MODERNS. 2.s. Those who have lived 3. Moderation; decency. lately, opposed to the ancients. There are moderns, who, with a slight variation, adopt the opinion of Plato. Boyle on Colours Some by old words to fame have made pre tence; Ancients in phrase, mere moderns in their sense! Pope. To MODERNISE. v.a. [from modern.] To adapt ancient compositions to modern persons or things; to change ancient to modern language. MODERNISM. n. s. [from modern.] Deviation from the ancient and classical manner. A word invented by Swift. Scribblers send us over their trash in prose and verse, with abominable curtailings and quaint modernisans, Swift. MODERNNESS. n. s. [from modern.] Novsity. MODEST. adj. [modeste, Fr. mødestus, Lat.] 1. Not arrogant; not presumptuous; not boastful; bashful. Of boasting more than of a tomb afraid; A soldier should be modest as a maid. Not impudent; not forward. Young. Resolve me with all modest haste, which way Thou might'st deserve, or they impose this usage. Shakspeare. Her face, as in a nymph, display'd · A fair fierce boy, or in a boy betray'd The blushing beauties of a modest maid. 3. Not loose; not unchaste. Dryd. Mrs. Ford, the honest woman, the modest wife; the virtuous creature, that hath the jealous fool to her husband. Shaks. 4. Not excessive; not extreme; moderate; within a mean. There appears much joy in him, even so much that joy could not shew itself modest enough without a badge of bitterness. Shaksp. During the last four years, by a modest computation, there have been brought into Brest above six millions sterling in bullion. Addison. MODESTLY. adv. [from modest.] 1. Not arrogantly; not presumptuously. I may modestly conclude, that whatever errors there may be in this play, there are not those which have been objected to it. First he modestly conjectures, Dryden Savift. Yet gave him not the heart to chide. sincere, Modestly bold, and humanly severe. 2. Not impudently; not forwardly ; with Pope. respect. I, your glass, Will modestly discover to yourself That of yourself, which yet you know not of. 3. Not loosely; not lewdly; with decency. Shakspeare. 4. Not excessively; with moderation. MODESTY. n. s. [modestie, Fr. modestas, Latin.] 1. Not arrogance; not presumptuousness. They cannot, with modesty, think to have found out absolutely the best which the wit of men may devise. Hooker. 2. Not impudence; not forwardness: as, bis petition was urged with modesty. A lord will hear you play; But I am doubtful of your modesties, Lest over-eying of his odd behaviour, You break into some merry passion. 4. Chastity; purity of manners. Would you not swear, Stakip All you that see her, that she were a maid, By these exterior shews? But she is more, Her blush is guiltiness, not modesty. Shaksp Of the general character of women, which is modesty, he has taken a most becoming care; for his amorous expressions go no farther than virtue may allow. Dryden. Talk not to a lady in a way that modesty will not permit her to answer. Clarissa. MODESTY-PIECE. n. 5, A narrow lace which runs along the upper part of the stays before, being a part of the tucker, is called the modesty-piece. Addison. MODICUM, n. s. [Lat.] Small portion; pittance. What modicums of wit he utters; his evasions have ears thus long. Though hard, their fate, Shakspeare. A cruise of water, and an ear of corn, Yet still they grudg'd that medicum. MODIFIABLE. adj. [from modify.] That Dryden may be diversified by accidental differences. It appears to be more difficult to conceive a distinct, visible image in the uniform, invariabl❤ essence of God, than in variously modifiable matter; but the manner how I see either still escapes my comprehension. Locke. MODIFICABLE. adj. [from modify.] Di versifiable by various modes. MODIFICATION. n. s. [modification, Fr.] The act of modifying any thing, or giving it new accidental differences of external qualities or mode. The chief of all signs is human voice, and the several modifications thereof by the organs of speech, the letters of the alphabet, formed by the motions of the mouth. Holder. The phænomena of colours in refracted or reflected light, are not caused by new modifications of the light variously impressed, according to the various terminations of the light and shadow. Neroton If these powers of cogitation, volition and sensation, are neither inherent in matter as such, nor acquirable to matter by any motion and modification of it, it necessarily follows that they proceed from some cogitative substance, some incorporeal inhabitant within us, which we call spirit. To MODIFY. v. a. [modifier, French.] Bentley 1. To change the external qualities or accidents of any thing; to shape. Yet there is that property in all letters, of aptness to be conjoined in syllables and words through the voluble motions of the organs, that they modify and discriminate the voice without appearing to discontinue it. Holder. The middle parts of the broad beam of white light which fell upon the paper, did, without any confine of shadow to modify it, become coloured all over with one uniform colour, the colour being always the same in the middle of the paper as at the edges. 