And pass the bounds of modest merrimake, Her dalliance he despised. Fairy Queen. To MERRIMAKE. v. a. To feast; to be jovial.

With thee 'twas Marian's dear delight To moil all day, and merrimake at night. Gay. MERRIMENT. 2. s. [from merry.] Mirth; gayety; cheerfulness; laughter.

Who when they heard that piteous strained voice,

In haste forsook their rural merriment. F. Queen. A number of merriments and jests, wherewith they have pleasantly moved much laughter at our manner of serving God. Hooker.

Methought it was the sound

Of riot and ill-managed merriment. Milton. MERRINESS. n. s. [from merry.] Mirth; merry disposition.

The stile shall give us cause to climb in the
Shakspeare.

merriness.

MERRY. adj.
1. Laughing; loudly cheerful; gay of
heart.

They drank and were merry with him. Gen.
The vine languisheth, all the merry hearted
sigh.
Isaiah.

Some that are of an ill and melancholy nature, incline the company into which they come to be sad and ill-disposed; and others that are of a jovial nature, do dispose the company to be Bacon. merry and cheerful.

Man is the merriest species of the creation; all above and below him are serious. Addison. 2. Causing laughter.

You kill'd her husband, and for that vile fault Two of her brothers were condemn'd to death; My hand cut off, and made a merry jest. Shaksp. 3. Prosperous.

In my small pinnace I can sail, Contemning all the blust'ring roar;

And running with a merry gale, With friendly stars my safety seek, Within some little winding creek,

And see the storm ashore.

Dryden.

To make MERRY. To junket; to be jovial. They trod the grapes and made merry, and went into the house of their God. Judges.

A fox 'spy'd a bevy of jolly, gossiping wenches making merry over a dish of pullets. L'Estrange. MERRY-ANDREW. n. s. A buffoon; a zany; a jack-pudding.

He would be a statesman because he is a buffoon; as if there went no more to the making of a counsellor than the faculties of a merryandrew or tumbler. L'Estrange. The first who made the experiment was a merry-andrew. Spectator. MERRYTHOUGHT. n. s. [merry and thought.] A forked bone on the body of fowls; so called because boys and girls pull in play at the two sides, the longest part broken off betokening priority of marriage.

Let him not be breaking merrythoughts under Ecbard. the table with my cousin. ME ́RSION. n. s. [mersio, Lat.] The act of sinking, or thrusting over head. Ainsw. MESE EMS. impersonal verb. [me and seems, or it seems to me: for this word it is now too common to use methinks or methought, an ungrammatical word.] I think; it appears to me.

Alas, of ghosts I hear the ghastly cries;
Yet there, mesiems, I hear her singing loud.
Sidney.

Meseem'd by my side a royal maid,
Her dainty limbs full softly down did lay.

Spenser To that general subjection of the land meseems that the custom or tenure can be no bar nor impeachment. Spenser. MESENTERICK. adj. [mesenteriqué, Fr. from mesentery.] Relating to the mesentery.

They are carried into the glands of the me sentery, receiving a fine lymph from the lymphatick ducts, which dilutes this chylous fluid, and scours its containing vessels, which, from the mesenterick glands, unite in large channels, and pass directly into the common receptacle of the chyle. Cheyne. ME SENTERY. n.s. [μagrégior; mesentere, Fr.] That round which the guts are convolved.

When the chyle passeth through the mesentery, it is mixed with the lymph. Arbuthnot. MESERA ICK. n. s. [μecágalov; meseraique, Fr. analogy requires it mesaraick.] Belonging to the mesentery.

It taketh leave of the permanent parts at the mouths of the meseraicks, and accompanieth the inconvertible portion into the siege. Brown.

The most subtle part of the chyle passeth immediately into the blood by the absorbent vessels of the guts, which discharge themselves, into the meseraick veins. Arbuthnot. MESH. n. s. [maesche, Dutch; mache, old Fr. it were therefore better written, as it is commonly pronounced, mash.] The interstice of a net; the space between the threads of a net.

The drovers hang square nets athwart the tide, through which the shoal of pilchard passing, leave many behind entangled in the meashes. Carew.

