- mend v. -intr. 1a. To improve in health or condition: The patient is mending
well. b. To heal: The bone mended in a month.
- mendacious adj. 1. Lying; untruthful: a mendacious child. 2. False; untrue: a
mendacious statement.
- meninx n., pl., meninges. A membrane, especially one of the three membranes
enclosing the brain and spinal cord in vertebrates.
- meniscus n. 1. A crescent-shaped body. 4. A cartilage disk that acts as a
cushion between the ends of bones that meet in a joint.
- menorah n. Judaism 1. A nine-branched candelabrum used in celebration of
Hanukkah.
- mensch or mensh n. Informal. A person having admirable characteristics, such
as fortitude and firmness of purpose: "He radiates the kind of fundamental
decency that has a name in Yiddish; He's a mensch" (James Atlas).
- mental2 adj. Of or relating to the chin.
- meow n. 1. The cry of a cat. 2. Informal A malicious, spiteful comment.
- mephitis n. 1. An offensive smell; a stench. 2. A poisonous or foul-smelling
gas emitted from the earth. -mephitic adj.
- mercantilism n. 1. The theory and system of political economy prevailing in
Europe after the decline of feudalism, based on national policies of
accumulating bullion, establishing colonies and a merchant marine, and
developing industry and mining to attain a favorable balance of trade.
- mercy killing n. Euthanasia.
- mere2 n. A small lake, pond, or marsh: "Sometimes on lonely mountain meres/I
find a magic bark" (Tennyson).
- meretricious adj. 1a. Attracting attention in a vulgar manner: thought the
meretricious ornamentation was pretentious. b. Plausible but false or
insincere; specious: a meretricious argument. 2. Of or relating to prostitutes
or prostitution: meretricious relationship.
- meridian n. 1a. An imaginary great circle on the earth's surface passing
through the North and South geographic poles. All points on the same meridian
have the same longitude. 5. Archaic a. The highest point in the sky reached by
the sun or another celestial body; a zenith. b. Noon. 6. The highest point or
stage of development; peak: "Men come to their meridian at various periods of
their lives." (John H. Newman). 7. See median strip. adj. 1. Of or relating to
a meridian; meridional. 2. Of or at midday: the meridian hour. 3. Of,
relating to, or constituting the highest point, as of development or power:
the empire in its meridian period.
- meringue n. 1. A topping for pastry or pies made of a mixture of egg whites
and sugar beaten until stiff and often baked until brown. 2. A small pastry
shell or cake made of stiffly beaten baked egg whites and sugar, often
containing fruit or nutmeats.
- mesa n. A broad, flat-topped elevation with one or more clifflike sides,
common in the southwest US. [Spanish, table, mesa, from Latin mensa.]
- mesalliance n. A marriage with a person of inferior social position.
- mescal also mezcal n. 1. See peyote. 2a. A Mexican liquor distilled from the
fermented juice of certain species of agave. b. A food prepared by cooking the
fleshy leaf base and trunk of certain agaves. 3. See maguey.
- mescal button n. The fresh or dried button-like tubercles of peyote, chewed as
a drug by certain Native American people. Also called peyote.
- meseems intr.v. Archaic It seems to me.
- meso- or mes- pref. 1. In the middle; middle: mosoderm. 2. Intermediate:
mesophyte.
- mesomorph n. An individual with a robust, muscular body build caused by the
predominance of structures developed from the embryonic mesoderm layer.
- mess n. 3a. An amount of food, as for a meal, course, or dish: cooked up a
mess of fish. b. A serving of soft, semiliquid food: a mess of porridge. 4a A
group of people, usually soldiers or sailors, who regularly eat meals
together. b. Food or a meal served to such a group: took mess with the
enlistees. c. A mess hall.
- messed up adj. Slang 1. Beaten up. 2. Drunk or intoxicated.
- messianism n. 1. Belief in a messiah. 2. Belief that a particular cause or
movement is destined to triumph or save the world. 3. Zealous devotion to a
leader, cause, or movement. --messianist.
- mess kit n. A set of cooking and eating utensils compactly arranged in a kit,
used by soldiers and campers.
- mestiza n. A woman of mixed racial ancestry, especially of mixed European and
Native American ancestry.
- meta- or met- pref. 1a. Later in time: metestrus. b. At a later stage of
development: metanephros. 2. Situated behind: metacarpus. 3a. Change;
transformation: metachromatism. b. Alternation: metagenesis. 4a. Beyond;
transcending; more comprehensive: metalinguistics. b. At a higher state of
development: metaoan. 5. Having undergone metamorphosis: metasomatic. 6a.
Derivative or related chemical substance: metaprotein.
- metacenter n. The intersection of vertical lines through the center of
buoyancy of a floating body when it is at equilibrium and when it is floating
at an angle. The location of the metacenter is an indication of the stability
of a floating body.
- metal n. 4. Basic character; mettle. 5. Broken stones used for road surfaces
or railroad beds.
Word History: In modern English, metal and mettle are pronounced the same, and
they are in fact all related. Middle English borrowed metal from Old French in
the 14th century; Old French metal, metail, came from Latin metallum, from
Greek metallon, "mine, quarry, ore, metal." By the 16th century, metal had
also come to mean "the stuff one is made of, one's character," but there was
no difference in spelling between the literal and figurative senses until
about 1700, when the spelling mettle, originally just a variant of metal, was
fixed for the sense "fortitude." The history of English has numerous examples
of pairs of words, like metal and mettle, that are spelling variants of the
same word; two other such pairs are trump/triumph, and through/thorough.
- metalloid n. 1. A nonmetallic element, such as arsenic, that has some of the
chemical properties of a metal. 2. A nonmetallic element, such as carbon, that
can form an alloy with metals. adj.
- metallophone n. A percussion instrument consisting of a graduated series of
metal bars struck with either hand-held or keyboard-controlled hammers.
- metallurgy n. 1. The science that dels with procedures used in extracting
metals from their ores, purifying and alloying metals, and creating useful
objects from metals.
