, to melt wax, tallow or lead; to melt ice or snow.

2. To dissolve; to reduce to first principles.

3. To soften to love or tenderness.

For pity melts the mind to love.

4. To waste away; to dissipate.

In general riot melted down thy youth.

5. To dishearten. Joshua 14:8.

MELT, verb intransitive To become liquid; to dissolve; to be changed from a fixed or solid to a flowing state.

And whiter snow in minutes melts away.

1. To be softened to love, pity, tenderness or sympathy; to become tender, mild or gentle.

MELTing with tenderness and mild compassion.

2. To be dissolved; to lose substance.

--And what seem'd corporal,

MELTed as breath into the wind.

3. To be subdued by affliction; to sink into weakness.

My soul melteth for heaviness--strengthen thou me. Psalms 119:28.

4. To faint; to be discouraged or disheartened.

As soon as we heard these things, our heart melted. Joshua 2:11.

MELT'ED, participle passive Dissolved; made liquid; softened; discouraged.

MELT'ER, noun One that melts any thing.

MELT'ING, participle present tense Dissolving; liquefying; softening; discouraging.

1. adjective Tending to soften; softening into tenderness; as melting eloquence.

MELT'ING, noun The act of softening; the act of rendering tender.

MELT'INGLY, adverb In a manner to melt of soften.

1. Like something melting.

MELT'INGNESS, noun The power of melting or softening.

MEL'WEL, noun A fish.

MEM'BER, noun [Latin membrum.]

1. A limb of animal bodies, as a leg, an arm, an ear, a finger, that is, a subordinate part of the main body.

2. A part of a discourse, or of a period or sentence; a clause; a part of a verse. Harmony in poetry is produced by a proportion between the members of the same verse, or between the members of different verses.

3. In architecture, a subordinate part of a building, as a frieze or cornice; sometimes a molding.

4. An individual of a community or society. Every citizen is a member of the state or body politic. So the individuals of a club, a corporation or confederacy, are called its members. Students of an academy or college are its members. Professed christians are called members of the church.

5. The appetites and passions, considered as tempting to sin. Romans 7:5. Colossians 3:5.

MEM'BERED, adjective Having limbs.

MEM'BERSHIP, noun The state of being a member.

1. Community; society.

MEMBRANA'CEOUS, adjective Belonging to a membrane; consisting of membranes; as a membraneous covering.

Birds of prey have membranaceous stomachs, not muscular.

1. In botany, a membranaceous leaf has no distinguishable pulp between the two surfaces. In general, it denotes flatted or resembling parchment.

MEM'BRANE, noun [Latin membrana.] In anatomy, a thin, white, flexible skin, formed by fibers interwoven like net-work, and serving to cover some part of the body.

The term is applied to the thin expanded parts, of various texture, both in animals and vegetables.

MEMBRA'NEOUS

MEMBRA'NIFORM, adjective Having the form of a membrane or of parchment.

MEMBRA'NIFORM, a. Having the form of a membrane or of parchment.

MEM'BRANOUS

MEMENT'O, noun [Latin memini. See Memory.] A hint, suggestion; notice or memorial to awaken memory; that which reminds.

He is but a man, and seasonable mementos may be useful.

MEMENT'O, n. [L. memini. See Memory.] A hint, suggestion; notice or memorial to awaken memory; that which reminds.

MEM'OIR, noun A species of history written by a person who had some share in the transactions related. Persons often write their own memoirs.

1. A history of transactions in which some person had a principal share, is called his memoirs, though compiled or written by a different hand.

2. The history of a society, or the journals and proceedings of a society; as memoirs of the Royal Society.

3. A written account; register of facts.

MEM'ORABLE, adjective [Latin memorabilis. See Memory.]

Worthy to be remembered; illustrious; celebrated; distinguished.

By tombs, by books, by memorable deeds.

MEM'ORABLY, adverb In a manner worthy to be remembered.

MEMORAND'UM, noun plural memorandums or memoranda. [Latin]

A note to help the memory.

I entered a memorandum in my pocketbook.

MEM'ORATIVE, adjective Adapted or tending to preserve the memory of any thing.

MEMO'RIAL, adjective [Latin memorialis. See Memory.]

1. Preservative of memory.

There high in air memorial of my name,

Fix the smooth oar, and bid me live to fame.

2. Contained in memory; as memorial possession.

MEMO'RIAL, noun That which preserves the memory of something; any thing that serves to keep in memory. A monument is a memorial of a deceased person, or of an event. The Lord's supper is a memorial of the death and sufferings of Christ.

Churches have names; some as memorials of peace, some of wisdom, some of the Trinity.

1. Any note or hint to assist the memory.

Memorials written with king Edward's hand shall be the ground of this history.

2. A written representation of facts, made to a legislative or other body as the ground of a petition, or a representation of facts accompanied with a petition.

MEMO'RIALIST, noun One who writes a memorial.

1. One who presents a memorial to a legislative or any other body, or to a person.

MEMO'RIALIZE, verb transitive To present a memorial to; to petition by memorial.

MEM'ORIST, noun One who causes to be remembered. [Not used.]

MEM'ORIZE, verb transitive To record; to commit to memory by writing.

They neglect to memorize their conquest of the Indians.

1. To cause to be remembered.

They meant to memorize another Golgotha.

MEM'ORY, noun [Latin memoria; Gr. to remember, from mind, or the same root. See Mind.]

1. The faculty of the mind by which it retains the knowledge of past events, or ideas which are past. A distinction is made between memory and recollection. memory retains past ideas without any, or with little effort; recollection implies an effort to recall ideas that are past.

Memory is the purveyor of reason.

2. A retaining of past ideas in the mind; remembrance. Events that excite little attention are apt to escape from memory

3. Exemption from oblivion.

That ever-living man of memory

Henry the fifth.

4. The time within which past events can be remembered or recollected, or the time within which a person may have knowledge of what is past. The revolution in England was before my memory; the revolution in America was within the author's memory

5. Memorial; monumental record; that which calls to remembrance. A monument in London was erected in memory of the conflagration in 1666.

6. Reflection; attention.

MEM'ORY, verb transitive To lay up in the mind or memory [Not used.]

MEMPH'IAN, adjective [from Memphis, the ancient metropolis of Egypt, said to be altered from Menuf, Memf. Ludolf.]

Pertaining to Memphis; very dark; a sense borrowed from the darkness of Egypt in the time of Moses.

MEN, plural of man. Two or more males, individuals of the human race.

1. Males of bravery. We will live in honor, or die like men

2. Persons; people; mankind; in an indefinite sense. men are apt to forget the benefactor, while they riot on the benefit.

MEN'ACE, verb transitive [Latin minor.]