Such a hare is madness the youth, to skip o'er the meshes of good counsel the cripple. Shaksp. He spreads his subtle nets from sight, With twinkling glasses to betray

The larks that in the meshes light.

Dryden.

With all their mouths the nerves the spirits

drink,

mescellane. See MASLIN.] Mixed corn: as, wheat and rye.

What reason is there which should but induce, and therefore much less enforce, us to think, that care of old dissimilitude between the people of God and the heathen nations about them, was any more the cause of forbidding them to put on garments of sundry stuff, than of charging them withal not to sow their fields with meslin. Hooker.

If worke for the thresher ye mind for to have, Of wheat and of mestlin unthreshed go save. Tus. MESOLEU CYS. n. s. [usσóλeux.] A precious stone, black, with a streak of white in the middle. Dict. MESO LOGARITHMS. n. s. [£s®, 26y©, and agiu] The logarithms of the cosines and tangents, so denominated by Kepler. Harris. MESO MELAS. n. s. [μecoμérac.] A precious stone with a black vein parting every colour in the midst. Bailey. ME SPISE. n. s. [probably misprinted for mesprise; mespris, Fr.] Contempt;

But bear the rigour of his bold mespise, And thence him forward led, him further to entice. Spenser. MESS. n. s. [mes, old French; messo, Italian; missus, Latin; mes, Gothick mere, Saxon, a dish.] A dish; a quantity of food sent to table together. The bounteous huswife, nature, on each bush Lays her full mess before you. Shaksp. traveller, your

Now

He and his toothpick at my worship's mess.

Shakspeare. I had as lief you should tell me of a mess of porridge. Shakspeare.

Herbs and other country messes, Which the neat-handed Phillis dresses. Milton. Had either of the crimes been cooked to their palates, they might have changed messes. Decay of Piety. From him he next receives it thick or thin,

As pure a mess almost as it came in. Pope. To MESS. V. n. To eat; to feed. MESSAGE. n. s. [message, Fr.]

An errand; any thing committed to another to be told to a third.

She doth displav

The gate with pearls and rubies richly dight, Through which her words so wise do make their way,

To bear the message of her gentle spright.

Spenser.

May one, that is a herald and a prince, Do a fair message to his kingly ears. Shaksp. She is fair, and, fairer than that word, Of wond'rous virtues; sometimes from her eyes I did receive fair speechless messages. Shaksp. Gently hast thou told Thy message, which might else in telling wound, And in performing end us.

Milton. Let the minister be low, his interest inconsiderable, the world will suffer for his sake; the message will still find reception according to the dignity of the messenger.

South.

The welcome message made, was soon receiv'd; 'Twas to be wish'd and hop'd, but scarce believ'd. Dryden MESSENGER. 7. s. [messager, Fr.] One

who carries an errand; one who comes from another to a third; one who brings an account or foretoken of any thing; a harbinger; a forerunner.

Came running in, much like a man dismaid, A messenger with letters, which his message said. Spenser.

Yon grey lines,

That fret the clouds, are messengers of day. Shak. The earl dispatched messengers one after another to the king, with an account of what he heard and believed he saw, and yet thought not fit to stay for an answer. Clarendon.

Joy touch'd the messenger of heav'n; he stay'd Entranc'd, and all the blissful haunt survey'd. Pope. MESSIAH. n. s. [from the Hebrew.] The Anointed; the Christ; the Saviour of the world; the Prince of peace.

Great and public opposition the magistrates made against Jesus, the man of Nazareth, when he appeared as the Messiah. Watts. MESSIEURS. n. s. [French, plural of

monsieur.] Sirs; gentlemen. ME ́SSMATE. 1. s. [mess and mate.] One

who eats at the same table. MESSUAGE. n. s. [messuagium, law Lat. formed perhaps from mesnage by mistake of the n in court-hand for u, they being written alike; mesnage from maison, Fr.] The house and ground set apart for household uses.

MET. The preterit and part. of meet.

A set of well meaning gentlemen in England, not to be met with in other countries, take it for granted they can never be wrong so long Addis. Freeb. as they oppose ministers of state. METAGRAMMATISM. n. s. [uila and γράμμα.]

