Noah Webster’s 1828 Dictionary

MALACOPTERYGEOUS — MANACLED

MALACOPTERYGEOUS, a. [Gr. soft, a point or feather.]

Having bony rays of fins, not sharp or pointed at the extremity; as a fish.

MALACOSTOMOUS, a. [Gr. soft, and mouth.]

Having soft jaws without teeth; as a fish.

MALADMINISTRATION, n. [See Mal and Administer.] Bad management of public affairs; vicious or defective conduct in administration, or the performance of official duties, particularly of executive and ministerial duties, prescribed by law; as the maladministration of a king, or of any chief magistrate.

MALADY, n. [L. malum; Eng. mellow, L. mollis.]

1. Any sickness or disease of the human body; any distemper from impaired, defective or morbid organic functions; more particularly, a lingering or deep seated disorder or indisposition. It may be applied to any animal body, but is, I believe, rarely or never applied to plants.

The maladies of the body may prove medicines to the mind.

2. Defect or corruption of the heart; depravity; moral disorder or corruption of moral principles. Depravity of heart is a moral malady.

3. Disorder of the understanding or mind.

MALAGA, n. A species of wine imported from Malaga, in Spain.

MALANDERS, n. A dry scab on the pastern of a horse.

MALAPERT, a. [mal and pert.] Saucy; quick, with impudence; sprightly, without respect or decency; bold; forward.

Are you growing malapert?

MALAPERTLY, adv. Saucily; with impudence.

MALAPERTNESS, n. Sauciness; impudent pertness or forwardness; sprightliness of reply without decency.

MALAPROPOS, adv. malap’ropo. Unsuitably.

MALAR, a. [L. mala, the cheek.] Pertaining to the cheek.

MALATE, n. [L. malum, an apple.] A salt formed by the malic acid, the acid of apples, combined with a base.

MALAXATE, v.t. To soften; to knead to softness.

MALAXATION, n. The act of moistening and softening; or the forming of ingredients into a mass for pills or plasters. [Little used.]

MALCONFORMATION, n. Ill form; disproportion of parts.

MALCONTENT, n. [mal and content.] A discontented subject of government; one who murmurs at the laws and administration, or who manifests his uneasiness by overt acts, as in sedition or insurrection.

MALCONTENT, MALCONTENTED, a. Discontented with the laws or the administration of government; uneasy; dissatisfied with the government.

The famous malcontent earl of Leicester.

MALCONTENTEDLY, adv. With discontent.

MALCONTENTEDNESS, n. Discontentedness with the government; dissatisfaction; want of attachment to the government, manifested by overt acts.

MALE, a. [L. masculus, from mas, maris.]

1. Pertaining to the sex that procreates young, and applied to animals of all kinds; as a male child; a male beast, fish, or fowl.

2. Denoting the sex of a plant which produces the fecundating dust, or a flower or plant that bears the stamens only, without pistils.

3. Denoting the screw whose threads enter the grooves or channels of the corresponding or female screw.

MALE, n. Among animals, one of the sex whose office is to beget young; a he-animal.

1. In botany, a plant of flower which produces stamens only, without pistils.

2. In mechanics, the screw whose threads enter the grooves or channels of the corresponding part or female screw.

MALE, as a previx, [See Mal.]

MALEDICENCY, n. [L. maledicentia; male and dico.]

Evil speaking; reproachful language; proneness to reproach. [Little used.]

MALEDICENT, a. Speaking reproachfully; slanderous. [Little used.]

MALEDICTION, n. [L. maledictio; male, evil, and dico, to speak.]

Evil speaking; denunciation of evil; a cursing; curse or execration.

MALEFACTION, n. [L. male, evil, and facio, to do.]

A criminal deed; a crime; an offense against the laws. [Little used.]

MALEFACTOR, n. [supra.] One who commits a crime; one guilty of violating the laws, in such a manner as to subject him to public prosecution and punishment, particularly to capital punishment; a criminal.

MALEFICE, n. An evil deed; artifice; enchantment. [Not in use.]

MALEFICIATE, v.t. To bewitch. [Not in use.]

MALEFICIATION, n. A bewitching. [Not in use.]

MALEFICIENCE, n. [L. maleficientia.]

The doing of evil, harm or mischief.

MALEFICIENT, a. Doing evil, harm or mischief.

MALENGINE, n. Guile; deceit. [Not in use.]

MALET, n. A little bag or budget; a portmanteau. [Not used.]