1. To threaten; to express or show a disposition or determination to inflict punishment or other evil. The combined powers menaced France with war on every side.

2. To show or manifest the probability of future evil or danger to. The spirit of insubordination menaced Spain with the horrors of civil war.

3. To exhibit the appearance of any catastrophe to come; as, a hanging rock menaces a fall, or menaces the plain or the inhabitants below.

MEN'ACE, noun A threat or threatening; the declaration or show of a disposition or determination to inflict an evil; used of persons.

1. The show of a probable evil or catastrophe to come.

MEN'ACED, participle passive Threatened.

MEN'ACER, noun One that threatens.

MEN'ACHANITE, noun An oxyd of titanium, or mineral of a grayish or iron black color, occurring in very small rounded grains, imperfectly lamellar, and of a glistening luster; found near Menachan, in Cornwall, Eng.

MENACHANIT'IC, adjective Pertaining to menachanite.

MEN'ACING, participle present tense Threatening; declaring a disposition or determination to inflict evil.

1. adjective Exhibiting the danger or probability of an evil or catastrophe to come; as a menacing attitude.

MEN'AGE, noun A collection of brute animals.

MEN'AGERY, noun A yard or place in which wild animals are kept, or a collection of wild animals.

MENAGOGUE, noun men'agog. [Gr. menstrua, and to drive.]

A medicine that promotes the menstrual flux.

ME'NAIL, noun A domestic servant.

MEND, verb transitive [Latin emendo, menda, a fault, spot or blemish.]

1. To repair, as a breach; to supply a part broken or defective; as, to mend a garment, a road, a mill-dam, a fence, etc.

2. To correct; to set right; to alter for the better; as, to mend the life or manners.

3. To repair; to restore to a sound state; as, to mend a feeble or broken constitution.

4. To help; to advance; to make better.

This plausible apology does not mend the matter.

Though in some lands the grass is but short, yet it mends garden herbs and fruit.

5. To improve; to hasten.

He saw the monster mend his pace.

MEND, verb intransitive To grow better; to advance to a better state; to improve. We say, a feeble constitution mends daily; a sick man mends, or is convalescent.

MEND'ABLE, adjective Capable of being mended.

MENDA'CIOUS, adjective [Latin mendax.] Lying; false. [Little used.]

MENDAC'ITY, noun [Latin mendax, false, lying.] Falsehood.

[The proper signification of this word would be a disposition to lie, or habitual lying.]

MEND'ED, participle passive Repaired; made better; improved.

MEND'ER, noun One who mends or repairs.

MEND'ICANCY, adjective [Latin medicans.] Beggary; a state of begging.

MEND'ICANT, adjective [Latin mendicans, from mendico, to beg; allied to Latin mando, to command, demand.]

1. Begging; poor to a state of beggary; as reduced to a mendicant state.

2. Practicing beggary; as a mendicant friar.

MEND'ICANT, noun A beggar; one that makes it his business to beg alms; one of the begging fraternity of the Romish church.

MEND'ICATE, verb transitive To beg, or practice begging. [Not used.]

MENDIC'ITY, noun [Latin mendicitas.]

The state of begging; the life of a beggar.

MENDMENT, for amendment. [Not in use.]

MENDS, for amends, not used.

MENHA'DEN, noun A species of fish.

ME'NIAL, adjective

1. Pertaining to servants or domestic servants; low; mean.

The women attendants perform only the most menial offices.

[Johnson observes on this passage, that Swift seems not to have known the meaning of this word. But this is the only sense in which it is now used.]

2. Belonging to the retinue or train of servants.

Two menial dogs before their master pressed.

[If this definition of Johnson is correct, it indicates that menial is from meinez, many, rather than from mesnie, family. But the sense may be house-dogs.]

MEN'ILITE, noun A mineral substance found at Menil Montant near Paris, of the nature of silex, of a brown liver color on the interior, and ordinarily of a clear blue on the surface. It is found in the shape of the kidneys, of the size of the hand or larger; sometimes in globules of the size of a nut.

MENIS'CUS, noun plural meniscuses. [Gr. a little moon.]

A lens convex on one side, and concave on the other.

MENISPERM'ATE, noun A compound of menispermic acid and a salifiable base.

MENISPERM'IC, adjective The menispermic acid is obtained from the seeds of the menispermum cocculus.

MEN'IVER, noun A small white animal in Russia, or its fur which is very fine.

MENOL'OGY, noun [Gr. month, and discourse.]

1. A register of months.

2. In the Greek church, martyrology, or a brief calendar of the lives of the saints, for each day in the year, or a simple remembrance of those whose lives are not written.

MEN'OW, noun A small fresh water fish, the minnow.

MEN'PLEASER, noun One who is solicitous to please men, rather than to please God, by obedience to him commands.

MEN'SAL, adjective [Latin mensalis, from mensa, a table.]

Belonging to the table; transacted at table. [Little used.]

MEN'STRUAL, adjective [Latin menstrualis, from mensis, month.]

1. Monthly; happening once a month; as the menstrual flux.

2. Lasting a month; as the menstrual orbit of the moon.

3. Pertaining to a menstruum.

MEN'STRUANT, adjective Subject to monthly flowings.

MEN'STRUOUS, adjective [Latin menstruus, from mensis, a month.]

1. Having the monthly flow or discharge; as a female.

2. Pertaining to the monthly flow of females.

MEN'STRUUM, noun plural menstruums. [from Latin mensis, month. The use of this word is supposed to have originated in some notion of the old chimists, about the influence of the moon in the preparation of dissolvents. Johnson.]

A dissolvent or solvent; any fluid or subtilized substance which dissolves a solid body.

All liquors are called menstruums which are used as dissolvents, or to extract the virtues of ingredients by infusion or decoction.

Inquire what is the proper menstruum to dissolve a metal.

MENSURABIL'ITY, noun [from mensurable.] Capacity of being measured.

MEN'SURABLE, adjective [Latin mensura, measure. The n is probably casual, and the word is the same as measurable.]

Measurable; capable of being measured.

MEN'SURAL, adjective Pertaining to measure.

MEN'SURATE, verb transitive [Latin mensura, measure.]

To measure. [Little used.]

MENSURA'TION, noun The act, process or art of measuring, or taking the dimensions of any thing.

1. Measure; the result of measuring.

MEN'TAL, adjective Pertaining to the mind; intellectual; as mental faculties; mental operations; mental sight; mental taste.

MEN'TALLY, adverb Intellectually; in the mind; in thought or meditation; in idea.

MEN'TION, noun [Latin mentio, from Gr. to put in mind; Latin moneo and mind.] A hint; a suggestion; a brief notice or remark expressed in words or writing; used chiefly after make.