Anagrammatism, or metagrammatism, is a dissolution of a name truly written into its letters, as its elements, and a new connexion of it by artificial transposition, without addition, subtraction, or change of any letter into different words, making some perfect sense applicable to the person named. Camden. META BASIS. n. s. [Greek.] In rhe

torick, a figure by which the orator passes from one thing to another. Dict. META BOLA. 7. s. [μεTabonn.] In medicine, a change of time, air, or disease. METACARPAL. adj. [from metacarpus.] Dict. Belonging to the metacarpus.

bone.

It will facilitate the separation in the joint, when you cut the finger from the metacarpal Sharp METACARPUS. n. s. [μετακάρπιον.] In anatomy, a bone of the arm made up of four bones, which are joined to the fingers. Dict. The conjunction is called synarthrosis; as in the joining of the carpus to the metacarpus. Wiseman METAL. n. s. [metal, Fr. metallum, Lat.] 1. A firm, heavy, and hard substance, opake, fusible by fire, and concreting again when cold into a solid body, such as it was before, which is malleable under the hammer, and is of a bright, glossy, and glittering substance where newly cut or broken. The metals are six in number; 1. gold; 2. silver; 3

་

copper; 4. tin; 5. iron; and, 6. lead; of which gold is the heaviest, lead the second in weight, then silver, then copper, and iron is the lightest except tin: some have added mercury or quicksilver, to the number of metals; but as it wants malleability, the criterion of metals, it is more properly ranked among the semi-metals. Hill. Metallists used a kind of terrace in their vessels for kining metals, that the melted metal run Moxon.

not out.

2. Courage; spirit. In this sense it is more frequently written mettle.

Being glad to find their companions had so much metal, after a long debate the major part carried it. Clarendon.

3. Upon this signification the following ambiguity is founded.

Hudibras.

Both kinds of metal he prepar'd, Either to give blows or to ward; Courage and steel both of great force, Prepar'd for better or for worse. METALE PSIS. . s. [μetádn↓is.] A continuation of a trope in one word through a succession of significations. Bailey. METALLICAL. adj. [from metallum, METALLICK. Lat. metallique, Fr.] Partaking of metal; containing metal; consisting of metal.

The ancients observing in that material a kind of metallical nature, or fusibility, seem to have resolved it to nobler use; an art now utterly lost. Wotton. The lofty lines abound with endless store Of min'ral treasure, and metallick oar. Blackm. METALLI FEROUS. adj. [metallum and fero, Lat.] Producing metals. METALLINE. adj. [from metal.] 1. Impregnated with metal.

Dict.

Metalline waters have virtual cold in them; put therefore wood or clay into smith's water, I try whether it will not harden. Bacon.

and

2. Consisting of metal.

Though the quicksilver were brought to a very close and lovely metalline cylinder, not interrupted by interspersed bubbles, yet having caused the air to be again drawn out of the receiver, several little bubbles disclosed themselves.

Boyle. METALLIST. . s. [from metal; metalliste, Fr.] A worker in metals; one skilled in metals.

Metallists use a kind of terrace in their vessels for fining metals, that the melted metal run not put; it is made of quick lime and ox blood. Moxon.

METALLO'GRAPHY, n. s. [metallum and ręápu.] An account or description of metals. Dict. METALLURGIST. n. s. [metallum and y.] A worker in metals. METALLURGY.n.s. [metallum and egyor.] The art of working metals, or separating them from their ore.

To METAMORPHOSE. v. a. [metamorphoser, Fr. μerapostów.] To change the form or shape of any thing,

Thou, Julia, thou hast metamorphos'd me; Made me neglect my studies, lose my time. Shakspeare. They became degenerate and metamorphosed

like Nebuchadnezzar, who, though he had the face of a man, had the heart of a beast. Davies.

The impossibility to concèive so great a prince and favourite so suddenly metamorphosed into travellers, with no train, was enough to make any man unbelieve his five senses. Wotton. From such rude principles our form began, And earth was metamorphos'd into man. Dryd. METAMORPHOSIS. n. s. [metamorphose, Fr. μεταμόρφωσις.]

