The winged dristers began To chirp their mattins. Cleaveland. By the pontifical, no altar is consecrated without reliques; the vigils are celebrated before them, and the nocturn and mattins, for the saints whose: the reliques are. Stilling fleet. That he should raise his mitred crest on high, And clap his wings, and call his family To sacred rites; and vex th' etherial powers With midnight mattins, at uncivil hours. Dryden. MATRASS. n. s. [matras, Fr.] Matrass is the name of a chemical glass vessel made for digestion or distillation, being sometimes bellied, and sometimes rising gradually tapered into a conical figure. Quincy, Protect from violent storms, and the too parching dars of the sun, your pennached tulips and ranunculus's, covering them with matrasses. Evelyn's Kalendar. MATRICE. n. s. [matrix, Lat.] If the time required in vivification be of any length, the spirit will exhale before the creature be mature, except it be enclosed in a place where it may have continuance of the heat, and closeness ti at may keep it from exhaling; and such places are the wombs and matrices of the females. Bacon. 2. A mould; that which gives form to something inclosed. Stones that carry a resemblance of cockles, were formed in the cavities of shells; and these shells have served as matrices or moulds to them. Woodward. MATRICIDE. n. s. [matricidium, Lat.] 1. Slaughter of a mother. Nature compensates the death of the father by the matricide and murder of the mother. Brown. 2. [Matricida, Lat. matricide, Fr.] A mother killer. Ainsworth. To MATRICULATE. v. a. [from matricula: a matrix, quod ea velut matrice contineantur militum nomina. Ainsw.] To enter or admit to a membership of the universities of England; to enlist; to enter into any society by setting down the name. He, after some trial of his manners and learning, thought fit to enter himself of that college, and after to matriculate him in the university. Walton's Life of Saunderson. MATRICULATE. n. s. [from the verb.] A man matriculated. Suffer me, in the name of the matriculates of that famous university, to ask them some plain questions. Arbuthnot. MATRICULATION. n. s. [from matriculate.] The act of matriculating. A scholar absent from the university for five years, is struck out of the matriculation book; and upon his coming de novo to the university, ought to be again matriculated. Ayliffe. MATRIMONIAL. adj. [matrimonial, Fr. from matrimonium, Lat.] Suitable to marriage; pertaining to marriage; connubial; nuptial; hymeneal. If he relied upon that title, he could be but a king at curtesy, and have rather a matrimonial than a regal power, the right remaining in bis queen. Bacon's Henry VII. So spake domestick Adam in his care, And matrimonial love. Milton's Parad. Lost. Since I am turn'd the husband, you the wife; The matrimonial victory is mine, Which, having fairly gain'd, I will resign. Dryden. MATRIMONIALLY. adv. [from matrimonial.] According to the manner or laws of marriage. He is so matrimonially wedded into his church, that he cannot quit the same, even on the score of going into a religious house. Ayliffe. MATRIMONY. n. s. [matrimonium, If any know cause why this couple should not If they be not lodged in a convenient matrix, 1. An elderly lady. Shakesp. Come, civil night, Decay of Piety It is matter of the greatest astonishment to ob This is so certain in true philosophy, that it is matter of astonishment to me how it came to be doubted. Cheyne. 4. The whole; the very thing suppose '. He grants the deluge to have come so very neat the matter, that but very few escaped. Tillotson. 5. Affair; business: in a familiar sense To help the matter, the alchemists call in many vanities out of astrology. Bacon's Nat. Hist. Matters succeeded so well with him, that every body was in admiration to see how mighty rich he was grown. L'Estrange. Never was any thing gotten by sensuality and A matron sage matron. He had heard of the beauty and virtuous behaviour of the queen of Naples, the widow of Ferdinando the younger, being then of matronal years of seven and twenty. Bacon MATRONLY. adj. [matron and like.] Elderly; ancient. The matronly wife plucked out all the brown hairs, and the younger the white. L'Estrange. MATRO'SS. n. s. Matrosses, in the train of artillery, are a sort of MATTER. n. s. [matiere, Fr. materia, 1. 