MALEVOLENCE, n. [L. malevolentia; malum, evil, and volens, volo, to will.] Ill will, personal hatred; evil disposition towards another; enmity of heart; inclination to injure others. It expresses less than malignity.

MALEVOLENT, a. Having an evil disposition towards another or others; wishing evil to others; ill disposed, or disposed to injure others. A malevolent heart rejoices in the misfortunes of others.

1. Unfavorable; unpropitious; bringing calamity.

MALEVOLENTLY, adv. With ill will or enmity; with the wish or design to injure.

MALEVOLOUS, a. Malevolent. [Not in use.]

MALFEASANCE, n. Evil doing; wrong; illegal deed.

MALFORMATION, n. [mal and formation.] Ill or wrong formation; irregular or anomalous formation or structure of parts.

MALIC, a. [L. malum, an apple.] Pertaining to apples; drawn from the juice of apples; as malic acid.

MALICE, n. [L. malitia, from malus, evil.] Extreme enmity of heart, or malevolence; a disposition to injure others without cause, from mere personal gratification or from a spirit of revenge; unprovoked malignity or spite.

--Nor set down aught in malice.

MALICE, v.t. To regard with extreme ill will. [Not used.]

MALICIOUS, a. Harboring ill will or enmity without provocation; malevolent in the extreme; malignant in heart.

I grant him bloody,

Sudden, malicious, smacking of every sin

That has a name.

1. Proceeding from extreme hatred or ill will; dictated by malice; as a malicious report.

MALICIOUSLY, adv. With malice; with extreme enmity or ill will; with deliberate intention to injure.

MALICIOUSNESS, n. The quality of being malicious; extreme enmity or disposition to injure; malignity.

MALIGN, a. mali’ne. [L. malignus, from malus, evil. See Malady.]

1. Having a very evil disposition towards others; harboring violent hatred or enmity; malicious; as malign spirits.

2. Unfavorable; pernicious; tending to injure; as a malign aspect of planets.

3. Malignant; pernicious; as a malign ulcer.

MALIGN, v.t. To regard with envy or malice; to treat with extreme enmity; to injure maliciously.

The people practice mischief against private men, whom they malign by stealing their goods and murdering them.

1. To traduce; to defame.

MALIGN, v.i. To entertain malice.

MALIGNANCY, n. [See Malignant.] Extreme malevolence; bitter enmity; malice; as malignancy of heart.

1. Unfavorableness; unpropitiousness; as the malignancy of the aspect of planets.

The malignancy of my fate might distemper yours.

2. Virulence; tendency to mortification or to a fatal issue; as the malignancy of an ulcer or of a fever.

MALIGNANT, a. [L. malignus, maligno, from malus, evil.]

1. Malicious; having extreme malevolence or enmity; as a malignant heart.

2. Unpropitious; exerting pernicious influence; as malignant start.

3. Virulent; as a malignant ulcer.

4. Dangerous to life; as a malignant fever.

5. Extremely heinous; as the malignant nature of sin.

MALIGNANT, n. A man of extreme enmity or evil intentions. [Not used.]

MALIGNANTLY, adv. Maliciously; with extreme malevolence.

1. With pernicious influence.

MALIGNER, n. One who regards or treats another with enmity; a traducer; a defamer.

MALIGNITY, n. [L. malignitas.] Extreme enmity, or evil dispositions of heart towards another; malice without provocation, or malevolence with baseness of heart; deep rooted spite.

1. Virulence; destructive tendency; as the malignity of an ulcer or disease.

2. Extreme evilness of nature; as the malignity of fraud.

3. Extreme sinfulness; enormity or heinousness; as the malignity of sin.

MALIGNLY, adv. With extreme ill will.

1. Unpropitiously; perniciously.

MALISON, n. Malediction. [Not in use.]

MALKIN, n. maw’kin. A mop; also, a low maid-servant.

MALL, n. maul. [L. malleus.]

1. A large heavy wooden beetle; an instrument for driving any thing with force.

2. A blow.

MALL, n. mal. A public walk; a level shaded walk.

MALL, v.t. maul. To beat with a mall; to beat with something heavy; to bruise.

MALLARD, n. A species of duck of the genus Anas.

MALLEABILITY, n. [from malleable.] That quality of bodies which renders them susceptible of extension by beating. It is opposed to friability or brittleness.

MALLEABLE, a. [L. malleus. See Mall.] That may be drawn out and extended by beating; capable of extension by the hammer; a quality of metals, particularly of gold.