2. To soften; to moderate. Of his grace After all this discanting and modifying upon the matter, there is hazard on the yielding side. L'Estrange. MODI'LLON. n. s. [Fr. modiolus, Lat.] Medillons, in architecture, are little brackets which are often set under the corinthian and composite orders, and serve to support the projecture of the larmier or drip: this part must be distinguished from the great model, which is the diameter of the pillar; for, as the proportion of an edifice in general depends on the diameter of the pillar, so the size and number of the modillons, as also the interval between them, ought to have due relation to the whole fabrick. Harris. The modillons or dentelli make a noble show by their graceful projections. Spectator. MO'DISH. adj. [froin mode.] Fashionable; formed according to the reigning cus Young children should not be much perplexed about putting off their hats, and making legs modisbly. Locke. MO DISHNESS. n. s. [from modish.] Affectation of the fashion. To MODULATE. v. a. [modulor, Lat.] To form sound to a certain key, or to certain notes. The nose, lips, teeth, palate, jaw, tongue, weasan, lungs, muscles of the chest, diaphragm, and muscles of the belly, all serve to make or modu late the sound. Grew's Cosmol. Could any person so modulate her voice as to deceive so many. Broome Anon. Echo propagates around Each charm of modulated sound. MODULATION. n. s. [from modulate ; modulation, French] 1. The act of forining any thing to certain proportion. The number of the simple original minerals have not been rightly fixed: the matter of two or more kinds being mixed together, and by the different proportion and modulation of that matter variously diversified, have been reputed all different kinds. Woodward. The speech, as it is a sound resulting from the modulation of the air, has most affinity to the spirit, but as it is uttered by the tongue, has immediate cognation with the body, and so is the fittest instrument to manage a commerce between the invisible powers and human souls cloathed in flesh. Govern, of the Tongue. 2. Sound modulated; harmony; melody. Innumerous songsters, in the freshening shade, Their modulations mix, mellifluous. Thomson. MODULATOR. n. s. [from modulate.] He who forms sounds to a certain key; a tuner; that which modulates. The tongue is the grand instrument of taste, the faithful judge of all our nourishment, the artful modulator of our voice, and the necessary servant of mastication. Derbam. MODULE. n. s. [modulus, Lat.] An empty representation; a model; an external form. My heart hath one poor string to stay it by, Which holds but till thy news be uttered; And then, all this thou see'st, is but a clod And module of confounded royalty. Shaksp MO'DUs. n. s. [Lat.] Something paid as a compensation for tithes, on the supposition of being a moderate equivalent. One terrible circumstance of this bill, is turning the tithe of flax and hemp into what the lawyers call a modus, or a certain sum in lieu of a tenth part of the product. Swift. MODWALL. n. s. [picus.] A bird. Ainso. MOE. adj. [ma, Sax. See Mo.] More; a greater number. The chronicles of England mention no mee than only six kings bearing the name of Edward since the conquest, therefore it cannot be there should be more. Hooker. MOHAIR. n. s. [mohere, moire, French.] Thread or stuff made of camels or other hair. She, while her lover pants upon her breast, Can mark the figures on an Indian chest, And when she sees her friend in deep despair, Observes how much a chintz exceeds mohair. Pope. Mo'HOCK. n. s. The name of a cruel nation of America given to ruffians who infested, or rather were imagined to infest, the streets of London. From milk-sop he starts up mobock. Prior. Who has not trembled at the mobock's name? Gay. Dennis. Thou hast fallen upon me with the rage of a mad dog, or a mobock. MOIDERED. adj. [properly moddered, or Ainsworth. mudded.] Crazed. MO ́IDORE. n. s. A