2. 3. Body; substance extended. 7. Where art thou? What's the matter with thee? Shakesp. What's the matter, you dissentious rogues, That rubbing the poor itch of your opinion, Make yourselves scabs? Shakesp. Coriolanus. Subject of suit or complaint. Slender, I broke your head; what matter have you against me? -Marry, Sir, I have matter in my head against you. Shakesp. If the craftsmen have a matter against any mall, the law is open; let them implead one another. Acts, xix. 38. In armies, if the matter should be tried by due between two champions, the victory should go on the one side; and yet if tried by the gross, it would go on the other. Bacon. 8. Import; consequence; importance; moment. If then the soul another soul do make, Because her pow'r is kept within a bound, She must some former stuff or matter take, But in the soul there is no matter found. Davies. It seems probable to me, that God in the beginning formed matter in solid, massy, hard, impenetrable, moveable particles, of such sizes and figures, and with such other properties, and in such proportion to space as most conduced to the end for which he formed them; and that those primitive particles being solids, are incomparably harder than any porous bodies compounded of them, even so very hard as never to wear or break 9. Thing; object; that which has some in pieces, no ordinary power being able to divide what God himself made one in the first creation. Newton. Some have dimensions of length, breadth, and The upper regions of the air perceive the col- Subject; thing treated. The subject or matter of laws in general is thus His herd. particular relation, or is subject to par ticular consideration. The king of Armenia had in his company three of the most famous men for matters of arms. Sidney. Plato reprehended a young man for entering into a dissolute house; the young man said, Why for so small a matter? Plato replied But customi is no small matter. Bacon. Many times the things deduced to judgment may be meum and tuum, when the reason and consequence thereof may trench to point of estate. I call matter of estate not only the arts of sovereignty, but whatsoever introduceth any great alteration, or dangerous precedent. Bacon's Essays. It is a maxim in state, that all countries of new acquest, till they be settled, are rather matters of burden than of strength. Bucon But the poor patient will as soon be found On the hard mattrass, or the mother ground. Dryd. MATURATION. n. s. [from maturo, Lat.] The state of growing ripe. 11. Space or quantity nearly computed. Away he goes to the market-town, a matter of seven miles off, to enquire if any had seen his ass. L'Estrange. 1. I have thoughts to tarry a small matter in town, to learn somewhat of your lingo. Congreve 12. Purulent running; that which is formed by suppuration. it. In an inflamed tubercle in the great angle of the left eye, the matter being suppurated, I opened Wiseman's Surgery. 2. 13. Upon the matter. A low phrase now out of use. Considering the whole; with respect to the main; nearly. In their superiors it quencheth jealousy, and Jayeth their competitors asleep; so that upon the matter, in a great wit deformity is an advantage to rising. Bacon's Essays. Clarendon. Upon the matter, in these prayers I do the same thing I did before, save only that what before I spake without book I now read. Bishop Saunderson. The elder, having consumed his whole fortune, when forced to leave his title to his younger brother, left upon the matter nothing to support it. Waller, with Sir William Balfour, exceeded in horse, but were, upon the matter, equal in foot. Clarendon. If on one side there are fair proofs, and no pretence of proof on the other, and that the difficulties are most pressing on that side which is destitute of proof, I desire to know, whether this be uot upon the matter as satisfactory to a wise man as a demonstration. Tillotson. To MATTER. v. n. [from the noun.] 1. To be of importance; to import. It is used with only it, this, that, or what before it. It matters not, so they deny it all; And can but carry the lye constantly. Ben Jonson. It matters not how they were called, so we know who they are. Locke. If Petrarch's muse did Laura's wit rehearse; And Cowley flatter'd dear Orinda's verse; She hopes from you-Pox take her hopes and fears, I plead her sex's claim: what matters hers? Prior. 