I acknowledge the usefulness of your directions, | To MINE. v. n. [from the noun.] To dig [2. To contaminate; to make of dissimilar ad I promise you to be mindful of mines or burrows; to form any hollows underground.

Wotton.
Of this various matter the terrestrial globe con-
sists from its surface to the greatest depth we
ever dig or mine. Woodward's Natural History To
To MINE. v. a. To sap; to ruin by mines;
to destroy by slow degrees, or secret

5. Persons employed in the publick affairs of a state.

I converse in full freedom with considermany able men of both parties; and if not in equal number, it is purely accidental, as happening to have made acquaintance at court more under one ministry than another. Swift.

MINIUM. n. s. [Lat.] Red lead.

Melt lead in a broad earthen vessel unglazed, and stir it continually till it be calcinated into a grey powder; this is called the calx of lead; continue the fire, stirring it in the same manner, and it becomes yellow; in this state it is used in painting, and is called masticot or massicot; after this put it into a reverberatory furnace, and it will calcine further, and become of a fine red, which is, the common minium or red lead: among the ancients, minium was the name for cinnabar; the modern minium is used externally, and is excellent in cleansing and healing old ulcers. Hill's Mat. Med.

MINNOCK. n. s. Of this word I know not the precise meaning. It is not unlikely that minnock and minx are originally the same word.

Shakesp.

An ass's nole I fixed on his head; Anon his This be must be answered, And forth my minnock comes. MINNOW. n. s. [menue, Fr.] A very small fish; a pink: a corruption of minim, which see.

Hear you this triton of the minnows? Shakesp. The minnow, when he is in perfect season, and not sick, which is only presently after spawning, hath a kind of dappled or waved colour, like a panther, on his sides, inclining to a greenish and sky-colour, his belly being milk-white, and his back almost black or blackish: he is a sharp biter at a small worm in hot weather, and in the Spring they make excellent minnow tansies; for being washed well in salt, and their heads and tails cut off, and their guts taken out, being fried with yolks of eggs, primroses and tansy.

Walton's Angler.

The nimble turning of the minnow is the perfection of minnow fishing.

MINOR. adj. [Lat.]

1. Petty; inconsiderable.

Walton's Angler.

If there are petty errours and minor lapses, not considerably injurious unto faith, yet is it not safe to contemn inferiour falsities.

2. Less; smaller.

He supposed that a philosopher's brain was like a forest, where ideas are ranged like animals of several kinds; that the major is the male, the minor the female, which copulate by the middle term, and engender the conclusion. Arbuthnot. To MINORATE. v. a. [from minor, Lat.] To lessen; to diminish. A word not yet admitted into the language.

I to the vulgar am become a jest;
Esteemed as a minstrel at a feast.

Sandys's Paraph.
These fellows
Were once the minstrels of a country show;
Follow'd the prizes through each paltry town,
By trumpet-cheeks and bloated faces known.
Dryden.

Often our seers and poets have confess'd,
That musick's force can tame the furious beast;
Can make the wolf, or foaming boar restrain
His rage; the lion drop his crested mane,
Attentive to the song; the lynx forget
His wrath to man, and lick the minstrel's feet.
MI'NSTRELSEY. n. s. [from minstrel.]
Musick; instrumental harmony.
Apollo's self will envy at his play,
And all the world applaud his minstrelsey.

This it doth not only by the advantageous as-
sistance of a tube, but by shewing in what degrees
distance minorates the object.
Glanville.
MINORATION. n. s. [from minorate.]
The act of lessening; diminution; de-1.
crease. A word not admitted.

Bodies emit virtue without abatement of weight,
as is most evident in the loadstone, whose effi-]
ciencies are communicable without a minoration of
gravity.
Brown's Vulg. Errors.

We hope the mercies of God will consider our
degenerated integrity unto some minoration of our
Brown.

offences.

MINO'RITY. n. s. [minorité, Fr. from
minor, Lat.]

1.
I mov'd the king, my master, to speak in the
behalf of my daughter, in the minority of them
Shakesp.

The state of being under age.

both.

