Glossary of Colloquialisms Free glossaries at TanslationDirectory.com translation jobs
Home Free Glossaries Free Dictionaries Post Your Translation Job! Free Articles Jobs for Translators


Glossary of Colloquialisms
(Starting with "M")



By Natalya Belinsky,
"Fluent English Educational Project"





Get the List of 5,400+ Translation Agencies Now!
No Recurring Membership Fees!




Use the search bar to look for terms in all glossaries, dictionaries, articles and other resources simultaneously


 
Web www.TranslationDirectory.com



A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z

M-government

  • m-government
  • M-Government
  • m-Gov
  • mgov
  • MGOV
  • M-GOV
  • Mgovernment
  • mGovernment
  • government
  • mgovernment
  • MGovernment
  • mobile government
  • mobile
  • m-
  • M-
  • e-government
  • e-


Also:
m-government, M-Government, m-Gov, mgov, MGOV, M-GOV, Mgovernment, mGovernment, mgovernment, MGovernment, mobile government
M-government is a subset of e-government. The last is the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) to improve the activities of public sector organisations. In the case of m-government, those ICTs are limited to mobile and/or wireless technologies like cellular/mobile phones, and laptops and PDAs (personal digital assistants) connected to wireless local area networks (LANs). M-government can help make public information and government services available "anytime, anywhere" to citizens and officials.
Examples, explanation:
M-government should not be seen as something brand-new: for example, wireless technology has always been an important part of law enforcement. Only today, police officers are as likely to use a laptop wirelessly connected to the Internet as the good old two-way radio. When officers spot a suspicious vehicle they can directly search databases that provide information on who owns the vehicle, if it has been reported stolen or has been reported at a crime scene, and if the owner is wanted by police or has jumped bail. Health and safety inspectors can now file their reports from the field in real time using a Pocket PC or handheld terminals, eliminating paper forms and the need to re-enter the data collected when they get back to the office.
On the other hand, citizens are able to save time and energy further by accessing the Internet and government networks through mobile phones and other wireless devices. In Malaysia, for example, citizens can verify their voting information, such as the parliamentary and state constituencies where they are to vote, using SMS (short message service). Alternatively, citizens can request that real-time information is sent to their mobile phone, PDA, or pager as an e-mail or text message. As another example, the California state government has established a Web page where citizens can register to receive wireless PDA and cell phone notification services for energy alerts, lottery results, traffic updates and articles from the Governor's press room.
M-government is not only about efficiency but it also allows for citizen activism. In the Philippines, citizens are able to help enforce anti-pollution laws by reporting smoke-belching public buses and other vehicles via SMS. SMS is also being used to get citizens involved in the fight against crime and illegal drugs.
M-government is not a replacement for e-government, rather it complements it. While mobile devices are excellent access devices, most of them, particularly mobile phones, are not suitable for the transmission of complex and voluminous information. Despite the emergence of more sophisticated handsets, mobile phones do not have the same amount of features and services as PC-based Internet applications. For example, SMS limits messages to 160 characters, whereas email allows a nearly infinite quantity of characters and multimedia content. Even PDAs or Pocket PCs that support email have display and other limitations. Internet-connected PCs are still the preferred device to take part in online political discussions, to search for detailed public sector information, and to transact most types of e-government service. Mobile applications also rely on good back office ICT infrastructure and work processes: government networks and databases, data quality procedures, transaction recording processes, etc.
M-government is like automated teller machines (ATMs). In both cases, the device used by the public is quick and convenient. But it is just the tip of an iceberg: just the final delivery channel to the citizen. Underneath is a complex and costly infrastructure that is required in order to make that final delivery device work.
Etymology:
The term is a shortening for "mobile government".

MGB
(chat) may God bless

MHOTY
(chat) my hat's off to you

MIA

  • Missing in Action
  • Missing
  • Action


Absent; someone who is missing or not where they are supposed to be.
Examples:
1) Bob was MIA during the meeting. He probably left early to watch the football game. 2) There are still thousands of MIAs from the Vietnam War.
Etymology: This phrase comes the U.S. military, and stands for 'Missing in Action'. Soldiers who disappear (and are presumably killed) during a war are called MIAs. Now the phrase is sometimes applied to less dramatic situations, in which someone can't be found for a short period of time.


MIPS

  • Million Instructions Per Second
  • Million
  • Instructions
  • Per Second
  • Instruction
  • Per
  • Second


(computer science) a unit for measuring the execution speed of computers
Example:
4 mips is 4,000,000 instructions per second.
Synonym:
Million Instructions Per Second
Etymology:
Abbreviation of "Million Instructions Per Second".

MMD
(chat) make my day

MMDP
(chat) Make my day punk!

MMM
(chat, Internet) same as WWW, but from inversion boots

MOSS
(chat, Internet) Member Of The Same Sex

MYOB
(chat) mind your own business

Mancunian
[man-kyOO'ne-un, -kyOOn'yun]
1. A native or inhabitant of Manchester, England; a resident of Manchester.
2. Of or relating to or characteristic of the English city of Manchester or its residents.
Examples:
1) She heard the various accents and identified them without thinking, Cockney, West Country, and a thick nasal Mancunian. ("So very English'. - London: Serpent's Tail, 1990)
2) In an uproarious performance, Finney comes over like a Mancunian Tigger, insufferably bouncy and crassly insensitive.
Etymology:
From Latin Mancunium (Manchester), of Celtic origin.


Many hands make light work

  • Many
  • hands
  • hand
  • make
  • light
  • work


A task is easier if many people share the work.

Mardi Gras

  • Mardi
  • Gras


[MAR-dee-grah]
1. a) Shrove Tuesday often observed (as in New Orleans) with parades and festivities; b) a carnival period climaxing on Shrove Tuesday
Example:
In New Orleans, Mardi Gras is a several-day event that is well-known for its spectacular parades and wild street celebrations.
2. a festive occasion resembling a pre-Lenten Mardi Gras
Etymology:
"Mardi Gras", which literally means "fat Tuesday" in French, is the term for Shrove Tuesday, the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday and the Christian period of Lent. Though Mardi Gras has been celebrated since at least the Middle Ages in Europe, the celebration did not arrive in America until 1699, when, according to tradition, a group of French explorers held a Mardi Gras celebration downstream from the site of what is now New Orleans. In modern times the festive revelry and extravagant parades and costumes that are hallmarks of the carnival tradition are alive and well in both France and New Orleans, as well as other places around the globe.


Methuselah
[muh-THOO-zuh-luh]
1. The name of a biblical patriarch said to have lived 969 years.
2. An extremely old man.
Examples:
1) And he must've got it from his great-grandpa, who must've bought it off Methuselah! (Trevanian, "Incident at Twenty-Mile")
2) Opass is 80 years old, a Parisian Methuselah living alone on the 13th floor of a tower block. (Dominic Bradbury, "A picture never quite in focus," Times (London), January 10, 2001)
Etymology:
Methuselah is from Hebrew Methushelah, Biblical patriarch represented as having lived 969 years.


Mind your P's and Q's

  • Mind one's P's and Q's
  • Mind P's and Q's
  • Mind
  • P's and Q's
  • P
  • Q
  • watch one's step
  • watch your step
  • watch
  • step


Be very careful; behave yourself; be extremely exact; be careful not to say or do anything wrong; mind your manners.
Example:
1. If you wish to succeed you must mind your P's and Q's.
2. Please try to mind your P's and Q's when the princess visits the school.
Etymology:
One theory is that the phrase comes from the practice in certain British pubs of tallying a customer's purchases on a blackboard behind the bar, with the notation "P" standing for "pints" and "Q" for "quarts". If a customer failed to pay close attention and "mind his P's and Q's", he might well find by evening's end that the barkeep had padded his tab.
The similar version is that the expression came from the old U.S. Navy when sailors marked on a board in the bar how many Pints and Quarts of liquor they had taken. It was bad manners to cheat.
Another theory, drawn from the schoolroom, is that any child approaching the mystery of penmanship soon discovers that the lowercase "p" is devilishly easy to confuse with the lowercase "q". Thus, the theory goes, generations of teachers exhorting their small charges to "mind your P's and Q's" created a enduring metaphor for being attentive and careful. A similar theory centers on typesetters in old-fashioned printing shops, where the danger of confusing lowercase "p" and "q" was increased because typesetters had to view the typeset text backwards.
Still other theories tie the "P" to "pea" cloth (the rough fabric used in "pea jackets") and the "Q" to "queue", which meant a ponytail, either that of the fancy wigs worn by courtiers of the day or the real ponytails commonly worn by sailors. In the upscale version of this theory, young aristocrats were cautioned not to get the powder from their wigs on their jackets made of pea cloth. The sailor version has old salts advising newcomers to dip their ponytails in tar (a common practice, believe it or not), but to avoid soiling their pea jackets with the tar.
Finally, "pieds" and "queues" are dance steps that a French dancing instructor would teach his students to perform with care. There's no proof as to where this catchy saying originated, though.
Synonym: watch one's step

Mob
(chat, slang) mobile

Molotov Bread-basket

  • Molotov's Bread-basket
  • Molotov's Breadbasket
  • Molotov
  • Bread-basket
  • Molotov Breadbasket
  • Breadbasket


Soviet fire bomb dispenser pod.
Example:
So-called "Molotov's breadbasket" included small fire bombs that spreaded in wide area when "breadbasket" was dropped from plane.
History:
The name is derived from Vyacheslav Mikhailovich Molotov, the People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs (Russian Foreign Minister and Secretary of War of the Soviet Union). It is connected with the events of the Winter War (the Soviet attack on Finland, 1939-1940). The world's opinion in 1939 was not yet dulled by massive air bombardment of cities, and attacking civilian targets was considered an outrage. U.S. president Roosevelt sent a message to Moscow wishing that Soviet bombers should not be allowed to bomb Finnish cities. Comrade Molotov answered that Soviet bombers have not bombed and shall not bomb Finnish cities, but only air bases, which cannot be seen from America which is 8000 km away. Also, the Soviet Aircraft were said to drop bread for the starving Finnish people, absolutely no bombs. Soon the Soviet fire bomb dispenser pod was nicknamed "Molotov's bread basket". On the other hand, when dropped, the winglets on the top of the bomb folded out and made the "basket" rotate and the centrifugal force scattered the incendiary "loaves of bread".

Molotov cocktail

  • Molotov cocktails
  • Molotov's cocktail
  • Molotov's cocktails
  • Molotov
  • cocktail
  • petrol bomb
  • gasoline bomb
  • petrol
  • bomb
  • gasoline


A crude explosive device consisting of a bottle filled with gasoline; a crude incendiary bomb made of a bottle filled with flammable liquid and fitted with a rag wick.
Example:
The BMW had come to a stop and the boy was climbing out, his Molotov cocktail now lit and ready. (Shah, Eddy. "The Lucy ghosts". - London: Corgi Books, 1993)
Synonyms: petrol bomb, gasoline bomb.
History:
1940. The name "Molotov cocktail" is derived from Vyacheslav Mikhailovich Molotov, a Russian communist who was the Foreign Minister and Secretary of War of the Soviet Union during World War II. The soldiers of the Finnish Army successfully used Molotov cocktails against Red Army tanks in the two conflicts (Winter War and Continuation War) between Finland and the Soviet Union and coined the term. Molotov cocktails were even mass-produced by the Finnish military, bundled with matches to light them. They had already been used in the Spanish Civil War, sometimes propelled by a sling.
These weapons saw widespread use by all sides in World War Two. They were very effective against light tanks, and very bad for enemy morale.
During the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, members of the Israeli Kibbutz Dgania managed to stop a Syrian tank assault by using Molotov cocktails.



Mother-in-law's Tongue

  • Good Luck Plant
  • Mother-in-law
  • Tongue
  • Mother
  • law
  • Good Luck
  • Plant
  • Good
  • Luck


Sansevieria, a house plant with tall thick leaves.
Synonyms:
Mother-in-law's Tongue, Good Luck Plant.

Msg
(web, chat) message

Murray Mound

  • Murray
  • Mound
  • Murray Mount
  • Mount
  • Henman Hill
  • Henman
  • Hill
  • Rusedski Ridge
  • Rusedski
  • Ridge
  • Henmania
  • Henmaniac
  • Timbledon
  • Tim-ometer
  • Tim
  • ometer


Also: Murray Mount
A raised area of grass at the Wimbledon tennis club where spectators gather to watch British player Andy Murray on a giant television screen.
Examples:
1) In almost every way, it seems, he is different from the uncontroversial, mild-mannered and very English player he is set to succeed as Wimbledon's favourite son, Tim Henman. For Henman Hill, read the rather more aggressive-sounding Murray Mound. ("Financial Times", 24th June 2006) 2) Henman had to suffer last year after being knocked out in the second round, and even saw "Henman Hill" - the giant screen area where fans watch the action - renamed "Murray Mount" as teenager Andy Murray burst on to the scene. (Sunday Mirror, 25th June 2006) History, related words:
Its official name is Aorangi Park, but for many years it's been called Henman Hill, periodically it was referred to as Rusedski Ridge, and in 2006 it's most definitely Murray Mound. This is the tongue-in-cheek description of a grassy bank at the Wimbledon tennis club, where fans without show court tickets traditionally gather around a giant TV screen to watch British tennis players desperately trying to win the men's singles championship. Murray Mound, also regularly referred to as Murray Mount, follows the tradition of naming this area based on the surname of the current top British player <http://www.andymurray.com> and an appropriate noun beginning with the same letter. It's lucky for British fans that English has such a rich vocabulary of words referring to 'a raised area of land'. Among the remaining possibilities are crag, knoll, peak or slope, which might tie in with other British surnames such as Croft, Knightley, Peters or Smith. Coinages such as Knightley Knoll might well be a long way off however, with Scottish player Andy Murray showing superb form at only 19 years of age, and potentially securing the use of Murray Mound for many years to come. It's 70 years since Wimbledon last had a British men's singles champion. Fred Perry was the last British player to win the tournament, before the Second World War in 1936. As each year passes, the British public's anticipation of a long-awaited champion grows more and more fervent, and ephemeral terms referring to the players, their fans and performances are coined along the way amid media speculation about whether 'this will be the year'. Tim Henman, though as yet unsuccessful in fulfilling the fans' dream of a British champion, has so far been at the pinnacle of media interest and word formation, spawning terms such as Henmania, and related derivative Henmaniac, Timbledon, Henman Hill and, in 2005, Tim-ometer. The words Henmania and Henmaniac have been a seasonal feature of English in recent years, sprinkled liberally in journalistic texts across the English-speaking world during Wimbledon fortnight. However, just as Tim is gradually making a graceful exit from the courts, the words that go with him are retiring too, with far less evidence of use in 2006. It looks like we're sliding down Henman Hill, and climbing up Murray Mound.