2. To generate matter by suppuration. Deadly wounds inward bleed, each slight sore Sidney. mattereth. 2. A pickax. You must dig with mattock and with spade, And pierce the inmost centre of the earth. Shakesp. The Turks laboured with mattocks and pickaxes to dig up the foundation of the wall. Knolles. To destroy mountains was more to be expected from earthquakes than corrosive waters, and condemneth the judgment of Xerxes, that wrought through mount Athos with mattocks. Brown. MATTRESS. n. s. [matras, Fr.mattras, Welsh.] A kind of quilt made to lie upon. Their mattresses were made of feathers and straw, and sometimes of furs from Gau!. Arbuthnot. Nor will the raging fever's fire abate With golden canopies a. beds of state; VOL. II. One of the causes why grains and fruits are more nourishing than leaves is, the length of time in which they grow to maturation. Bacon. There is the maturation of fruits, the maturation of drinks, and the maturation of imposthumes,as also other maturations of metals. Bacon's Nat. Hist. The act of ripening. We have no heat to spare in Summer; it is very well if it be sufficient for the maturation of fruits. Bentley. 3. [In physick.] Maturation, by some physical writers, is applied to the suppuration of excrementitious or extravasated juices into matter, and differs from concoction or digestion, which is the raising to a greater perfection the alimentary and natural juices in their proper canals. Quincy. MATURATIVE. adj. [from maturo, Lat.] 1. Ripening; conducive to ripeness. Mature the virgin was of Egypt's race, Grace shap'd her limbs, and beauty deck'd her face. Prior. How shall I meet, or how accost the sage, Unskill'd in speech, nor yet mature of age. Pope. Brought near to completion. This lies glowing, and is mature for the violent breaking out. Shakesp. Coriolanus. Here i' th' sands Thee I'll rake up; and in the mature time, With this ungracious paper strike the sight Of the death-practis'd duke. Shakesp. King Lear. 3. Well-disposed; fit for execution; welldigested. To ripen; to advance to ripeness. To MATU'RE. v. a. [maturo, Lat.] 1. 2. Prick an apple with a pin full of holes, not deep, and smear it a little with sack, to see if the virtual heat of the wine will not mature it. Bacon's Natural History. To advance towards perfection. Love indulg'd my labours past, Matures my present, and shall bound my last. Pope. MATU'RELY. adv. [from mature.] 1. Ripely; completely. 2. With counsel well digested. 3. A prince ought maturely to consider, when he enters on a war, whether his coffers be full, and his revenues clear of debt. Swift. Early; soon. A latinism. We are so far from repining at God, that he hath not extended the period of our lives to the longevity of the antediluvians; that we give him thanks for contracting the days of our trial, and receiving us more maturely into those everlasting habitations above. Bentley. MATURITY. n. s. [maturité, Fr. maturitas, Lat.] Ripeness; completion. It may not be unfit to call some of young years to train up for those weighty affairs, against the time of greater maturity. Bacon. Impatient nature had taught motion To start from time, and chearfully to fly Before, and seize upon maturity. Crashaw Various mortifications must be undergone, many difficulties and obstructions conquered, before we can arrive at a just maturity in religion. Rogers. MA'UDLIN. adj. [Maudlin is the corrupt appellation of Magdelen, who is drawn by painters with swoln eyes, and disordered look; a drunken countenance, seems to have been so named from a ludicrous resemblance to the picture of Magdelen.] Drunk; fuddled; approaching to ebriety. And the kind maudling crowd melts in her praise. Southern. She largely, what she wants in words, supplies With maudlin eloquence of trickling eyes. Roscom. MA'UDLIN. n. s. [ageratum, Lat.] A plant. The flowers of the maudlin are digested inte loose umbels. Miller. MAUGRE. adj. [malgré, Fr.] In spite of; notwithstanding. It is