1. Transformation; change of shape.

His whole oration stood upon a short narration, what was the causer of this metamorphosis. Sidney.

Obscene talk is grown so common, that one would think we were fallen into an age of metamorphosis, and that the brutes did not only poetically but really speak. Govern. of the Tongue.

What! my noble colonel in metamorphosis! On what occasion are you transformed? Dryd. There are probable machines in epic poems, where the gods are no less actors than the men; but the less credible sort, such as metamorphoses, are far more rare. Broome.

2. It is applied by Harvey to the changes an animal undergoes, both in its formation and growth; and by several to the various shapes some insects in particular pass through, as the silk-worm, and the like. Quincy. METAPHOR. n. s. [metaphore, Fr. μεταφορα.] The application of a word to an use to which, in its original import, it cannot be put: as, he bridles his anger; he deadens the sound; the spring awakes the flowers. A metaphor is a simile comprised in a word; the spring putting in action the powers of vegetation, which were torpid in the winter, as the powers of a sleeping animal are excited by awaking him.

The work of tragedy is on the passions, and in a dialogue; both of them abhor strong metaphors, in which the epopea delights. Dryden One died in metaphor, and one in song. Pope. METAPHORICK. METAPHORICAL. O'RICAL. adj. [metaphorique, Fr. from metaphor.] Not literal; not according to the primitive meaning of the word; figurative.

The words which were do continue; the only difference is, that whereas before they had a literal, they now have a metaphorital use. Hooker. METAPHRASE. n.s. [μerá peaois.] Amere verbal translation from one language into another.

This translation is not so loose as paraphrase, nor so close as metaphrase. Dryden. METAPHRA'ST. n. s. [metaphraste, Fr. μslapgarns.] A literal translator; one who translates word for word from one language into another. METAPHYSICAL. adj. METAPHY ́SICK.

1. Versed in metaphysicks; relating to metaphysicks.

2. In Shakspeare it means supernatural or preternatural.

Hie thee hither,

To chastise with the valour of my tongue
All that impedes thee from the golden round,
Which fate, and metaphysical aid, doth seem
To have crown'd thee withal.
Shaksp.

METAPHY SICK. n. s. [metaphysique,
METAPHY SICKS.
Fr. μεταφυσική.]

Ontology; the doctrine of the general
affections of substances existing.

The mathematicks and the metaphysicks,
Fall to them as you find your stomach serves you.
Shakspeare.

Call her the metaphysicks of her sex, And say she tortures wits as quartans vex Physicians. Cleaveland. If sight be caused by intromission, or receiving in, the form of contrary species should be received confusedly together, which, how absurd it is, Aristotle shews in his metaphysicks. Peach. See physick beg the Stagyrite's defence! See metaphysick call for aid on sense! Pope. The topicks of ontology or metaphysick, are cause, effect, action, passion, identity, opposi tion, subject, adjunct, and sign. Watts' Logick. METAPLASM. n. s. [μεταπλασμὸς.] Α figure in rhetorick, wherein words or letters are transposed contrary to their natural order.

Dict. METASTASIS. n. s. [METROTασis.] Translation or removal.

His disease was a dangerous asthma; the cause a metastasis, or translation of tartarous humours from his joints to his lungs. Harvey. METATARSAL. adj. [from metatarsus.] Belonging to the metatarsus.

The bones of the toes, and part only of the metatarsal bones, may be carious; in which case cut off only so much of the foot as is disordered. Sharp. METATARSUS. n. s. [utra and ragos.] The middle of the foot, which is composed of five small bones connected to those of the first part of the foot. Dict. The conjunction is called synarthrosis, as in the joining the tarsus to the metatarsus. Wisem. META THESIS. n. s. [μeradicis.] A transposition.

To METE. v. a. [metior, Lat.] To measure; to reduce to measure.

I will divide Shechem, and wete the valley of Succoth.

Psalms. To measure any distance by a line, apply some known measure wherewith to mete it. Holder.

Though you many ways pursue

To find their length, you'll never mete the true,
But thus; take all that space the sun
Metes out, when every daily round is run.