Make no mention of other gods. Joshua 23:7.

I will make mention of thy righteousness. Psalms 71:16.

Without ceasing I make mention of you always in my prayers. Romans 1:9.

MEN'TION, verb transitive To speak; to name; to utter a brief remark; to state a particular fact, or to express it in writing. It is applied to something thrown in or added incidentally in a discourse or writing, and thus differs from the sense of relate, recite, and narrate. I mentioned to him a fact that fell under my own observation. In the course of conversation, that circumstance was mentioned.

I will mention the loving-kindness of the Lord. Isaiah 63:7.

MEN'TIONED, participle passive Named; stated.

MEN'TIONING, participle present tense Naming; uttering.

MENTO'RIAL, adjective [from Mentor, the friend and adviser of Ulysses.]

Containing advice or admonition.

ME'NY, noun [See Menial.] A retinue or family of servants; domestics.

MEPHIT'IC, adjective [Latin mephitis, an ill smell.] Offensive to the smell; foul; poisonous; noxious; pestilential; destructive to life.

Mephitic acid is carbonic acid.

MEPH'ITIS

MEPH'ITISM, noun Foul, offensive or noxious exhalations from dissolving substances, filth or other source; also, carbonic acid gas.

MERCANTAN'TE, noun A foreign trader. [Not in use.]

MER'CANTILE, adjective [Latin mercans, mercor, to buy.]

1. Trading; commercial; carrying on commerce; as mercantile nations; the mercantile class of men.

2. Pertaining or relating to commerce or trade; as mercantile business.

MER'CAT, noun [Latin mercatus.] Market; trade. [Not in use.]

MER'CENARILY, adverb In a mercenary manner.

MER'CENARINESS, noun [from mercenary.]

Venality; regard to hire or reward.

MER'CENARY, adjective [Latin mercenarius, from merces, reward, wages, mercor, to guy.]

1. Venal; that may be hired; actuated by the hope of reward; moved by the love of money; as a mercenary prince or judge.

2. Hired; purchased by money; as mercenary services; mercenary soldiers.

3. Sold for money; as mercenary blood.

4. Greedy of gain; mean; selfish; as a mercenary disposition.

5. Contracted from motives of gain; as a mercenary marriage.

MER'CENARY, noun One who is hired; a soldier that is hired into foreign service; a hireling.

MER'CER, noun [Latin merx, wares, commodities.]

One who deals in silks.

MER'CERSHIP, noun The business of a mercer.

MER'CERY, noun The commodities or goods in which a mercer deals; trade of mercers.

MER'CHAND, verb intransitive To trade. [Not used.]

MER'CHANDISE, noun

1. The objects of commerce; wares, goods, commodities, whatever is usually bought or sold in trade. But provisions daily sold in market, horses, cattle, and fuel are not usually included in the term, and real estate never.

2. Trade; traffick; commerce.

MER'CHANDISE, verb intransitive To trade; to carry on commerce.

MER'CHANDRY, noun Trade; commerce. [Not in use.]

MER'CHANT, noun [Latin mercor, to buy.]

1. A man who trafficks or carries on trade with foreign countries, or who exports and imports goods and sells them by wholesale.

2. In popular usage, any trader, or one who deals in the purchase and sale of goods.

3. A ship in trade. [Not used.]

MER'CHANT, verb intransitive To trade. [Not in use.]

MER'CHANTABLE, adjective Fit for market; such as is usually sold in market or such as will bring the ordinary price; as merchantable wheat or timber.

MER'CHANTLIKE, adjective Like a merchant.

MER'CHANTMAN, noun A ship or vessel employed in the transportation of goods, as distinguished from a ship of war.

MER'CIABLE, adjective Merciful. [Not in use.]

MER'CIFUL, adjective [from mercy.] Having or exercising mercy; compassionate; tender; disposed to pity offenders and to forgive their offenses; unwilling to punish for injuries; applied appropriately to the Supreme being.

The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, the Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering and abundant in goodness and truth. Exodus 34:6.

1. Compassionate; tender; unwilling to give pain; not cruel. A merciful man will be merciful to his beast.

MER'CIFULLY, adverb With compassion or pity; tenderly; mildly.

MER'CIFULNESS, noun Tenderness towards offenders; willingness to forbear punishment; readiness to forgive.

MER'CIFY, verb transitive To pity. [Not in use.]

MER'CILESS, adjective Destitute of mercy; unfeeling; pitiless; hard-hearted; cruel; as a merciless tyrant.

1. Not sparing; as the merciless waves or tempest.

MER'CILESSLY, adverb In a manner void of mercy or pity; cruelly.

MER'CILESSNESS, noun Want of mercy or pity.

MERCU'RIAL, adjective [Latin mercurialis.]

1. Formed under the influence of Mercury; active; sprightly; full of fire or vigor; as a mercurial youth; a mercurial nation.

2. Pertaining to quicksilver; containing quicksilver, or consisting of mercury; as mercurial preparations or medicines.

MERCU'RIALIST, noun One under the influence of Mercury, or one resembling Mercury in variety of character.

MERCU'RIATE, noun A combination of the oxyd of mercury with another substance.

Mercuric acid, a saturated combination of mercury and oxygen.

MERCURIFICA'TION, noun In metallurgic chimistry, the process or operation of obtaining the mercury from metallic minerals in its fluid form.

1. The act of mixing with quicksilver.

MERCU'RIFY, verb transitive To obtain mercury from metallic minerals, which it is said may be done by a large lens, the intense heat of which expels the mercury in fumes, which are afterwards condensed.

MER'CURY, noun [Latin Mercurius. In mythology, mercury is the god of eloquence and of commerce, called by the Greeks Hermes, and his name is said to be formed from merces, or mercor. But in antiquity, there were several persons or deities of this name.]

1. Quicksilver, a metal remarkable for its fusibility, which is so great that to fix or congeal it requires a degree of cold which is marked on Fahrenheit's scale at thirty nine degrees below zero. Its specific gravity is greater than that of any other metal, except platina, gold and tungsten. Under a heat of 660 degrees, it rises in fumes and is gradually converted into a red oxyd. mercury is used in barometers to ascertain the weight of the atmosphere, and in thermometers to determine the temperature of the air, for which purposes it is well adapted by its expansibility, and the extensive range between its freezing and boiling points. Preparations of this metal are among the most powerful poisons, and are extensively used as medicines. The preparation called calomel, is a most efficacious deobstruent.

2. Heat of constitutional temperament; spirit; sprightly qualities.

3. A genus of plants, the Mercurialis, of several species.

4. One of the planets nearest the sun. It is 3224 miles in diameter, and revolves round the sun in about 88 days. Its mean distance from the sun is thirty seven millions of miles.