now out of use. This, maugre all the world, will I keep safe; Or some of you thall smoke for it in Rome. Shakesp. Maugre thy strength, place, youth, and emi 1 through the ample air, in triumph high Shall lead bell captive; maugre hell! and show The pow'rs of darkness bound. Milton's Par. Lost. Maugre all which, 'twas to stand fast, As long as monarchy should last. Hudibras. He prophesied of the success of his gospel; which, after his death, immediately took root, and spread itself every-where, maugre all opposition Burnet. or persecution. MA'VIS. n. s. [mauvis, Fr.] A thrush, or bird like a thrush. An old word. The world that cannot deem of worthy things, When 1 do praise her, say I do but flatter; So doth the cuckow, when the mavis sings, Begins his witless note apace to clear. Spenser. In birds, kites have a resemblance with hawks, and black-birds with thrushes and mavises. Bacon's Natural History. To MAUL. v. a. [from malleus, Lat.] To beat; to bruise; to hurt in a coarse or butcherly manner. Will he who saw the soldier's mutton fist, And saw thee maul'd, appear within the list, To witness truth? Dryden's Juvenal. Once ev'ry week poor Hannibal is maul'd, And, till they drove me out of date, Swift's Miscel But fate with butchers plac'd thy priestly stall, Meek modern faith to murder, hack and maul. Pope. MAUL. n. s. [malleus, Lat.] A heavy hammer; commonly written Mall. A man that beareth false witness is a maul, a sword, and sharp arrow. Prov. xxv. 18. MAUND. n. 8. [mand, Sax. mande, Fr.] A hand-basket. To MA'UNDER. v. n. [maudire, Fr.] To grumble; to murmur. He made me many visits, maundering as if I had done him a discourtesy in leaving such an opening. Wiseman's Surgery. MAUNDERER. n. s. [from maunder.] A murmurer; a grumbler. MAUNDY-THURSDAY. n. s. [derived by Spelman from mande a hand-basket, in which the king was accustomed to give alms to the poor: by others from dies mundati, the day on which our Saviour gave his great mandate, That we should love one another.] The Thursday before Good-friday. MAUSOLEUM. n. s. [Latin; mausolée, Fr. A name which was first given to a stately monument erected by his queen Artimesia to her husband Mausolus, king of Caria.] A pompous funeral mo nument. MAW. So oft in feasts with costly changes clad, Though plenteous, all too little seems, May you live happily and long for the service of your country. Dryden's Dedication to the Aneis. MAY-be. Perhaps; it may be that. Granivorous birds have the mechanism of a mill; their maw is the hopper which holds and softens the grain,letting it down by degrees into the stomach, where it is ground by two strong muscles; in which action they are assisted by small stones, which they swallow for the purpose. Arbuthnot. MA'WKISH. adj. [perhaps from mau.] Apt to give satiety; apt to cause loath-1. ing. Flow, Welsted! flow, like thine inspirer beer, So sweetly mawkish, and so smoothly dull. Pope. MA'WKISHNESS. n. s. [from mawkish.] Aptness to cause loathing. MAWMET. n. s. [or mammet; from mam or mother.] A puppet, anciently an idol. MA'WMISH. adj. [from maw or maw met.] Foolish; idle; nauseous. It is one of the most nauseous, mawmish mortifications, for a man to have to do with a punctual, finical fop. L'Estrange. MAW-WORM. n. s. [maw and worm.] Ordinary gut-worms loosen, and slide off from, the intern tunick of the guts, and frequently creep into the stomach for nutriment, being attracted thither by the sweet chyle; whence they are called stomach or maw-worms. Harvey on Consumptions. MAXILLAR adj. [maxillaris, Lat.] MAXILLARY. Belonging to the jawbone. The greatest quantity of hard substance continued is towards the head; there is the skull, the teeth, and the maxillary bones. Bacon. MAXIM. n. s. [maxime, Fr. maximum, Lat.] An axiom; a general principle; a leading truth. This maxim out of love I teach, Shakesp. It is a maxim in state, that all countries of new acquest, till settled, are rather matters of burden than strength. Bacon. Yet, as in duty bound, they serve him on; Nor case, nor wealth, nor life itself regard, For 'tis their maxim, love is love's reward. 