 

macabre

  • danse macabre
  • danse


[muh-KAHB]
1. Having death as a subject; comprising or including a personalized representation of death.
2. Dwelling on the gruesome.
3. Tending to produce horror in a beholder.
Example:
The Halloween movie was a grisly and macabre tale filled with gruesome special effects and terrifying monsters.
History:
During the 13th and 14th centuries, when everyday life was marked by horrific events such as the Black Plague and the Hundred Years' War, Europeans introduced the danse macabre to demonstrate the inevitability and impartiality of death. The danse macabre was a dance or parade in which a skeleton representing death led other skeletons or living persons to the grave, and its name recalls the Maccabees, 2nd-century Jewish patriots who were associated with death and purgatory. Middle French speakers called this pageant "danse de Macabre," literally "dance of death," and it was from the French name that English speakers borrowed "macabre" as a term for things hideous or deathly.


macaroni

  • fop
  • dandy


[mak-uh-ROH-nee]
1. Pasta made from semolina and shaped in the form of slender tubes.
2. A member of a class of traveled young Englishmen of the late 18th and early 19th centuries who affected foreign ways.
3. An affected young man; fop.
Example:
If he...talks about London and Lord March, and White's, and Almack's, with the air of a macaroni, I don't think we need like him much the less. (William Makepeace Thackeray, "The Virginians")
History, synonyms:
The "macaroni" in the song "Yankee Doodle" is not the familiar food. The feather in Yankee Doodle's cap apparently makes him a macaroni in the now rare "fop" or "dandy" sense. The sense appears to have originated with a club established in London by a group of young, well-traveled Englishmen in the 1760s. The founders prided themselves on their appearance, sense of style, and manners, and they chose the name Macaroni Club to indicate their worldliness. Because macaroni was, at the time, a new and rather exotic food in England, the name was meant to demonstrate how stylish the club's members were. The members were themselves called "macaronis," and eventually "macaroni" became synonymous with "dandy" and "fop."


machination

  • machinate
  • machinator


[mack-uh-NAY-shuhn; mash-]
1. The act of plotting.
2. A crafty scheme; a cunning design or plot intended to accomplish some usually evil end.
Examples:
1) He was telling me how he could have married the royal princess as a reward for his bravery in Bosnia-Herzegovina, where he was an infantryman in the Kaiserliche und Konigliche Austro-Hungarian army, but for the machinations of the evil Archduke somebody-or-other. (George Lang, "Nobody Knows the Truffles I've Seen")
2) Alongside the various representations of sincere tears, then, are a series of representations of insincerity and emotional machination. (Tom Lutz, "Crying")
3) To keep away from them and steer clear of their inveigling schemes and grasping machinations . . . has been my constant life-long effort. (Jeff Stryker, "They Couldn't Resist: Oh, One Last Thing," New York Times, May 21, 2000)
4) He declared that the tale he could tell would not be of generals or kings, for the political machinations of the great, he said, he was and had been in no position to observe. (Steven Pressfield, "Gates of Fire")
Etymology:
"Machination" derives from Latin "machinatio" - "a contrivance, a cunning device, a machination," from "machinari" - "to contrive, to devise, especially to plot evil." It is related to machine, from Latin "machina" - "any artificial contrivance for performing work". "To machinate" is to devise a plot, or engage in plotting.
One who machinates is a machinator.


macho

  • mucho
  • machismo


(slang)
1. Tough guy; superman
2. Strongly masculine or assertive man; domineering and aggressive man.
3. Machismo, male chauvinism.
4. A great amount or quantity of something.
5. The striped mullet of california (mugil cephalus, or mexicanus)
6. Masculine; assertive; domineering.
7. Super masculine; masculine to an extreme.
Example:
Remember that your goal is to raise a respectful man, and not a macho.
Etymology:

1928 (n.) "tough guy," from Sp. "macho" ("male animal"); as an adj., "masculine, virile," from L. "masculus". First attested in Eng. as an adj. 1959.



macilentus
['masIl@nt]
Lean, shrivelled, or excessively thin.
Etymology, examples:
This word was marked as rare in dictionaries a century ago and has become even more so since, though it retains a niche in elevated or pretentious prose. It's from Latin "macilentus" - "lean". In 1851 a writer evoked with it a victim of tuberculosis: "of whom I could recollect nothing but a macilent figure, stretched upon a sofa and scarcely breathing". It can also have a figurative sense that refers to poor-quality or inferior writing. A reviewer of Britney Spears's album "In the Zone" in 2003 described it as "Britney's most personal statement. Because it's as lost and macilent and alluring and eager to please and disturbingly empty-eyed as she is."


macrocosm

  • universe
  • existence
  • creation
  • world
  • cosmos
  • microcosm


1. The entire world; everything that exists anywhere; the great world; that part of the universe which is exterior to man; contrasted with microcosm, or man.
2. A system reflecting on a large scale one of its component systems or parts.
Example:
They study the evolution of the macrocosm.
Synonyms:
universe, existence, creation, world, cosmos
Antonym: microcosm
Etymology:
Medieval Latin "macrocosmus": Greek "makro-" ("macro-") + Greek "kosmos" ("world"); cf. French "macrocosme".



mad as a hatter

  • as mad as a hatter
  • mad
  • hatter


Stark raving mad, insane, deranged, strange, eccentric, batty, plumb loco, completely crazy.
Examples:
1) If you wear that pink wig, people will think you're mad as a hatter.
2) Sean is as mad as a hatter, but he's my most interesting friend.
History:
Lewis Carroll created the character of the Mad Hatter in his classic book "Alice in Wonderland". The expression "mad as a hatter" comes from the early 1800s. One possible origin is a snake called adder. People in England thought that if you were bitten by an adder, its poison would make you insane. Some people pronounced "adder" as "atter", so if you acted crazy, you were as "mad as an atter", which later became "hatter". Another explanation of the expression's origin is that people who worked in felt-hat factories in the 1800s inhaled fumes of mercuric nitrate, and, as a result, developed twitches, jumbled their speech, and grew confused. The condition was sometimes mistaken for madness and may have given birth to the saying "mad as a hatter."


mad as a wet hen

  • as mad as a wet hen
  • mad
  • wet hen
  • wet
  • hen


Very upset; extremely angry; ready to fight.
Example:
When Tess realized that her brother had eaten all the cookies, she was as mad as a wet
hen.
History:
It doesn't really bother hens much when they get wet. This early 19th century expression probably resulted from a mistake or someone's imagination. It is not a barnyard reality.

maelstrom
[MAYL-struhm]
1. A large, powerful, or destructive whirlpool.
2. Something resembling a maelstrom; a violent, disordered, or turbulent state of affairs.
Examples:
1) The murk became thicker as Zachareesi fishtailed his canoe through a swirling maelstrom of currents pouring past, and over, unseen rocks. (Farley Mowat, "The Farfarers")
2)
Suddenly, the Serb cause was thrust into the maelstrom of the Napoleonic Wars. (Misha Glenny, "The Balkans")
3) Always at the center of a maelstrom of activity and contention, he provided good columns for the press. (Arthur Lennig, "Stroheim Like")
4) Captain Ahab, the monomaniacal Harmon draws everyone around him into a maelstrom of trouble. (John Motyka, review of "The Dogs of Winter", by Kem Nunn, New York Times, March 23, 1997)
Etymology:
"Maelstrom" comes from obsolete Dutch "maelstroom", from "malen" ("to grind, hence to whirl round") + "stroom" ("stream").


maffick

  • Mafeking Night
  • Mafeking
  • Night
  • Mafikeng
  • Mafikeng night


to celebrate with boisterous rejoicing and hilarious behavior
Example:
In 1904, author H.H. Munro penned, "Mother, may I go and maffick, / Tear about and hinder traffic" in his sardonic satire about the South African War, "Reginald's Peace Poem".
History:
"Maffick" is an alteration of Mafeking Night, the British celebration of the lifting of the siege of a British military outpost during the South African War at the town of Mafikeng (also spelled Mafeking) on May 17, 1900. The South African War was fought between the British and the Afrikaners, who were Dutch and Huguenot settlers originally called Boers, over the right to govern frontier territories. Though the war did not end until 1902, the lifting of the siege of Mafikeng was a significant victory for the British because they held out against a larger Afrikaner force for 217 days until reinforcements could arrive. The rejoicing in British cities on news of the rescue produced "maffick", a word that was popular for a while, especially in journalistic writing, but is now less common.


magic carpet

  • magic
  • carpet
  • Prince Housain's carpet
  • Prince Housain
  • King Solomon's carpet
  • King Solomon


Imaginary flying carpet: in fairy stories, a carpet that flies through the air and is used as a form of transportation.
Example:
A magic carpet is a carpet that would transport persons who were on it instantaneously or quickly to their destination.
History:
The magic carpet of Tangu, also called "Prince Housain's carpet" was a seemingly worthless carpet from Tangu in Persia that acted as a magic carpet. It was featured in many Asian folktales, notably in "Aladdin" and "Arabian Nights".
King Solomon's carpet was reportedly made of green silk, on which Solomon's throne was placed when traveling. It was large enough for his coterie to stand upon, people on his right, spirits to his left. The wind followed Solomon's commands, and ensured the carpet and its contents would go to the proper destination. The carpet was shielded from the sun by a canopy of birds.


magniloquent

  • grandiloquent
  • ornate
  • florid
  • flowery
  • euphuistic
  • sonorous


[mag-NIL-uh-kwunt]
Lofty or grandiose in speech or expression; using a high-flown style of discourse; speaking in or characterized by a high-flown often bombastic style or manner.
Examples:
1) Poet Edward Weismiller told "The Baltimore Sun" (April 10, 2004) that his former tendency to be magniloquent "was stamped out" of him by his mentor John Berryman.
2) Stevens did for American poetic language what Saul Bellow was to do for prose, extending its boundaries, taking in the magniloquent, the arcane, the plainspoken, the gaudy, the low-rent. (Algis Valiunas, "Wallace Stevens: Collected Poetry and Prose," Commentary, January 1, 1998)
3) A feature of Young's intellectual project is to incorporate the Elizabethan delight in metaphors both decorous and indecorous, constantly embellishing her prose with a poetic juxtaposition of the grand with the prosaic, "a constant alternation of the magniloquent and the colloquial." (Constance Eichenlaub, "Marguerite Young," Review of Contemporary Fiction, June 22, 2000)
4) Although Napoleon presented himself as "the Enlightenment embodied, bringing rationality and justice to peoples hitherto ruled in the interests of privileged castes," and although he may even have believed to some degree in the image he presented, the reality of his rule belied the magniloquent professions of moral generosity. (Algis Valiunas, "The ashes of Napoleon," Commentary, June 1, 2002)
5) Shannon, doubling as NSBA's executive director over that time, has taken wicked delight in delivering new vocabulary in his sometimes magniloquent columns about the workings of local school boards. ("Thomas A. Shannon," School Administrator, April 1996)
Synonyms: ornate, florid, flowery, euphuistic, sonorous, grandiloquent.
History, a related word:
"Magnus" means "great" in Latin; "loqui" is a Latin verb meaning "to speak." Combine the two and you get "magniloquus," the Latin predecessor of "magniloquent." English speakers started using "magniloquent" for the "bombastic" in the 1600s - even though we'd had its synonym "grandiloquent" since the 1500s. ("Grandiloquent" comes from Latin "grandiloquus," which combines "loqui" and "grandis," another word for "great" in Latin.) Today, these synonyms continue to exist side by side and to be used interchangeably, though "grandiloquent" is the more common of the two.


maieutic
relating to or resembling the Socratic method of eliciting new ideas from another
Example:
Professor Collins often uses maieutic logic to encourage his students to explore and understand the various facets of a problem.
Etymology:
"Maieutic" comes from "maieutikos," the Greek word for "of midwifery." Whoever applied "maieutic" to the Socratic method of bringing forth new ideas by reasoning and dialogue must have thought the techniques of Socrates analogous to those a midwife uses in delivering a baby. A teacher who uses maieutic methods can be thought of as an intellectual midwife who assists students in bringing forth ideas and conceptions previously latent in their minds.


make a beeline for

  • make a beeline
  • make
  • beeline
  • beeline for


go straight towards
Example:
When the kids saw Santa Claus coming, they all made a beeline for him.


make a day of it

  • make a day of
  • make a day
  • make
  • day


1. Do something all day.
Example:
We were afraid of literature exam coming on Monday and all the Sunday made a day of it.
2. Amuse oneself all day long.
Example:
We decided to make a day of it and spend the day at the beach.


make a federal case out of

  • make a federal case out of it
  • make a federal case out of smth.


To exaggerate the seriousness of something small; to make a big deal out of something.
Example:
I was looking at your test paper to see the date. Don't make a federal case out of it.
History:
The federal courts and Supreme Court of the United States handle the most important issues of the law. So, if you overreact to something said or done, you're "making a federal case out of it," or making it more important than it needs to be.

make a hames of smth.

  • make a hames of
  • make a hames
  • make
  • hames
  • make a hame
  • hame


(Irish) To make a mess of smth.
Example:
I thought I wasn't when they called on Saturday but now I'm so shakky, I know what I should say and all, but I'm afarid I just will make a hames of it! ...
Etymology, more examples:
The expression is restricted to Ireland and doesn't now seem to be so very common even there. Here's one example from the "Irish Examiner" in August 2004, describing a local politician's chances in a reshuffle: "You know he'd be thrilled with Finance, and it wouldn't do you any harm to watch him make a hames of it. He could even be the scapegoat for the next election." Though the expression isn't known elsewhere, anyone who has much to do with working horses will know the term, because the hames are the two curved supports attached to the collar of a draft horse to which the traces are fastened. It's all too easy to put the hames on a horse the wrong way up, thus making a complete mess of things and risking adverse comments from bystanders. Here's a literary example, from Hugh Leonard's "Out After Dark" of 1989: "Instead I made a hames of it, mislaying a verb, marooning a noun on a foreign shore, starting a jerry-built sentence that caved in halfway through". "Hame", in lots of different spellings, was once common in dialects throughout Britain and Ireland and there are terms in Old Dutch and German that are similar. The best we can say about its origins is that it's a Germanic word, perhaps imported from Dutch around 1300 < ME "hames".
The word usually occurs in the plural. Some pubs have the name "Hamemakers Arms", others have a similar name "Homemakers Arms". The names may be derived from both "hames" and "home", or may both be derived from one of these.

make a mountain out of a molehill

  • make
  • mountain
  • out of
  • molehill
  • make out
  • make out of
  • make
  • make an elephant out of a fly
  • make
  • out of
  • make out
  • elephant
  • fly


To make a problem bigger, exaggerate a problem; to turn a small, unimportant issue into a big, important one; to exaggerate the importance of something.
Examples:
1) "I can't believe you forgot to return your library book!" Damon wagged his finger at
Yvonne.
"Look, it's only one day overdue and I'm returning it right now. Stop making a mountain out of a molehill!"
2) Your 'broken arm' was only a sprained write. Don't make a mountain out of a molehill.
History, synonym:
A mountain is huge; a molehill is small. The ancient Greeks had a saying, "make
an elephant out of a fly
," which became a proverb in French and German. By the mid-1500s people in England were saying "make a mountain out of a molehill," probably because "make", "mountain", and "molehill" all begin with "m", and alliteration helps make an expression fun to say and easier to remember.

make a pass at

  • make a pass
  • make
  • pass


make a romantic approach to smb.; woo smb.; try to get a date with smb.
Example:
Julie made a pass at me. She sent me a love note and smiled at me.



make a play for

  • make a play
  • make
  • play for
  • make a play
  • play


do something in order to obtain smth./smb., make an effort to attain smth./smb.
Examples:
1) You remember Mile High Stadium. Fans make a play for seats. But stadium security sits on their attempts to swipe souvenirs.
2) John always makes a play for new girls in the group.


make a silk purse out of a sow's ear

  • One can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear
  • One cannot make a silk purse out of a sow's ear
  • You can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear
  • You cannot make a silk purse out of a sow's ear
  • good coat of poor cloth
  • make good coat of poor cloth
  • hunting horn out of a pig's tail
  • make hunting horn out of a pig's tail
  • put some lipstick on that pig
  • hunting horn
  • pig's
  • tail
  • pig
  • hunting
  • horn
  • good
  • coat
  • poor
  • cloth
  • make
  • silk
  • purse
  • out of
  • sow's
  • sow
  • ear
  • make out of
  • make out


To create something valuable or beautiful out of something practically worthless or ugly.
Example:
Owen thinks that by polishing his old car, he can make a silk purse out of a sow's ear.
History, synonyms:
There are similar expressions in many languages; these sayings also use "good thing - bad thing" combinations (for instance, "to make good coat of poor cloth," and "to make hunting horn out of a pig's tail"). In the US there is a contemporary variant to that saying: "to put some lipstick on that pig." An English version close to this idiom has been around since 1700. A silk purse is an elegant, expensive item made of fine, shiny fibers. A sow is an adult female pig. So if anyone can take a sow's ear and turn it into a silk purse, he or she
might be able to take a bad situation and make something good out of it.



make away with

  • make away
  • make
  • away with
  • away


1. To take; to carry away;
Example: The cat made away with the bird that was sitting on top of the kitchen counter.
2. To get rid of; to rid oneself of;
3. To finish, to complete
4. To kill, to murder (someone or oneself) Example: He made away with himself.
5. To steal; To run away with stolen stuff
Example: The police gave chase, but the thieves made away with the jewels.


make ends meet

  • make
  • end
  • meet


1. To be able to support oneself financially on one's salary; to have enough money to survive; to pay the bills, have enough to pay the expenses.
2. Barely to earn enough money to survive; to live on the edge of poverty.
Examples:
1) My dad has to work overtime almost every night, and lately he works on weekends, too. He says it's what he has to do to make ends meet.
2) On her salary, Jackie can hardly make ends meet.
3) Although the Millers are poor, they make ends meet.
History:
What does "ends" mean in this expression? Some word experts think that in the 1600s it could have meant the sum total, the end of a column of figures that were added up. Others think that in the mid-1700s it meant the beginning and the end of the financial year.


make eyes at

  • make eyes
  • make
  • eye
  • eyes


blink the eyes, make an expression with the eyes, look at in an alluring manner; flirt, look at a member of the opposite sex to try and attract them
Example:
The boy was making eyes at all girls in turn.


make hay while the sun shines

  • Strike while the iron is hot
  • make
  • hay
  • sun
  • shine
  • Strike
  • while
  • iron
  • hot


(Saying) To make the best of a limited opportunity; to take advantage of an opportunity, to take a chance while it is available.
Synonym: Strike while the iron is hot.
Examples:
1.
Jason and Frank were watching a basketball game on television. A commercial came on with their favorite player, Michael Jordan, doing an incredible reverse slam dunk, and wearing some very fancy shoes. "You know," said Jason, "Jordan makes a lot of money playing basketball. So why does he do commercials for shoes too?" "Go easy on the man," said Frank. "He's just trying to make hay while the sun shines. You think he'll be able to dunk like that in ten years?" "You're right," said Jason. "In ten years, you'll be seeing me on that screen, and you'll be buying "Jason Jammers'!"
2. If you want a part in the show, you'd better put on your tap shoes and make hay while
the sun shines.
Etymology:
This proverb dates from the early to mid-1500s. Hay is made from grass that has
been cut and dried. Rain will spoil cut grass, so farmers have to time it right and make
hay
on days when the sun is shining. This expression includes anything that should be done when the time is right, taking full advantage of an opportunity before it passes.

make head or tail of smth.