He is young, and his minority
Is put into the trust of Richard Gloster. Shakesp.
These changes in religion should be staid, until
the king were of years to govern by himself: this
the people apprehending worse than it was, a
question was raised, whether, during the king's
minority, such alterations might be made or no.
Hayward.
Henry the Eighth, doubting he might die in
the minority of his son, procured an act to pass,
that no statute made during the minority of the
king should bind him or his successors, except it
were confirmed by the king at his full age. But
the first act that passed in king Edward the
Sixth's time, was a repeal of that former act;
at which time nevertheless the king was minor.

Prior.

Davies

That loving wretch that swears, 'Tis not the bodies marry, but the minds, Which he in her angelick finds,

Would swear as justly, that he hears,
In that day's rude hoarse minstrelsey, the spheres
I began,

'Donne

Wrapt in a pleasing fit of melancholy,
To meditate my rural minstrelsey,

Till fancy had fier fill.

Milton.

2.

A number of musicians.
Ministring spirits train'd up in feast, and song!
Such hast thou arm'd the minstrelsey of heav'n.

Milton.

Brown. 3.

They altered this custom from cases of high concernment to the most trivial debates, the minor part ordinarily entering their protest. Clarendon, The difference of a third part in so large and collective an account is not strange, if we consider how differently they are set in minor and less mistakeable numbers. Brown's Vulg. Errors. MINOR. n. s.

1. One under age; one whose youth cannot yet allow him to manage his own affairs.

King Richard the Second, the first ten years of his reign, was a minor. Davies on Ireland.

He and his muse might be minors, but the liber

From this narrow time of gestation may ensue
a minority, or smallness in the exclusion. Brown.
The smaller number: as, the minority
held for that question in opposition to
the majority.

MINOTAUR. n. s. [minotaure, Fr. minos
A monster invented by
and taurus.]
the poets, half man and half bull, kept!
in Dædalus's labyrinth.

The place where money is coined.

What is a person's name or face, that receives all his reputation from the mint, and would never have been known had there not been medals. Addison on Medals.

Any place of invention.

A man in all the world's new fashion planted, That hath a mint of phrases in his brain. Shakesp. As the mints of calumny are at work, a great number of curious inventions are issued out, which grow current among the party. Addison. To MINT. v. a. [from the noun.]

1.

2.

To coin; to stamp money.

Another law was, to bring in the silver of the realm to the mint, in making all clipped coins of silver not to be current in payments, without giving any remedy of weight; and so to set the mint on work, and to give way to new coins of silver which should be then minted.

Look into the titles whereby they hold these new portions of the crown, and you will find them of such natures as may be easily minted. MINTAGE. n. s. [from mint.]

Thou may'st not wander in that labyrinth, There minotaurs, and ugly treasons lurk. Shakesp. MINSTER. n. 8. [minrrere, Saxon.] 1. That which is coined or stamped. A monastery; an ecclesiastical fraternity; a cathedral church. The word is yet retained at York and Lichfield.

tines are full grown. t be mini bf the Stage. MINSTREL. n. s. [menestril, Spanish;

1. [With printers.] A small sort of printing letter.

2. [With musicians.] A note of slow time, two of which made a semibrief, as two crotchets make a minum; two quavers a crotchet, and two semiquavers a quaver. Bailey.

He's the courageous captain of compliments; he fights as you sing prick songs,keeps time, distance, and proportion; rests his minum, one, two, and the third in your bosom. Shakesp. MINUTE. adj. [minutus, Lat.] Small; little; slender; small in bulk; small in consequence.

Some minute philosophers pretend,
T'at with our days our pains and pleasures end.
Denham.
Such an universal superintendency has the eye|
and hand of providence over all, even the most
minute and inconsiderable things. South's Sermons.
Into small parts the wond'rous stone divide,
Ten thousand of minutest size express
The same propension which the large possess.
Blackmore.

MINUTE-GLASS. n. s. [minute and glass.]
Glass of which the sand measures a
minute.

MINUTELY. adv. [from minúte.] To a
small point exactly; to the least part:
nicely.

Miraculous yet remaining in those locks?
His might continues in thee not for naught. Milton.
At the first planting of the Christian religion,
God was pleased to accompany it with a miracu
lous power.
Tillotson.
Locke. MIRACULOUSLY. adv. [from miraculous.]
By miracle; by power above that of

In this posture of mind it was impossible for
him to keep that slow pace, and observe minutely.
that order of ranging all he said, from which re-
sults an obvious perspicuity.

