Menace - Mention

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Menace (mĕn�s; 48), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Menaced (āst); p. pr. & vb. n. Menacing (?).] [OF. menacier, F. menacer. See , n.] 1. To express or show an intention to inflict, or to hold out a prospect of inflicting, evil or injury upon; to threaten; -- usually followed by with before the harm threatened; as, to menace a country with war.
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My master . . . did menace me with death. Shak.
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2. To threaten, as an evil to be inflicted.
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By oath he menaced
Revenge upon the cardinal. Shak.
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Menace, v. i. To act in threatening manner; to wear a threatening aspect.
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Who ever knew the heavens menace so? Shak.
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Menacer (?), n. One who menaces.
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Menacingly, adv. In a threatening manner.
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Ménage (?), n. See .
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Ménage (?), n. [See .] 1. A collection of animals; a menagerie. [Obs.] Addison.
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2. A social group living together; a household.
Syn. -- family, household, house.
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Menagerie (?), n. [F. ménagerie, fr. ménager to keep house, ménage household. See , .] 1. A place where animals are kept and trained.
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2. A collection of wild or exotic animals, kept for exhibition.
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Menagogue (?), n. [F. ménagogue, fr. Gr. mhn month + � leading.] (Med.) Emmenagogue.
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Menaion (?), n.; pl. Menaia (-yå). [NL., from Gr. � monthly.] (Eccl.) A work of twelve volumes, each containing the offices in the Greek Church for a month; also, each volume of the same. Shipley.
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{ Menald (?), Menild (?), } a. Covered with spots; speckled; variegated. [Obs.]
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Mend (mĕnd), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Mended; p. pr. & vb. n. Mending.] [Abbrev. fr. amend. See .]
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1. To repair, as anything that is torn, broken, defaced, decayed, or the like; to restore from partial decay, injury, or defacement; to patch up; to put in shape or order again; to re-create; as, to mend a garment or a machine.
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2. To alter for the better; to set right; to reform; hence, to quicken; as, to mend one's manners or pace.
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The best service they could do the state was to mend the lives of the persons who composed it. Sir W. Temple.
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3. To help, to advance, to further; to add to.
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Though in some lands the grass is but short, yet it mends garden herbs and fruit. Mortimer.
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You mend the jewel by the wearing it. Shak.
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Syn. -- To improve; help; better; emend; amend; correct; rectify; reform.
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Mend, v. i. To grow better; to advance to a better state; to become improved; to recover; to heal. Shak.
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Coloq. on the mend pred. a. recovering from an illness or injury.
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Mendable (?), a. Capable of being mended.
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Mendacious (?), a. [L. mendax, -acis, lying, cf. mentiri to lie.] 1. Given to deception or falsehood; lying; as, a mendacious person.
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2. False; counterfeit; containing falsehood; as, a mendacious statement.
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-- Mendaciously, adv. -- Mendaciousness, n.
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Mendacity (?), n.; pl. Mendacities (#). [L. mendacitas.] 1. The quality or state of being mendacious; a habit of lying. Macaulay.
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2. A falsehood; a lie. Sir T. Browne.
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Syn. -- Lying; deceit; untruth; falsehood.
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Mendel prop. n. Gregor Johann Mendel, founder of the science of genetics (1822-1884); Gregor Mendel.
Syn. -- Gregor Mendel.
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mendelevium (mĕndĕlēvēŭ/m), a. [From Dmitri Mendeleyev, discoverer of the periodic law.] (Chem.) an unstable radioactive element discovered in 1955 and produced artificially only in very small quantities; symbol Md (also Mv). It is a transuranic element with atomic number 101. Isotopes 255, 256, 257, and 258 have been prepared. Md²⁵⁸, the longest-lived, has a half-life of two months. HCP61
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Mendelian (?), prop. a. [See .] 1. (Biol.) Pert. to Mendel, or to Mendel's law; as, Mendelian inheritance.