  • make head or tail of
  • make head or tail out of smth.
  • make head or tail out of
  • make heads or tails out of smth.
  • make heads or tails out of
  • make
  • head
  • heads
  • tail
  • tails
  • out of
  • make out of
  • make of
  • make out
  • make


(Used in negative, conditional, and interrogative sentences.) To see the why of; finding a meaning in; to understand how something works; to figure something out.
Examples:
1) She could not make head or tail of the directions on the dress pattern.
2) Can you make head or tail of the letter?
3) Dad couldn't make heads or tails out of the instructions for taping shows with his new
VCR.
History:
Cicero, a Roman statesman and public speaker of the first century B.C., used a
similar expression, "neither head nor feet." The current English saying comes from the
1600s. The head is the front or top of something. The tail is the end or bottom. So if you
can make heads or tails out of something, you can understand it from beginning to end, from top to bottom. This expression is often used in the negative ("They can't make...") because there are a lot of things in this world that are difficult to understand.

make heads roll

  • heads will roll
  • make
  • head
  • heads
  • roll


demote or dismiss people as a punishment

make no bones about

  • make no bones about smth.
  • make no bones about smb.
  • make no bones
  • make
  • bone
  • bones


To speak directly, plainly, honestly, and without hesitation or doubt; to speak one's mind.
Example:
The substitute teacher made no bones about not liking hats worn to class.
History:
The origin of this old idiom, first used in print in 1548, is not clear. Some word experts have suggested that it came from the fact that if there are no bones in your soup, you can just swallow it without worrying about choking. That's like speaking plainly without worrying.

make off

  • make
  • off


escape, leave quickly
Example:
The police chased them, but the thieves made off with the jewels.


make off with

  • make off
  • make
  • off


take away, take without permission
Example:
The boys made off with his toys. They took all his cars and trucks.


make one's mouth water

  • make the mouth water
  • make
  • mouth
  • water
  • lick one's chops
  • lick chops
  • lick the chops
  • lick
  • chop
  • chops


1. To look or smell very good; make you want very much to eat or drink something you see or smell; to want to eat or drink something that looks or smells delicious; to want to eat something because of the thought or smell of the food.
2. To be attractive; make you want to have something very much;
Compare: lick one's chops
Examples:
1) The pies in the store window made Dan's mouth water.
2) The picture of the ice cream soda made his mouth water.
3) Judy collects folk song records, and the records in the store window made her mouth water.
4) Looking at the menu made my mouth water.
5) Seeing those posters of Hawaii made my mouth water for a vacation on a beach.
History:
This expression was used as early as the mid-1500s, but since time began, people
have known that the sight, smell, or even thought of food can make a person's salivary
glands start up, causing the mouth to water. Though this saying is often used in
connection with food or drink, it can really be used when looking forward to something
that you want a lot.

make out

  • make
  • neck


To kiss and caress intensely.
Example:
Bill and Suzy were making out in front of the television.
Synonym: neck
History:
This phrase goes back to the 1940s.


make the fur fly

  • make
  • fur
  • fly


To start a fight.
Etymology: Possibly a reference to the nursery rhyme The Gingham Dog and the Calico Cat; certainly a reference to a cat and dog fighting.

make the grade

  • make
  • grade
  • measure up
  • measure


1. Do acceptable work
Synonym:
measure up
Example:
2. Succeed, overcome difficulties; make good, succeed, meet a standard, qualify
Example:
He wasn`t able to make the grade and join the basketball team.


make the scene

  • make
  • scene


be present, go to a certain place or event
Examples:
1) He decided to make the scene and go to the party.
2) I don't wanna make the scene! I'm gonna make off.

make waves

  • make
  • wave
  • waves
  • rock the boat
  • rock
  • boat


1. To cause problems, to make a disturbance; to cause trouble; to upset matters.
2. To show off, to boast.
Examples:
1) Our company has changed a lot. Don't make any more waves.
2) I don't mean to make waves, but I don't agree with my curfew.
History, synonyms:
This 20th-century American saying refers to keeping waters still. If you want to sail peacefully on in your sailboat or float calmly on a raft, you don't want anybody making waves. That might rock the boat or even flip your raft over. A related idiom is "rock the boat".



makebate
[mAk'bAt", make"bate']
(obs.) One who excites contentions and quarrels.
Example:
Elsewhere he may be an useful and profitable member of the commonweal - here he is but a makebate, and a stumbling-block of offence. (Sir Walter Scott, "The Abbot", 1820)
Etymology, related words:
"make" + "bate" ("quarrel, strife").
Somebody who is a "makebate" is clearly making a bate. The second half survives today in "abate" and "debate"; it comes from Latin "battere" - "to beat or fight" (the first sense of "debate" in English in medieval times was "to quarrel or battle"). As a noun, "bate" described discord that was severe enough to result in a fight. British readers might think they recognise in this another form of "bate", a fit of rage or bad temper, an example of which appeared in the Daily Mail in January 2004: "Shrieking with simulated frustration, Clarkson flew into a bate, picked up a hammer and smashed his desktop to smithereens." But the evidence suggests this is a respelling of the verb "bait", to persecute a person with persistent attacks, so that a person was said to be in a bate (or bait) as a result of being baited. Among the other senses of "bate", one in particular is known to falconers. A hawk that beats its wings in agitation and flutters off the perch is said to "bate". This is ultimately also from Latin "battere", but directly from the intermediate French "batre" - "to beat", linked to the verb to "batter".

makeup

  • make-up
  • make up
  • make up for
  • war paint
  • paint


1. The way in which someone or something is composed.
Synonoms: constitution, composition
Example:
The committee's membership does not reflect the city's racial makeup. 2. Cosmetics used to color and beautify the face; a cosmetic applied to other parts of the body; materials (as wigs and cosmetics) used in making up or in special costuming (as for a play).
Synonoms: make-up, war paint
3. An event that is substituted for a previously cancelled event; a special examination in which a student may make up for absence or previous failure.
Example:
He missed the test and had to take a makeup.
4. The operation of making up especially pages for printing; design or layout of printed matter.
Example:
The makeup would be helped by a picture in this corner. 5. Material added (as in a manufacturing process) to replace material that has been used up.
Synonym:
replacement
6. The essential character or temperament of a person.
7. Physical or mental constitution.
Example:
The makeup of a criminal was rather prominent.
8. An amount owed; balance. 9. To compose.
Example:
The car is made up of many different parts: wheels, seats, tires and doors.
10. To compensate, to recompense, to repay.
Also:
make up for
Examples:
1) I know he's getting tired too, but the guy knows how to make up.
2) Please let me make up for my mistake. Let me help you.
11. To create, to imagine.
Example:
Let's make up a song for Jane's birthday.
12. To paint one's lips, face etc.
Example:
Wait me, guys! I just make up!
13. To make peace, to be friends again, come together again.
Example:
John and Marsha fight, but they always kiss and make up.



mala fide

  • mala
  • fide
  • bona fide
  • bona


[mal-uh-FYE-dee]
Adverb or adjective
With or in bad faith.
Example:
The judge concluded that the company had acted mala fide in concealing the information.
History, antonym, more examples:
You may be familiar with the more commonly used "bona fide" ([BOH-nuh-fyde]), which can mean "made in good faith" (as in "a bona fide agreement") or "genuine or real" ("a bona fide miracle"). Not surprisingly, in Latin "bona fide" means "in good faith" and "mala fide" means "in bad faith." These days "mala fide," which dates from the mid-16th century, tends to turn up primarily in legal contexts.


maladroit

  • inept
  • adroit


[mal-uh-DROYT]
Lacking skill, cleverness, or resourcefulness in handling situations.
Synonym: inept
Example:
Liz's friends marvel that anyone as skillful as she is at managing an accounting office can be so maladroit when it comes to keeping track of her personal finances.
Etymology, antonym:
To understand the origin of "maladroit," you need to put together some French (or at least Middle French and Old French) building blocks. The first is the word "mal," meaning "bad," and the second is the phrase "a droit," meaning "properly." You can parse the phrase even further into the components "a," meaning "to" or "at," and "droit," meaning "right, direct, straight." Middle French speakers put those pieces together as "maladroit" to describe the clumsy among them, and English speakers borrowed the word intact back in the 17th century. Its opposite, of course, is "adroit," which we adopted from the French in the same century.


malaise
[muh-LAYZ; -LEZ]
1. A vague feeling of discomfort in the body, as at the onset of illness.
2. A general feeling of depression or unease.
Examples:
1) The first sign of illness is a malaise no worse than influenza. (Steve Jones, "Darwin's Ghost")
2)
Beauty is a basic pleasure. Try to imagine that you have become immune to beauty. Chances are, you would consider yourself unwell - sunk in a physical, spiritual, or emotional malaise. (Nancy Etcoff, "Survival of the Prettiest")
3) He fell in love with Modotti's sad beauty and her indecipherable character, and he saw in her the same vague subtle malaise that made him feel like a stranger to life. (Pino Cacucci, "Tina Modotti: A Life")
4) Shortly after the birth of his second child, the Prince found himself in a state of malaise and dissatisfaction with life which manifested itself as a boredom with his wife, and an interest in one of the young ladies at court. (Andrew Crumey, "Pfitz")
Etymology:
"Malaise" comes from the French, from Old French "mal" ("bad, ill") + "aise" ("comfort, ease").

 

malapert

  • aperture


[mal-uh-PERT]
Impudently bold.
Synonym: saucy
Example:
I had never imagined that Phyllis could be so malapert as to interrupt the professor right in the middle of his lecture.
Etymology, related words:
"Malapert" debuted in English in the 14th century, was a favorite of Shakespeare, and is still used sporadically today. The prefix "mal-," meaning "bad" or "badly" and deriving from the Latin "malus," is found in many English words, including "malevolent" and "malefactor." The second half of "malapert" comes from the Middle English "apert," meaning "open" or "frank." "Apert" further derives from the Latin word "apertus" ("open"), which gave us our noun "aperture" (meaning "an opening"). Putting the two halves together gives us a word that describes someone or something that is open or honest in a bad way - that is, a way that is bold or rude. The noun "malapert" also exists, and means "a bold or impudent person."


malapropism

  • malaprop


1. the usually unintentionally humorous misuse or distortion of a word or phrase; (especially) the use of a word sounding somewhat like the one intended but ludicrously wrong in the context;
2. an example of malapropism.
Synonym: malaprop
Example:
Paul, who was given to blurting out malapropisms, said the rambling lecturer had gone off on a "tandem."
Etymology:
A malapropism is so called after Mrs. Malaprop, a character noted for her amusing misuse of words in Richard Brinsley Sheridan's 1775 comedy "The Rivals". Mrs. Malaprop was known for her verbal blunders. "He is the very pine-apple of politeness," she exclaimed, complimenting a courteous young man. Thinking of the geography of contiguous countries, she spoke of the "geometry" of "contagious countries," and she hoped that her daughter might "reprehend" the true meaning of what she was saying. She regretted that her "affluence" over her niece was small. The word "malapropism" derives from this blundering character's name, which Sheridan took from the French term "malapropos," meaning "inappropriate".


malapropos
[mal-ap-ruh-POH]
1. Unseasonable; unsuitable; inappropriate.
2. In an inappropriate or inopportune manner; unseasonably.
Examples:
1) Such malapropos wise cracks are driven home with a relentlessly upbeat soundtrack which serenades scenes of human tragedy with bouncy, Disneyesque melodies. (Steve Rabey, "'Noah's Ark' hits bottom: Miniseries suffers from lack of accuracy," Arlington Morning News, May 2, 1999)
2) As an on-air radio pronouncer, I am quite familiar with the hazard of opening the mouth before the brain is in gear. It is very easy to fire-off a malapropos statement in the heat of trying to make a point and the result is some funny things are said, but perhaps not meant. (Gerry Forbes, "Foot-in-Mouth Afflictions," Calgary Sun, March 18, 2001)
Etymology:
"Malapropos" comes from French "mal ? propos" ("badly to the purpose").


malcontent
[mal-kuhn-TENT; MAL-kuhn-tent] 1. One who is discontented or dissatisfied. 2. A discontented subject of a government; one who opposes an established order. 3. Discontented; uneasy; dissatisfied.
Examples:
1) Her antagonism inspired him, pushed him into ever more extreme positions, and by the time he was ready to leave the house, and go off to college, he had indelibly cast himself in his chosen role: as malcontent, as rebel, as outlaw poet prowling the gutters of a ruined world. (Paul Auster, "Timbuktu")
2) Willy, who grew up in Brooklyn, the son of Holocaust survivors, was a malcontent in college, a rebel with "a noisy, fractious disdain for Everything-That-Was." (Michiko Kakutani, "My Life as a Dog", New York Times, June 25, 1999)
3) How would you like to be locked in a room for a couple of days with an irritable, depressed malcontent who also happens to be imperiously smart, bored and more than a little spoiled? (Robert Nathan, "Irritable, Depressed, Spoiled and Terrific", New York Times, September 26, 1993)
Etymology:
"Malcontent" is from the Old French term combining "mal" ("bad, ill"; from Latin "malus") and "content" ("contained"), from Latin "contentus", past participle of "continere" ("to hold together, to contain"), from "con-" ("with, together") + "tenere" ("to hold").

malediction
[mal-uh-DIK-shun]
A curse or execration.
Examples:
1) There Justice Minister Bola Ige, confronted with the general incivility of local police, placed a malediction on the cads. Said the Hon. Bola Ige, "I pray that God will make big holes in their pockets." ("Sic Semper Tyrannis! Oppressors Face People's Justice," American Spectator, May 1, 2001)
2) A conspiracy of infamy so black that, when it is finally exposed, its principals shall be forever deserving of the maledictions of all honest men. (Joseph McCarthy, quoted in "Venona: Decoding Soviet Espionage in America", by Harvey Klehr and John Earl Haynes)
Etymology:
"Malediction" comes from Latin "maledictio", from "maledicere" ("to speak ill, to abuse"), from Latin "male" ("badly") + "dicere" ("to speak, to say").


malfeasance
[mal-FEE-zuhn(t)s]
Wrongdoing, misconduct, or misbehavior, especially by a public official.
Examples:
1) But more often than not the same board members who were removed by the chancellor for malfeasance subsequently manage to get reelected in a political process that defies any form of accountability. (Diane Ravitch and Joseph Viteritti, "New Schools for a New Century")
2)
Cagney family conjecture was that Grandpop Nelson, with the temper of a dozen Furies, had likely committed some malfeasance in his native town forcing him to change his name when he left. (John McCabe, "Cagney")
Etymology:
"Malfeasance" is derived from Old French "malfaisant", present participle of "malfaire" ("to do evil"), from Latin "malefacere", from "male" ("badly") + "facere" ("to do").