5. The name of a newspaper or periodical publication, and in some places, the carrier of a newspaper or pamphlet.

MER'CURY, verb transitive To wash with a preparation of mercury

MER'CY, noun [Latin misericordia.]

1. That benevolence, mildness or tenderness of heart which disposes a person to overlook injuries, or to treat an offender better than he deserves; the disposition that tempers justice, and induces an injured person to forgive trespasses and injuries, and to forbear punishment, or inflict less than law or justice will warrant. In this sense, there is perhaps no word in our language precisely synonymous with mercy That which comes nearest to it is grace. It implies benevolence, tenderness, mildness, pity or compassion, and clemency, but exercised only towards offenders. mercy is a distinguishing attribute of the Supreme Being.

The Lord is long-suffering and of great mercy forgiving iniquity and transgression, and by no means clearing the guilty. Numbers 14:18.

2. An act or exercise of mercy or favor. It is a mercy that they escaped.

I am not worthy of the least of all thy mercies. Genesis 32:1.

3. Pity; compassion manifested towards a person in distress.

And he said, he that showed mercy on him. Luke 10:37.

4. Clemency and bounty.

Mercy and truth preserve the king; and his throne is upheld by mercy Proverbs 28:13.

5. Charity, or the duties of charity and benevolence.

I will have mercy and not sacrifice. Matthew 9:13.

6. Grace; favor. 1 Corinthians 7:25. Jude 1:2.

7. Eternal life, the fruit of mercy 2 Timothy 1:2.

8. Pardon.

I cry thee mercy with all my heart.

9. The act of sparing, or the forbearance of a violent act expected. The prisoner cried for mercy

To be or to lie at the mercy of, to have no means of self-defense, but to be dependent for safety on the mercy or compassion of another, or in the power of that which is irresistible; as, to be at the mercy of a foe, or of the waves.

MERD, noun [Latin merda.] Ordure; dung.

MERE, adjective [Latin merus.] This or that only; distinct from any thing else.

From mere success nothing can be concluded in favor of a nation.

What if the head, the eye or ear repin'd

To serve mere engines to the ruling mind?

1. Absolute; entire.

MERE, noun [Latin mare. See Moor.] A pool or lake.

MERE, noun [Gr. to divide.] A boundary; used chiefly in the compound, mere-stone.

MERE, verb transitive To divide, limit or bound.

ME'RELY, adverb Purely; only; solely; thus and no other way; for this and no other purpose.

Price not your life for other ends

Than merely to oblige your friends.

MERETRI'CIOUS, adjective [Latin meretricius, from meretrix, a prostitute.]

1. Pertaining to prostitutes; such as in practiced by harlots; as meretricious arts.

2. Alluring by false show; worn for disguise; having a gaudy but deceitful appearance; false; as meretricious dress or ornaments.

MERETRI'CIOUSLY , adv. In the manner of prostitutes; with deceitful enticements.

MERETRI'CIOUSNESS, noun The arts of a prostitute; deceitful enticements.

MERGAN'SER, noun [Latin mergo, to dive.] A water fowl of the genus Mergus; called also goosander.

MERGE, verb transitive [Latin mergo.] To immerse; to cause to be swallowed up.

The plaintiff became the purchaser and merged his term in the fee.

MERGE, verb intransitive To be sunk, swallowed or lost.

MERG'ER, noun [Latin mergo, to merge.] In law, a merging or drowning of a less estate in a greater; as when a reversion in fee simple descends to or is purchased by a tenant of the same estate for years, the term for years is merged, lost, annihilated in the inheritance or fee simple estate.

MERID'IAN, noun [Latin meridies.]

1. In astronomy and geography, a great circle supposed to be drawn or to pass through the poles of the earth, and the zenith and nadir of any given place, intersecting the equator at right angles, and dividing the hemisphere into eastern and western. Every place on the globe has its meridian and when the sun arrives at this circle, it is mid-day or noon. whence the name. This circle may be considered to be drawn on the surface of the earth, or it may be considered as a circle in the heavens coinciding with that on the earth.

2. Mid-day, noon.

3. The highest point; as the meridian of life; the meridian of power or of glory.

4. The particular place or state, with regard to local circumstances or things that distinguish it from others. We say, a book is adapted to the meridian of France or Italy; a measure is adapted to the meridian of London or Washington.

Magnetic meridian a great circle, parallel with the direction of the magnetic needle, and passing through its poles.

MERID'IAN, adjective Being on the meridian or at mid-day.

The sun sat high in his meridian tower.

1. Pertaining to the meridian or to mid-day; as the sun's meridian heat or splendor.

2. Pertaining to the highest point; as, the hero enjoyed his meridian glory.

3. Pertaining to the magnetic meridian

MERID'IONAL, adjective Pertaining to the meridian.

1. Southern.

2. Southerly; having a southern aspect.

Meridional distance is the departure from the meridian, or easting or westing.

MERIDIONAL'ITY, noun The state of being in the meridian.

1. Position in the south; aspect towards the south.

MERID'IONALLY, adverb In the direction of the meridian.

MER'IT, noun [Latin meritum, from mereo, to earn or deserve.]

1. Desert; goodness or excellence which entitles one to honor or regard; worth; any performance or worth which claims regard or compensation; applied to morals, to excellence in writing, or to valuable services of any kind. Thus we speak of the inability of men to obtain salvation by their own merits. We speak of the merits of an author; the merits of a soldier, etc.

2. Value; excellence; applied to things; as the merits of an essay or poem; the merits of a pointing; the merits of a heroic achievement.

3. Reward deserved; that which is earned or merited.

Those laurel groves, the merits of thy youth.

MER'IT, verb transitive [Latin merito.] To deserve; to earn by active service, or by any valuable performance; to have a right to claim reward in money, regard, honor or happiness. Watts, by his writings, merited the gratitude of the whole christian world. The faithful laborer merits his wages.

A man at best is incapable of meriting any thing from God.

1. To deserve; to have a just title to. Fidelity merits and usually obtains confidence.

2. To deserve, in an ill sense; to have a just title to. Every violation of law merits punishment. Every sin merits God's displeasure.

MER'ITABLE, adjective Deserving of reward. [Not in use.]

MER'ITED, participle passive Earned; deserved.

MER'ITING, participle present tense Earning; deserving.

MERITO'RIOUS, adjective Deserving of reward or of notice, regard, fame or happiness, or of that which shall be a suitable return for services or excellence of any kind. We applaud the meritorious services of the laborer, the soldier and the seaman. We admire the meritorious labors of a Watts, a Doddridge, a Carey and a Martyn. We rely for salvation on the meritorious obedience and sufferings of Christ.

