mealymouthed ness (melimourednes)

The quality of being mealy-mouthed. mealy-tree (mēʻli-tre), n. The wayfaring-tree, Viburnum Lantana: so called on account of the mealy surface of the young shoots and leaves. [Great Britain.] mealy-winged (mē'li-wingd), a. 1. Having the wings covered with minute scales; lepidopterous, as an insect. The mealy-winged scale-insects are the Aleurodida. [Rare.] All farinaceous or mealy - winged animals, as butterflies and moths. Sir T. Browne, Vulg. Err., iii. 15. IMG:content-0370.png:[blocks in formation] 3t. To mention; tell; expre . [They] present hom to Priam, that was prise lord: There menyt thai thaire me age & with mouthe told. Destruction of Troy (E. E. T. S.), 1. 7838. To mean busine . See busine . =Syn. 2. Intend, design, contemplate (with present participle). II. in trans. 1. To be minded or disposed; have intentions of some kind: usually joined with an adverb: as, he means well. Godd woll. helpe Hys servants that meane truly. Paston , Letters, II. 351. Evans. His meaning is good. Shal . Ay, I think my cousin meant well. Shak., M. W. of W., i. 1. 265. 2. To have thought or ideas; have meaning. [Rare.] And he who, now to sense now nonsense leaning, Means not, but blunders round about a meaning. Pope, Prol. to Satires, 1. 186. IMG:content-0371.jpg:[graphic] 3t. To speak; talk. Hall i well. Leve we stylle at the quene, And of the greyhound we wylle mene That we before of tolde. MS . Cantab. Ff. ii. 38, f. 74. ( Hall i well .) Than Calcas, the clerke, came fro his tent, ffongit hir faire, and with fyne chere Toke hir into tent, talket with hir fast, And men it of hir maters, as thai in mynd hade. Destruction of Troy (E. E. T. S.), 1. 8100. mean2 (men), a. [ mere error without the prefix, māne ) = OS. gi mēni = OFries. mēne = MD. gemene, D. gemeen = MLG. gemeine, gemēne, gemën, LG. gemeen = OHG. gimeini , MHG. gemeine, G. gemein = Sw. gemen = Dan. gemeen = Goth. gamains , common, general; perhaps akin to L. communis, common, general: see common . From this word in the orig. sense 'common,' 'general' has developed the sense 'low' in rank or quality, hence 'base' (cf. similar senses of common ); but this development has prob. been a isted by the confluence of the word with one orig. distinct, namely, AS. māne , false, wicked ( mæne ath , a false oath) (= OHG. MHG. mein , false, = Icel. meinn , harmful, etc.), mān , false, also a noun, falsehood, wickedne , evil: see man swear.] 1t. Common; general. Ther-of merveiled the mene peple what it myght mene. Merlin (E. E. T. Š.), ii. 145. 2. Of a common or low origin, grade, quality, etc.; common; humble: as, a man of mean parentage; mean birth or origin; a mean abode. Alle manere of men, the mene and the ryche. Piers Plowman (C), i. 20. So my meaner ministers Their several kinds have done. Shak . , Tempest, iii. 3. 87. Meaner things, whom instinct leads, Cowper, Doves. IMG:content-0372.png:[blocks in formation]