Change of night and day,
And of the seasons ever stealing round,
Minutely faithful.
Thomson's Summer.
MINUTELY. adv. [from minute, the sub-
stantive.]

1. Every minute; with very little time
intervening.

What is it but a continued perpetuated voice
from heaven, resounding for ever in our ears? As
if it were minutely proclaimed in thunder from
heaven, to give men no rest in their sins, no quiet
from Christ's importunity till they arise from so
mortiferous a state.
Hammond's Fundamentals.
2. [In the following passage it seems ra-
ther to be an adjective, as hourly is both
the adverb and adjective.] Happening
every minute.

Now minutely revolts upbraid his faith-breach,
Those, he commands, move only in command,
Nothing in love.
Shakesp. Macbeth.
MINUTENESS. n. s. [from minute.] Small-
ness; exility; inconsiderableness.

ness.

The animal spirit and insensible particles never
fall under our senses by reason of their minute-
Bentley.
MINUTE WATCH. n. S. [minute and
watch.] A watch in which minutes are
more distinctly marked than in common
watches which reckon by the hour.

Casting our eyes upon a minute-watch, we found
that from the beginning of the pumping, about
two minutes after the coals had been put in glow-
ing, to the total disappearing of the fire, there had
passed but three minutes.
Arbuthnot.

The serum is attenuated by circulation, so as to pass into the minutest channels, and become fit nutriment for the body.

In all divisions we should consider the larger and more immediate parts of the subject, and not divide it at once into the more minute and remote. parts. Watts's Logick. MINUTE. n. s. [minutum, Lat.] 1. The sixtieth part of an hour. This man so complete, Who was enroll'd 'mongst wonders, and when we, Almost with list'ning ravish'd, could not find His hour of speech a minute.

Shakesp. Henry VIII. 2. Any small space of time.

They walk'd about me ev'ry minute while;
And if I did but stir out of my bed,
Ready they were to shoot me to the heart. Shak.
The speed of gods

Time counts not, though with swiftest minutes
wing'd.
Milton's Paradise Lost.
Gods! that the world should turn

On minutes and on moments. Denham's Sophy.
Experience does every minute prove the sad
truth of this assertion.
South's Sermons.

Dryden.

Tell her, that I some certainty may bring; I go this minute to attend the king. 3. The first draught of any agreement in writing; this is common in the Scottish law as, have you made a minute of that contract?

Lewd minx!

Boyle.

MINX. n. s. [contracted, I suppose, from
minnock.] A young, pert, wanton girl.
Come, go with me apart.
Shakesp.
Some torches hore, some links,
Before the proud virago minx.
Hudibras.

She, when but yet a tender minr, began
To hold the door, but now sets up for man. Dryd.

MIRACLE. n. s. [miracle, Fr. miraculum,
Lat.]

t. A wonder; something above human

power.

Nothing almost sees miracles

But misery.
Shakesp. King Lear.
Virtuous and holy, chosen from above,
Shak.
To work exceeding miracles on earth.
Be not offended, nature's miracle,
Thou art allotted to be ta'en by me.
2. [In theology.] An effect above human
or natural power, performed in attesta-
tion of some truth.

Shak.

The miracles of our Lord are peculiarly eminent above the lying wonders of demons, in that they were not made out of vain ostentation of power, and to raise unprofitable amazement; but for the real benefit and advantage of men, by feeding the hungry, healing all sorts of diseases, ejecting of devils, and reviving the dead.

nature.

It was a singular providence of God, to draw those northern heathen nations down into those Christian parts, where they might receive Christianity, and to mingle nations so remote miracu lously, to make one blood and kindred of all people, and each to have knowledge of him.

Spenser on Ireland.
Turnus was to be slain that very day; and
Eneas, wounded as he was, could not have en-
gaged him in single combat, unless his hurt had
been miraculously healed.
Dryden.
MIRACULOUSNESS. n. s. [from miracu-
lous.] The state of being effected by
MIRADOR. n. s. [Spanish; from mirar,
miracle; superiority to natural power.
to look.] A balcony; a gallery whence
ladies see shews.

Mean time your valiant son, who had before
Gaia'd fame, rode round, to ev'ry mirador;
Beneath each lady's stand a stop he made,
And bowing, took th' applauses which they paid,
Dryden.
MIRE. n. s. [moer, Dut.] Mud; dirt at

the bottom of water.

