meager, meagre (meger)

and n. [Early mod. E. also meigre; meal grind, > ult. E. mill1, molar, etc.: see mill1. Cf. malm, from the same verb, and mellow, from the same ult. root.] 1. The edible part of any kind of grain or pulse ground to a powder or flour; flour: as, oatmeal, bean- meal. Meal and bran together He throws without distinction. Shak ., Cor., iii. 1. 322. Scott, Old Mortality, xx. "Jenny, what meal is in the girnel?" "Four bows o' aitmeal, twa bows o' bear, and twa bows o' pease." Specifically- (a) In the United States, ground maize: more fully called Indian meal and corn-meal. (b) In Scotland and Ireland, oatmeal. Blest wi' content, and milk and meal . Burns, The Contented Cottager. 2. Any substance resembling the meal of grain or pulse; especially, any coarsely ground substance. In the Lond growen Trees, that beren Mele , whereof men maken gode Bred and white, and of gode savour. Mandeville , Travels, p. 189. IMG:content-0367.png:[blocks in formation] A cat in the meal. See cat1.- Indian meal. See def. 1 (a).-Round meal, meal granulated in the milling ra