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2. (Biol.) Behaving or being in accordance with Mendel's laws of inheritance; -- said of the distribution of inherited characteristics and of traits thus distributed. -- Mendelianism (#), Mendelism (#), n.
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Mendelian character. (Biol.) A character which obeys Mendel's law in regard to its hereditary transmission.
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Mendel's law (?). A principle governing the inheritance of many characters in animals and plants, discovered by Gregor J. Mendel (Austrian Augustinian abbot, 1822-84) in breeding experiments with peas. He showed that the height, color, and other characters depend on the presence of determinating factors behaving as units. In any given germ cell each of these is either present or absent. The following example (using letters as symbols of the determining factors and hence also of the individuals possessing them) shows the operation of the law: Tallness being due to a factor T, a tall plant, arising by the union in fertilization of two germ cells both bearing this factor, is TT; a dwarf, being without T, is tt. Crossing these, crossbreeds, Tt, result (called generation F1). In the formation of the germ cells of these crossbreeds a process of segregation occurs such that germ cells, whether male or female, are produced of two kinds, T and t, in equal numbers. The T cells bear the factor “tallness,” the t cells are devoid of it. The offspring, generation F2, which arise from the chance union of these germ cells in pairs, according to the law of probability, are therefore on an average in the following proportions:
1 TT : 2 Tt : 1 tt;
and thus plants pure in tallness (TT) and dwarfness (tt), as well as crossbreeds (Tt), are formed by the interbreeding of crossbreeds. Frequently, as in this example, owning to what is called the dominance of a factor, the operation of Mendel's law may be complicated by the fact that when a dominant factor (as T) occurs with its allelomorph (as t), called recessive, in the crossbreed Tt, the individual Tt is itself indistinguishable from the pure form TT. Generation F1, containing only the Tt form, consists entirely of dominants (tall plants) and generation F2 consists of three dominants (2 Tt, 1 TT) to one dwarf (tt), which, displaying the feature suppressed in F1, is called recessive. Such qualitative and numerical regularity has been proved to exist in regard to very diverse qualities or characters which compose living things, both wild and domesticated, such as colors of flowers, of hair or eyes, patterns, structure, chemical composition, and power of resisting certain diseases. The diversity of forms produced in crossbreeding by horticulturists and fanciers generally results from a process of analytical variation or recombination of the factors composing the parental types. Purity of type consequently acquires a specific meaning. An individual is pure in respect of a given character when it results from the union of two sexual cells both bearing that character, or both without it.
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Mender (?), n. One who mends or repairs.
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Mendiant (?), n. See . [Obs.]
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Mendicancy (?), n. The condition of being mendicant; beggary; begging. Burke.
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Mendicant (?), a. [L. mendicans, -antis, p. pr. of mendicare to beg, fr. mendicus beggar, indigent.] Practicing beggary; begging; living on alms; as, mendicant friars.
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Coloq. Mendicant orders (R. C. Ch.), certain monastic orders which are forbidden to acquire landed property and are required to be supported by alms, esp. the Franciscans, the Dominicans, the Carmelites, and the Augustinians.
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Mendicant, n. A beggar; esp., one who makes a business of begging; specifically, a begging friar.
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Mendicate (?), v. t. & i. [L. mendicatus, p. p. of mendicare to beg.] To beg. [R.] Johnson.
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Mendication (?), n. The act or practice of begging; beggary; mendicancy. Sir T. Browne.
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Mendicity (?), n. [L. mendicitas: cf. F. mendicité. See .] The practice of begging; the life of a beggar; mendicancy. Rom. of R.
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Mendinant (?), n. A mendicant or begging friar. [Obs.] Chaucer.
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Mendment (?), n. Amendment. [Obs.]
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Mendole (mĕndōl), n. [Cf. F. mendol, mendole.] (Zoöl.) The cackerel.
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Mendregal (?), n. (Zoöl.) Medregal.
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Mends (mĕndz), n. See . [Obs.] Shak.