malinger
To feign or exaggerate illness or inability in order to avoid duty or work.
Examples:
1) Because he twice slapped battle-stressed soldiers in Sicily who, he thought, were merely malingering, he was denied a major command in the Normandy landings. (Bernard Knox, "Scorched Earth", New York Times, November 14, 1999)
2) It is impossible to determine exactly what inspired Mary's various symptoms, but her own and other family members' letters suggest that her suffering may have been a combination of hypochondria, conscious histrionics and malingering, and unconscious rebellion against her father. (Caroline Fraser, "God's Perfect Child")
3) My specialty is subjecting the data I obtain to successive mathematical corrective formulas to filter the truly psychotic from those who are malingering. (Barbara Kirwin, Ph.D, "The Mad, the Bad, and the Innocent")
Etymology:
Malinger derives from French "malingre" ("sickly"), perhaps from Old French "mal" ("badly") + "heingre" ("lean, thin").


malleable
[MAL-ee-uh-buhl]
1. Capable of being extended or shaped by beating with a hammer, or by the pressure of rollers (applied to metals).
2. Capable of being altered or controlled by outside forces; easily influenced.
3. Capable of adjusting to changing circumstances; adaptable.
Examples:
1) His image for his own imagination is the acid, the catalyst, that is mixed in to make the gold malleable, and is then wiped away. ("Nothing is too wonderful to be true," Times (London), June 7, 2000)
2)
The natives proved less malleable and far less innocent than the Europeans imagined, so much so that early colonial history is filled with countless stories of monks who met hideous deaths at the hands of their flocks. (Juan Gonzalez, "Harvest of Empire")
3)
I think his request was just a vainglorious way of expressing the basic belief of behaviorism: that children are malleable and that it is their environment, not innate qualities such as talent or temperament, that determines their destiny. (Judith Rich Harris, "The Nurture Assumption")
4)
Many current thinkers wish to abandon the idea of a continuous self; novelists have always known that selves are fleeting, malleable, porous. (Mary Gordon, "The Fascination Begins in the Mouth," New York Times, June 13, 1993)
5) Those workers aged over 50 were considered too set in their ways, too expensive to keep on and not malleable enough. (Jill Sherman Whitehall, "Benefit costs force rethink on retirement," Times (London), April 25, 2000)
Etymology:
"Malleable" comes from Medieval Latin "malleabilis", from "malleare" ("to hammer"), from Latin "malleus" ("hammer").


malodorous

  • foul
  • funky
  • gamy
  • putrid
  • rancid
  • rank
  • smelly
  • stinking


[mal-OH-duhr-uhs]
Having a bad odor.
Examples:
1) Working inside this tomb means coming to terms with rock falls, malodorous dust and faulty electrical supplies. (John Ray, "Splendid Digs," New York Times, October 18, 1998)
2)
But people were accustomed to the odors of chamber pots and outdoor privies and to the stench of manure on city streets as well as in the country. Even the most refined could scarcely have been squeamish about malodorous garbage. (Susan Strasser, "Waste and Want")
Etymology:
"Malodorous" is from Latin "mal-" ("bad") + "odorus", from "odor" ("smell").
Synonyms: foul, funky, gamy, putrid, rancid, rank, smelly, stinking.

malversation

  • maladroit
  • malcontent
  • maltreat


[mal-vur-SAY-shun]
1. Misconduct, corruption, or extortion in public office, trust, or commission.
2. Corrupt administration.
Examples:
1) The Inspector General Act was designed to protect patriotic whistle-blowers who seek to reveal malversation in government. (Arthur Schlesinger Jr., "How History Will Judge Him," Time, February 22, 1999)
2) Aniano Desierto, the government ombudsman, said that the preliminary investigation would take 60 days and involve six charges: plunder, malversation (misuse of funds), violations of the anti-graft law, perjury, bribery and possession of unexplained wealth. ("Estrada faces plunder inquiry," Times (London), Jan 22, 2001)
3) The governor was finally convicted of malversation, after years of rumors about kickbacks and illegal contracts.
History, related words:
The form "mal-" is often a bad sign in a word, and "malversation" is no exception. In Middle French, "mal-" (meaning "bad," from the Latin word for "bad" - "malus") teamed up with "verser" ("to turn, handle," from the Latin verb "vertere" - "to turn ") to create "malverser," a verb meaning "to be corrupt." This in turn led to "malversation," which was adopted by English speakers in the mid-16th century. Some other "mal-" descendants are "maladroit" ("inept"), "malcontent" ("discontented"), and "maltreat" ("to treat badly").


man cave

  • man
  • cave


An area of a house, such as a basement, workshop, or garage, where a man can be alone with his power tools and projects.
Examples:
1) The basement or garage has become such a special place for special man-projects that DIY is even devoting special programming to it: "My Ultimate Workshop," a one-hour special scheduled for May, looks at tricked-out garages and basements where guys hone their crafts, be it woodworking, car restoration, wine collecting or model-train building. So how did the man cave make such a transformation? ("Cave dwelling", Chicago Tribune, March 23, 2004)
2)
Maytag's $ 607 Skybox, Fred Lowery says, "is not a refrigerator. It's truly a vending machine." It's billed as the first personal beverage vendor for home use. More specifically, says Lowery, who directs Maytag's strategic initiatives group, it's meant for your "man cave." He says company research indicates "every guy would like to carve out his own little place in his home. Internally, we call it the man cave. And lots of guys, at some point, would like a vending machine in their man cave". (Michael Hiestand, "Skybox? It's a guy thing", USA Today, January 29, 2004)


man date

  • man
  • date
  • bromance


A meeting between two men who are simply friends, rather than sexual partners, and whose socializing does not hinge on classically male activities like business or sport.
Example:
Typical man dates are taking a walk in the park, going to the cinema or having a meal in a restaurant, activities that two women could happily engage in without so much as raising an eyebrow.
Synonym: bromance
Etymology:
"Bromance" is another recent coinage, a blend of "brother" and "romance" used to describe an intense but non-sexual relationship between two men.




manifesto

  • manifest


a written statement declaring publicly the intentions, motives, or views of its issuer
Example:
On his last day at the company, Rick posted an angry manifesto on the bulletin board that outlined his reasons for leaving.
Etymology:
"Manifesto" is related to "manifest", which occurs in English as a noun, verb, and adjective. Of these, the adjective, which means "readily perceived by the senses" or "easily recognized", is oldest, dating to the 14th century. Both "manifest" and "manifesto" derive ultimately from the Latin noun "manus" ("hand") and "-festus", a combining form that is related to the Latin adjective "infestus", meaning "hostile". Something that is manifest is easy to perceive or recognize, and a "manifesto" is a statement in which someone makes his or her intentions or views easy for people to ascertain. Perhaps the most famous statement of this sort is the Communist Manifesto, written in 1848 by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels to outline the platform of the Communist League.


manky
1. (British slang) Inferior and worthless 2. (South Yorkshire dialect) An illness or infection.


manse
[MAN(T)S]
1. A large and imposing residence.
2. The residence of a clergyman (especially a Presbyterian clergyman).
Examples:
1) A two-story white Greek Revival manse, with a front porch and a terrace in the back. (Garrison Keillor, "Wobegon Boy")
2) That Carol was a certified divorcee was one of many facts about her which failed to fit, along with her still living with her widowed father in this weird gothic Victorian manse. (Erik Tarloff, "The Man Who Wrote the Book")
Etymology:
"Manse" comes from Medieval Latin "mansa" ("a dwelling"), from Latin "manere" ("to dwell; to remain").


mansuetude

  • meekness
  • tameness
  • desuetude
  • custom


[MAN-swih-tood]
the quality or state of being gentle
Synonyms:
meekness, tameness
Example:
Stella's kitten may give off an air of mansuetude, but don't be fooled - it will scratch you if you get too close.
History:
"Mansuetude" was first used in English in the 14th century, and it derives from the Latin verb "mansuescere", which means "to tame". "Mansuescere" itself comes from the noun "manus" (meaning "hand") and the verb "suescere" ("to accustom" or "to become accustomed"). Unlike "manus", which has many English descendants (including "manner", "emancipate", and "manicure"), "suescere" has only a few English progeny. One of them is "desuetude" (meaning "disuse"), which comes to us by way of Latin "desuescere" ("to become unaccustomed"). Another is "custom", which derives via Anglo-French from Latin "consuescere" ("to accustom").


mantic

  • prophetic


of or relating to the faculty of divination
Example:
"You may be skeptical now of my mantic skills," said the fortune-teller, "but you'll soon learn that my prophecies are true."
Synonym: prophetic
Etymology:
The adjective "mantic" comes from the Greek word "mantikos", which itself derives from "mantis," meaning "prophet". (The mantis insect got its name from this same source, supposedly because its posture - with the forelimbs extended as though in prayer - reminded folks of a prophet.) Not surprisingly, the combining form "-mancy," which means "divination in a (specified) manner" (as in "necromancy" and "pyromancy"), is a relative of "mantic". A less expected, and more distant, relative is "mania," meaning "insanity marked by uncontrollable emotion or excitement" or "excessive enthusiasm". "Mania" descends from the Greek "mainesthai" ("to be mad"), a word akin to "mantis" and its offspring. And indeed, prophesying in ancient Greece was sometimes believed to be "inspired madness".


manumit

  • manumission
  • emancipate


To release from slavery; to free from servitude.
Examples:
1) On February 1, 1865, Abraham Lincoln approved the 13th amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which, when ratified by the states, would manumit millions of Americans.
2) The prime reason, I suspect, will be that we don't need any liberator to manumit our "corporate slaves" because we've never had any. (Victor S. Navasky, "Time is money," The Nation, July 17, 1989)
3)
Mobilization difficulties led the government to manumit hundreds of slaves and scores of convicts to fight at the front. (Peter M. Beattie, "Conscription versus penal servitude," Journal of Social History, June 22, 1999)
4)
Possessed of more than one hundred slaves, Tucker resisted the appeals of relatives to manumit in his will even favored household servants. (Christopher Doyle, "Judge St. George Tucker and the case of Tom v. Roberts," Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, Autumn 1998)
5)
It even seemed possible that they could improve the conditions of slaves and persuade ever more planters to manumit their bondsmen. (Larry Gragg, "A heavenly visitation," History Today, February 1, 2002)
Etymology, related words:
To set someone free from captivity is in effect to release that person from the hand, or control, of the captor. You can use this analogy to remember that "manumit" derives ultimately from the Latin noun "manus", meaning "hand", plus the Latin verb "mittere", meaning "to let go" or "send". The two roots joined hands in Latin to form the verb "manumittere" (meaning "to free from slavery"), which in turn passed into Anglo-French as "manumettre" and eventually into Middle English as "manumitten". The noun form is "manumission". "Manus" has handed down other words to English as well. One of them is "emancipate", which is both a relative and synonym of "manumit".


maquette

  • macula


[mak-ET]
A usually small preliminary model (as of a sculpture or a building).
Example:
At the town meeting the architect presented a maquette of the proposed new school, which will include a state-of-the-art gymnasium and media center.
Etymology, related words:
"Maquette" came to English directly from French, first appearing in English in the late 19th century. The French word, which possesses the same meaning as its English descendant, derived from the Italian noun "macchietta," meaning "sketch," and ultimately from the Latin "macula," meaning "spot." Maquettes are generally intended to serve as rough models of larger designs. Architects make maquettes of their buildings, and sculptors often create maquettes in wax or clay to help them realize the final sculpture. As an aside, you might spot something familiar in the word's Latin ancestor. The term "macula" in English refers to a spot (such as one on the eye) that is different from surrounding tissue; this is where we get the phrase "macular degeneration."


mardy
1. (Lancashire Slang) A spoilt child.
2. (South Yorkshire dialect) A whinger.


mare

  • maria
  • mares


1. [MAHR-ay] (noun, pl. "maria", "mares") any of several mostly flat dark areas of considerable extent on the surface of the moon or Mars
Example:
Looking up at the bright full moon, we saw clearly the maria that make up the face of the man in the moon.
2. [MAIR] female horse
Example:
Halima was an Arabian mare.
Etymology:
"Mare" didn't officially touch down in English until 1860, but the idea that the dark areas of the moon's surface might be seas goes back at least to the ancient Greek writer Plutarch. Galileo introduced the concept in modern times. He himself never used the Latin word "mare" ("sea") to describe these "seas", but various writers of 17th-century Latin works did. Today we know that the moon is dry and its "seas" are actually old lava flows, but we still use "mare" and its plural "maria" to refer to them. (The plural "mares" occurs, too, but less frequently.) Incidentally, the "mare" that is pronounced [MAIR] and means "female horse" has no connection with Latin or the sea. Rather, it is derived from "mearh", the Old English word for "horse."


marital

  • married
  • matrimonial


of or relating to a husband and his role in marriage; of or relating to marriage or the married state
Example:
Starting as a conventional thriller about a cop with marital and drinking problems, it escalates excitingly.
Synonyms:
married, matrimonial
Etymology:
Latin: "maritus" = "husband" or "married".


mariticide
spouse killing; husband-killing
Example:
He finds a pair of bifocals in a pond and calls them Exhibit A of mariticide, only the glasses don't belong to the victim, and his wife hasn't killed anyone. ("The Desert of the Steal Death Valley '74" by Jessica Winter, August 6 - 12, 2003)
Etymology:
Latin "maritus" ("husband" or "married") + "caedere" ("to kill").



marksperson
marksman, markswoman
Example:
Martha Jane Burke ("Calamity Jane") was an American marksperson.


marplot

  • mar
  • plot


[MAHR-plaht]
One who frustrates or ruins a plan or undertaking by meddling.
Example:
What is the use of my taking the vows and settling everything as it should be, if that marplot Hans comes and upsets it all? (George Eliot, "Daniel Deronda")
Etymology, related words:
Beginning in the 17th century, people liked to prefix "mar-" to nouns to create a term for someone who mars, or spoils, something. A mar-joy was bad enough, but even worse was a mar-all. Although today the word "plot" often carries an implication of secrecy or ill intent, the "plot" used in the formation of "marplot" simply meant "a plan for the accomplishment of something." A marplot, therefore, can really mess up a perfectly good thing. The word may not have been invented by English playwright Susannah Centlivre, but it first surfaces in print in her 1709 play "The BusyBody". That title refers to a character named Marplot, who misguidedly gets in the way of the lovers in the play.


marshal
[MAR-shul]
1. A high official in a medieval household.
2. A person in charge of the ceremonial aspects of a gathering.
3. A general officer of the highest military rank.
4. An administrative officer (as of a U.S. judicial district) having duties similar to a sheriff's.
5. The administrative head of a city police or fire department.
Example:
The marshal confirmed that the house fires were indeed arson.
History:
Although most French words are derived from Latin, a few result from the 3rd-century Germanic occupation of France, and the early French "mareschal" is one such word. "Mareschal" is related to Old High German "marahscalc," formed by combining "marah" (horse) and "scalc" (servant). Our "marshal," which comes from "mareschal," originally meant "a person in charge of the upkeep of horses" when it was borrowed into Middle English, but by the 13th century it described a high royal official as well. Eventually came to have other meanings.


martinet

  • strict disciplinarian
  • strict
  • disciplinarian


[mar-tuh-NET, mar-t'n-ET]
1. A strict disciplinarian.
2. A person who stresses a rigid adherence to the details of forms and methods.
Examples:
1) He complained that his office manager was a power-hungry martinet who compelled him to follow ridiculous rules.
2) He is an unmitigated tyrant, a martinet, the sort of man who disapproves of his son's eating the morning oatmeal with sugar - instead of salt, which he himself prefers. (David Quammen, "Punishing Natty," New York Times, April 14, 1985)
3) His insistence on strict discipline began to earn him a reputation among his men as an unfeeling martinet. (Michiko Kakutani, "Still Pondering the Myth Of Custer's Last Stand," New York Times, May 28, 1996)
4) At first, the recruits hate and fear the sergeant, but gradually they come to realize that he's been turning them into soldiers. It is the example of this unlovable martinet, not the "Good Joe" who replaces him, that will help them survive in combat. (Anthony Quinn, "Revolutionary Dead Ends," New York Times, April 29, 2001)
5)
Players coached by him have cursed the day they ever set sight on such a merciless martinet. (Gerry Thornley, "Chief architect oversees grand plan," Irish Times, February 19, 2000)
History, synonym:
A martinet is so called after an officer of that name in the French army under Louis XIV.
When France's King Louis XIV appointed Lieutenant Colonel Jean Martinet to be inspector general of the infantry in the late 17th century, he made a wise choice. As a drillmaster, Martinet trained his troops to advance into battle in precise linear formations and to fire in volleys only upon command, thus making the most effective use of inaccurate muskets - and making the French army one of the best on the continent. He also gave English a new word. "Martinet" has been used synonymously with "strict disciplinarian" since the 1730s.


