Noah Webster’s 1828 Dictionary
MELLOWY — MERCHANT
MELLOWY, a. Soft, unctuous.
MELOCOTONE, n. [L. 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.
MELODIOUS, a. [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.
MELODIOUSLY, adv. In a melodious manner; musically.
MELODIOUSNESS, n. The quality of being agreeable to the ear by a sweet succession of sounds; musicalness.
MELODIZE, v.t. To make melodious.
MELODRAME, n. [Gr. a song, and drama.] A dramatic performance in which songs are intermixed.
MELODY, n. [Gr. a limb, or a song, an ode; L. 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.
MELON, n. [L. melo; Gr. an apple; L. mollis.] The name of certain plants and their fruit, as the water-melon, the musk-melon.
MELON-THISTLE, n. A plant of the genus Cactus.
MELROSE, n. [mel and rose.] Honey of roses.
MELT, v.t. [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, v.i. 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. Psalm 119:28.
4. To faint; to be discouraged or disheartened.
As soon as we heard these things, our heart melted. Joshua 2:11.
MELTED, pp. Dissolved; made liquid; softened; discouraged.
MELTER, n. One that melts any thing.
MELTING, ppr. Dissolving; liquefying; softening; discouraging.
1. a. Tending to soften; softening into tenderness; as melting eloquence.
MELTING, n. The act of softening; the act of rendering tender.
MELTINGLY, adv. In a manner to melt of soften.
1. Like something melting.
MELTINGNESS, n. The power of melting or softening.
MELWEL, n. A fish.
MEMBER, n. [L. 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, 23; Colossians 3:5.
MEMBERED, a. Having limbs.
MEMBERSHIP, n. The state of being a member.
1. Community; society.
MEMBRANE, n. [L. 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.
MEMBRANEOUS, MEMBRANOUS, MEMBRANACEOUS, a. 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.
MEMBRANIFORM, a. Having the form of a membrane or of parchment.
MEMENTO, n. [L. 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.
MEMOIR, n. 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.
MEMORABLE, a. [L. memorabilis. See Memory.]
Worthy to be remembered; illustrious; celebrated; distinguished.
By tombs, by books, by memorable deeds.
MEMORABLY, adv. In a manner worthy to be remembered.
MEMORANDUM, n. plu. memorandums or memoranda. [L.]
A note to help the memory.
I entered a memorandum in my pocketbook.
MEMORATIVE, a. Adapted or tending to preserve the memory of any thing.
MEMORIAL, a. [L. 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.
MEMORIAL, n. 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.
MEMORIALIST, n. One who writes a memorial.
1. One who presents a memorial to a legislative or any other body, or to a person.
MEMORIALIZE, v.t. To present a memorial to; to petition by memorial.
MEMORIST, n. One who causes to be remembered. [Not used.]
MEMORIZE, v.t. 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.
MEMORY, n. [L. 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.
MEMORY, v.t. To lay up in the mind or memory. [Not used.]
MEMPHIAN, a. [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, plu. 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.
MENACE, v.t. [L. 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.
MENACE, n. 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.
MENACED, pp. Threatened.
MENACER, n. One that threatens.
MENACHANITE, n. 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.
MENACHANITIC, a. Pertaining to menachanite.
MENACING, ppr. Threatening; declaring a disposition or determination to inflict evil.
1. a. Exhibiting the danger or probability of an evil or catastrophe to come; as a menacing attitude.
MENAGE, n. A collection of brute animals.
MENAGERY, n. A yard or place in which wild animals are kept, or a collection of wild animals.
MENAGOGUE, n. men’agog. [Gr. menstrua, and to drive.]
A medicine that promotes the menstrual flux.
MEND, v.t. [L. 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, v.i. 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.
MENDABLE, a. Capable of being mended.
MENDACIOUS, a. [L. mendax.] Lying; false. [Little used.]
MENDACITY, n. [L. mendax, false, lying.] Falsehood.
[The proper signification of this word would be a disposition to lie, or habitual lying.]
MENDED, pp. Repaired; made better; improved.
MENDER, n. One who mends or repairs.
