Noah Webster’s 1828 Dictionary

MINIUM — MISCARRIAGE

MINIUM, n. [L.] The red oxyd of lead, produced by calcination. Lead exposed to air while melting is covered with a gray dusky pellicle. This taken off and agitated becomes a greenish gray powder, inclining to yellow. This oxyd, separated by sifting from the grains of lead which it contains, and exposed to a more intense heat, takes a deep yellow color, and in this state it is called massicot. The latter, slowly heated, takes a beautiful red color, and is called minium.

MINK, n. An American quadruped of the genus Mustela, an amphibious animal that burrows in the earth on the side of a river or pond, whose fur is more valuable than that of the muskrat.

MINNOC, used by Shakespeare, is supposed by Johnson to be the same as minx.

MINNOW, MINOW, n. A very small fish, a species of Cyprinus.

MINOR, a. [L. minuo, to diminish. See Mince.]

1. Less; smaller; sometimes applied to the bulk or magnitude of a single object; more generally to amount, degree or importance. We say, the minor divisions of a body, the minor part of a body; opposed to the major part. We say, minor sums, minor faults, minor considerations, details or arguments. In the latter phrases, minor is equivalent to small, petty, inconsiderable, not principal, important or weighty.

2. In music, less or lower by a lesser semi-tone; as a third minor.

Asia Minor, the Lesser Asia, that part of Asia which lies between the Euxine on the north, and the Mediterranean on the south.

MINOR, n. A person of either sex under age; one who is under the authority of his parents or guardians, or who is not permitted by law to make contracts and manage his own property. By the laws of Great Britain and of the United States, persons are minors till they are twenty one years of age.

1. In logic, the second proposition of a regular syllogism, as in the following:

Every act of injustice partakes of meanness.

To take money from another by gaming, or reputation by seduction, are acts of injustice.

Therefore the taking of money from another by gaming, or reputation by seduction, partake of meanness.

2. A Minorite, a Franciscan friar.

3. A beautiful bird of the East Indies.

MINORATE, v.t. To diminish. [Not used.]

MINORATION, n. A lessening; diminution.

MINORITE, n. A Franciscan friar.

MINORITY, n. [L. minor.]

1. The state of being under age. [See Minor.]

2. The smaller number; as the minority of the senate or house of representatives; opposed to majority. We say, the minority was large or small; AB was in the minority; the minority must be ruled by the majority.

MINOTAUR, n. [L. minotaurus; from man, which must have been in early ages a Latin word, and taurus, a bull.]

A fabled monster, half man and half bull.

MINSTER, n. A monastery; an ecclesiastical convent or fraternity; but it is said originally to have been the church of a monastery; a cathedral church.

MINSTREL, n. A singer and musical performer on instruments. Minstrels were formerly poets as well as musicians, and held in high repute by our rude ancestors. Their attendance was sought and their performances lavishly rewarded by princes. It was in the character of a minstrel that king Alfred entered the camp of the Danes his enemies, and explored their situation.

MINSTRELSY, n. The arts and occupations of minstrels; instrumental music.

1. A number of musicians.

The minstrelsy of heaven.

MINT, n. [L. moneta.]

1. The place where money is coined by public authority. In Great Britain, formerly, there was a mint in almost every county; but the privilege of coining is now considered as a royal prerogative in that country, and as the prerogative of the sovereign power in other countries. The only mint now in Great Britain is in the Tower of London. The mint in the United States is in Philadelphia.

2. A place of invention or fabrication; as a mint of phrases; a mint of calumny.

3. A source of abundant supply.

MINT, v.t. To coin; to make and stamp money.

1. To invent; to forge; to fabricate.

MINT, n. [L. mentha.] A plant of the genus Mentha.

MINTAGE, n. That which is coined or stamped.

1. The duty paid for coining.

MINTER, n. A coiner; also, an inventor.

MINTMAN, n. A coiner; one skilled in coining or in coins.

MINTMASTER, n. The master or superintendent of a mint.

1. One who invents or fabricates.

MINUEND, n. [L. minuendus, minuo, to lessen.]

In arithmetic, the number form which another number is to subtracted.

MINUET, n.

1. A slow graceful dance, consisting of a coupee, a high step and a balance.

2. A tune or air to regulate the movements in the dance so called; a movement of three crotchets or three quavers in a bar.

MINUM, n.

1. A small kind of printing types; now written minion.

2. A note of slow time containing two crotchets; now written minim, which see.

MINUTE, a. [L. minutus.]

1. Very small, little or slender; of very small bulk or size; small in consequence; as a minute grain of sand; a minute filament. The blood circulates through very minute vessels. Minute divisions of a subject often perplex the understanding. Minute details are tedious.