Portugal coin, rated at one pound seven shillings. MOIETY. n. s. [moitié, Fr. from moien, the middle.] Half; one of two equal parts. This company being divided into two equal moieties, the one before, the other since the coming of Christ; that part which, since the coming of Christ, partly hath embraced, and partly shall embrace, the christian religion, we term as by a more proper name, the church of Christ. The death of Antony Hooker. Shaksp. Touch'd with human gentleness and love, Forgive a moiety of the principal. Shaksp The militia was settled, a moiety of which should be nominated by the king, and the other moiety by the parliament. Clarendon. As this is likely to produce a cessation of arms among one half of our island, it is reasonable that the more beautiful moiety of his majesty's subjects should establish a truce. Addison. To MOIL. v. a. [mouiller, French.] 1. To daub with dirt. All they which were left were mailed with dirt and mire by reason of the deepness of the Knolles. rotten way. 2. To weary. Chapman's Iliad, No more tug one another thus, nor moil your selves, receive prize equal. To MOIL. v. n. 1. To labour in the mire. Moil not too much under-ground, for the hope of mines is very uncertain. Bacon's Essays. 2. To toil; to drudge. The name of the laborious William Noy, attorney-general to Charles the First, was anagrammatised, I moyl in law. Howel. They toil and oil for the interest of their masters, that in requital break their hearts. L'Estrange Oh the endless misery of the life I lead! cries the moiling husband; to spend all my days in ploughing. L'Estrange. Now he must mail and drudge for one he loaths. Dryden. With thee 'twas Marian's dear delight To moil all day, and merry-make at night. Gay. MOIST. adj. [moiste, moite, French.] 1. Wet, not dry; wet, not liquid; wet in a small degree. The hills to their supply Vapour, and exhalation dusk and moist, Sent up amain. Milton. Why were the moist in number so outdone, That to a thousand dry they are but one. Blackmore. Many who live well in a dry air, fall into all the diseases that depend upon a relaxation in a Arbuthnot. mairt one. Nor yet, when moist Arcturus clouds the sky, The woods and fields their pleasing toils deny. His breasts are full of milk, and his bones are meitened with marrow. A pipe a little moistened on the inside, so as there be no drops left, maketh a more solemn sound than if the pipe were dry. Bacon. Dryden. When torrents from the mountains fall no more, the swelling river is reduced into his shallow bed, with scarce water to maisten his own pebbles. MOISTENER. n. s. [from moisten.] The person or thing that moistens. MOISTNESS. nas. [from moist.] Dampness; wetness in a small degree. Pleasure both kinds take in the moistness and density of the air. Bacon. The small particles of brick or stone the least meistness would join together. Addison. MOISTURE. n.s. [moiteur, Fr. from moist.] 1. State of being moist; moderate wetness. Sometimes angling to a little river near hand, which, for the moisture it bestowed upon roots of some flourishing trees, was rewarded with their shadow. Sidney. Set such plants as require much moisture upon sandy, dry grounds. Bacon. While dryness moisture, coldness heat resists, All that we have, and that we are, subsists. 2. Small quantity of liquid. heat. All my body's moisture Denbam. Scarce serves to quench my furnace-burning murky. In some places they call it muggy. Dusky; cloudy. MOLE. n. s. [moel, Sax. mole, Fr. mola, Lat.] 1. A formless concretion of extravasated blood, which grows into a kind of flesh in the uterus, and is called a false conception. Quincy. 2. A natural spot or discoloration of the body. To nourish hair upon the moles of the face, is the perpetuation of a very ancient custom. Brown. Such in painting are the warts and moles, which, adding a likeness to the face, are not therefore to be omitted. Dryden. That Timothy Trim and Jack were the same person, was proved, particularly by a mole under the left pap. Arbuthnot. The peculiarities in Homer are marks and moles, by which every common eye distinguishes him. Pope. 3. [from moles, Lat, mole, Fr.] A mound; a dike. Sion is strengthened on the north side by the sea-ruined wall of the mole. Sandys. With asphaltick slime the gather'd beach They fasten'd; and the mole immense wrought on Over the foaming deep high-arch'd; a bridge Of length prodigious. Milton. The great quantities of stones dug out of the rock could not easily conceal themselves, had they not been consumed in the moles and