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Menge (mĕnj), v. i. [imp. Mente, Meinte; p. p. Ment, Meint.] [See .] To mix. [Obs.] Spenser.
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menhaden (?), n. (Zoöl.) An American marine fish (Brevoortia tyrannus) of the Herring family (Clupeidae), chiefly valuable for its oil and as a component of fertilizers; -- called also mossbunker, bony fish, chebog, pogy, hardhead, whitefish, etc.
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Menhir (?), n. [F. Armor. men stone + hir high.] A large stone set upright in olden times as a memorial or monument. Many, of unknown date, are found in Brittany and throughout Northern Europe.
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Menial (?), a. [OE. meneal, fr. meine, maine, household, OF. maisniée, maisnie, LL. mansionaticum. See , and cf. , n., .]
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1. Belonging to a retinue or train of servants; performing servile office; serving.
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Two menial dogs before their master pressed. Dryden.
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2. Pertaining to servants, esp. domestic servants; servile; low; mean; as, menial tasks. “ Menial offices.” Swift.
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Menial, n. 1. A domestic servant or retainer, esp. one of humble rank; one employed in low or servile offices.
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2. A person of a servile character or disposition.
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Ménière's disease (?). (Med.) A disease characterized by deafness and vertigo, resulting in incoordination of movement. It is supposed to depend upon a morbid condition of the semicircular canals of the internal ear. Named after Ménière, a French physician.
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Menilite (?), n. [F. ménilite; -- so called because it is found at Ménilmontant, near Paris.] (Min.) See .
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meningeal (m�nĭnj��l), a. (Anat.) Of or pertaining to the meninges.
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Meninges (m�nĭnjēz), n. pl.; sing. Meninx (m�nĭṉks). [NL., fr. Gr. mh^nigx, mh^niggos, a membrane.] (Anat.) The three membranes that envelop the brain and spinal cord; the pia mater, dura mater, and arachnoid membrane.
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Meningitis (?), n. [NL. See , and .] (Med.) Inflammation of the membranes of the brain or spinal cord.
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Coloq. Cerebro-spinal meningitis . See under .
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Meniscal (?), a. Pertaining to, or having the form of, a meniscus.
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Meniscoid (?), a. [Meniscus + -oid.] Concavo-convex, like a meniscus.
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Meniscus (?), n.; pl. L. Menisci (-sī), E. Meniscuses (#). [NL., from Gr. mhniskos, dim. of mhnh the moon.] 1. A crescent.
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2. (Opt.) A lens convex on one side and concave on the other.
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3. (Anat.) An interarticular synovial cartilage or membrane; esp., one of the intervertebral synovial disks in some parts of the vertebral column of birds.
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Coloq. Converging meniscus , Coloq. Diverging meniscus . See .
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Menispermaceous (?), a. [Gr. mhnh the moon + sperma seed.] (Bot.) Pertaining to a natural order (Menispermaceæ) of climbing plants of which moonseed (Menispermum) is the type.
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Menispermic (�), a. Pertaining to, or obtained from, moonseed (Menispermum), or other plants of the same family, as the Anamirta Cocculus.
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Menispermine (?), n. [Cf. F. ménispermine.] (Chem.) An alkaloid distinct from picrotoxin and obtained from the cocculus indicus (the fruit of Anamirta Cocculus, formerly Menispermum Cocculus) as a white, crystalline, tasteless powder; -- called also menispermina.
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Meniver (?), n. [OF. menuver, menuveir, menuvair, a grayish fur; menu small + vair a kind of fur. See , a., and .] Same as .
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{ Mennonist (?), Mennonite (?), } n. (Eccl. Hist.) One of a small denomination of Christians, so called from Menno Simons of Friesland, their founder. They believe that the New Testament is the only rule of faith, that there is no original sin, that infants should not be baptized, and that Christians ought not to take oath, hold office, or render military service.
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{ menobranch (?), Menobranchus (?), } n. [NL. menobranchus, fr. Gr. � to remain + � a gill.] (Zoöl.) A large aquatic American salamander of the genus Necturus, having permanent external gills.