MERITO'RIOUSLY, adverb In such a manner as to deserve reward.

MERITO'RIOUSNESS, noun The state or quality of deserving a reward or suitable return.

MER'ITORY, adjective Deserving of reward. [Not used.]

MERLE, noun [Latin merula.] A blackbird.

MER'LIN, noun A species of hawk of the genus Falco.

MER'LON, noun In fortification, that part of a parapet which lies between two embrasures.

MER'MAID, noun [Latin mare, the sea, and maid.] A marine animal, said to resemble a woman in the upper parts of the body, and a fish in the lower part. The male is called the merman.

ME'ROPS, noun A genus of birds called bee-eaters.

MER'RILY, adverb [from merry.] With mirth; with gayety and laughter; jovially. [See Mirth and Merry.]

Merrily sing and sport and play.

MER'RIMAKE, noun [merry and make.] A meeting for mirth; a festival; mirth.

MER'RIMAKE, verb intransitive To be merry or jovial; to feast.

MER'RIMENT, noun Mirth; gayety with laughter or noise; noisy sports; hilarity; frolick.

MER'RINESS, noun Mirth; gayety with laughter.

MER'RY, adjective

1. Gay and noisy; jovial; exhilarated to laughter.

Man is the merriest species of the creation.

They drank and were merry with him. Genesis 43:34.

2. Causing laughter or mirth; as a merry jest.

3. Brisk; as a merry gale. [This is the primary sense of the word.]

4. Pleasant; agreeable; delightful.

To make merry to be jovial; to indulge in hilarity; to feast with mirth. Judges 9:27.

MER'SION, noun [Latin mersio, from mergo, to dive or sink.]

The act of sinking or plunging under water. But immersion is generally used.

MESARA'IC, adjective [Gr. middle, and intestines.] The same as mesenteric; pertaining to the mesentery.

MESEE'MS, verb impersonal. [me and seems.] It seems to me. It is used also in the past tense, meseemed.

MESENTER'IC, adjective [See Mesentery.] Pertaining to the mesentery; as mesenteric glands or arteries.

MES'ENTERY, noun [Gr. middle, and intestine.] A fatty membrane placed in the middle of the intestines, and to which they are attached. This prevents them from becoming entangled with each other by convolutions. It is formed by a duplicature of the peritoneum.

MESH, noun

1. The opening or space between the threads of a net.

2. The grains or wash of a brewery.

MESH, noun

1. The opening or space between the threads of a net.

2. The grains or wash of a brewery.

MESH, verb transitive To catch in a net; to ensnare.

MESH'Y, adjective Formed like net-work; reticulated.

MES'LIN, noun [Latin miscellaneus, from misceo, to mix.]

A mixture of different sorts of grain; in America, a mixture of wheat and rye.

MESNE, adjective meen. In law, middle; intervening; as a mesne lord, that is, a lord who holds land of a superior, but grants a part of it to another person. In this case, he is a tenant to the superior, but lord or superior to the second grantee, and called the mesne lord.

MESNE process, that part of the proceedings in a suit which intervenes between the original process or writ and the final issue, and which issues, pending the suit, on some collateral matter; and sometimes it is understood to be the whole process preceding the execution.

MESNE profits, the profits of an estate which accrue to a tenant in possession, after the demise of the lessor.

MES'OCOLON, noun [Gr. middle, and colon.]

In anatomy, that part of the mesentery, which, having reached the extremity of the ileum, contracts and changes its name, or that part of the mesentery to which the colon is attached.

MESOLEU'CYS, noun [Gr. middle, and white.]

A precious stone with a streak of white in the middle.

MES'OLITE, noun A mineral of the zeolite family.

MESOLOG'ARITHM, noun [Gr. middle, and logarithm.]

A logarithm of the co-sines and co-tangents.

The former is called by Napier an antilogarithm, the latter a differential.

MESOM'ELAS, noun [Gr. middle, and black.] A precious stone with a black vein parting every color in the midst.

MES'OTYPE, noun [Gr. middle, and form, type.] Prismatic zeolite; a mineral divided into three subspecies, fibrous zeolite, natrolite, and mealy zeolite. This is said by some writers to be so named from its property, when transparent, of doubling images. Others say it is a mean form between stilbite and analcime.

MESPRISE, noun Contempt; a French word. [Not in use.]

MESS, noun [Latin mensa.]

1. A dish or a quantity of food prepared or set on a table at one time; as a mess of pottage; a mess of herbs; a mess of broth.

2. A medley; a mixed mass; a quantity.

3. As much provender or grain as is given to a beast at once.

4. A number of persons who eat together; among seamen and soldiers.

MESS, verb intransitive To eat; to feed.

1. To associate at the same table; to eat in company, as seamen.

MESS, verb transitive To supply with a mess

MES'SAGE, noun [Latin missus, mitto, to send.]

1. Any notice, word or communication, written or verbal, sent from one person to another. We send a servant with a verbal or written message

The welcome message made, was soon received.

2. An official written communication of facts or opinions sent by a chief magistrate to the two houses of a legislature or other deliberative body. Congress receives a message from the President of the United States at the opening of the session. The Governors of some of the states communicate to the legislature by message others by address.

3. An official verbal communication from one branch of a legislature to the other.

MES'SAGER

MES'SENGER, noun

1. One who bears a message or an errand; the bearer of a verbal or written communication, notice or invitation from one person to another, or to a public body; one who conveys dispatches from one prince or court to another.

2. A harbinger; a forerunner; he or that which foreshows.

You gray lines

That fret the clouds, are messengers of day.

MESSI'AH, adjective [Heb. anointed.] Christ, the anointed; the Savior of the world.

I know that when messiah cometh, who is called Christ, he will tell us all things. Jesus answered her, I that speak to thee am he. John 4:25-26.

MESSI'AHSHIP, noun The character, state or office of the Savior.

Josephus--whose prejudices were against the messiahship and religion of Jesus.

MES'SIEURS, noun [plu. of monsieur, my lord.] Sirs; gentlemen.

MESS'-MATE, noun An associate in eating; one who eats ordinarily at the same table.

MESS'UAGE, noun In law, a dwelling house and adjoining land, appropriated to the use of the household, including the adjacent buildings.

MESTEE', noun A person of a mixed breed.

MET, preterit tense and participle passive of meet.

METAB'ASIS, noun [Gr. from beyond, and to go.] In rhetoric, transition; a passing from one thing to another.

METAB'OLA, noun [Gr. beyond, and a casting.] In medicine, a change of air, time or disease. [Little used.]

METACARP'AL, adjective [from metacarpus.] Belonging to the metacarpus.