buildings of Naples. Addison. Bid the broad arch the dang'rous flood contain, The mole projected break the roaring main. Pope. 4. (telpa.] A little beast that works under ground. Tread softly, that the blind mole may not Hear a foot fall; we now are near his cell. Shakspeare. What is more obvious than a mole, and yet what more palpable argument of Providence? More. Males have perfect eyes, and holes for them through the skin, not much bigger than a pin's head. Ray on Creation. Thy arts of building from the bee receive; Learn of the mole to plow, the worn to weave. Pope. MO'LBAT. n. s. [arthragoriscus.] A fish. Ainsworth. MO LECAST. n. s. [mole and cast.] Hillock cast up by a mole. In spring let the molecasts be spread, because they hinder the mowers. Mortimer. MO LECATCHER. n. s. [mole and catcher.] One whose employment is to catch moles. Get moulecatcher cunningly moule for to kill, And harrow and cast abroad every hill. Tusser. MOʻLEHILL. n. s. [mole and bill.] Hillock thrown up by the mole working under ground. It is used proverbially, in hyperboles, or comparisons for something small. You feed your solitariness with the conceits of the poets, whose liberal pens can as easily travel over mountains as molebills. Sidney. The rocks, on which the salt-sea billows beat, And Atlas' tops, the clouds in height that pass, Compar'd to his huge person molchills be. Fairf A churchwarden, to express St. Martin's ur Our politician having baffled conscience, must not be nonplused with interior obligations; and, having leapt over such mountains, lie down before a melebill. South's Sermons. Mountains, which to your Maker's view Seem less than molebills do to you. Roscommon. Strange ignorance! that the same man who knows How far yond' mount above this molebill shows, Should not perceive a difference as great Between small incomes and a vast estate! Dryd. To MOLEST. v. a. [molester, Fr. molestor, Lat.] To disturb; to trouble; to vex. If they will firmly persist concerning points which hitherto have been disputed of, they must agree that they have molested the church with needless opposition. Hooker. No man shall meddle with them, or molest them in any matter. 1 Maccabees. Pleasure and plain signify whatsoever delights or molests us. Locke. Both are doom'd to death; Rowe. MOLESTATION. n.s. [molestia, Lat. from molest.] Disturbance; uneasiness caused by vexation. Though useless unto us, and rather of molesbation, we refrain from killing swallows. Brown. An internal satisfaction and acquiescence, or dissatisfaction and molestation of spirit, attend the practice of virtue and vice respectively. Nor. MOLE STER. N. s. [from molest.] One who disturbs. MO LETRACK. n. s. [mole and track. J Course of the mole under ground. The pot-trap a deep earthen vessel set in the ground, with the brim even with the bottom of the moletracks. Mortimer. MOLEWARP. n. s. [mole and peoppan, Sax. See MOULDWARP.] A mole. The molewarp's brains mixt therewithal, And with the same the pismire's gall. Drayton. MOLLIENT. adj. [molliens, Lat.] Softening. MOLLIFIABLE. adj. [from mollify.] That may be softened." MOLLIFICATION. n. s. [from mollify.] 1. The act of mollifying or softening. For induration or mollification, it is to be inquired what will make metals harder and harder, and what will make them softer and softer. 2. Pacification; mitigation. Bacon. Shaksp. Some mollification, sweet lady. MOLLIFIER. n. s. [from mollify.] 1. That which softens; that which appeases. The root hath a tender, dainty heat; which, when it cometh above ground to the sun and air, vanisheth; for it is a great mollifier. Bacon. 2. He that pacifies or mitigates. To M'OLLIFY. v. a. [mollio, Lat. mollir, French.] 1. To soften; to make soft. 2. To asswage. Neither herb, nor mollifying plaister, restored them to health. Wisdom. Sores have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment. Isaiab. 