MENDICANCY, a. [L. medicans.] Beggary; a state of begging.
MENDICANT, a. [L. mendicans, from mendico, to beg; allied to L. 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.
MENDICANT, n. A beggar; one that makes it his business to beg alms; one of the begging fraternity of the Romish church.
MENDICATE, v.t. To beg, or practice begging. [Not used.]
MENDICITY, n. [L. mendicitas.]
The state of begging; the life of a beggar.
MENDMENT, for amendment. [Not in use.]
MENDS, for amends, not used.
MENHADEN, n. A species of fish.
MENIAL, a.
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.]
MENAIL, n. A domestic servant.
MENILITE, n. 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.
MENISCUS, n. plu. meniscuses. [Gr. a little moon.]
A lens convex on one side, and concave on the other.
MENISPERMATE, n. A compound of menispermic acid and a salifiable base.
MENISPERMIC, a. The menispermic acid is obtained from the seeds of the menispermum cocculus.
MENIVER, n. A small white animal in Russia, or its fur which is very fine.
MENOLOGY, n. [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.
MENOW, n. A small fresh water fish, the minnow.
MENPLEASER, n. One who is solicitous to please men, rather than to please God, by obedience to him commands.
MENSAL, a. [L. mensalis, from mensa, a table.]
Belonging to the table; transacted at table. [Little used.]
MENSTRUAL, a. [L. 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.
MENSTRUANT, a. Subject to monthly flowings.
MENSTRUOUS, a. [L. menstruus, from mensis, a month.]
1. Having the monthly flow or discharge; as a female.
2. Pertaining to the monthly flow of females.
MENSTRUUM, n. plu. menstruums. [from L. 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.
MENSURABILITY, n. [from mensurable.] Capacity of being measured.
MENSURABLE, a. [L. mensura, measure. The n is probably casual, and the word is the same as measurable.]
Measurable; capable of being measured.
MENSURAL, a. Pertaining to measure.
MENSURATE, v.t. [L. mensura, measure.]
To measure. [Little used.]
MENSURATION, n. The act, process or art of measuring, or taking the dimensions of any thing.
1. Measure; the result of measuring.
MENTAL, a. Pertaining to the mind; intellectual; as mental faculties; mental operations; mental sight; mental taste.
MENTALLY, adv. Intellectually; in the mind; in thought or meditation; in idea.
MENTION, n. [L. mentio, from Gr. to put in mind; L. 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. Exodus 23:13.
I will make mention of thy righteousness. Psalm 71:16.
Without ceasing I make mention of you always in my prayers. Romans 1:9.
MENTION, v.t. 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.
MENTIONED, pp. Named; stated.
MENTIONING, ppr. Naming; uttering.
MENTORIAL, a. [from Mentor, the friend and adviser of Ulysses.]
Containing advice or admonition.
MEPHITIC, a. [L. mephitis, an ill smell.] Offensive to the smell; foul; poisonous; noxious; pestilential; destructive to life.
Mephitic acid is carbonic acid.
MEPHITIS, MEPHITISM, n. Foul, offensive or noxious exhalations from dissolving substances, filth or other source; also, carbonic acid gas.
MERCANTANTE, n. A foreign trader. [Not in use.]
MERCANTILE, a. [L. 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.
MERCAT, n. [L. mercatus.] Market; trade. [Not in use.]
MERCENARILY, adv. In a mercenary manner.
MERCENARINESS, n. [from mercenary.]
Venality; regard to hire or reward.
MERCENARY, a. [L. 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.
MERCENARY, n. One who is hired; a soldier that is hired into foreign service; a hireling.
MERCER, n. [L. merx, wares, commodities.]
One who deals in silks.
MERCERSHIP, n. The business of a mercer.
MERCERY, n. The commodities or goods in which a mercer deals; trade of mercers.
MERCHAND, v.i. To trade. [Not used.]
MERCHANDISE, n.
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.
MERCHANDISE, v.i. To trade; to carry on commerce.
MERCHANDRY, n. Trade; commerce. [Not in use.]
MERCHANT, n. [L. 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.]