METACARP'US, noun [Gr. beyond, and the wrist.] In anatomy, the part of the hand between the wrist and the fingers.

METACH'RONISM, noun [Gr. beyond, and time.] An error in chronology, by placing an event after its real time.

ME'TAGE, noun [from mete.] Measurement of coal; price of measuring.

METAGRAM'MATISM, noun [Gr. beyond, and a letter.]

Anagrammatism, or metagrammatism is a transposition of the letters of a name into such a connection as to express some perfect sense applicable to the person named.

METAL, noun met'l. [Latin metallum.] A simple, fixed, shining, opake body or substance, insoluble in water, fusible by heat, a good conductor of heat and electricity, capable when in the state of an oxyd, of uniting with acids and forming with them metallic salts. Many of the metals also malleable or extensible by the hammer, and some of them extremely ductile. Metals are mostly fossil, sometimes found native or pure, but more generally combined with other matter. Some metals are more malleable than others, and this circumstance gave rise to the distinction of metals and semi-metals; a distinction little regarded at the present day. Recent discoveries have enlarged the list of the metals, and the whole number now recognized is thirty, exclusive of those which have been recently discovered, as the bases of the earths and alkalies. Twelve of these are malleable, viz. platina, gold, silver, mercury, lead, copper, tin, iron, zink, palladium, nickel, and cadmium. The following sixteen are not sufficiently tenacious to bear extension by beating, viz. arsenic, antimony, bismuth, cobalt, manganese, tellurium, titanium, columbium, molybden, tungsten, chrome, osmium, iridium, rhodium, uranium, and cerium.

To these may be added potassium, sodium, barium, strontium, calcium, and lithium.

The following have not been exhibited in a separate form; magnesium, glucinum, yttrium, aluminum, thorinum, zirconium, and silicium.

1. Courage; spirit; so written by mistake for mettle.

METALEP'SIS, noun [Gr. participation; beyond, and to take.]

In rhetoric, the continuation of a trope in one word through a succession of significations, or the union of two or more tropes of a different kind in one word, so that several gradations or intervening senses come between the word expressed and the thing intended by it; as 'in one Caesar there are many Mariuses.' Here Marius, by a synecdoche or antonomasy, is put for any ambitious, turbulent man, and this, by a metonymy of the cause, for the ill effects of such a temper to the public.

METALEP'TIC, adjective Pertaining to a metalepsis or participation; translative.

1. Transverse; as the metaleptic motion of a muscle.

METALEP'TICALLY, adverb By transposition.

METAL'LIC, adjective [Latin metallicus.] Pertaining to a metal or metals; consisting of metal; partaking of the nature of metals; like a metal; as a metallic substance; metallic ore; metallic brightness.

METALLIF'EROUS, adjective [Latin metallum, metal, and fero, to produce.]

Producing metals.

METAL'LIFORM, adjective Having the form of metals; like metal.

MET'ALLINE, adjective Pertaining to a metal; consisting of metal.

1. Impregnated with metal; as metalline water.

MET'ALLIST, noun A worker in metals, or one skilled in metals.

METALLIZA'TION, noun The act or process of forming into a metal; the operation which gives to a substance its proper metallic properties.

MET'ALLIZE, verb transitive To form into metal; to give to a substance its proper metallic properties.

METALLOG'RAPHY, noun [Gr. metal, and description.] An account of metals, or a treatise on metallic substances.

MET'ALLOID, noun A name sometimes applied to the metallic bases of the alkalies and earths.

METALLOID'AL, adjective Having the form or appearance of a metal.

MET'ALLURGIC, adjective [See Metallurgy.] Pertaining to metallurgy, or the art of working metals.

MET'ALLURGIST, noun One whose occupation is to work metals, or to purify, refine and prepare metals for use.

MET'ALLURGY, noun [Gr. metal, and work.] The art of working metals, comprehending the whole process of separating them from other matters in the ore, smelting, refining and parting them. Gilding is also a branch of metallurgy But in a more limited and usual sense, metallurgy is the operation of separating metals from their ores.

The French include in metallurgy the art of drawing metals from the earth.

MET'ALMAN, noun A worker in metals; a coppersmith or tinman.

METAMORPH'IC

METAMORPH'OSE, verb transitive [Gr. over, beyond, and form.] To change into a different form; to transform; particularly, to change the form of insects, as from the larva to a winged animal. The ancients pretended that Jupiter was metamorphosed into a bull, and Lycaon into a wolf.

And earth was metamorphosed into man.

METAMORPH'OSE, v.t. [Gr. over, beyond, and form.] To change into a different form; to transform; particularly, to change the form of insects, as from the larva to a winged animal. The ancients pretended that Jupiter was metamorphosed into a bull, and Lycaon into a wolf.

METAMORPH'OSER, noun One that transforms or changes the shape.

METAMORPH'OSIC, adjective [See Metamorphose.]

Changing the form; transforming.

METAMORPH'OSING, participle present tense Changing the shape.

METAMORPH'OSIS, noun Change of form or shape; transformation; particularly, a change in the form of being; as the metamorphosis of an insect from the aurelia or chrysalis state into a winged animal.

1. Any change of form or shape.

METAMORPHOS'TICAL, adjective Pertaining to or effected by metamorphosis.

MET'APHOR, noun [Gr. to transfer, over, to carry.] A short similitude; a similitude reduced to a single word; or a word expressing similitude without the signs of comparison. Thus 'that man is a fox, ' is a metaphor; but 'that man is like a fox, ' is a similitude or comparison. So when I say, 'the soldiers fought like lions, ' I use a similitude. In metaphor the similitude is contained in the name; a man is a fox, means, a man is as crafty as a fox. So we say, a man bridles his anger, that is, restrains it as a bridle restrains a horse. Beauty awakens love or tender passions; opposition fires courage.

METAPHOR'IC

METAPHOR'ICAL, adjective Pertaining to metaphor; comprising a metaphor; not literal; as a metaphorical use of words; a metaphorical expression; a metaphorical sense.

METAPHOR'ICAL, a. Pertaining to metaphor; comprising a metaphor; not literal; as a metaphorical use of words; a metaphorical expression; a metaphorical sense.

METAPHOR'ICALLY, adverb In a metaphorical manner; not literally.

MET'APHORIST, noun One that makes metaphors.

MET'APHRASE, noun [Gr. over, according to or with, and phrase.]

A verbal translation; a version or translation or one language into another, word for word.

MET'APHRAST, noun A person who translates from one language into another, word for word.

METAPHRAS'TIC, adjective Close or literal in translation.

METAPHYS'IC

METAPHYS'ICAL, adjective s as z. [See Metaphysics.]