masterful

  • masterly


[MASS-ter-ful]
1. Inclined and usually competent to act as master.
2. Suggestive of a domineering nature.
3. Having or reflecting the power and skill of a master.
Example:
He was a fellow of huge physical strength, masterful, violent, with a certain barbaric thrift and some intelligence of men and business. (Robert Louis Stevenson, "In the South Seas")
History, related words:
Some commentators insist that "masterful" must only mean "domineering," reserving the "expert, skillful" sense for "masterly." The distinction is a modern one. In earlier times, the terms were used interchangeably, with each having both the "domineering" and "expert" senses. The "domineering" sense of "masterly" fell into disuse around the 18th century, however, and in the 20th century the famous grammarian H. W. Fowler decided that "masterful" should be similarly limited to a single meaning. He summarily ruled that the second definition of "masterful" was incorrect. Other usage writers followed his lead. The "expert" meaning of "masterful" has continued to flourish in standard prose, however, in spite of the disapproval. And, considering the sense's long history, it cannot really be called an error.


masticate

  • mastication


[MAS-tih-kayt]
1. (Trans. v.) To grind or crush with or as if with the teeth in preparation for swallowing and digestion; to chew; as, "to masticate food."
2. To crush or knead (rubber, for example) into a pulp.
3. (Intrans. v.) To chew food.
Examples:
1) Honestly, folks, the people at the next table ordered the same dish, and I watched as a young couple tried in vain to masticate those fossilized pieces of "toast." (Pat Bruno, "Hits and misses," Chicago Sun-Times, June 2002)
2)
Their powerful jaws allow hyenas to masticate not only flesh and entrails, but bones, horns, and even the teeth of their prey. (Sam Tauschek, "A Hyena is no laughing matter," Sports Afield, May 2001)
3)
In 1820, Thomas Hancock invented a machine that could masticate, mix and soften rubber. (Rikki Lamba, "Effect of carbon black on dynamic properties," Rubber World, April 1, 2000)
4) At restaurants the Hamnelier (swine server) would bring out your entree, cut your first bite using special tongs and a pig sticker (sorry) and proffer it to your lips. You would sniff, suck, masticate, savor and swallow. (Baxter Black, "'The Other White Meat' Develops Snob Appeal," Denver Rocky Mountain News, September 20, 1998)
Etymology, related words:
"Masticate" comes from the past participle of Late Latin "masticare" ("to chew"), from Greek "mastichan" ("to gnash the teeth"). The noun form is mastication.


maternity leave

  • maternity
  • leave


leave from work to have baby: paid or unpaid leave from work for an expectant or new mother for the birth and care of the baby.
Example:
In the UK some companies offer better maternity leave provision than the statutory minimum. ("Chemistry in Britain". London: Royal Society of Chemistry, 1992)


matriculate

  • alma mater
  • alma
  • mater


[muh-TRIK-yuh-layt]
To enroll as a member of a body, especially of a college or university.
Example:
Joan and Kara matriculated together at Harvard, and they still get together at least once a year to reminisce about their college days.
Etymology:
Anybody who has had basic Latin knows that "alma mater," a fancy term for the school you attended, comes from a phrase that means "fostering mother." If "mater" is "mother," then "matriculate" probably has something to do with a school nurturing you just like good old mom, right? Not exactly. If you go back far enough, "matriculate" is distantly related to the Latin "mater," but its maternal associations were lost long ago. It is more closely related to the Late Latin "matricula," which means "public roll or register," and it has more to do with being enrolled than being mothered.


matutinal
[muh-TOOT-n-uhl]
Relating to or occurring in the morning; early.
Examples:
1) Get up early and wash your face in the matutinal May Day dew; it will make your skin beautiful and your heart pure. (Ray Murphy, "Hurray, Hurray the Month of May," Boston Globe, April 28, 1988)
2) We had to rehearse at an hour at which no actor or actress has been out of bed within the memory of man; and we sardonically congratulated one another every morning on our rosy matutinal looks and the improvement wrought by our early rising in our health and characters. (George Bernard Shaw, "The Author's Apology" in "Mrs. Warren's Profession")
3) Harry Truman, was - like Winston Churchill - known to take a matutinal shot of whisky. He did it after his regular very vigorous early-morning walk. (R. Emmett Tyrrell Jr., "Plainly presidential," The Washington Times, January 18, 2002)
Etymology:
"Matutinal" is from Late Latin "matutinalis", from Latin "matutinus" - "early in the morning; pertaining to the morning."


maudlin
[MAWD-lin]
Tearfully or excessively sentimental.
Examples:
1) The lonesome tones of Willie Nelson rise on the Texas air and roll off into the darkness, making the odd deer feel unaccountably maudlin and causing lone jackrabbits to be overcome by a sudden desire to sink a whiskey and cry into the empty glass. (John Connolly, "Irishman's Diary," Irish Times, September 6, 1997)
2) He was a bad drunk and became maudlin and weepy and would often have to be carried home by his friends. (Barry Miles, "Jack Kerouac, King of the Beats")
3) A film about blindness could easily get maudlin or, at the other extreme, cynically heartless. (Desson Howe, "'Proof,'" Washington Post, June 5, 1992)
Etymology:
"Maudlin" is an alteration of (Mary) Magdalene, who in paintings was often represented with eyes red and swollen from weeping.


maunder

  • meander


[MON-duhr]
1. To talk incoherently; to speak in a rambling manner.
2. To wander aimlessly or confusedly.
Examples:
1) [T]wo drunken couples... maunder in an all-too-familiar vein about love. (Anatole Broyard, "New York Times", April 15, 1981)
2)
It is a play with melodramatic themes, but Garc?a Lorca has put aside temptation to let it maunder, scream or otherwise let the emotions take over. (Richard F. Shepard, "Stage: 'Bernarda Alba' Produced in Spanish," New York Times, November 23, 1979)
3)
As in one of his earlier novels,... Kerr invents a credibly grim scenario for our future: most of the earth's inhabitants are infected with a deadly virus and maunder in fetid cities. (Charles Flowers, "Blood on the Moon (Really!)," New York Times, February 14, 1999)
Etymology:
"Maunder" is perhaps a dialectal variant of "meander" (possibly influenced by "wander").


maverick
[MAV-rik]
1. An unbranded range animal; especially: a motherless calf .
2. An independent individual who does not go along with a group or party.
Example:
The award-winning columnist was regarded as a political maverick who clashed with his colleagues on many issues.
History:
When a client gave Samuel A. Maverick 400 cattle to settle a $1,200 debt, the 19th-century south Texas lawyer had no use for them, so he left the cattle unbranded and allowed them to roam freely (supposedly under the supervision of one of his employees). Neighboring stockmen recognized their opportunity and seized it, branding and herding the stray cattle as their own. Maverick eventually recognized the folly of the situation and sold what was left of his depleted herd, but not before his name became synonymous with such unbranded livestock. By the end of the 19th century, the term "maverick" was being used to refer to individuals who prefer to blaze their own trails.


mawkish
[MOCK-ish]
1. Insipid in taste; nauseous; disgusting; having an insipid often unpleasant taste.
2. Sickly, excessively or puerilely sentimental.
Examples:
1) Jessica was surprised to hear her friends rave about the new romantic comedy, for she had felt it was mawkish and predictable.
2) The movie's attempts to connect these out-of-body experiences with the '60s ethos of consciousness expansion are so forced that the transcendent, feel-good leaps of faith with which the story culminates seem mawkish and unearned. (Stephen Holden, " 'Eden': Out of Step at a Prep School as a New Age Dawns." New York Times, April 3, 1998)
3)
Philadelphia Inquirer dismissed it as "a terrible play, a hopeless jumble of juvenile humor and mawkish sentimentality." (Peter Applebome, "Blasphemy? Again? Somebody's Praying for a Hit." New York Times, October 18, 1998 )
4) Joe DiMaggio, who died this year to often mawkish eulogies and overwrought sociology, was an ancestor of the current four: driven, selfish, unidimensional in his playing days. (Robert Lipsyte, "Time for Sports Heroes to Start Acting in a Heroic Way." New York Times, August 22, 1999)
Etymology, more meanings and examples:
The etymology of "mawkish" really opens up a can of worms - or, more properly, maggots. The "mawk" of "mawkish" derives from the Middle English "mawke," which means "maggot." "Mawke," in its turn, developed from the Old Norse word "mathkr," which had the same meaning as its descendant. Although "mawkish" literally means "maggoty," hence "squeamish, nauseating", hence "tending to render squeamish or make nauseated", especially because of excessive sentimentality; since at least the 17th century English speakers have eschewed its decaying carcass implications and used it figuratively instead. As one language writer put it, "Time has treated 'mawkish' gently: the wormy stench and corruption of its primal state were forgotten and 'mawkish' became sickly in a weak sort of way instead of repulsive and revolting."


maxim
1. An expression of general truth; an established principle or proposition; an axiom of practical wisdom; an aphorism, saying, proverb, adage.
2. A code of behavior, a rule of conduct, precept; a law.
3. The first self-acting machine gun; Maxim gun.
4. (Mus.) The longest note formerly used, equal to two longs, or four breves; a large.
Examples:
1) It is their maxim, love is love's reward. 2) The only maxim that connects it all formulated in California, now available near you is if it feels good, believe it. ("The Face")
3) ...A number of different kinds of inference arise from the assumption that the maxim of Manner is being observed. (Levinson S. C., "Pragmatics")
History:
The word "maxim" derives from the Late Latin "maxima propositio" ("greatest premise"). When it entered English in the 15th century, it denoted "a self-evident proposition used as a premiss in reasoning." Within 150 years, it had come to label "a pithy expression of general truth."



mayb
(SMS) mad about you, baby


mayhap

  • maybe
  • perhaps


[MAY-hap]
Perhaps.
Example:
We are just wondering and looking and mayhap seeing what we never perceived before. (James Robinson, "A Treasury of Science")
History, synonyms:
If "mayhap" looks to you like a relative of "perhaps," you're right - the words are related. Both ultimately derive from the Middle English noun "hap," meaning "chance, fortune." "Mayhap" was formed by combining the phrase "(it) may hap" into a single word. "Hap" here is a verb essentially meaning "happen" (the word "maybe," another synonym of "mayhap" and "perhaps," was developed similarly from "may" and the verb "be"), and the verb "hap" comes from the noun "hap." "Perhaps" came about when "per" (meaning "through the agency of") was combined directly with the noun "hap" to form one word. Today "mayhap" is a rare word indeed in contrast with the very common "maybe" and "perhaps," but it does show up occasionally.


mch
(SMS) much

mea culpa

  • mea
  • culpa
  • mea culpas
  • culpas
  • culpable
  • culprit


[may-uh-KOOL-puh] (the [OO] is as in "wool")
pl. - mea culpas
a formal acknowledgment of personal fault or error
Example:
The principal offered his mea culpa at the school board meeting, but not all the parents accepted it.
History, related meanings and words:
"Mea culpa," which means "through my fault" in Latin, comes from a prayer of confession in the Catholic church. Said by itself, it's an exclamation of apology or remorse that is used to mean "It was my fault" or "I apologize." "Mea culpa" is also a noun, however. A newspaper might issue a mea culpa for printing inaccurate information, or a politician might give a speech making mea culpas for past wrongdoings. "Mea culpa" is one of many English terms that derive from the Latin "culpa," meaning "guilt." Some other examples are "culpable" ("meriting condemnation or blame especially as wrong or harmful") and "culprit" ("one guilty of a crime or a fault").


meagan
vegan who will eat meat if they can get it for nothing


mealy-mouthed

  • mealy
  • mouthed
  • mouth
  • mealymouthed
  • mealymouth
  • mealy-mouthness
  • mealymouthness


Also: mealymouthed
1. Using soft words; plausible; affectedly or timidly delicate of speech.
2. Unwilling to tell the truth in plain language; hesitant to state facts or opinions simply and directly as from e.g. timidity or hypocrisy.
Examples:
1) He hated mealy-mouthed philanthropies, and nobody could call him "a mealymouthed politician".
2) She was a fool to be mealy-mouthed where nature speaks so plain.
Etymology:
Etymology-wise, the expression purportedly means "sweet-speaking"; nowadays it describes speakers who sugar-coat harsh realities and perpetually euphemize harsh realities. Its derivation is in dispute. Some believe that it comes from the Old English milisc, sweet. Others claim that it comes from the German phrase Mehl im Maule behalten, to carry meal in the mouth. Noun: mealy-mouthness, mealymouthness.



meat tooth

  • meat
  • tooth


A craving or fondness for meat.
Examples:
1) In a couple of months, I rediscovered my love for meat. Sausages, steak, buffalo wings, crab legs, brisket, pork dumplings, those chicken legs served at Dim Sum. Others craved chocolate or cheesecake; I had a "meat tooth". (Kevin Chong, "Vegging out", The Vancouver Courier, September 10, 2003)
2)
"Dominion" is a horrible, wonderful, important book. It is horrible in its subject, a half-reportorial, half-philosophical examination of some of the most repugnant things that human beings do to animals, notably keeping them in the factory farms that have taken over the business of supplying America's insatiable meat tooth. (Natalie Angier, "The Most Compassionate Conservative", The New York Times, October 27, 2002)
3) Seafood is hardly the only food product whose demographic profile skews toward the feminine - as Candler points out, women also eat more fruit and more mint-chocolate-chip ice cream than men do. But unlike these other foods, seafood may offer a unique way of connecting with men, and Tim Ryan, senior vice president of the Culinary Institute of America, thinks he knows what it is: appeal to their meat tooth. "Men are attracted to different terminology than women are," says Ryan. "That's not a new marketing breakthrough, but we can apply it to seafood - we've found that men are attracted to names and descriptors that are more meat-like. A 'salmon steak' just sounds more manly than 'filet of salmon.'" (Paul Lukas, "The Fish Business Trolls for Men", Fortune, July 6, 1998)
Etymology:
This term is a rhyming play on the well-known phrase "sweet tooth", a craving or fondness for sweet food, which has been in the language for over 600 years (the "Oxford English Dictionary"'s earliest citation is from 1390).


meed
A fitting return or recompense.
Example:
For his valor displayed on the field of battle, the knight was rewarded with his due meed of praise and gratitude from the king.
History:
The word "meed" is one of the oldest terms in our language, having been part of English for about 1,000 years. An early form of the word appeared in the Old English classic "Beowulf", and it can be found in works by literary luminaries including Geoffrey Chaucer, Edmund Spenser, John Milton, Alexander Pope, and Ben Jonson. Its Old English form, "med," is akin to terms found in the ancestral versions of many European languages, including Old High German, Old Swedish, and ancient Greek. In Modern English, the venerable "meed" is most likely to be found in poetic contexts.


megalomania
[meg-uh-lo-MAY-nee-ah; -nyuh]
1. A mania for grandiose or extravagant things or actions.
2. A mental disorder characterized by delusions of grandeur.
Examples:
1) Eighteen months generally elapse nowadays between the time a publisher accepts a manuscript and its appearance in book form - the gestation period of an elephant. During that year and a half of waiting, a writer is visited by every emotion in the fun house, from rosy anticipation to exultation, megalomania, brooding, dread, cringing humility, avarice, guilt and, finally, stolid acceptance. (Phillip Lopate, "Waiting for the Book: Storms Before the Calm," New York Times, May 24, 1987)
2) He too often allows us to laugh off notions that science might occasionally be the handmaiden of megalomania, greed, and sadism. (David J. Skal, "Screams of Reason: Mad Science and Modern Culture")
3)
Mao was a man of considerable charisma and megalomania. (Seth Faison, "Deng Xiaoping, Architect of Modern China, Dies at 92," New York Times, February 20, 1997)
4)
Megalomania is an occupational hazard for judges, said Prof. Paul Carrington of the Duke University Law School, noting that a trial judge inevitably has a great deal of power over everyone in the courtroom. "Judges can get awfully full of themselves," he said. (Neil A. Lewis, "You're Out of Order, Your Honor," New York Times, July 12, 1998)
Etymology:
"Megalomania" is Scientific Latin, from the Greek elements "megal-" ("great") + "mania" ("madness").