He his rider from her lofty steed,
Would have cast down, and trod in dirty mire.
Spenser.
Here's that, which is too weak to be a sinner,
honest water, which ne'er left man i' th' mire.
Shakespeare's Timon of Athens.
I'm Ralph himself. your trusty squire,
Wh' has dragg'd your donship out o' th' mire.
Hudibras.

torn.

1 appeal to any man's reason, whether it be not better that there should be a distinction of land and sea, than that all should be mire and water. More against Atheism. Now plung'd in mire, now by sharp brambles Rose. 70 MIRE. v. a. [from the noun.] Το whelm in the mud; to soil with mud. Why had I not, with charitable hand, Took up a beggar's issue at my gates? Who smeer'd thus, and mir'd with infamy,

I might have said no part of it is mine. Shakesp. MIRE. n. s. [myr, Welsh; mýna, Sax. mier, Dut.] An ant; a pismire. MIRINESS. n. s. [from miry] Dirtiness; fullness of mire.

MIRKSOME. adj. [morck dark, Danish. In the derivatives of this set, no regular orthography is observed: it is common to write murky, to which the rest ought to conform.] Dark; obscure.

Through mirksome air her ready way she makes. Fairy Queen. MIRROR. n. s. [miroir, Fr. mirar, Span. to look.]

Bentley. 1. A looking-glass; any thing which exhibits representations of objects by reflection.

To MINUTE. v. a. [minuter, Fr.] To MIRA CULOUS. adj. [miraculeux, Fr. from set down in short hints.

I no sooner heard this critick talk of my works, but I minuted what he had said, and resolved to enlarge the plan of my speculations. Spectator. MINUTE-BOOK. n. s. [minute and book.] Book of short hints.

miracle.] Done by miracle; produced
by miracle; effected by power more
than natural.

Arithmetical progression might easily demon-
strate how fast mankind would increase, over-
passing as miraculous, though indeed natural, that

And in his waters which your mirror make,
Behold your faces as the crystal bright. Spenser.
That pow'rwhich gave me eyes the world to view,
To view myself infus'd an inward light,
Whereby my soul, as by a mirror true,

Of her own form may take a perfect sight. Davies.

Shakesp.

MISADVENTURE. n. s. [mesaventure,
Fr. mis and adventure.] Mischance;
misfortune; il luck; bad fortune.
Your looks are pale and wild, and do import
Some misadventure. Shakesp. Romeo and Juliet.
When a commander, either upon necessity or
misadventure, falleth into danger, it much ad-
vanceth both his reputation and enterprise, if
bravely he behaveth himself.
Hayward.

The body consisted, after all the losses and mis-
adventures, of no less than six thousand foot.
Clarendon.
Distinguish betwixt misadventure and design.
L'Estrange.
The trouble of a misadventure now and then,
that reaches not his innocence or reputation, may
not be an ill way to teach him more cautiou.
Locke on Education.

ture.] Unfortunate.

From forth the fatal loins of these two foes,
A pair of starcrost lovers take their life;
Whose misadventur'd piteous overthrows
Do with their death bury their parents' strife.
Shakesp.

Mirroir of ancient faith in early youth. Dryden. MISADVENTURED. adj. [from misadven-
MIRROR-STONE. n. s. [selenites, Lat.]
A kind of transparent stone. Ainsworth.
MIRTH. n. s. [mynepbe, Sax.] Merri-
ment; jollity; gaiety; laughter.
To give a kingdom for a mirth, to sit,
And keep the turn of tippling with a slave.
His eye begets occasion for his wit;
For every object that the one doth catch,
The other turns to a mirth-moving jest. Shakesp.
Most of the appearing mirth in the world is not
mirth but art: the wounded spirit is not seen, but
walks under a disguise.

Shakesp.

South.

With genial joy to warm the soul,
Bright Helen mix'd a mirth inspiring bowl. Pope.
MIRTHFUL. adj. [mirth and full.] Merry;
gay; cheerful.

No simple word,

That shall be utter'd at our mirthful board,
Shall make us sad next morning.

Ben Jonson.

The feast was serv'd; the bowl was crown'd; To the king's pleasure went the mirthful round.

Prior.

MIRTHLESS. adj. [from mirth.] Joyless; cheerless.