}

Creech.

ME'TEWAND. n. s. [mete and yard, or ME TEYARD. wand.] A staff of a certain length wherewith measures are taken.

A true touchstone, a sure meterand lieth before their eyes. Ascham's Schoolmaster. Ye shall do no unrighteousness in meteyard, weight, or measure. Leviticus. To METEMPSYCHO ́SE. V. a. [from metempsychosis.] To translate from body to body. A word not received.

The souls of usurers after their death, Lucian affirms to be metempsychosed, or translated into the bodies of asses, and there remain certain years, for poor men to take their pennyworth out of their bones. Peacham on Blasoning. METEM PSYCHO'sis.n.s. [μετεμψύχωσις.] The transmigration of souls from body to body.

From the opinion of metempsychosis, or trans

came a swan.

migration of the souls of men into the bodies of beasts, most suitable unto their human condition, after his death Orpheus the musician be Brown's Vulg. Errours. METEOR. n. s. [meteore, Fr. Meriweu.] Any bodies in the air or sky that are of a flux and transitory nature.

Look'd he or red, or pale, or sad, or merrily? What observation mad'st thou in this case, Of his heart's meteors tilting in his face? Shak. She began to cast with herself from what coast this blazing star must rise upon the horizon of Ireland; for there had the like meteor strong influence before. Bacon's Henry VII. These burning fits but meteors be, Whose matter in thee soon is spent:

Thy beauty, and all parts which are in thee, Are an unchangeable firmament. Doane.

Then flaming meteors, hung in air, were scen, And thunders rattled through a sky serene.

Dryden.

Why was I rais'd the meteor of the world, Hung in the skies, and blazing as I travell'd, Till all my fires were spent; and then cast downward

To be trod out by Cæsar?

Dryden

O poet, thou hadst been discreeter, Hanging the monarch's hat so high, If thou hadst dubb'd thy star a meteor, METEOROLOGICAL. adj. [from metcoWhich did but blaze, and rove, and die. Prior. rology.] Relating to the doctrine of

meteors.

Others are considerable in meteorological di

vinity.

Brown. Make disquisition whether these unusual lights be new come guests, or old inhabitants in heaven, or meteorological impressions not transcending the upper region, or whether to be ranked among celestial bodies. Howel's Voc. For. METEOROLOGIST. n. s. [from meteorology.] A man skilled in meteors, or studious of them.

The meteorologists observe, that amongst the four elements which are the ingredients of all sublunary creatures, there is a notable corre spondency. Howel.

METEOROLOGY.n.s. [μETEwga and λéyw.]

The doctrine of meteors.

In animals we deny not a natural meteorology, or innate presentation of wind and weather. Brown.

METEOROUS. adj. [from meteor.] Having the nature of a meteor.

From the o'er hill

To their fixt station, all in bright array, The cherubim descended, on the ground Gliding meteorous, as ev'ning inist Ris'n from a river. Milton's Par. Lost. METER. n. s. [from mete.] A measurer: METHE GLIN. n. s. [meddyglyn, Welsh, as, a coal-meter, a land-meter. from medd and glyn, to glue, Minshew; or meiclyg, a physician, and llyn, drink, because it is a medicinal drink.] Drink made of honey boiled with water and fermented.

White-handed mistress, one sweet word with thee.

-Honey, and milk, and sugar, there is three. -Nay then two treys; and if you grow so nice, Metbeglin, wort, and malmsey. Shaksp

Tallay the strength and hardness of the wine, And with old Bacchus new metbeglin join. Dryd. METHINKS. verb impersonal. [me and

thinks. This is imagined to be a Norman corruption, the French being apt to confound me and I.] I think; it seems to me; meseems. See MESEEMS, which is more strictly grammatical, though less in use. Methinks was used even by those who used likewise me

seems.

In all ages poets have been had in special reputation, and, methinks, not without great cause; for, besides their sweet inventions, and most witty lays, they have always used to set forth the praises of the good and virtuous. Spenser. If he choose out some expression which does not vitiate the sense, I suppose he may stretch his chain to such a latitude; but by innovation of thoughts, methinks, he breaks it. Dryden. There is another circumstance, which, methinks, gives us a very high idea of the nature of the soul, in regard to what passes in dreams, that innumerable multitude and variety of ideas which then arise in her. Spectator.