3. To appease; to pacify; to quiet. Thinking her silent imaginations began to work 4. upon somewhat, to mellify them, as the nature of musick is to do, I took up my harp. Sidney. He brought them to these savage parts, And with sweet science mellify'd their stubborn hearts. Spensers The crone, on the wedding night, finding the knight's aversion, speaks a good word for herself, in hope to mollify the sullen bridegroom. Dryd To qualify; to lessen any thing harsh or burdensome. They would, by yielding to some things, when they refused others, sooner prevail with the houses to mollify their demands, than at first to reform them. Clarendon. Cowley thus paints Goliah: The valley, now, this monster seem'd to fill, And we, methought, look'd up to him from our hill; MOLO ́SSES. n. s. [melazzo, Ital.] TreaMOLA'SSES. cle; the spume or scum of the juice of the sugar-cane. Mo'LY. n. s. [moly, Lat. moly, Fr.] A plant. Moly, or wild garlick, is of several sorts; as the great moly of Homer, the Indian moly, the moly of Hungary, serpent's moly, the yellow moly, Spanish purple moly, Spanish silver-capped moly, Dioscorides's moly, the sweet moly of Montpelier: the roots are tender, and must be carefully defended from frosts: as for the time of their flowering, the moly of Homer flowers in May, and continues till July, and so do all the rest except the last, which is late în September: they are hardy, and will thrive in any soil. Mortimer. The sovereign plant he drew, And shew'd its nature, and its wondrous pow'r, Black was the root, but milky white the flower; Moly the name. Pope MoмE. n. s. A dull, stupid blockhead; a stock; a post: this owes its original to the French word momon, which signifies the gaming at dice in masquerade, the rule of which is, that a strict silence is to be observed; whatsoever sum one stakes another covers, but not a word is to be spoken; hence also comes our word mum for silence. Hanmer. Mome, maithorse, capon, coxcomb, idiot, patch! Either get thee from the door, or sit down at the hatch. Shakspeare. MO'MENT. n. s. [moment, Fr. momentum, Lat.] 1. Consequence; importance; weight; value. We do not find that our Saviour reproved them of error, for thinking the judgment of the scribes to be worth the objecting, for esteeming it to be of any moment or value in matters con Hooker. cerning God. I have seen her die twenty times upon far Shakspeare. poorer moment. What towns of any moment but we have? Shakspeare It is an abstruse speculation, but also of får less moment and consequence to us than the others; seeing that without this we can evince the existence of God. Bentley. 2. Force; impulsive weight; actuating power. The place of publick prayer is a circumstance in the outward form, which hath moment to help devotion. Hooker. Can these or such be any aid to us? Look they as they were built to shake the world? Or be a moment to our enterprise? B. Jonson. Touch with lightest moment of impulse His free-will, to her own inclining left In even scale. Milton. He is a capable judge; can hear both sides with an indifferent ear; is determined only by the moments of truth, and so retracts his past erNorris. rors. Shaksp. MOMENTARY. adj. [from moment.] Lasting for a moment; done in a moment. Momentary as a sound, Swift as a shadow, short as any dream. Swift as thought the flitting shade Through air his momentary journey made. Dryd. Onions, garlick, pepper, salt and vinegar, taken in great quantities, excite a momentary heat and fexer. Arbuthnot. MOMENTOUS. adj. [from momentum, Lat.] Important; weighty; of consequence. Great Anne, weighing th' evcats of war Momentous, in her prudent heart thee chose. Philips. If any false step be made in the more momentout concerns of life, the whole scheme of ambious designs is broken. Addison. it would be a very weak thing to give up so VOL. III. ter, Piping and playing, minstrelsy and masking, A shew of mommery without a meaning. Rowe. MONACHAL. adj. [monacal, Fr.] mona chalis, Lat. poraxixos.] Monastick; relating to monks, or conventual orders. MONACHISM. n. s. [monachisme, Fr.] The state of monks; the monastick life. Mo'NAD. n. s. [moràs.] An indivisible MONADE. thing. Disunity is the natural property of matter, which of itself is nothing but an infinite congeries of physical monads. More. MONARCH. n. s. [monarch, Fr. μóvagχος.] 1. A governour invested with absolute authority; a king. I was Shaksp Come, thou monarch of the vine, Plumpy Bacchus, with pink eyne, In thy vats our cares be drown'd. MONARCHAL, adj. [from monarch.] Suiting a monarch; regal; princely; imperial. Satan, whom now transcendent glory rais'd Above his fellows, with monarchal pride, Conscious of highest worth, unmov'd thus spake. Milto MONARCHICAL. adj. [monarchique, Fr. μovacxis; from monarch.] Vested in a single ruler. That storks will only live in free states, is a pretty conceit to advance the opinion of popular policies, and from antipathies in nature to disparage monarchical government. Brown. The decretals resolve all into a monarchical power at Rome. Baker. To MONARCHISE. v. n. [from monarch.] To play the king. Allowing him a breath, a little scene To monarchize, be fear'd, and kill with looks. Shakspeare. R |