1. Pertaining or relating to metaphysics.

2. According to rules or principles of metaphysics; as metaphysical reasoning.

3. Preternatural or supernatural. [Not used.]

METAPHYS'ICAL, a. s as z. [See Metaphysics.]

METAPHYS'ICALLY, adverb In the manner of metaphysical science.

METAPHYSI'CIAN, noun s as z. One who is versed in the science of metaphysics.

METAPHYS'ICS, noun s as z. [Gr. after, and physics. It is said that this name was given to the science by Aristotle or his followers, who considered the science of natural bodies, physics, as the first in the order of studies, and the science of mind or intelligence to be the second.]

The science of the principles and causes of all things existing; hence, the science of mind or intelligence. This science comprehends ontology, or the science which treats of the nature, essence, and qualities or attributes of being; cosmology, the science of the world, which treats of the nature and laws of matter and of motion; anthroposophy, which treats of the power of man, and the motions by which life is produced; psychology, which treats of the intellectual soul; pneumatology, or the science of spirits or angels, etc. Metaphysical theology, called by Leibnitz and others theodicy, treats of the existence of God, his essence and attributes. These divisions of the science of metaphysics which prevailed in the ancient schools, are now not much regarded. The natural division of things that exist is into body and mind, things material and immaterial. The former belong to physics, and the latter to the science of metaphysics

MET'APLASM, noun [Gr. transformation; over, and to form.]

In grammar, a transmutation or change made in a word by transposing or retrenching a syllable or letter.

METAS'TASIS, noun [Gr. mutation; over, and to place.] A translation or removal of a disease form one part to another, or such an alteration as is succeeded by a solution.

METATAR'SAL, adjective [from metatarsus.] Belonging to the metatarsus.

METATAR'SUS, noun [Gr. beyond, and tarsus.] The middle of the foot, or part between the ankle and the toes.

METATH'ESIS, noun [Gr. over, and to set.]

1. Transposition; a figure by which the letters or syllables of a word are transposed; as pistris for pristis.

2. In medicine, a change or removal of a morbid cause, without expulsion.

METE, verb transitive [Latin metior; Heb. to measure.] To measure; to ascertain quantity, dimensions or capacity by any rule or standard. [Obsolescent.]

METE, noun Measure; limit; boundary; used chiefly in the plural, in the phrase, metes and bounds.

METEMP'SYCHOSE, verb transitive To translate from one body to another, as the soul.

METEMPSYCHO'SIS, noun [Gr. beyond, and animation, life; to animate.]

Transmigration; the passing of the soul of a man after death into some other animal body. Pythagoras and his followers held that after death the soul of men pass into other bodies, and this doctrine still prevails in some parts of Asia, particularly in India and China.

METEMP'TOSIS, noun [Gr. after, and to fall.] In chronology, the solar equation necessary to prevent the new moon from happening a day too late, or the suppression of the bissextile once in 134 years. The opposite to this is the proemptosis, or the addition of a day every 300 years, and another every 2400 years.

ME'TEOR, noun [Gr. sublime, lofty.]

1. In a general sense, a body that flies or floats in the air, and in this sense it includes rain, hail, snow, etc. But in a restricted sense, in which it is commonly understood.

2. A fiery or luminous body or appearance flying or floating in the atmosphere, or in a more elevated region. We give this name to the brilliant globes or masses of matter which are occasionally seen moving rapidly through our atmosphere, and which throw off, with loud explosions, fragments that reach the earth, and are called falling stones. We call by the same name those fire balls which are usually denominated falling stars, supposed to be owning to gelatinous matter inflated by phosphureted hydrogen gas; also, the lights which appear over moist grounds and grave yards, called ignes fatui, which are ascribed to the same cause.

And meteor-like flame lawless through the sky.

METEOR'IC, adjective Pertaining to meteors; consisting of meteors.

1. Proceeding from a meteor; as meteoric stones.

ME'TEORIZE, verb intransitive To ascend in vapors. [Not used.]

MET'EOROLITE

METEOROLOG'IC

METEOROLOG'ICAL, adjective Pertaining to the atmosphere and its phenomena. A meteorological table or register is an account of the state of the air and its temperature, weight, dryness or moisture, winds, etc. ascertained by the barometer, thermometer, hygrometer, anemometer and other meteorological instruments.

METEOROLOG'IC

METEOROLOG'ICAL, a. Pertaining to the atmosphere and its phenomena. A meteorological table or register is an account of the state of the air and its temperature, weight, dryness or moisture, winds, &c. ascertained by the barometer, thermometer, hygrometer, anemometer and other meteorological instruments.

METEOROL'OGIST

METEOROL'OGY, noun [Gr. lofty, and discourse.] The science which treats of the atmosphere and its phenomena, particularly in its relation to heat and moisture.

METEOROL'OGY, n. [Gr. lofty, and discourse.] The science which treats of the atmosphere and its phenomena, particularly in its relation to heat and moisture.

METEOROM'ANCY

METEOROS'COPY, noun [Gr. lofty, and to view.] That part of astronomy which treats of sublime heavenly bodies, distance of stars, etc.

METE'OROUS, adjective Having the nature of a meteor.

ME'TER, noun [from mete.] One who measures; used in compounds, as in coal-meter, land-meter.

ME'TER, noun [Latin metrum.]

1. Measure; verse; arrangement of poetical feet, or of long and short syllables in verse. Hexameter is a meter of six feet. This word is most improperly written metre. How very absurd to write the simple word in this manner, but in all its numerous compounds, meter as in diameter, hexameter, thermometer, etc.

2. A French measure of length, equal to 39 37/100 English inches, the standard of linear measure, being the ten millionth part of the distance from the equator to the North Pole, as ascertained by actual measurement of an arc of the meridian.

MET'EROLITE, noun A meteoric stone; a stone or solid compound of earthy and metallic matter which falls to the earth after the displosion of a luminous meteor or fire ball; called also aerolite.

METEROL'OGIST, noun A person skilled in meteors; one who studies the phenomena of meteors, or keeps a register of them.

METEROM'ANCY, noun [Gr. a meteor, and divination.] A species of divination by meteors, chiefly by thunder and lightning; held in high estimation by the Romans.

ME'TEWAND, noun [mete and wand.] A staff or rod of a certain length, used as a measure.

ME'TEYARD, noun A yard, staff or rod, used as a measure. [We now use yard.]

METHEG'LIN, noun A liquor made of honey and water boiled and fermented, often enriched with spices.

METHINKS, v. impers. participle passive methought. [me and think.] It seems to me; it appears to me; I think. Me is here in the dative. The word is not antiquated, but is not elegant.

METH'OD, noun [Latin methodus; Gr. with, and way.]