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{ Menologium (?), Menology (?), } n.; pl. L. Menologia (#), E. Menologies (#). [NL. menologium, fr. Gr. mhn month + logos discourse : cf. F. ménologe.] 1. A register of months. Bp. Stillingfleet.
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2. (Gr. Church) A brief calendar of the lives of the saints for each day in the year, or a simple remembrance of those whose lives are not written.
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Menopause (?), n. [Gr. mhn month + � to cause to cease. See .] (Med.) The period of natural cessation of menstruation. See Change of life, under .
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{ Menopoma (?), Menopome (?), } n. [NL. menopoma, fr. Gr. � to remain + � lid.] (Zoöl.) The hellbender.
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Menorrhagia (?), n. [NL., fr. Gr. mhn month + � to break.] (Med.) (a) Profuse menstruation. (b) Any profuse bleeding from the uterus; Metrorrhagia.
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Menostasis (?), n. [NL., fr. Gr. mhn month + 'istannai to stop.] (Med.) Stoppage of the menses.
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Menostation (?), n. (Med.) Same as .
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Menow (?), n. (Zoöl.) A minnow.
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Men-pleaser (?), n. One whose motive is to please men or the world, rather than God. Eph. vi. 6.
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Mensal (?), a. [L. mensalis, fr. mensa table.] Belonging to the table; transacted at table; as, mensal conversation.
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Mensal (?), a. [L. mensis month.] Occurring once in a month; monthly.
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Mense (?), n. [OE. menske, AS. mennisc human, man. See .] Manliness; dignity; comeliness; civility. [Prov. Eng. & Scot.] -- Menseful (#), a. -- Menseless, a.
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Mense, v. t. To grace. [Prov. Eng. & Scot.]
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Menses (?), n. pl. [L. mensis month, pl. menses months, and the monthly courses of women. Cf. .] (Med.) The catamenial or menstrual discharge, a periodic flow of blood or bloody fluid from the uterus or female generative organs.
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Menstrual (?), a. [L. menstrualis: cf. F. menstruel. See .] 1. Recurring once a month; monthly; gone through in a month; as, the menstrual revolution of the moon; pertaining to monthly changes; as, the menstrual equation of the sun's place.
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2. Of or pertaining to the menses; as, menstrual discharges; the menstrual period.
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3. Of or pertaining to a menstruum. Bacon.
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Menstruant (?), a. [L. menstruans, p. pr. of menstruare to have a monthly term, fr. menstruus. See .] Subject to monthly flowing or menses.
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Menstruate (?), a. Menstruous. [Obs.]
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Menstruate (?), v. i. [imp. & p. p. Menstruated (?); p. pr. & vb. n. Menstruating (?).] To discharge the menses; to have the catamenial flow.
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menstruating adj. discharging menstrual fluid; -- of women during their menstrual period.
Syn. -- unwell.
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Menstruation (?), n. The discharge of the menses; also, the state or the period of menstruating.
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Menstrue (?), n. [Cf. F. menstrues. See .] The menstrual flux; menses. [Obs.]
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Menstruous (?), a. [L. menstruus, fr. mensis month. Cf. .] 1. Having the monthly flow or discharge; menstruating.
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2. Of or pertaining to the monthly flow; catamenial.
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Menstruum (?), n.; pl. E. Menstruums (#), L. Menstrua (#). [L. menstruus. See .] Any substance which dissolves a solid body; a solvent.
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The proper menstruum to dissolve metal. Bacon.
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All liquors are called menstruums which are used as dissolvents, or to extract the virtues of ingredients by infusion or decoction. Quincy.
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☞ The use is supposed to have originated in some notion of the old chemists about the influence of the moon in the preparation of dissolvents. Johnson.
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Mensurability (?), n. [Cf. F. mensurabilité.] The quality of being mensurable.