megilp

  • magilp
  • magilph
  • megalp
  • McGilp
  • majellup


An outmoded painting medium; linseed oil mixed with mastic varnish or turpentine.
Also: magilp, magilph
Example:
After undertaking a series of tests, a modified solvent mixture was developed for the reduction of the disturbing islands of residue megilp.
Synonym: megalp
History:
18c.; origin unknown.
It's not only a medium, but also a rather rare surname, and some say that it may have been named after its inventor. This seems unlikely, because it has been written in many ways, including "majellup" and "McGilp". Megilp was made by mixing a mastic resin (which comes from a Mediterranean tree that's related to the pistachio) with linseed oil that had been boiled with a lead compound. This produced a jelly-like substance. Painters of the time loved it because it made paint easier to work and quicker to dry and gave a rich, "buttery" quality to colours it was mixed with. The problem is that in time it turns the paint yellow or brown and makes it so brittle that it cracks. So, nobody uses it any more.


megrim

  • migraine
  • megrims


[MEE-grum]
1. a) migraine; b) vertigo, dizziness
2. a) fancy, whim; b) (plural) low spirits
Example:
"It sounds like you've got a case of the megrims," said Aunt Carrie, "but I know just the thing to cheer you up".
Etymology:
"Megrim" is from Middle English "migrem", from Middle French "migraine", modification of Late Latin "hemicrania" - "pain in one side of the head," from Greek "hemikrania", from "hemi-" ("half") + "kranion" ("skull").
"Megrim" and "migraine" share a meaning and an etymology. Latin and Greek speakers afflicted with a pain in one side of the head called their ailment "hemicrania" or "hemikrania", from the Greek terms "hemi-", meaning "half", plus "kranion", meaning "cranium". French-speaking sufferers used "migraine", a modification of "hemicrania", for the same condition. English speakers borrowed "migraine" from French - twice. In the 14th century, they modified the French term to form "migreime", which in turn gave rise to "megrim". Later, in the 15th century, they returned to French and borrowed "migraine" again, this time retaining its French spelling. Nowadays, "megrim" and "migraine" can still be used interchangeably, but "megrim" is also used to refer to much less severe and painful departures from normal health.


melange

  • assortment
  • hodgepodge
  • medley
  • mishmash


[may-LAHNZH]
A mixture; a medley.
Synonyms: assortment, hodgepodge, medley, mishmash.
Examples:
1) Interspersed with diverse lectures and classroom activities were periods of financial difficulty, military service, and employment as a private tutor, all of which added to the curious melange of experiences that would ultimately blossom into his unexpected and remarkable life's work. (Norman Brosterman, "Inventing Kindergarten")
2) The smell in the car... was a pungent, sour melange of garlic, unwashed bodies, vodka, musty woolen overcoats, and Bulgarian tobacco. (Fen Montaigne, "Reeling in Russia")
3)
Many books in popular psychology are a melange of the author's comments, a dollop of research, and stupefyingly dull transcriptions from interviews. (Carol Tavris, "A Remedy But Not a Cure," New York Times, February 26, 1989)
Etymology:
"Melange" derives from Old French "meslance", from "mesler" ("to mix"), ultimately from Latin "miscere" ("to mix").


meliorism

  • meliorist
  • meliorate
  • ameliorate


[MEE-lee-uh-riz-um]
The belief that the world tends to improve and that humans can aid its betterment.
Example:
Jane's resolute meliorism fueled her insistence that both world peace and the worldwide eradication of hunger were indeed attainable within her lifetime.
History, related words:
In 1877, British novelist George Eliot believed she had coined "meliorist" when she wrote, "I don't know that I ever heard anybody use the word 'meliorist' except myself." Her contemporaries credited her with coining both "meliorist" and "meliorism," and one of her letters contains the first documented use of "meliorism," but there is evidence that at least "meliorist" had been around for 30 years or so before she started using it. Whoever coined it did so by drawing on the Latin "melior," meaning "better." It is likely that the English coinages were also influenced by another "melior" descendant, "meliorate," a synonym of "ameliorate" ("to make better") that was introduced to English in the mid-1500s.

 

mellifluous

  • canorous
  • dulcet
  • melodious
  • sweet


[muh-LIF-loo-us]
1. Flowing as with honey; filled with something that sweetens.
2. Having a smooth rich flow; flowing sweetly or smoothly; as, a mellifluous voice.
Synonyms: canorous, dulcet, melodious, sweet.
Examples:
1) The balladeer whose mellifluous voice serenaded two generations of lovers. (Margo Jefferson, "Unforgettable," New York Times, December 26, 1999)
2) The tones were high-sounding, mellifluous, as if the speaker was reading from a book of old English verse while holding back any trace of sentiment or emotion. (Ken Gormley, Archibald Cox: Conscience of a Nation)
3)
I picked up more mellifluous words when a family friend came over to teach me some Chilean music on my guitar. (Edward Hower, "No Frogs Allowed," New York Times, January 30, 2000)
4) Lucy recognized the actor's mellifluous voice immediately from the many voice-overs he had done for commercials, station breaks, and documentaries.
Etymology, more examples:
"Mellifluous" comes from Latin "mellifluus", from "mel" ("honey") + "fluus" ("flowing"), from "fluere" ("to flow"). The Middle English ancestors of "mellifluous" was "mellyfluous". Nowadays the adjective most often applies to the sound of words or speech or music - as it has for centuries. In 1671, for example, poet John Milton wrote in "Paradise Regained" of the "Wisest of men; from whose mouth issu'd forth / Mellifluous streams...." But "mellifluous" can also be used of flavor, as in the following rave from an article entitled "The Sublime Wine": "The first taste sensation is an electric sweetness that explodes within the mouth, but what emerges after swallowing is a mellifluous, lingering flavor...." (James Villas, "Town & Country", December 1991)



meme
[MEEM]
An idea, behavior, style, or usage that spreads from person to person within a culture.
Example:
Blogs are an interesting way... of seeing which ideas, memes, trends and news events are getting the most comment. (Clive Thompson, quoted in the "Sunday Tribune", February 6, 2005)
History, related words:
In 1976, British scientist Richard Dawkins wrote "The Selfish Gene", and in his book he defended his new creation, the word "meme." Having first considered, then rejected, "mimeme," he wrote: "'Mimeme' comes from a suitable Greek root, but I want a monosyllable that sounds a bit like 'gene.' I hope my classicist friends will forgive me if I abbreviate 'mimeme' to 'meme.'" The suitable Greek root was "mim-," meaning "mime" or "mimic." Dawkins's "mimeme" was formed from "mim-" plus "-eme," an English noun suffix that indicates a distinctive unit of language structure (as in "grapheme," "lexeme," and "phoneme"). "Meme" itself, like a good meme, caught on pretty quickly, spreading from person to person as it established itself in the language.


menagerie
[muh-NAJ-uh-ree; -NAZH-]
1. A collection of wild or unusual animals, especially for exhibition.
2. An enclosure where wild or unusual animals are kept or exhibited.
3. A diverse or varied group.
Examples:
1) No palace had such a fine menagerie, stocked with howler monkeys, hill mynahs and Moluccan cockatoos that eliminated any need for a wind-up Swiss alarm clock. (Pogo, "Life of Pi," Reviewer's Bookwatch, October 2004)
2) Once, when he was too ill even to visit the zoo, Gerald was provided with a sort of substitute zoo of his own by the family butler, Jomen, who modelled a whole menagerie of animals - rhinoceros, lion, tiger, antelope - out of red laterite clay from the garden. (Douglas Botting, "Gerald Durrell: The Authorized Biography")
3) They must have been an amiable lot, however, for she was so obviously unprepared for the veritable menagerie of cabin passengers on the return voyage to New York. (Joan Druett, "Hen Frigates")
4) Leaner organizations may not have the infrastructure or a menagerie of specialists, but they are able to offer greater personal attention, accountability and economy. (Marc Diener, "Seeking counsel: how to find Mr. or Mrs. Right, Esq," Entrepreneur, January 2003)
Etymology:
"Menagerie" comes from French "m?nagerie", from Middle French, from "menage", from Old French "mesnage" ("dwelling").

mendacious

  • lying


[men-DAY-shus]
given to or characterized by deception or falsehood or divergence from absolute truth
Example:
Mildred had ... given her an elaborate but mendacious account of the circumstances which had brought her to the pass she was in." (W. S. Maugham, "Of Human Bondage")
Etymology, synonyms, more examples:
1616, from M.Fr. "mendacieux", from L. "mendacium" - "a lie," from "mendax" (gen. "mendacis") - "lying, deceitful," related to "menda" - "fault, defect, carelessness in writing" (cf. "amend", "mendicant"), from PIE base "mend-" = "physical defect, fault." The sense evolution of "mendax" influenced by "mentiri" - "to speak falsely, lie, deceive."
"Mendacious" and "lying" have very similar meanings, but the two are not interchangeable. "Mendacious" is more formal and literary, suggesting a deception harmless enough to be considered bland. "Lying" is more blunt, accusatory, and often confrontational. You might yell, "You lying rat!" in an argument, but you would most likely stick to the more diplomatic, "Aren't you being somewhat mendacious?" in a business meeting. "Mendacious" can also imply habitual untruthfulness, whereas "lying" is more likely to be used to identify specific incidences of dishonesty.


mendicant
[MEN-dih-kunt]
1. A beggar; especially, one who makes a business of begging.
2. A member of an order of friars forbidden to acquire landed property and required to be supported by alms.
3. Practicing beggary; begging; living on alms; as, "mendicant friars".
Examples:
1) Money has ever posed problems. Not even love, said Gladstone, has made so many fools of men. Throughout time the most obvious but universal dilemma - that there is never enough of it - has confounded everyone, from mendicants to monarchs, and their ministers. (Janet Gleeson, "Millionaire")
2) She was well dressed, obviously not a mendicant. (William Safire, "Scandalmonger")
Etymology:
"Mendicant" derives from Latin "mendicare" - "to beg", from "mendicus" - "beggar".


menopot

  • manopot


[MEN-uh-pawt]
The layer of fat around the abdomen that many women develop after going through menopause.
Examples:
1) Why are we, the fiftysomethings, taking over the gyms of Toronto? Fear of the 50-plus spare tire, aka the menopot. (Joanne Kates, "What could be worse than old age?", The Globe and Mail, March 12, 2004)
2) Menopot: The fat around a woman's waistline that is above the abdominal muscle wall; feels soft and can be grabbed easily; also known as "pinch an inch" fat. (Lisa Kremer, "Less stress begets success", The News Tribune (Tacoma, Washington), January 5, 2004)
Etymology:
This word was coined by Dr. Pamela Peeke, a scientist at the National Institutes of Health. She first used it in her book "Fight Fat After Forty", published in April, 2000. Dr. Peeke has also coined a word for the male version of this problem - the "manopot", but that term hasn't caught on yet. (The word "pot" is, of course, short for "pot belly", a phrase that has been in the language since at least 1714.)


mental

  • nutty
  • loony
  • crazy
  • mad
  • nuts


Mad; crazy; not acting rationally.
Examples:
1) My cousin Charlie is mental - he tried to bite my little sister. 2) Why are you playing with that gun? Are you mental or something?
Etymology: Normally, 'mental' refers to the mind or the brain. Someone who is 'mentally ill' is sick in their mind. As slang, 'mental' means 'sick in the head'.
Synonyms: nutty, loony; (slang) nuts

mephitic
1. Offensive to the smell; as, mephitic odors.
2. Poisonous; noxious.
Examples:
1) The mephitic stench from the bilge became overpowering. (Richard Holmes, "Coleridge: Darker Reflections, 1804-1834")
2)
Over everything presides "a sort of mephitic fog", a pervasive sulfuric stink. (Dale Peck, "Way Outback", New York Times, March 22, 1998)
3) ... Unpoisoned by the mephitic vapours which poisoned the atmosphere of his police-office. (Henry Fielding, "Tom Jones")
Etymology:
"Mephitic" is the adjective form of "mephitis" ("a foul-smelling or noxious exhalation from the earth; a stench from any source"), from the Latin.


mess with

  • mess with smb.
  • mess with smth.
  • mess
  • bug smb.


To become involved with, to start with; to cause problems; to challenge, to fight with, to mix it up with; to annoy, to argue with; to hassle, or otherwise anger and irritate a person.
Examples:
1) We learned not to mess with the Mafia. Their revenge is deadly.
2) Don't even think of messing with the new teacher. She's tough.
History, synonym:
This modern African-American expression is similar in meaning to 'bug someone". "To mess" is to butt into other people's business or interfere with other people's lives.


metier

  • employment
  • occupation
  • calling


[met-YAY; MET-yay]
1. An occupation; a profession; vocation, trade
2. An area of activity in which one excels; an occupation for which one is especially well suited; forte.
Examples:
1) The pairing of Maynard and Salinger - the writer whose metier is autobiography and the writer who's so private he won't even publish - was an unlikely one. (Larissa MacFarquhar, "The Cult of Joyce Maynard," New York Times Magazine, September 6, 1998)
2)
In Congress, I really found my metier.... I love to legislate. (Charles Schumer, "quoted in Upbeat Schumer Battles Poor Polls and Turnouts and His Own Image," New York Times, May 16, 1998)
3)
He is in the position of a good production engineer suddenly shunted into salesmanship. It is not his metier. (James R. Mursell, "The Reform of the Schools," The Atlantic, December 1939)
4) Penelope dabbled in poetry for a while, but she eventually returned to writing novels, which was her true metier.
History, synonyms:
"Metier" is ultimately from Latin "ministerium" ("service, ministry, employment"), from "minister" ("a servant, a subordinate"). "Metier," a French borrowing acquired by English speakers in the 18th century, typically implies a calling for which one feels especially fitted. The words "metier," "employment," "occupation," and "calling" all perform similar functions in English, though each word gets the job done in its own way. These hard-working synonyms can all refer to a specific sustained activity, especially an activity engaged in to earn a living, but these words also have slightly different shades of meaning. "Employment" implies simply that one was hired and is being paid by an employer, whereas "occupation" usually suggests special training, and "calling" generally applies to an occupation viewed as a vocation or profession.


metonymy

  • synecdoche


[muh-TAH-nuh-mee]
A figure of speech consisting of the use of the name of one thing for that of another of which it is an attribute or with which it is associated.
Example:
American journalists employ metonymy whenever they say "the White House" in place of "the president and his administration."
Etymology, more examples, related words:
When Mark Antony asks the people of Rome to lend him their ears in William Shakespeare's play "Julius Caesar", he is employing the rhetorical device known as metonymy. Derived via Latin from the Greek "metonymia" (from "meta-," meaning "among, with, after" and "onyma," meaning "name"), metonymy often appears in news articles and headlines, such as when journalists use the term "crown" to refer to a king or queen. Another common example is the use of an author's name to refer to works written by that person, as in "He is studying Hemingway". Metonymy is closely related to synecdoche, which refers to the naming of a part of something to refer to the whole thing (or vice versa), as in "We hired extra hands to help us".