1. A suitable and convenient arrangement of things, proceedings or ideas; the natural or regular disposition of separate things or parts; convenient order for transacting business, or for comprehending any complicated subject. Without method business of any kind will fall into confusion. To carry on farming to advantage, to keep accounts correctly, method is indispensable.

2. Way; manner. Let us know the nature of the disease, and the method of cure.

3. Classification; arrangement of natural bodies according to their common characteristics; as the method of Theophrast; the method of Ray; the Linnean method

In natural arrangements a distinction is sometimes made between method and system. System is an arrangement founded, throughout all its parts, on some one principle. method is an arrangement less fixed and determinate, and founded on more general relations. Thus we say, the natural method and the artificial or sexual system of Linne, though the latter is not a perfect system.

METHOD'IC

METHOD'ICAL, adjective Arranged in convenient order; disposed in a just and natural manner, or in a manner to illustrate a subject, or to facilitate practical operations; as a methodical arrangement of the parts of a discourse or of arguments; a methodical treatise; methodical accounts.

METHOD'ICALLY, adverb In a methodical manner; according to natural or convenient order.

METH'ODISM, noun The doctrines and worship of the sect of christians called Methodists.

METH'ODIST, noun One that observes method.

1. One of a sect of christians, founded by Morgan, or rather by John Wesley, and so called from the exact regularity of their lives, and the strictness of their principles and rules.

2. A physician who practices by method or theory.

3. In the cant of irreligious men, a person of strict piety; one who lives in the exact observance of religious duties.

METHODIS'TIC, adjective Resembling the Methodists; partaking of the strictness of Methodists.

METH'ODIZE, verb transitive To reduce to method; to dispose in due order; to arrange in a convenient manner.

One who brings with him any observations he has made in reading the poets, will find his own reflections methodized and explained in the works of a good critic.

METHOUGHT, preterit tense of methinks. It seemed to me; I thought.

ME'TIC, noun [Gr. house.] In ancient Greece, a sojourner; a resident stranger in a Grecian city or place.

METIC'ULOUS, adjective [Latin Feticulosus.] Timid. [ Not used.]

METON'IC CYCLE

METON'IC YEAR, the cycle of the moon, or period of nineteen years, in which the lunations of the moon return to the same days of the month; so called from its discoverer Meton the Athenian.

METONYM'IC

METONYM'ICAL, adjective [See Metonymy.] Used by way of metonymy, by putting one word for another.

METONYM'ICAL, a. [See Metonymy.] Used by way of metonymy, by putting one word for another.

METONYM'ICALLY, adverb By putting one word for another.

MET'ONYMY, noun [Gr. over, beyond, and name.] In rhetoric, a trope in which one word is put for another; a change of names which have some relation to each other; as when we say, 'a man keeps a good table.' instead of good provisions. 'We read Virgil.' that is, his poems or writings. 'They have Moses and the prophets, ' that is, their books or writings. A man has a clear head, that is, understanding, intellect; a warm heart, that is affections.

METOPE, noun met'opy. [Gr. with, near or by, and an aperture or hollow.] In architecture, the space between the triglyphs of the Doric frieze, which among the ancients used to be painted or adorned with carved work.

METOPOS'COPIST, noun [infra.] One versed in physiognomy.

METOPOS'COPY, noun [Gr. the forehead, and to view.] The study of physiognomy; the art of discovering the character or the dispositions of men by their features, or the lines of the face.

METRE. [See Meter.]

MET'RICAL, adjective [Latin metricus.]

1. Pertaining to measure, or due arrangement or combination of long and short syllables.

2. Consisting of verses; as metrical compositions.

METROL'OGY, noun [Gr. measure, and discourse.]

1. A discourse on measures or mensuration; the description of measures.

2. An account of measures, or the science of weights and measures.

METROP'OLIS, noun [Latin from Gr. mother, and city. It has no plural.]

Literally, the mother-city, that is, the chief city or capital of a kingdom, state or country, as Paris in France, Madrid in Spain, London in Great Britain. In the United States, Washington, in the District of Columbia, is the metropolis as being the seat of government; but in several of the states, the largest cities are not the seats of the respective governments. Yet New York city, in the state of that name, and Philadelphia in Pennsylvania, are the chief cities, and may be called each the metropolis of the state in which it is situated, though neither of them is the seat of government in the state.

METROPOL'ITAN, adjective Belonging to a metropolis, or to the mother church; residing in the chief city.

METROPOL'ITAN, noun The bishop of the mother church; an archbishop.

METROP'OLITE, adjective A metropolitan. [Not used.]

METROPOL'ITIC

METROPOLIT'ICAL, adjective Pertaining to a metropolis; chief or principal of cities; archiepiscopal.

METROPOLIT'ICAL, a. Pertaining to a metropolis; chief or principal of cities; archiepiscopal.

METTLE, noun met'l. [usually supposed to be corrupted from metal.

Latin animus, animosus.] Spirit; constitutional ardor; that temperament which is susceptible of high excitement. It is not synonymous with courage, though it may be accompanied with it, and is sometimes used for it.

The winged courser, like a generous horse,

Shows most true mettle when you check his course.

MET'TLED, adjective High spirited; ardent; full of fire.

MET'TLESOME, adjective Full of spirit; possessing constitutional ardor; brisk; fiery; as a mettlesome horse.

MET'TLESOMENESS, noun The state of being high spirited.

MEW, noun A seafowl of the genus Larus; a gull.

MEW, noun A cage for birds; an inclosure; a place of confinement.

MEW, verb transitive [from the noun.] To shut up; to inclose; to confine, as in a cage or other inclosure.

More pity that the eagle should be mew'd.

Close mew'd in their sedans, for fear of air.

MEW, verb transitive [Latin muto and moto.] To shed or cast; to change; to molt. The hawk mewed his feathers.

Nine times the moon had mew'd her horns--

MEW, verb intransitive [Latin mugio.] To cry as a cat.

MEW, verb intransitive To change; to put on a new appearance.

MEW'ING, participle present tense Casting the feathers or skin; crying.

MEWL, verb intransitive [Latin mugio, to low.] To cry or squall, as a child.

MEWL'ER, noun One that squalls or mewls.

MEZE'REON, noun A plant of the genus Daphne; the spurge olive.

MEZZO, in music, denotes middle, mean.

MEZZORELIE'VO, noun Middle relief.

MEZZOTINT'O, noun [Latin tinctus, painted.] A particular manner of engraving or representation of figures on copper, in imitation of painting in Indian ink. To perform this the plate is scratched and furrowed in different directions; the design is then drawn on the face, then the dents and furrows are erased from the parts where the lights of the piece are to be; the parts which are to represent shades being left.