Methinks already I your tears survey. Pope. METHOD. n. s. [methode, Fr. uidodo.] The placing of several things, or performing several operations in such an order as is most convenient to attain some end. Watts.

To see wherein the harm which they feel consisteth, the seeds from which it sprang, and the method of curing it, belongeth to a skill, the study whereof is full of toil, and the practice beset with difficulties. Hooker.

If you will jest with me know my aspect, And fashion your demeanour to my looks, Or I will beat this method in your sconce. Shak. It will be in vain to talk to you concerning the method I think best to be observed in schools.

Locke. Notwithstanding a faculty be born with us, there are several methods for cultivating and improving it, and without which it will be very uncertain. Spectator.

METHODICAL. adj. [methodique, Fr. from method.] Ranged or proceeding in due or just order.

The observations follow one another without that methodical regularity requisite in a prose

author.

Let me appear, great sir, I pray, Methodical in what I say.

Spectator.

Addison.

He can take a body to pieces, and dispose of them where he pleases; to us, perhaps, not without the appearance of irretrievable confusion; but, with respect to his own knowledge, into the most regular and methodical repositories.

Rogers.

METHODICALLY. adv. [from methodi cal.] According to method and order. To begin methodically, I should enjoin you travel; for absence doth remove the cause, removing the object. Suckling. All the rules of painting are methodically, concisely, and clearly delivered in this treatise.

Dryden.

One who brings with him any observations which he has made in his reading of the poets, will find his own reflections methodized and explained, in the works of a good critick. Spect. Those rules of old discover'd, not devis'd, Are nature still, but nature methodis'd. Popco METHODIST. n. s. [from method.] 1. A physician who practices by theory. Our wariest physicians, not only chemists but methodists, give it inwardly in several constitu tions and distempers. Boyle. 2. One of a new kind of puritans lately arisen, so called from their profession to live by rules and in constant method. METHOUGHT, the preterit of methinks. [See METHINKS and MESEEMS.] I thought; it appeared to me. I know not that any author has meseemed, though it is more grammatical, and deduced analogically from meseems.

Methought, a serpent eat my heart away, And you sat smiling at his cruel prey. Shaksp. Since I sought

By pray'r th' offended deity t' appease;
Kneel'd, and before him humbl'd all my heart.
Methought, I saw him placable, and mild,
Bending his ear: persuasion in me grew
That I was heard with favour; peace return'd
Home to my breast; and to my memory
His promise," That thy seed shall bruise our
foe."
Milton.

In these

I found not what, methought, I wanted still.

Milton. Methought I stood on a wide river's bank, Which I must needs o'erpass, but knew not how. Dryden. METONY'MICAL. adj. [from metonymy.] Put by metonymy for something else. METONY'MICALLY. adv. [from metonimical.] By metonymy; not literally.

The disposition of the coloured body, as that modifies the light, may be called by the name of a colour metonymically, or efficiently; that is, in regard of its turning the light that rebounds from it, or passes through it, into this or that particular colour. Boyle. METO'NYMY. n. s. [metonymie, Fr. μerwrμía.] A rhetorical figure, by which one word is put for another, as the matter for the materiate; he died by steel, that is, by a sword.

They differ only as cause and effect, which, by a metonymy usual in all sorts of authors, are fre quently put one for another. Tillotson. METOPO ́SCOPY. n. s. [metoposcopie, Fr. μέτωπον and σκέπτω.] The study of physiognomy; the art of knowing the characters of men by the countenance. METRE. n. s. [metrum, Latin; μérgov.] Speech confined to a certain number and harmonick disposition of syllables; verse; measure; numbers.

For the metre sake, some words be driven awry which require a straighter placing in plain prose. Ascham's Schoolmaster. Abuse the city's best good men in metre, To laugh at lords.

Pope.

METRICAL. adj. [metricus, Lat. metrique, French.]

1. Pertaining to metre or numbers.