messenger (mesenjer)

[ senger, porringer, etc.), for me ager, me agier, the i with innen dur not senden out Me agers with Lettres, from Lord to Lord, for to aske Sokour. Mandeville , Travels, p. 118. The bisy larke, me ager of daye, Salueth in hire song the mor we graye. Chaucer, Knight's Tale, 1. 633. The me agers depart eden two and two togeder, and pa ed thourgh many londes and contres in to a tyme that liij of hem sodeynly metten to-geder. Merlin (E. E. T. S.), i. 30. Joy touch'd the me enger of heav'n; he stay'd Entranced. Pope , Ody ey, v. 97. 2. One who or that which foreruns; a harbinger; a precursor; a forerunner. The Angel answerde and seyde that sche scholde have no drede of him, for he was verry Me ager of Jesu Crist. Mandeville , Travels, p. 133. Down to short repose they lay, Till radiant rose the me enger of day. Pope, Ody ey, xv. 534. 3. A light scudding cloud regarded as the precursor of a storm or gale of wind. A southwest wind is blowing over the plains. It drives the me engers over the sky, and the sails of the windmill, and dead leaves dance. Mrs. J. H. Ewing , Jan of the Windmill. 4. Naut., an endle rope or chain turned around the capstan, formerly used to unmoor or heave up a ship's anchors, by transmitting the power of the capstan to the cable. The me enger is gripped to the cable by means of nippers, which are shifted from the capstan to the hawse-hole as the cable is hauled in. 5. In law, a person appointed to perform certain ministerial duties under bankrupt and insolvent laws, such as to take temporary charge of the a ets, and to perform some other duties in reference to the proceedings.-6. A piece of stiff paper, or the like, set upon the end of a kite-string held in the hand, to be blown up the string to the kite. - Corbie me enger. See corbie. - Cuckoo's me enger, the wryneck. Me enger sword, a sword-like implement, constituting a credential of the royal me engers of Ashantee. Two of these were brought to England in 1874; they are partly of gold and partly of iron, and are elaborately ornamented in conventional patterns. Queen's (or king's) me enger, an officer of the British government, em 3728 ployed under the secretaries of state, appointed or held in readine to carry official despatches both at home and Mesua 2. In zoöl., a commensal.-3. In bot., same as me mate-tree. abroad. Syn. 1. Carrier, intelligencer, courier, herald, me mate-gum (mes'mat-gum), n. See gum2, 3. One of the