2. Attending to small things; critical; as minute observation.

MINUTE, n. min’it. [L. minutum, that is, a small portion.]

1. A small portion of time or duration, being the sixtieth part of an hour.

Since you are not sure of a minute, throw not away an hour.

2. In geometry, the sixtieth part of a degree of a circle.

3. In architecture, the sixtieth, but sometimes the thirtieth part of a module.

4. A space of time indefinitely small. I will be with you in a minute, or in a few minutes, that is, in a short time.

5. A short sketch of any agreement or other subject, taken in writing; a note to preserve the memory of any thing; as, to take minutes of a contract; to take minutes of a conversation or debate.

MINUTE, v.t. min’it. To set down a short sketch or note of any agreement or other subject in writing.

MINUTE-BOOK, n. A book of short hints.

MINUTE-GLASS, n. A glass, the sand of which measures a minute.

MINUTE-GUNS, n. Guns discharged every minute.

MINUTE-HAND, n. The hand that points to the minutes on a clock or watch.

MINUTELY, adv. [from minute.] To a small point of time, space or matter; exactly; nicely; as, to measure the length of any thing minutely; to ascertain time minutely; to relate a story minutely.

MINUTELY, a. min’itly. Happening every minute.

MINUTELY, adv. [from minute.] Every minute; with very little time intervening.

As if it were minutely proclaimed in thunder from heaven.

MINUTENESS, n. Extreme smallness, fineness or slenderness; as the minuteness of the particles of air or of a fluid; the minuteness of the filaments of cotton; the minuteness of details in narration.

1. Attention to small things; critical exactness; as the minuteness of observation or distinction.

MINUTE-WATCH, n. A watch that distinguishes minutes of time, or on which minutes are marked.

MINUTIAE, n. [L.] The smaller particulars.

MINX, n. A pert, wanton girl.

1. A she-puppy.

MINY, a. [from mine.] Abounding with mines.

1. Subterraneous.

MIRABLE, a. Wonderful. [Not in use.]

MIRACLE, n. [L. miraculum, from miror, to wonder.]

1. Literally, a wonder or wonderful thing; but appropriately,

2. In theology, an event or effect contrary to the established constitution and course of things, or a deviation from the known laws of nature; a supernatural event. Miracles can be wrought only by Almighty power, as when Christ healed lepers, saying, “I will, be thou clean,” or calmed the tempest, “Peace, be still.”

They considered not the miracle of the loaves. Mark 6:52.

A man approved of God by miracles and signs. Acts 2:22.

3. Anciently, a spectacle or dramatic representation exhibiting the lives of the saints.

MIRACLE, v.t. To make wonderful. [Not used.]

MIRACLE-MONGER, n. An impostor who pretends to work miracles.

MIRACULOUS, a. Performed supernaturally, or by a power beyond the ordinary agency of natural laws; effected by the direct agency of Almighty power, and not by natural causes; as the miraculous healing of the sick or raising the dead by Christ.

1. Supernatural; furnished supernaturally, or competent to perform miracles; as the miraculous powers of the Apostles. Miraculous, applied to the extraordinary powers of the Apostles, may mean conferred by supernatural agency, or competent to work miracles. I believe it is generally used in the latter sense.

2. In a less definite sense, wonderful; extra-ordinary.

MIRACULOUSLY, adv. By miracle; supernaturally.

AEneas, wounded as he was, could not have engaged him in single combat, unless his hurt had been miraculously healed.

1. Wonderfully; by extraordinary means.

MIRACULOUSNESS, n. The state of being effected by miracle or by supernatural agency.

MIRADOR, n. [L. miror.] A balcony or gallery commanding an extensive view.

MIRE, n. Deep mud; earth so wet and soft as to yield to the feet and to wheels.

MIRE, v.t. To plunge and fix in mire; to set or stall in mud. We say, a horse, an ox or a carriage is mired, when it has sunk deep into mud and its progress is stopped.

1. To soil or daub with mud or foul matter.

MIRE, v.i. To sink in mud, or to sink so deep as to be unable to move forward.

MIRE, n. An ant. [See Pismire.]

MIRE-CROW, n. The sea-crow or pewit gull, of the genus Larus.

MIRINESS, n. [from miry.] The state of consisting of deep mud.

MIRK, a. Dark. [See Murky.]

MIRKSOME, a. Dark; obscure. [See Murky.]

MIRKSOMENESS, n. Obscurity. [See Murky.]

MIRROR, n. [L. miror, to admire.]

1. A looking glass; any glass or polished substance that forms images by the reflection of rays of light.

In the clear mirror of thy ruling star

I saw, alas! some dread event depend.

2. A pattern; an exemplar; that on which men ought to fix their eyes; that which gives a true representation, or in which a true image may be seen.