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Mensurable (?), a. [L. mensurabilis, fr. mensurare to measure, fr. mensura measure: cf. F. mensurable. See , .] Capable of being measured; measurable.
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Mensurableness, n. The quality or state of being mensurable; measurableness.
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Mensural (?), a. [L. mensuralis.] Of or pertaining to measure.
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Mensurate (?), v. t. [L. mensuratus, p. p. of mensurare. See , v.] To measure. [Obs.]
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Mensuration (?), n. [L. mensuratio : cf. F. mensuration.] 1. The act, process, or art, of measuring.
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2. That branch of applied geometry which gives rules for finding the length of lines, the areas of surfaces, or the volumes of solids, from certain simple data of lines and angles.
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-ment (?), [F. -ment, L. -mentum.] A suffix denoting that which does a thing; an act or process; the result of an act or process; state or condition; as, aliment, that which nourishes, ornament, increment; fragment, piece broken, segment; abridgment, act of abridging, imprisonment, movement, adjournment; amazement, state of being amazed, astonishment.
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Ment (?), p. p. of .
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Mentagra (?), n. [NL., fr. L. mentum chin + Gr. � a catching.] (Med.) Sycosis.
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Mental (?), a. [L. mentum the chin.] (Anat.) Of or pertaining to the chin; genian; as, the mental nerve; the mental region.
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Mental, n. (Zoöl.) A plate or scale covering the mentum or chin of a fish or reptile.
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Mental, a. [F., fr. L. mentalis, fr. mens, mentis, the mind; akin to E. mind. See .] Of or pertaining to the mind; intellectual; as, mental faculties; mental operations, conditions, or exercise.
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What a mental power
This eye shoots forth! Shak.
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Coloq. Mental alienation , insanity. -- Coloq. Mental arithmetic , the art or practice of solving arithmetical problems by mental processes, unassisted by written figures.
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mentalism n. 1. a doctrine that mind is the only true reality and that objects exist only as aspects of the mind's awareness.
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2. Any theory of psychology that accepts introspective data about the functioning of the mind as a valid object of study; contrasted to behaviorism.
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mentalistic (?), a. Of or pertainig to mentalism.
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Mentality (?), n. Quality or state of mind. “The same hard mentality.” Emerson.
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Mentally (?), adv. In the mind; in thought or meditation; intellectually; in idea.
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mentation (mĕntāshŭn), n. the process of thinking (especially thinking carefully); mental activity.
Syn. -- thinking, thought, cerebration, intellection.
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Mentha (?), n. [L. See the plant.] (Bot.) A widely distributed genus of fragrant herbs, including the peppermint, spearmint, etc. The plants have small flowers, usually arranged in dense axillary clusters.
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Menthene (?), n. [Menthol + terpene.] (Chem.) A colorless liquid hydrocarbon resembling oil of turpentine, obtained by dehydrating menthol. It has an agreeable odor and a cooling taste.
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menthol (?), n. [Mentha + -ol.] (Chem.) A white, crystalline, aromatic substance (C10H20O) resembling camphor, extracted from oil of peppermint (Mentha); -- called also mint camphor or peppermint camphor. It has the peculiar effect on skin and membranes of making them feel cool, and is used in liqueurs, confections, cigarettes, cough drops and perfumes, among other things.
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Menthyl (?), n. [Mentha + -yl.] (Chem.) A compound radical forming the base of menthol.
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Menticirrhus prop. n. A genus of kingfishes, including the whiting.
Syn. -- genus Menticirrhus.
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Menticultural (?), a. Of or pertaining to mental culture; serving to improve or strengthen the mind. [R.]
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Mention (?), n. [OE. mencioun, F. mention, L. mentio, from the root of meminisse to remember. See .] A speaking or notice of anything, -- usually in a brief or cursory manner. Used especially in the phrase to make mention of.
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I will make mention of thy righteousness. Ps. lxxi. 16.
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And sleep in dull, cold marble, where no mention
Of me more must be heard of. Shak.
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