'Dryd. That the temper, the sentiments, the morality tf men, is influenced by the example and disposition of those they converse with, is a reflexion which has long since passed into proverbs, and been ranked among the standing maxims of human Rogers. MAY. auxiliary verb, preterite might. [magan, Sax. maghen, Dut.] 1. To be at liberty; to be permitted; to be allowed: as, you may do for me [per me licet] all you can. wisdom. May-be, that better reason will assuage MAY. n. s. [Maius, Lat.] The fifth month of the year; the confine of Spring and Summer. May must be drawn with a sweet and amiable Hail! bounteous May, that dost inspire The king this while, though he seemed to account of the designs of Perkins but as a May game, yet had given order for the watching of beacons upon the coasts. Bacon. Like early lovers, whose unpractis'd hearts, MAY-POLE. n. s. [May and pole.] Pole strand. Amid the area wide she took her stand; Where the tall May-pole once o'er-look'd the Pope. MAY-WEED. n. s. [May and weed.] A species of chamomile, called also stinking chamomile, which grows wild. Miller. The Maie-weed doth burne, and the thistle doth The fitches pull downward both rie and the wheat. MA'YOR. n. s. [major, Lat.] The chief When the king once heard it; out of anger, It is incorporated with the mayoralty, and nameth burgesses to the parliament. Carew. There was a sharp prosecution against Sir William Capel, for misgovernment in his mayoralty. Bacon's Henry VII. Milton. MAYORESS. n. s. [from mayor.] The wife of the mayor. MA'ZARD. n. s. [maschoire, Fr.] A jaw. Hanmer. Shakesp. Maids are May when they are maids, Is in the very May-morn of his youth, When merry May first early calls the morn, Milton. The plague, they report, hath a scent of the An insect. The ways of Heav'n are dark and intricate, Puzzled with mazes and perplex'd with error Our understanding searches them in vain. Addison. He, like a copious river, pour'd his song O'er all the mazes of enchanted ground. Thomson. 2. Confusion of thought; uncertainty; perplexity. He left in himself nothing but a mase of longing, and a dungeon of sorrow. Sidney. While they study how to bring to pass that re- In thoughts more elevate, and reason'd high Much was I maz'd to see this monster kind, Spenser MA'ZY. adj. [from maze.] Perplexed with | MEADOW-SAFFRON. n. s. [colchicum, windings; confused. How from that saphire fount the crisped brooks, Rolling on orient pearl and sands of gold, With masy error, under pendant shades, Ran nectar. Milton. The Lapitha to chariots add the state Of bits and bridles, taught the steed to bound, To run the ring, and trace the mazy round. Dryd. MA'ZER. n. s. [maeser, Dut. a knot of maple.] A maple cup. Then, lo! Perigot, the pledge which I plight, A mazer y wrought of the maple ware, Wherein is enchased many a fair fight Of bears and tigers that make fierce war. Spenser. Virgil observes, like Theocritus, a just decorum, both of the subject and persons, as in the third pastoral, where one of his shepherds describes a bowl, or mazer, curiously carved. Dryden. M. D. Medicinæ doctor, doctor of physick. Lat.] A plant. The meadow-saffron hath a flower consisting of one leaf, shaped like a lily, rising in form of a small tube, and is gradually widened into six segments; it has likewise a solid, bulbous root, covered with a membranous skin. Miller MEADOW-SWEET. n.s. [ulmaria, Lat.] A plant. MEAGER. adj. [maigre, Fr. macer, Lat.] 1. Lean; wanting flesh; starven. Thou art so lean and meagre waxen late, That scarce thy legs uphold thy feeble gate. Hub. Now will the canker sorrow eat my bud, And chase the native beauty from his cheek, And he will look as hollow as a ghost, As dim and meagre as an ague's fit. Shakesp. Meagre were his looks, Sharp misery had worn him to the bones. Shakesp. Whatsoever their neighbour gets, they lose, and the very bread that one eats makes t'other meager. L'Estrange. Fierce famine with her meagre face, And fevers of the fiery race, Pope. Pope. 2. In swarms th' offending wretch surround, Dryden. 2. Me is sometimes a kind of ludicrous expletive. He thrust me himself into the company of three or four gentlemanlike dogs, under the duke's table. Shakesp. He presently, as greatness knows itself, Steps me a little higher than his vow Made to my father, while his blood was poor. Shakesp. I, acquainted with the smell before, knew it was Crab, and goes me to the fellow that whips the dogs. Shakesp. I followed me close, came in foot and hand, and, with a thought, seven of the eleven I paid. Shakesp. 