MIRY. adj. [from mire.] 1. Deep in mud; muddy.

Thou should'st have heard how her horse fell, and she under her horse: thou should'st have heard in how miry a place, how she was bemoiled. Shakesp. Taming of the Shrew. All men who lived lazy lives, and died natural deaths, by sickness or by age, went into vast caves under-ground, all dark and miry, full of noisome creatures, and there grovelled in endless stench and misery. Temple. Deep, through a miry lane she pick'd her way, Above her ancle rose the chalky clay. Gay's Trivia.

So have I seen ill-coupled hounds Drag diff'rent ways in miry grounds. Swift. 2. Consisting of mire.

Shall thou and I sit round about some fountain Looking all downwards to behold our cheeks, How they are stain'd like meadows, yet not dry, With miry slime left on them by a flood? Shakesp. MIs, an inseparable particle used in composition to mark an ill sense, or depravation of the meaning: as, chance, luck; mischance, ill luck; computation, reckoning; miscomputation, false reckoning;

MISADVISED. adj. [mis and advised.] Ill
directed.

MISAIMED. adj. [mis and aim.] Not
aimed rightly.

The idle stroke enforcing furious way,
Missing the mark of his misaimed sight,
Did fall to ground.
MI'SANTHROPE,
MISANTHROPOS.

}

A hater of mankind.

Fairy Queen. n. s. [misanthrope, Fr.μoard.] μισάνθρωπο.]

I am misanthropos, and hate mankind. Shakesp.
Alas, poor dean! his only scope
Was to be held a misanthrope;
Swift.
This into gen'ral odium drew him.
MISANTHROPY. n. s. [misanthropie, Fr.
from misanthrope.] Hatred of man-
kind.

That your reasonings may lose none of their force by my misapprehending or misrepresenting them, I shall give the reader your arguments.

Locke.

MISAPPREHENSION. n. s. [mis and ap prehension.] Mistake; not right apprehension.

It is a degree of knowledge to be acquainted with the causes of our ignorance. what we have to say under this head, will equally concern our misapprehensions and errors. Glanville.

To MISASCRIBE. v. a. [mis and ascribe.]
To ascribe falsely.

That may be misascribed to art which is the bare
production of nature.
Boyle,
To MISASSIGN. v. a. [mis and assign.]
To assign erroneously.

nomenon.

We have not misassigned the cause of this phe-
Boute,
To MISBECOME. v. a. [mis and become.]
Not to become; to be unseemly; not
to suit.
Either she has a possibility in that which I
think impossible, or else impossible loves need
not misbecome me.
Sidney.
What to the dauphin from England?
-Scorn and defiance, slight regard, contempt,
And any thing that may not misbecome
The mighty sender.

Shakesp. Henry V. That boldness which lads get amongst playfellows, has such a mixture of rudeness and iHturned confidence, that those misbecoming and disingenuous ways of shifting in the world must be unlearned to make way for better principles.

MISAPPLICATION. n. s. [mis and appli-
cation.] Application to a wrong pur-To MISBEHA'VE. v. n. [mis and behave.]
pose.

To act ill or improperly.
MISBEHAVED. adj. [mis and behaved.]
Untaught; ill bred; uncivil.

Happiness courts thee in her best array ;
But, like a misbehav'd and sullen wench,
Thou pout'st upon thy fortune and thy love.
Shakes

MISBEHAVIOUR. n. s. [mis and beha-
riour.] Il conduct; bad practice.

The misbehaviour of particular persons does not at all affect their cause, since a man may act laudably in some respects, who does not so in others. Addison's Freeholder.

MISBELIEF. n. s. [mis and belief.] False religion; a wrong belief.

for holy uses, and not misapplied to any other ends. MISBELIEVER. n. s. [mis and believer.] One that holds a false religion, or believes wrongly.

Howel.

He that knows, that whiteness is the name of that colour he has observed in snow, will not misapply that word as long as he retains that idea. Locke.

to like, to be pleased; to mislike, to be To MISAPPREHEND. v. a. [mis and apoffended; from mes in Teutonick and

prehend.] Not to understand rightly.

Yes, if I drew it with a curst intent
To take a misbeliever to my bed,
It must be so.

Dryden's Don Sebastian. To MISCA'LCULATE. v. a. [mis and calculate.] To reckon wrong.