metrosexual

  • metrosexuality


a fashion-conscious heterosexual male, or, as Mark Simpson put it, a man who "has clearly taken himself as his own love object".
Example:
According to the experts, this guy lives near the city, uses beauty products, fancies Kylie Minogue but would never cheat on his partner. How do you spot this paragon of virtue? The Metrosexual will, they say, possess at least one salmon pink shirt. ("Mirror", 19 June 2003)
Etymology & History:
This word has been around since at least the mid-1990s, and was first used to describe urban (and urbane) young men who were self-indulgent, even narcissistic, and who were interested in fashion and beauty. It has been reinvented with a twist. The story is that 21st-century man has become neutered and insecure as a result of the rise of female power in the workplace. Straight men, happily married but confused by the new gender equality (and by a barrage of comment saying theyre useless and obsolete), are turning to methods more traditionally associated with women, such as power dressing and beauty treatments, to assert themselves. Metrosexual man, the theory goes, wants to be thought of as caring, nurturing and open-minded, while rejecting many traditional male virtues. At least, this is what Marian Salzman, American guru of futurology, is suggesting, although her thesis is derided by other futurologists, who say that the way that some men feel at the moment is merely part of a realignment of gender roles that hasnt yet worked its way to a conclusion.


metrosexuality

  • metrosexual


the characteristic of heterosexual men who spend time and money on their appearance and enjoy shopping
Example:
Last week ace trend spotter Marian Salzman of the advertising agency Euro RCSG Worldwide identified Beckham-who likes to say how comfortable he is with his feminine side and who has been known to wear a sarong - as the epitome of metrosexuality...
("Time", 30 June 2003)

mettle

  • stamina
  • spirit
  • Metal


1. Vigor and strength of spirit or temperament; staying quality.
Examples:
1) The rough trail is challenging enough to test the mettle of even the strongest and most experienced mountain biker.
2) The winged courser, like a generous horse, shows most true mettle when you check his course.
Synonyms: stamina; spirit.
3. Quality of temperament or disposition.
Etymology:
Originally, "mettle" was simply a variant spelling of the word "metal" (which dates to at least the 14th century), and it was used in all of the same senses as its metallic relative. Over time, however, "mettle" came to be used mainly in figurative senses referring to the quality of someone's character. It eventually became a distinct English word in its own right, losing its literal sense altogether. "Metal" remained a term primarily used for those hard shiny substances such as steel or iron, but it also acquired a figurative use. Today, both words can mean "vigor and strength of spirit or temperament", but only "metal" is used of metallic substances.


mettlesome

  • spirited
  • metalsome


[MET-ul-sum]
Full of vigor and stamina.
Synonym: spirited.
Example:
The mettlesome bronco kicked and bucked, but the rider kept his balance and rode him out.
History, related words:
The 17th-century adjective "mettlesome" (popularly used of spirited horses) sometimes appeared as the variant "metalsome."
That's not surprising. In the 16th century and for some time after, "mettle" was a variant spelling of "metal" - that is, the word for substances such as gold, copper, and iron. ("Metal" itself dates from the 14th century and descends from a Greek term meaning "mine" or "metal.") The 16th century was also when "metal" - or "mettle" - acquired the figurative sense of "spirit," "courage," or "stamina." However, by the early 18th century, dictionaries were noting the distinction between "metal," used for the substance, and "mettle," used for "spirit," so that nowadays the words "mettle" and "mettlesome" are rarely associated with "metal."


mgd
(SMS) my gameboy died


micro-wind turbine

  • microwind turbine
  • micro-wind
  • turbine
  • microwind
  • wind turbine
  • wind


A compact version of a wind turbine - a wind-driven turbine for generating electricity.
Example:
Existing mini-turbines sit on a pole at the bottom of the garden and are useless for townies. However, new micro-wind turbines, no bigger than a TV aerial or satellite dish, which can be mounted on a roof, are expected to be available from the middle of next year. (The "Guardian", 20 Nov. 2004)
History:
When we think of wind turbines, the image is usually of a monster windmill on a windy hilltop, generating megawatts of electricity. But as one element of a variety of schemes to make our houses more energy-efficient - along with good insulation, combined heat and power gas central heating, and solar panels - comes the micro-wind turbine. This is a tiny version of its big brother, one that can be fixed to a convenient chimney or roof. They've been around for ages on sailing boats and in some countries, especially the USA, have become popular in rural areas away from power supplies as ways of powering devices such as electric fences or public telephones. But recently they have started to be promoted for domestic use in urban areas in countries such as Britain. Objectors argue that it takes too long to get back the cost of installation and that high average wind speeds are required, which are often not available in heavily built-up areas.

microburst
[MY-kroh-burst]
A violent short-lived localized downdraft that creates extreme wind shears at low altitudes and is usually associated with thunderstorms.
Example:
During thunderstorm season, microbursts as strong as 50 miles per hour can cause almost as much damage to crops and structures as a full-force hurricane.
History:
"Micro" ("tiny, very small; enlarging") + "burst" ("eruption; gush, spurt; volley of gunshots").
Credit for the invention of the word "microburst" is generally given to tornado expert Tetsuya Theodore Fujita. Fujita first described these extremely intense wind patterns in 1974. He noted that microbursts are usually short-lived, lasting only 5 to 15 minutes, but that they are extremely dangerous, especially for aircraft, because they cause sudden unexpected changes in wind direction or speed. Since the mid-1970s, many airports have installed Doppler radar systems to help them detect potentially deadly microbursts.


microcosm

  • macrocosm


[MY-kruh-koz-uhm] 1. A little world; hence, man or human nature as a supposed epitome of the world or universe (compare with its antonym: "macrocosm"). 2. A smaller, representative system having analogies to a larger system.
Examples:
1) The monarch and his followers thought of the court as a microcosm of how the kingdom ought to be, the harmonious expression of a social order centred on the monarch. (John Brewer, "The Pleasures of the Imagination")
2) There is a classic Jimmy Stewart movie, "Magic Town", about "Grandview," a small town in the Midwest that is a perfect statistical microcosm of the United States, a place where the citizens' opinions match perfectly with Gallup polls of the entire nation. (James S. Fishkin, "The Voice of the People")
3) New York saw itself as a quasi-independent political and cultural entity that was both a microcosm of and a model for the nation as a whole. (Robert A. M. Stern, "New York 1880")
Etymology:
"Microcosm" comes from Greek "mikros kosmos" ("small world").

mien

  • bearing
  • demeanor


[MEEN]
1. Manner, air or bearing, especially as expressive of mood, attitude, or personality; demeanor.
2. Aspect; appearance.
Examples:
1) He raised and answered the question with the dispassionate mien of a professor advising a student on a course of study. (Edith Anderson, "Love in Exile")
2) For her part, Amy soon learned to cloak her self-assurance and pride in her achievements in a modest mien. (Adrienne Fried Block, "Amy Beach: Passionate Victorian")
3)
Here Mnemosyne shows her true face, and she is no young beauty. Not for her the unlined mien of the younger Muses. (Vera Schwarcz, "Bridge Across Broken Time")
4) Professor Hart's cool and gallant mien was appealing to some students and off-putting to others.
History, related words, synonyms, more examples:
Like its synonyms "bearing" and "demeanor," "mien" means the outward manifestation of personality or attitude. "Bearing" is the most general, but now usually implies characteristic posture, as in "a woman of regal bearing." "Demeanor" suggests attitude expressed through outward behavior in the presence of others; for example, "the manager's professional demeanor." "Mien" is a somewhat literary term referring to both bearing and demeanor. "A mien of supreme self-satisfaction" is a typical use. "Mien" and "demeanor" are also linked through etymology. "Mien" arose through the shortening and alteration of the verb "demean," which is also the root of "demeanor." Perhaps it derives from French "mine" ("bearing, expression"), from Breton "min" ("beak, snout," hence "a person's face"). (In this case, "demean" means "to conduct or behave (oneself) usually in a proper manner," not "to degrade." That other "demean" is a distinct word with a different etymology.)


milieu

  • milieus
  • milieux
  • environment
  • scene
  • setting
  • sphere
  • surroundings


[meel-YUH; meel-YOO]
plural: milieus or milieux [-(z)]
Environment; setting.
Synonyms: environment, scene, setting, sphere, surroundings.
Examples:
1) These were agricultural areas, populated with prosperous farming families and rural artisans - a completely different milieu from the Monferrands', which was more closed, more cultured, but less affluent. (Antoine de Baecque and Serge Toubiana, "Truffaut")
2)
Half a century later, Zacar?as still remembers... how they all played together without distinctions or hierarchy, and how easily Ernesto related to people from different social and cultural milieux. (Jorge G. Castaneda, "Compa?ero")
3) They write about their milieux, about where they live and work, and it can be fabulous. (Leslie Schenk, "Celebrating Mavis Gallant," World Literature Today, Winter 1998)
Etymology:
"Milieu" is from French, from Old French, from "mi" ("middle", from Latin "medius") + "lieu" ("place", from Latin "locus").


militate
[MIL-ih-tayt]
To have force or influence.
Examples:
1) In our current era of politics, many factors militate against changes in policies. (Reed Hundt, "You Say You Want a Revolution")
2)
Even though Simpson's youth, limited professional experience, lack of reputation, unmarried status, and modest social origins all militated against success, the twenty-eight-year-old Simpson applied for the post. (Donald Caton, "What a Blessing She Had Chloroform")
3)
By 2003 many of the uncertainties which militate against a "yes" might be resolved. (Anatole Kaletsky, "Why Brown is right to put off the euro test," Times (London), June 21, 2001)
Etymology:
"Militate" comes from Latin "militatus", past participle of "militare" - "to serve as a soldier", from "miles", "milit-" ("a soldier").


millefleur

  • millefiori


[meel-FLUR]
Having an allover pattern of small flowers and plants.
Example:
Among the works to be exhibited are a 15th-century Flemish millefleur tapestry... (Devorah L. Knaff, "Press Enterprise" [Riverside, CA], April 27, 2003)
Etymology, a related word:
"Millefleur" came into French from the Latin "mille florae" and from French directly into English. Although the literal meaning of "mille florae" is "a thousand flowers," it is easy to see how "millefleur" came to be applied to a style of artistic expression featuring a pattern or background of many tiny flowers or plants. A similarly colorful extension of "a thousand flowers" can be seen in the word "millefiori". That term, which refers to ornamental glass characterized by multicolored flower-like designs, comes from "mille fiori," the Italian phrase meaning "a thousand flowers."


milquetoast

  • milk toast
  • milk
  • toast


[MILK-toast]
A timid, meek, or unassertive person.
Example:
Brian was such a milquetoast that he agreed to work extra hours on Sunday even though he had already told his boss that he needed that day off.
Etymology:
Caspar Milquetoast was a comic strip character created in 1924 by the American cartoonist Harold T. Webster. The strip, called "The Timid Soul," ran every Sunday in the "New York Herald Tribune" for many years. Webster, who claimed that Milquetoast was a self-portrait, summed up the character as "the man who speaks softly and gets hit with a big stick". The earliest examples we could find for "Milquetoast" used as a generic synonym for "timid person" date from the mid-1930s. Caspar's last name might remind you of "milk toast", a bland concoction of buttered toast served in a dish of warm milk.


mimsy

  • mimsey
  • mimzy
  • mimp
  • miminy-piminy
  • niminy-piminy
  • mim
  • mim-mouthed
  • mim-mouth


1. Prim or affected; over-refined; mincing.
2. Unhappy (by Lewis Carroll).
Example:
"All mimsy were the borogoves". (Jabberwocky in "Through the Looking-Glass" by Lewis Carroll)
History, etymology, examples:
Humpty-Dumpty ("Through the Looking-Glass" by Lewis Carroll) explains the meaning of the word as being a blend (he calls it "a portmanteau word") of "flimsy" and "miserable", so meaning "unhappy". Carroll either invented it afresh or borrowed an existing English dialect word and gave it a new meaning. In the sense of affected or over-refined, "mimsy" has long been known in the British Isles, especially in Scots and northern dialects; an example is in "A Rock in the Baltic", by Robert Barr (1906): "In one corner of the room stood a sewing-machine, and on the long table were piles of mimsy stuff out of which feminine creations are constructed." It's known in other spellings, such as "mimsey" and "mimzy"; "mimp" is closely related; an elaborated version is "miminy-piminy" or "niminy-piminy". All forms seem to be built on "mim". This little word may come from an imitation of pursing up the mouth in prudishness (a related form is "mim-mouthed", affectedly prim and proper in speech, which appears in "Virginibus Puerisque", by Robert Louis Stevenson, published in 1881: "Mim-mouthed friends and relations hold up their hands in quite a little elegiacal synod about his path: and what cares he for all this?"). "Mimsy" is far from dead. The issue of The Medical Post for 6 January 2004 (published in Toronto, but the writer was remembering his childhood in Scotland) reads: "Certainly if I had been drafted into the Armed Forces I would have been streets ahead of these mimsy Boy Scouts with their cowboy hats and their two-fingered apology for a salute." It also appeared in an article by Griff Rhys Jones in the Independent on 24 October 2003: "This is food writing. Not mimsy pseudo-porn, but genuinely funny gastro-investigation driven by a slavering appetite."


mince words

  • mince word
  • mince
  • word
  • words
  • mince matters
  • matter
  • matters


To not come right to the point and be honest; to use mild or vague words so as
not to offend or hurt someone; to say gently, to say something in a soft manner, to soften things; to say nice words when complaining.
Examples:
1) When Greta is angry she doesn't mince words. She tells you what is bothering her, calling a spade a spade.
2) Please don't mince words. Tell me exactly what you think of my painting.
History, related expression:
William Shakespeare used this expression in some of his plays in the late 1500s, but it might have been in use before that. Originally "mince" meant to soften or lessen the force of certain words in order to be polite. Today, if you mince words or mince matters, you are not being honest and open.

mind over matter

  • mind over
  • matter
  • mind
  • over


Believing you can do it, using the mind's power; the power of your mind is stronger than the body.
Examples:
1) When your brain controls your heart rate, it's mind over matter.
2) Nancy ran in the track meet with a twisted ankle - a perfect example of mind over matters.
History:
Virgil, a Roman poet who was born in 70 B.C., used this expression in his famous poem, the "Aeneid". "Mind" means brain, thoughts, and willpower. "Matter" means a physical object, and it can also mean trouble or difficulty. Notice also that "mind" and "matter" both begin with "m", and alliteration helps make a saying more popular.


misanthrope

  • misogamy
  • misogyny
  • misology
  • misoneism
  • philanthropy


[MISS-un-throhp]
A person who hates or distrusts humankind.
Example:
Moliere's 1666 satiric comedy "Le Misanthrope" portrays the life of Alceste, a misanthrope who is completely intolerant of society and everyone in it.
Etymology, related words:
The word "misanthrope" is human to the core. Literally. One of its parents is the Greek noun "anthropos," meaning "human being." Its other parent is the Greek verb "misein," meaning "to hate." "Misein" also gave English "misogamy" ("a hatred of marriage"), "misogyny" ("hatred of women"), "misology" ("a hatred of argument, reasoning, or enlightenment"), and "misoneism" ("a hatred, fear, or intolerance of innovation or change"). "Anthropos" joined forces with "phil-" (a combining form meaning "loving") to form the Greek ancestor of "philanthropy" ("active effort to help other people"). We also dig up "anthropos" when we excavate the foundations of the word "anthropology."


misbegotten

  • beget


[miss-bih-GAH-tun]
1. Unlawfully conceived; illegitimate.
2. Having a disreputable or improper origin.
3. Contemptible, deformed.
Example:
"I think I've disproven that misbegotten notion that blondes aren't smart," said Susan of her perfect grade point average.
Etymology; related words:
In the beginning, there was "bigietan," and "bigietan" begot "beyeten," and in the days of Middle English "beyeten" begot "begeten," and from thence sprung "misbegotten." That's a bit flowery, but it accurately traces the path that led to "misbegotten." All of the Old English and Middle English ancestors listed above basically mean the same thing as the modern "beget," that is, "to father" or "to produce as an effect or outgrowth." That linguistic line brought forth "misbegotten" by adding the prefix "mis-" (meaning "wrong," "bad," or "not") in the mid-1500s.


misgender
to mistake a man for a woman or vice versa.
Example:
A friend informs me I have misgendered you.
Etymology:
"mis-", prefix meaning "bad, wrong" (from O.E. mis-; others see in P.Gmc. *missa- the stem of an ancient pp., related to O.E. missan "fail to hit"; represents O.Fr. mes- "bad(ly), wrong(ly)," from V.L. minus-, from L. minus "less") + "gender" (c.1300, from O.Fr. gendre, from stem of L. genus (gen. generis) "kind, sort, gender," also "sex" (see genus); used to translate from Gk. Aristotle's grammatical term genos; as sex took on erotic qualities in 20c., gender came to be used for "sex of a human being," often in feminist writing with reference to social attributes as much as biological qualities; this sense first attested 1963; gender-bender is first attested 1980, with reference to pop star David Bowie).




