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Maypole

A tall pole erected in an open place and wreathed with flowers, about which the rustic May-day sports were had.

Maypop

The edible fruit of a passion flower, especially that of the North American Passiflora incarnata, an oval yellowish berry as large as a small apple.

Mayweed

A composite plant (Anthemis Cotula), having a strong odor; dog's fennel. It is a native of Europe, now common by the roadsides in the United States. The feverfew.

Mazame Mazama

A goatlike antelope (Haplocerus montanus) which inhabits the Rocky Mountains, frequenting the highest parts; -- called also mountain goat.

Mazdean

Of or pertaining to Ahura-Mazda, or Ormuzd, the beneficent deity in the Zoroastrian dualistic system; hence, Zoroastrian.

Maze

To be bewildered.

Mazedness

The condition of being mazed; confusion; astonishment.

Mazer

A large drinking bowl; -- originally made of maple.

Maziness

The state or quality of being mazy.

Mazurka Mazourka

A Polish dance, or the music which accompanies it, usually in 3-4 or 3-8 measure, with a strong accent on the second beat.

Mazy

Perplexed with turns and windings; winding; intricate; confusing; perplexing; embarrassing; as, mazy error.

McCarthyism

Unscrupulously accusing people of disloyalty (as by saying they were Communists).

McKinley

Mount McKinley, the highest peak in North America; 20,300 feet high; also called by the native name Denali.

MDMA

Methylenedioxymethamphetamine, a drug designed to have the effects of amphetamines but originally synthesized to avoid the drug laws; it is now a controlled substance. It is informally called ecstasy. It is used by some abusively and illegally without a prescription.

Me

The person speaking, regarded as an object; myself; a pronoun of the first person used as the objective and dative case of the pronoum I; as, he struck me; he gave me the money, or he gave the money to me; he got me a hat, or he got a hat for me.

Meach

To skulk; to cower. See Mich.

Meacock

An uxorious, effeminate, or spiritless man.

Meadow

Of or pertaining to a meadow; of the nature of a meadow; produced, growing, or living in, a meadow.

meadow grass meadowgrass

Any of various grasses that thrive in the presence of abundant moisture, especially those of the genus Poa, common in meadows, and of great value for hay and for pasture. See Grass.

meadow lark meadowlark

Any species of Sturnella, a genus of North American songbirds allied to the starlings. The common species (Sturnella magna) has a yellow breast with a black crescent.

Meadowwort Meadowsweet

The name of several plants of the genus Spiraea, especially the white- or pink-flowered Spiraea salicifolia, a low European and American shrub, and the herbaceous Spiraea Ulmaria, which has fragrant white flowers in compound cymes.

Meadowy

Of or pertaining to meadows; resembling, or consisting of, meadow.

meagerly

same as meager, 2. Opposite of ample.

Meagre

A large European sciaenoid fish (Sciaena umbra or Sciaena aquila), having white bloodless flesh. It is valued as a food fish.

Meak

A hook with a long handle.

Meaking

The process of picking out the oakum from the seams of a vessel which is to be recalked.

Meal

To sprinkle with, or as with, meal.

Mealies

Maize or Indian corn; -- the common name in South Africa.

Mealiness

The quality or state of being mealy.

meals-on-wheels meals on wheels

A program that delivers hot meals to persons, such as the elderly or disabled, who are confined to their homes and unable to cook for themselves; also, the meals thus delivered. Such programs are usually conducted by governmental or charitable organizations.

Mealtime

The usual time of eating a meal.

Mealy

Having the qualities of meal; resembling meal; soft, dry, and friable; easily reduced to a condition resembling meal; as, a mealy potato.

mealy bug mealybug

Any of several homopteran scale insects (as, Coccus adonidum, and related species of the families Pseudococcidae and Eriococcidae), that cover themselves with a white powderlike or cottony wax secretion. They are common plant-eating pests in hothouses and are also destructive of fruit trees.

Mealy-mouthed

Using soft words; not straightforward; plausible; affectedly or timidly delicate of speech; speaking deviously; unwilling to tell the truth in plain language. Opposite of frank or blunt.

Mean

That which is mean, or intermediate, between two extremes of place, time, or number; the middle point or place; middle rate or degree; mediocrity; medium; absence of extremes or excess; moderation; measure.

Meander

To wind or turn in a course or passage; to be intricate.

Meandrina

A genus of corals with meandering grooves and ridges, including the brain corals.