3. It is sometimes used ungrammatically for I: as, methinks. Me rather had, my heart might feel your love, Than my unpleas'd eye see your courtesy. Shakesp. MEACOCK. n. s. [mes coq. Skinner.] An uxorious or effeminate man. MEACOCK. adj. Tame; timorous; cowardly. 'Tis a world to see, How tame, when men and women are alone, A meacock wretch can make the cursest shrew. Shakesp. MEAD. n. s. [mædo, Sax. meethe, Dut. Canaan's happy land, when worn with toil, Requir'd a Sabbath year to mend the meagre soil. Dryden. To ME'AGER. v. a. [from the noun.] To make lean. It cannot be, that I should be so shamefully betrayed, and as a man meagered with long watching and painful labour, laid himself down to sleep. Knolles's History of the Turks. MEAGERNESS. n. s. [from meager.] 1. Leanness; want of flesh. 2. Scantness; bareness. Poynings, the better to make compensation of the meagerness of his service in the wars by acts of peace, called a parliament. Bacon. MEAK. n. s. A hook with a long handle. meth. Germ. hydromeli, Lat.] A kind 2. A repast; the food eaten. He sheers his over-burden'd sheep; Or mead for cooling drink prepares, Of virgin honey in the jars. MEAD. n. s. [mæde, Sax.] Ground MEADOW. S somewhat watery, not plowed, but covered with grass and flowers. Mead is a word chiefly poetical. Where all things in common do rest, A herd of beeves, fair oxen, and fair kine, Like glorious colours, through the flow'ry meads, Cloaths the gay spring, the season of desire. Waller. Yet ere to-morrow's sun shall shew his head, The dewy paths of meadows we will tread, For crowns and chaplets to adorn thy bed. Dryd. 3. What strange fish Hath made his meal on thee? Were he meal'd With that which he corrects, then were he tyrrannous. Shakesp ME'ALMAN. n. s. [meal and man.] One that deals in meal. ME'ALY. adj. [from meal.] 1. Having the taste or soft insipidity of meal; having the qualities of meal. The mealy parts of plants dissolved in water make too viscid an aliment. Arbuthnot on Aliments. 2. Besprinkled, as with meal. With four wings, as all farinacious and mealywinged animals, as butterflies and moths. Brown. Like a gay insect, in his summer shine, The fop light fluttering spreads his mealy wings. Thomson. MEALY-MOUTHED. adj. [imagined by Skinner to be corrupted from mildmouthed or mellow-mouthed: but perhaps from the sore mouths of animals, that, when they are unable to comminute their grain, must be fed with meal.] Soft mouthed; unable to speak freely. She was a fool to be mealy-mouthed where nature speaks so plain. L'Estrange. MEALYMOUTHEDNESS. n. s. [from the adjective.] Bashfulness; restraint of speech. MEAN. adj. [mone, Sax.] 1. Wanting dignity; of low rank or birth. She was stricken with most obstinate love to a young man but of mean parentage, in her father's court, named Antiphilus; so mean, as that he was but the son of her nurse, and by that means, without other desert, became known of her. Sidney. This fairest maid of fairer mind; By fortune mean, in nature born a queen. Sidney. "Let pale-fac'd fear keep with the mean-born man, And find no harbour in a royal heart. Shakesp. True hope is swift, and flies with swallowwings: Kings it makes gods, and meaner creatures kings. Shakesp. 2. Low-minded; base; ungenerous; spiritless. The shepherd knows not thunder from a tabor, More than I know the sound of Marcius' tongue From every meaner man. Shakesp. Coriolanus. Can you imagine I so mean could prove, To save my life by changing of my love? Dryden. We fast, not to please men, nor to promote any mean, worldly interest. Smalridge's Sermons. 3. Contemptible; despicable. Shakesp. Tempest. Give them great meals of beef, and iron and 4. steel, they will eat like wolves, and fight like devils. Shakesp. Henry V. They made m' a miser's feast of happiness, And cou'd not furnish out another meal. Dryden. A part; a fragment. That yearly rent is still paid into the hanaper, even as the former casualty itself was wont to be, in parcel meal, brought in and answered there. Bacon. 