O goddess, heavenly bright,

Mirror of grace and majesty divine.

MIRROR-STONE, n. A bright stone.

MIRTH, n. merth. Social merriment; hilarity; high excitement of pleasurable feelings in company; noisy gayety; jollity. Mirth differs from joy and cheerfulness, as always implying noise.

With genial joy to warm the soul,

Bright Helen mixed a mirth-inspiring bowl.

I will cause to cease the voice of mirth from Judah and Jerusalem. Jeremiah 7:34.

MIRTHFUL, a. Merry; jovial; festive.

The feast was served, the bowl was crown’d,

To the king’s pleasure went the mirthful round.

MIRTHFULLY, adv. In a jovial manner.

MIRTHLESS, a. Without mirth or hilarity.

MIRY, a. [from mire.] Abounding with deep mud; full of mire; as a miry road; a miry lane.

1. Consisting of mire.

MIS, a prefix, denotes error, or erroneous, wrong, from the verb miss, to err, to go wrong.

MISACCEPTATION, n. The act of taking or understanding in a wrong sense.

MISADVENTURE, n. Mischance; misfortune; ill luck; an unlucky accident.

1. In law, homicide by misadventure, is when a man, doing a lawful act, without any intention of injury, unfortunately kills another. This is called excusable homicide.

MISADVENTURED, a. Unfortunate.

MISADVISED, a. [See Advise.] Ill advised; ill directed.

MISAFFECT, v.t. To dislike.

MISAFFECTED, a. Ill disposed.

MISAFFIRM, v.t. To affirm incorrectly.

MISAIMED, a. Not rightly aimed or directed.

MISALLEDGE, v.t. misallej’. To state erroneously.

MISALLEGATION, n. Erroneous statement.

MISALLIANCE, n. Improper association.

MISALLIED, a. Ill allied or associated.

MISANTHROPE, MISANTHROPIST, n. [Gr. to hate, and man.] A hater of mankind.

MISANTHROPIC, MISANTHROPICAL, a. Hating or having a dislike to mankind.

MISANTHROPY, n. Hatred or dislike to mankind; opposed to philanthropy.

MISAPPLICATION, n. A wrong application; an application to a wrong person or purpose.

MISAPPLIED, pp. Applied to a wrong person or purpose.

MISAPPLY, v.t. To apply to a wrong person or purpose; as to misapply a name or title; to misapply our talents or exertions; to misapply public money.

MISAPPLYING, ppr. Applying to a wrong person or purpose.

MISAPPREHEND, v.t. To misunderstand; to take in a wrong sense.

MISAPPREHENDED, pp. Not rightly understood.

MISAPPREHENDING, ppr. Misunderstanding.

MISAPPREHENSION, n. A mistaking or mistake; wrong apprehension of one’s meaning or of a fact.

MISASCRIBE, v.t. To ascribe falsely or erroneously.

MISASSIGN, v.t. [See Assign.] To assign erroneously.

MISATTEND, v.t. To disregard.

MISBECOME, v.t. misbecum’. [See Become.]

Not to become; to suit ill; not to befit.

Thy father will not act what misbecomes him.

MISBECOMING, ppr. or a. Unseemly; unsuitable; improper; indecorous.

MISBECOMINGNESS, n. Unbecomingness; unsuitableness.

MISBEGOT, MISBEGOTTEN, ppr. or a. Unlawfully or irregularly begotten.

MISBEHAVE, v.i. To behave ill; to conduct one’s self improperly.

MISBEHAVED, a. Guilty of ill behavior; ill bred; rude.

MISBEHAVIOR, n. misbeha’vyor. Ill conduct; improper, rude or uncivil behavior.

MISBELIEF, n. Erroneous belief; false religion.

MISBELIEVE, v.t. To believe erroneously.

MISBELIEVER, n. One who believes wrongly; one who holds a false religion.

MISBELIEVING, a. Believing erroneously; irreligious.

MISBESEEM, v.t. To suit ill.

MISBESTOW, v.t. To bestow improperly.

MISBORN, a. Born to evil.

MISCALCULATE, v.t. To calculate erroneously.

MISCALCULATED, pp. Erroneously calculated.

MISCALCULATING, ppr. Committing errors in calculation.

MISCALCULATION, n. Erroneous calculation.

MISCALL, v.t. To call by a wrong name; to name improperly.

MISCALLED, pp. Misnamed.

MISCALLING, ppr. Misnaming.

MISCARRIAGE, n. Unfortunate event of an undertaking; failure.

When a counselor, to save himself,

Would lay miscarriages upon his prince.

1. Ill conduct; evil or improper behavior; as the failings and miscarriages of the righteous.

2. Abortion; the act of bringing forth before the time.