MALLEABLENESS, n. Malleability, which see.

MALLEATE, v.t. To hammer; to draw into a plate or leaf by beating.

MALLEATION, n. The act of beating into a plate or leaf, as a metal; extension by beating.

MALLET, n. [L. malleus.] A wooden hammer or instrument for beating, or for driving pins; particularly used in carpentry, for driving the chisel.

MALLOW, n. [L. malva; Gr. soft; Eng. mellow.]

A plant of the genus Malva; so called form its emollient qualities.

Marsh-mallows, a plant of the genus Althaea.

MALMSEY, n. [L. vinum arvisium.] The name of a species of grape, and also of a kind of wine.

MALPRACTICE, n. [mal and practice.] Evil practice; illegal or immoral conduct; practice contrary to established rules.

MALT, n. Barley steeped in water, fermented and dried in a kiln, and thus prepared for brewing into ale or beer.

MALT, v.t. To make into malt; as, to malt barley.

MALT, v.i. To become malt.

To house it green will make it malt worse.

MALT-DRINK, MALT-LIQUOR, n. A liquor prepared for drink by an infusion of malt; as beer, ale, porter, etc.

MALT-DUST, n. The grains or remains of malt.

Malt-dust is an enricher of barren land.

MALT-FLOOR, n. A floor for drying malt.

MALT-HORSE, n. A horse employed in grinding malt; hence, a dull fellow.

MALTMAN, MALTSTER, n. A man whose occupation is to make malt.

MALTWORM, n. [malt and worm.] A tipler.

MALTALENT, n. Ill humor. [Not in use.]

MALTHA, n. A variety of bitumen, viscid and tenacious, like pitch; unctuous to the touch and exhaling a bituminous odor.

MALTREAT, v.t. [mal and treat.] To treat ill; to abuse; to treat roughly, rudely, or with unkindness.

MALTREATED, pp. Ill treated; abused.

MALTREATING, ppr. Abusing; treating unkindly.

MALTREATMENT, n. Ill treatment; ill usage; abuse.

MALVACEOUS, a. [L. malvaceus, from malva, mallows.]

Pertaining to mallows.

MALVERSATION, n. [L. male, ill, and versor, to behave.]

Evil conduct; improper or wicked behavior; mean artifices, or fraudulent tricks.

MAM, MAMMA, n. [L. mamma, the breast or pap, and mother.]

A familiar word for mother, used by young children.

MAMALUKE, MAMELUKE, n. The military force of Egypt consisted of soldiers called Mamelukes, who were originally mercenaries, but afterwards masters of the country. Their power has been recently annihilated by the present Pashaw of Egypt.

MAMMAL, n. [L. mamma, the breast.]

In zoology, an animal that suckles its young. [See Mammifer.]

MAMMALIAN, a. Pertaining to the mammals.

MAMMALOGIST, n. One who treats of mammiferous animals.

MAMMALOGY, n. [L. mamma, breast, and discourse.]

The science or doctrine of mammiferous animals. [See Mammifer.]

MAMMARY, a. [See Mamma.] Pertaining to the breasts or paps; as the mammary arteries and veins.

MAMMEE, n. A tree of the genus Mammea, of two species, both large evergreens produced in hot climates.

MAMMET, n. A puppet; a figure dressed.

MAMMIFER, n. [L. mamma, the breast, and fero, to bear.]

An animal which has breasts for nourishing its young. The mammifers have a double system of circulation, red and warm blood; the fetus is nourished in the matrix by means of one or more placentas, and the young by milk secreted by the breasts.

MAMMIFEROUS, a. [supra.] Having breasts and nourishing the young by the milk secreted by them.

MAMMIFORM, a. [L. mamma and form.]

Having the shape or form of paps.

MAMMILLARY, a. [L. mamilla.] Pertaining to the paps; resembling a pap; an epithet applied to two small protuberances, like nipples, found under the fore ventricles of the brain, and to a process of the temporal bone.

1. In mineralogy, applied to minerals composed of convex concretions.

MAMMILLATED, a. Having small nipples, or little globes like nipples.

MAMMOC, n. A shapeless piece. [Not used.]

MAMMOC, v.t. To tear in pieces. [Not used.]

MAMMODIS, n. Coarse, plain India muslins.

MAMMON, n. Riches; wealth; or the god or riches.

Ye cannot serve God and mammon. Matthew 6:24.