4. [Mælepe, Sax. meel, Dut. mahlen to grind, Germ.] The flower or edible part of corn. In the bolting and sifting of near fourteen years of such power and favour, all that came out could not be expected to be pure and fine meal, but must have a mixture of padar and bran in this lower age of human fragility. Wotton. An old weasel conveys himself into a meal tub for the mice to come to her, since she could not go to them. L'Estrange. To MEAL. v. a. [meler, Fr.] To sprinkle; to mingle. The Roman legions, and great Cæsar found Our fathers no mean foes. Philips. Low in the degree of any good quality; low in worth; low in power. Some things are good, yet in so run a degree of goodness, that many are only not aisproved nor disallowed of God for them. Hooker. French wheat is bearded, and requireth the best soil, recompensing the same with a profitable plenty; and not wheat, so termed because it is unbearded, is contented with a meaner earth, and Carew. contenting with a suitable gain. The lands be not holden of her majesty, but by a mean tenure in soccage, or by knight's service Bacon. at the most. By this extortion he suddenly grew from a mean to a mighty estate, insomuch that his ancient inheritance being not one thousand marks yearly, he became able to dispend ten thousand pounds. Davies on Ireland. To peaceful Rome new laws ordain; Call'd from his mean abode a sceptre to sustain. Dryden. I have sacrificed much of my own self-love, in preventing not only many mean things from seeing the light, but many which I thought tolerable. Pope. 5. [Moyen, Fr.] Middle; moderate; with out excess. He saw this gentleman, one of the properest and best-grac'd men that ever I saw, being of middle age and a mean stature. Sidney. Now read with them those organick arts which enable men to discourse and write, and according to the fittest style of lofty, mean, or lowly. Milton on Education. 6. Intervening; intermediate. In the mean while the heaven was black with clouds and wind, and there was a great rain. 1 Kings, xviii. 45. MEAN. n. s. [moyen, Fr.] 1. Mediocrity; middle rate; medium. Their contrary dislikes with loved means, Our mean securities, and our mere defects 11 Betwixt the both can measure out a mean. Shak. There is a mean in all things, and a certain measure wherein the good and the beautiful consist, and out of which they never can depart. Dryden. But no authority of gods or men Allow of any mean in poesie. Roscommon. Against her then her forces prudence joins, And to the golden mean herself confines. Denham. 2. Measure; regulation. Not used. The rolling sea resounding soft, In his big base them fitly answered, And on the rock the waves breaking aloft, A solemn mean unto them measured. Fairy Q 3. Interval; interim; mean time. But sith this wretched woman overcome, Of anguish rather than of crime hath been, Reserve her cause to her eternal doom, And in the mean vouchsafe her honourable tomb. Spenser. 4. Instrument; measure; that which is used in order to any end. Pamela's noble heart would needs gratefully make known the valiant mean of her safety. Sidney. As long as that which Christians did was good, and no way subject to just reproof, their virtuous conversation was a mean to work the heathens conversion unto Christ. Who is there that hath the leisure and means to collect all the proofs concerning most of the opinions he has, so as safely to conclude that he hath a clear and full view. Locke. A good character, when established, should not be rested in as an end, but only employed as a Atterbury. means of doing still farther good It renders us careless of approving ourselves to God by religious duties, and, by that means, securing the continuance of his goodness. Atterbury. 6. By all means. Without doubt; without hesitation; without fail. 7. By no means. Not in any degree; not at all. The wine on this side of the lake is by no means so good as that on the other. Addison on Italy. 8. Means are likewise used for revenue; fortune; probably from desmenes. Your means are slender, your waste is great. Shakesp. For competence of life I will allow you, That lack of means enforce you not to evil; And, as we hear you do reform yourselves, Give you advancement. Shakesp. Henry IV. Essex did not build or adorn any house; the queen perchance spending his time, and himself his means. Wotton. In the intervening time: sometimes an adver 9. Mean-time. Mean-while. bial mode of speech. 