Meaning

That which is meant or intended; intent; purpose; aim; object; as, a mischievous meaning was apparent.

meaningful

Having a meaning or purpose; having significance; as, a meaningful explanation; a meaningful discussion; a meaningful pause; to live a meaningful life. Opposite of meaningless.

meaningless

having no meaning; of no value; as, a meaningless endeavor; a meaningless life; a meaningless explanation. Opposite of meaningful.

Meanly

In a mean manner; unworthily; basely; poorly; ungenerously.

Meanness

The condition, or quality, of being mean; want of excellence; poorness; lowness; baseness; sordidness; stinginess.

Mear

A boundary. See Mere.

Mease

Five hundred; as, a mease of herrings.

Measle

A tapeworm larva. See 2d Measles, 4.

Measled

Infected or spotted with measles, as pork.

measure

A standard of dimension; a fixed unit of quantity or extent; an extent or quantity in the fractions or multiples of which anything is estimated and stated; hence, a rule by which anything is adjusted or judged.

Measure

To make a measurement or measurements.

Measured

Regulated or determined by a standard; hence, equal; uniform; graduated; limited; moderated; as, he walked with measured steps; he expressed himself in no measured terms.

Measurement

The act or result of measuring; mensuration; as, measurement is required.

Measurer

One who measures; one whose occupation or duty is to measure commondities in market.

Measuring

Used in, or adapted for, ascertaining measurements, or dividing by measure.

Meat

To supply with food.

Meatal

Of or pertaining to a meatus; resembling a meatus.

Meatoscope

A speculum for examining a natural passage, as the urethra.

Meatotome

An instrument for cutting into the urethra so as to enlarge its orifice.

Meatus

A natural passage or canal; as, the external auditory meatus. See Illust. of Ear.

Meaw

See Mew, to cry as a cat.

Meawl

See Mewl, and Miaul.

Meazling

Falling in small drops; mistling; mizzing.

Mecate

A rope of hair or of maguey fiber, for tying horses, etc.

Meccawee

Of or pertaining to Mecca, in Arabia. A native or inhabitant of Mecca.

Mechanic

Having to do with the application of the laws of motion in the art of constructing or making things; of or pertaining to mechanics; mechanical; as, the mechanic arts.

Mechanician

One skilled in the theory or construction of machines; a machinist.

Mechanico-chemical

Pertaining to, connected with, or dependent upon, both mechanics and chemistry; -- said especially of those sciences which treat of such phenomena as seem to depend on the laws both of mechanics and chemistry, as electricity and magnetism.

Mechanics

That science, or branch of applied mathematics, which treats of the action of forces on bodies.

Mechanism

The arrangement or relation of the parts of a machine; the parts of a machine, taken collectively; the arrangement or relation of the parts of anything as adapted to produce an effect; as, the mechanism of a watch; the mechanism of a sewing machine; the mechanism of a seed pod.

mechanism of action

The mechanism{2} by which a pharmacologically active substance produces an effect on a living organism or in a biochemical system; as, the mechanism of action of actinomycin involves its binding to DNA. The mechanism of action is usually considered to include an identification of the specific molecular targets to which a pharmacologically active substance binds or whose biochemical action it influences; a general recognition of the broad biochemical pathways (such as DNA synthesis, protein synthesis, cholesterol synthesis) which are inhibited or affected by a substance is termed its mode of action.

Mechanist

A maker of machines; one skilled in mechanics.

Mechanograph

One of a number of copies of anything multiplied mechanically.

Mechanographist

An artist who, by mechanical means, multiplies copies of works of art.

Mechanography

The art of mechanically multiplying copies of a writing, or any work of art.

Mechanurgy

That branch of science which treats of moving machines.

Mechitarist

One of a religious congregation of the Roman Catholic Church devoted to the improvement of Armenians.

Mechlin

A kind of lace made at, or originating in, Mechlin, in Belgium.

Mechoacan

A species of jalap, of very feeble properties, said to be obtained from the root of a species of Convolvulus (Convolvulus Mechoacan); -- so called from Michoacan, in Mexico, whence it is obtained.

Meckelian

Pertaining to, or discovered by, J. F. Meckel, a German anatomist.

Meconic

Pertaining to, or obtained from, the poppy or opium; specif. (Chem.), designating an acid related to aconitic acid, found in opium and extracted as a white crystalline substance.

Meconidine

An alkaloid found in opium, and extracted as a yellow amorphous substance which is easily decomposed.

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