MAMMONIST, n. A person devoted to the acquisition of wealth; one whose affections are placed supremely on riches; a worldling.

MAMMOTH, n. This name has been given to a hugh quadruped, now extinct, whose bones are found on both continents.

MAN, n. plu. men. [Heb. species, kind, image, similitude.]

1. Mankind; the human race; the whole species of human beings; beings distinguished from all other animals by the powers of reason and speech, as well as by their shape and dignified aspect. “Os homini sublime dedit.”

And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness, and let them have dominion-- Genesis 1:26.

Man that is born of a woman, is of few days and full of trouble. Job 14:1.

My spirit shall not always strive with man. Genesis 6:3.

I will destroy man whom I have created. Genesis 6:7.

There hath no temptation taken you, but such as is common to man. 1 Corinthians 10:13.

It is written, man shall not live by bread alone. Matthew 4:4.

There must be somewhere such a rank as man.

Respecting man, whatever wrong we call--

But vindicate the ways of God to man.

The proper study of mankind is man.

In the System of Nature, man is ranked as a distinct genus.

When opposed to woman, man sometimes denotes the male sex in general.

Woman has, in general, much stronger propensity than man to the discharge of parental duties.

2. A male individual of the human race, of adult growth or years.

The king is but a man as I am.

And the man dreams but what the boy believed.

3. A male of the human race; used often in compound words, or in the nature of an adjective; as a man-child; men-cooks; men-servants.

4. A servant, or an attendant of the male sex.

I and my man will presently go ride.

5. A word of familiar address.

We speak no treason, man.

6. It sometimes bears the sense of a male adult of some uncommon qualifications; particularly, the sense of strength, vigor, bravery, virile powers, or magnanimity, as distinguished from the weakness, timidity or impotence of a boy, or from the narrow mindedness of low bred men.

I dare do all that may become a man.

Will reckons he should not have been the man he is, had he not broke windows--

So in popular language, it is said, he is no man. Play your part like a man. He has not the spirit of a man.

Thou art but a youth, and he a man of war from his youth. 1 Samuel 17:33.

7. An individual of the human species.

In matters of equity between man and man--

Under this phraseology, females may be comprehended. So a law restraining man, or every man from a particular act, comprehends women and children, if of competent age to be the subjects of law.

8. Man is sometimes opposed to boy or child, and sometimes to beast.

9. One who is master of his mental powers, or who conducts himself with his usual judgment. When a person has lost his senses, or acts without his usual judgment, we say, he is not his own man.

10. It is sometimes used indefinitely, without reference to a particular individual; any person; one. This is as much as a man can desire.

A man, in an instant, may discover the assertion to be impossible.

This word however is always used in the singular number, referring to an individual. In this respect it does not answer to the French on, nor to the use of man by our Saxon ancestors. In Saxon, man ofsloh, signifies, they slew; man sette ut, they set or fitted out. So in German, man sagt, may be rendered, one ways, it is said, they say, or people say. So in Danish, man siger, one says, it is said, they say.

11. In popular usage, a husband.

Every wife ought to answer for her man.

12. A movable piece at chess or draughts.

13. In feudal law, a vassal, a liege subject or tenant.

The vassal or tenant, kneeling, ungirt, uncovered and holding up his hands between those of his lord, professed that he did become his man, from that day forth, of life, limb, and earthly honor.

Man of war, a ship or war; an armed ship.

MAN-MIDWIFE, n. A man who practices obstetrics.

MAN, v.t. To furnish with men; as, to man the lines of a fort or fortress; to man a ship or a boat; to man the yards; to man the capstan; to man a prize. It is, however, generally understood to signify, to supply with the full complement or with a sufficient number of men.

1. To guard with men.

2. To strengthen; to fortify.

Theodosius having manned his soul with proper reflections--

3. To tame a hawk. [Little used.]

4. To furnish with attendants or servants. [Little used.]

5. To point; to aim.

Man but a rush against Othello’s breast,

And he retires. [Not used.]

MANACLE, n. [L. manica; from manus, the hand.] An instrument of iron for fastening the hands; hand-cuffs; shackles. It is generally used in the plural, manacles.

MANACLE, v.t. To put on hand-cuffs or other fastening for confining the hands.

1. To shackle; to confine; to restrain the use of the limbs or natural powers.

Is it thus you use this monarch, to manacle him hand and foot?

MANACLED, pp. Hand-cuffed; shackled.