1. Mean-while The world shall burn, and from her ashes spring New heav'n and earth. Milton's Paradise Lost. Mean-time the rapid heav'ns rowl'd down the light, And on the shaded ocean rush'd the night. Dryden. Mean-time her warlike brother on the seas, His waving streamers to the winds displays. Dryd. Mean-time, in shades of night Æneas lies; Care seiz'd his soul, and sleep forsook his eyes. While ling ring rivers in meanders glide, They scatter verdant life on either side; The vallies smile, and with their flow'ry face, And wealthy births confess the floods embrace. Blackmore. Law is a bottomless pit: John Bull was flattered by the lawyers, that his suit would not last above a year; yet ten long years did Hocus steer his cause through all the meanders of the law, and all the courts. Arbuthnot. MEANDROUS. adj. [from meander.] Winding; flexuous. MEANING. n. s. [from mean.] 1. Purpose; intention. The sense; the thing understood. The meaning, not the name, I call: for thou, Not of the muses nine. Milton's Paradise Lost. These lost the sense their learning to display, And those explain'd the meaning quite away. Pope. No word more frequently in the mouths of men than conscience; and the meaning of it is, in some measure, understood: however, it is a word ex tremely abused by many, who apply other meanings to it which God Almighty never intended. Swift. Sense; power of thinking. He was not spiteful though he wrote a satyr, For still there goes some meaning to ill-nature. Dryden. -True no meaning puzzles more thau wit. Pope. ME'ANLY. adv. [from mean.] Dryden. 4. the Saxons for their defence. Hooker. To MEAN. v. n. [meenen, Dut ] It is no excuse unto him who, being drunk, committeth incest, and alledgeth that his wits were not his own; in. as much as himself might have chosen whether his wits should by that mean have been taken from him. Hooker. I'll devise a mean to draw the Moor Out of the way, that your converse and business May be more free. Shakesp. Othello. No place will please me so, no mean of death, As here by Cæsar and by you cut off. Shakesp. Nature is made better by no mean, But nature makes that mean; so over that art Which, you say, adds to nature, is an art That nature makes. Shakesp. Winter's Tale. 5. It is often used in the plural, and by some not very grammatically with an adjective singular: the singular is in this sense now rarely used. The more base art thou, To make such means for her as thou hast done, And leave her on such slight conditions. Shakesp. By this means he had them the more at vantage, being tired and harassed with a long march. Bacon's Henry III. Because he wanted means to perform any great action, he made means to return the sooner. Davies on Ireland. Strong was their plot, Their parties great, means good, the season fit, Their practice close, their faith suspected not. Daniel. By this means not only many helpless persons will be provided for, but a generation will be bred up not perverted by any other hopes. Spratt's Serm. 1. 2. Pope. Means not, but blunders round about a meaning. Moderately; not in a great degree. Dr. Metcalfe, master of St. John's College, a man meanly learned himself, but not meanly affectioned to set forward learning in others. Ascham. In the reign of Domitian, poetry was but meant cultivated, but painting eminently flourished. Dryden's Dufresnoy. Without dignity; poorly. It was the winter wild, While the heav'n-born child, All meanly wrapt in the rude manger lies. Milton. Denham's Sophy. 3. Without greatness of mind; ungenerously. Would you meanly thus rely On power, you know, I must obey? 4. Without respect. Prior. Our kindred, and our very names, seem to have something desirable in them: we cannot bear to have others think meanly of them. Watts's Logick. ME'ANNESS. n. s. [from mean.] Dryden. 2. To intend; to hint covertly; to under-1. stand. When your children shall say, What mean you by this service? ye shall say, It is the passover. Exod. xii. 26. MEA'NDER. n. s. [Meander is a river in Want of excellence. |