misprision

  • misprision of treason
  • treason


1. a) neglect or wrong performance of official duty
Example:
"The republic somehow manages to wend its erratic way through the cycles of history in spite of human folly and misprision." (Tommy Denton, "Roanoke Times & World News", December 17, 2000)
1. b) concealment of treason or felony by one who is not a participant in the treason or felony
1. c) seditious conduct against the government or the courts
2. misunderstanding, misinterpretation
Etymology:
1425, from Anglo-Fr. "mesprisioun" ("mistake, error, wrong action or speech"), from O.Fr. "mespris", pp. of "mesprendre" ("to mistake, act wrongly"), from "mes-" ("wrongly") + "prendre" ("take"), from Latin "prendere", contracted from "prehendere" ("seize"). In 16c., "misprision of treason" was used for lesser degrees of guilt (those not subject to capital punishment), esp. for knowing of treasonable actions or plots but not informing the authorities. This led to the common supposition in legal writers that the word means "failure to denounce" a crime.


misprize
1. To hold in contempt.
2. To undervalue.
Examples:
1) I hesitate to appear to misprize my native city, but how can the history of dear, sedate old London town possibly compare to Paris for sheer excitement? (Alistair Horne, "Seven Ages of Paris")
2)
Or did he misprize such fidelity and harden his heart against so great a love as hers? (Ludovico Ariosto, "Orlando Furioso", translated by Guido Waldman)
3)
Alternatively, when disagreements are noticed, they may by chance be overemphasized by those who misprize their significance by failing to assess the pressure exerted by economic and institutional factors as opposed to the purely intellectual. (Ellen Handler Spitz, "Warrant for trespass/ permission to peer," The Art Bulletin, December 1, 1995)
Etymology:
"Misprize" comes from Middle French "mesprisier", from "mes-" ("amiss, wrong") + "prisier" ("to appraise").


miss the boat

  • miss
  • boat


To lose an opportunity; to arrive too late and miss out on something.
Examples:
1) You had better hurry and get your application in or you will miss the boat on entering that new company.
2) If you're late to the interview, you'll miss the boat for the job.
History:
This expression has been used by many people since about 1900s, when there were no airplanes and many people traveled to far-off places by boat. If you arrived at the dock after the boat had sailed because you lost track of time, overslept, or were delayed, then you missed out.


mitigate

  • militate
  • mitigate against


[MIT-uh-gayt]
1. To cause to become less harsh or hostile; mollify.
2. To make less severe or painful; alleviate.
3. To extenuate.
Example:
Gordon was determined to help mitigate the suffering of the people in the tornado-ravaged area.
Etymology, synonyms, difference, examples:
Would it be correct to say, "His boyish appearance mitigated against his getting an early promotion"? Most usage commentators would say "no." They feel such examples demonstrate a long-standing confusion between "mitigate" and the look-alike "militate." Those two words are not closely related etymologically ("mitigate" descends from the Latin verb "mitigare," meaning "to soften," whereas "militate" traces to "militare," another Latin verb that means "to engage in warfare"), nor are they particularly close in meaning ("militate" means "to have weight or effect"). The confusion between the two has existed for long enough that one commentator thinks "mitigate against" should be accepted as an idiomatic alternative to "militate," but if you want to avoid criticism, you should keep "mitigate" and "militate" distinct.


mobile speed bump

  • mobile bump
  • mobile
  • speed bump
  • speed
  • bump


A car that travels at the speed limit to force the cars behind to do the same.
Examples:
1) The city of Vancouver is exploring the idea of sanctioning a grass-roots traffic-calming program that enlists the silent majority of reasonable, rational, law-abiding drivers to stop being so silent. Instead they'd slap NEIGHBORHOOD PACE CAR stickers on their vehicles and set a highly visible example by rolling down Vancouver streets at lawful speeds. Yes, you heard right: Making Vancouver streets safer simply by making a public point of driving the posted speed limit. (Scott Hewitt, "How'd you like to be a mobile speed bump?", The Columbian (Vancouver, WA), November 27, 2003)
2)
Elaine Clegg of Idaho Smart Growth, which runs Boise's Neighborhood Pace Car program, calls herself "a mobile speed bump". She slows cars driving behind her by driving the speed limit. A sense of humor is required, she says. The Idaho program has bumper stickers saying "Follow me to the next red light," "Would you rather I were a speed bump?" and "Honk if you want me to slow down." So far, about 500 residents have joined the Boise program by signing a pledge and putting Pace Car stickers on their cars. (Patrick McMahon, "Residents fight back against speeders", USA Today, May 13, 2002)
3) Want to slow down traffic on your street? Try a leisurely drive during rush hour. Boise, Idaho, residents did that through their PACE CAR program. They turned their cars into "mobile speed bumps" by purposefully driving the speed limit, forcing trailing drivers to ease off the accelerator. (Toni Coleman, "Seminar to focus on 'calming' traffic," Saint Paul Pioneer Press (Minnesota), May 14, 2001)


mobisode
A cut down version of a popular television series made especially for mobile phones, created by partner "20th Century Fox"; a specially created mini-television series suitable for showing on the two-inch phone screen of these new handsets.
Examples:
1) "24: Conspiracy" will give 24 fans the opportunity to race from their TV sets every week to their cell phones to catch the latest "mobisode".
2) Vodafone will begin offering the one-minute episodes in January in the United Kingdom. The 'mobisodes,' as they're being called, will be introduced later in 2005 in up to 23 more countries where Vodafone operates, mainly in Europe, as well as in the United States through the company's Verizon Wireless joint venture. (The "Toronto Star", 12 Nov. 2004)
3)
Vodafone also plans to introduce a 'Mobisodes' service next year, in cooperation with 20th Century Fox, providing short, made-for- mobile episodes related to television series like '24.' While these will feature exclusive content, Vodafone acknowledges that a major goal is to generate viewers for the TV show. (The "International Herald Tribune", 11 Nov. 2004)
History: It's a new word invented by the mobile telephone firm "Vodaphone" that reached many newspaper columns in November 2004, though whether it will become a usual term is open to doubt (but "Fox" has already trademarked the term). It was used in a press release that also announced that the firm has launched its 3G (third-generation) mobile phone service in the UK and Europe. A "mobisode" ("mobile" + "episode") is a specially created mini-television series suitable for showing on the two-inch phone screen of these new handsets. "Vodaphone" has signed a deal with Fox in the USA to produce 24 one-minute spin-off episodes of its drama 24 with a parallel sub-plot under the title "24: Conspiracy". Many other providers are also being signed up to provide video services, especially sports and news organisations.


modicum

  • small quantity
  • trace
  • hint
  • speck
  • jot
  • iota


[MOD-ih-kum]
A small or moderate or token amount.
Synonyms: small quantity, trace, hint, speck, jot, iota.
Examples:
1) Abraham Lincoln's childhood education, conducted almost entirely by himself, with only a modicum of schooling, is one of the most familiar stories in American history. (Douglas L. Wilson, "Honor's Voice")
2) Ruth worked in the sociology department which had a garden in an internal courtyard that gave the place a modicum of charm. (Gillian Slovo, "Every Secret Thing")
3)
While he derived a modicum of pleasure from his son's rambunctiousness, he was also disturbed by it. (Jonah Raskin, "For the Hell of It")
Etymology:
"Modicum" is from Latin "modicus" ("moderate"), from "modus" ("measure").


mogul

  • Great Mogul
  • Great


[MOH-gul]
1. (Capitalized) An Indian Muslim of or descended from one of several conquering groups of Mongol, Turkish, and Persian origin; especially: Great Mogul.
2. A great personage; magnate.
Example:
The media mogul owned such a large number of newspapers and television stations across the country that his influence on political discourse could not be denied..
History, related words & expressions:
Started by Babur, a descendant of Genghis Khan, the Muslim Mogul dynasty ruled much of India from the early 16th century to the mid-18th century. The Moguls were known for their talented and powerful rulers (called "Great Moguls"), so it's no surprise that in English the word "mogul" came to denote a powerful person, as in our frequent references to "movie moguls," "industry moguls," and the like. Skiers might wonder if such power moguls have anything to do with the name they use for a bump in a ski run, but that hilly homonym has nothing to do with Asian Mogul dynasties. We picked up the skier's "mogul" from a German dialect root that is probably related to the Viennese "mugl," meaning "small hill."


moiety
[MOY-uh-tee]
1. One of two equal parts; a half.
2. An indefinite part; a small portion or share.
3. One of two basic tribal subdivisions.
Examples:
1) Tom divided the cake and Becky ate with good appetite, while Tom nibbled at his moiety. (Mark Twain, "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer")
2) Cut off from news at home, fearful of a blood bath, anxious to salvage a moiety of the reform program, the Prague leadership accepted Moscow's diktat. (Karl E. Meyer, "Pangloss in Prague," New York Times, June 27, 1993)
3)
Barunga society is sharply divided into two complementary, descent-based branches (a structure anthropologists call "moiety"), which permeate relationships, spirituality, and many other aspects of life. (Claire Smith, "Art of The Dreaming," Discovering Archaeology, March/April 2000)
Etymology:
"Moiety" comes from Old French "meitiet", from Late Latin "medietas", from Latin "medius" - "middle."


moil
[MOYL]
1. To work with painful effort; to labor; to toil; to drudge.
2. To churn or swirl about continuously.
3. Toil; hard work; drudgery.
4. Confusion; turmoil.
Examples:
1) Why should he toil and moil, and be at so much trouble to pick himself up out the mud, when, in a little while hence, the strong arm of his Uncle will raise and support him? (Nathaniel Hawthorne, "The Scarlet Letter")
2) [H]e saw himself in the sleepless moil of early parenthood, and felt a plunging anxiety. (Alan Hollinghurst, "The Spell")
Etymology:
"Moil" comes from Middle English "moillen" - "to soak, to wet," hence "to soil, to soil one's hands, to work very hard," from Old French "moillier" - "to soften, especially by making wet," ultimately from Latin "mollis" - "soft."


moke

  • mook


1. (BrE) donkey or mule (first recorded in the 1830s but probably a lot older);
2. (AustrE) inferior horse;
Slang:
3. (AmE) an offensive term for a black person (obviously taken from the earlier animal meaning);
4. (By the 1850s) some foolish or contemptible person, or more simply, just somebody you dislike.
Synonym: mook.
Probable etymology:
It wouldnt be altogether surprising to hear that jamoke has evolved further and been abbreviated to moke and then mook. Its also likely that the two terms have influenced each other. But certainly they started out distinct.


molecular gastronomy

  • molecular
  • gastronomy


A branch of food science that focuses on cooking and food preparation (rather than on the chemical makeup of food, as traditional food science tends to do). It's based on modern knowledge of the way that the brain interprets smell and taste and challenges traditional perceptions and customs about what makes a dish worth eating.
Examples:
1) Would you eat cockles coated with white chocolate? Or garlic and coffee creme brul?e? Or egg and bacon ice cream with tomato jam? Or dark chocolate petit fours infused with pipe tobacco? These are among the odd-sounding food combinations that have been tried by chefs experimenting with a scientific approach to cooking and food preparation called "molecular gastronomy". (Michael Quinion, "World Wide Words", 15 May 2004)
2)
...The Fat Duck's second place also represents a personal victory for Blumenthal, 37, who is credited with turning cooking into a subject of interest as much to physicists as gastronomes by dint of his trademark technique, known as "molecular gastronomy". ("Independent", 21 Apr. 2004)
3) The late Nicholas Kurti, a physicist in an elite field called molecular gastronomy, argued that the best way to cook a perfect three-minute egg is to cook it for one hour at 140F. ("Toronto Star", 7 Apr. 2004)
History:
The term is best known in the UK, since it's closely linked with chef Heston Blumenthal at his restaurant "The Fat Duck" in Berkshire. He works with specialists such as the physicist Peter Barham to test various factors in food preparation, for example, how changes in technique alter the texture of a food or what happens when you cook meat at a much lower temperature than usual. The term, for which a more appetising alternative could surely have been found, actually goes back to the 1980s, having been coined by the French scientist Hervé This, and Nicholas Kurti, who was a professor of physics at Oxford University in England. Both men were interested in food science, but they felt that empirical knowledge and tradition were as important in cooking as rational understanding. "The Fat Duck" must be doing something right, since it has recently been awarded three Michelin stars, one of only two restaurants in Britain to have them.



mom and pop

  • mom
  • pop
  • ma-and-pa
  • ma
  • pa


Also:
mom-and-pop; ma-and-pa
1. Something that is small and simple, particularly a business that is owned and operated by a family, especially by a husband and wife; small-scale.
Examples:
1) I prefer local mom and pop stores to the big national chains. 2) Convenience stores are often mom and pop businesses.
Synonym:
family-run
2. friendly, relaxed, and pleasantly informal
Etymology: The idea behind this phrase is that something is so small that a husband and wife team can operate it on their own.


monger
[MUNG-gur]
1. A broker, dealer (usually used in combination, e.g. "rumormonger").
2. A person who attempts to stir up or spread something that is usually petty or discreditable - usually used in combination.
Example:
According to reports, the singer and actress were involved in a hot romance, but the rumormongers had it wrong - the two were just good friends.
Etymology:
Peddlers (especially fish merchants) have been called "mongers" for more than 1000 years. The term traces to a Latin noun meaning "trader." Initially, it was an honorable term, but every profession has its bad apples, and the snake-oil salesmen of the bunch gave "monger" a bad reputation. By the middle of the 16th century, the term implied that a merchant was dishonorable and contemptible. Nowadays, "monger" can be combined with just about anything to identify one who specializes in fast trades and loose deals, whether they be rumormongers, scandalmongers, hypemongers, or even miraclemongers.


monkey around

  • monkey
  • around
  • screw around
  • goof off
  • screw
  • goof


1. To waste time playing or loafing.
Example: Stop monkeying around - your term paper is due in two hours!
Etymology: Monkeys love to play, but they aren't very good at productive labor.
Synonyms: screw around, goof off.
2. To tinker with something; to try to operate or fix something, but without serious effort or success.
Example: Don't monkey around with the remote control - you'll probably break it.


monkey business

  • monkey
  • business
  • monkeyshines
  • monkeyshine


1. Dubious activities, dishonest or illegal business.
2. Fooling around, silly games; idiotic pranks; nonsense, foolishness, funny stuff.
Examples:
1) I've had enough of your monkey business. No more foolishness.
2) No more monkey business! Settle down.
History, synonym:
This expression has two meanings. One concerns comical behavior like that of a playful monkey. The other refers to sneaky, unlawful actions. So a student could be sent to the principal's office for monkey business, and a politician can be sent to jail for monkey business. This idiom, from 20th-century America, is like many other expressions that relate human behavior to animal behavior ("sly as a fox," "wise as an owl", and so on), and probably comes from an older expression, "monkeyshines," which dates from the 1820s.

 

monkey's uncle

  • I'll be a monkey's uncle
  • monkey
  • uncle


An exclamation of disbelief, surprise etc.
Example:
"Well, I'll be a monkey's uncle!" - he shouted, having seen his old dog playing with a young cat.
History, more examples:
It is thought to have been a reference to
Darwin's "Origin of Species" of 1859, in which he argued the close relationship between humans, apes and monkeys. One may recall the famous debate between "Soapy Sam" Wilberforce, the Bishop of Oxford, and Thomas Huxley, in which the bishop asked sarcastically whether "it was through Huxley's grandfather or grandmother that Huxley claimed his descent from a monkey." Most reference books suggest the expression dates from the 1920s, but it might be older. There is the parody of Longfellow's "Song of Hiawatha" in James Parton's compendium "The Humorous Poetry of the English Language". It's said to be from "Punch" but is undated; however, it must have appeared in that magazine before 1881, when the book came out:
Out came sundry comic Indians
Of the tribe of Kut-an-hack-um.
With the growling Downy Beaver,
With the valiant Monkey's Uncle.

This may be just an accident of invention, but the date fits.



mooch

  • be on the mooch
  • on the mooch
  • mooch pusher
  • pusher
  • moocher
  • mooching
  • freerider
  • mitch


1. (Amer.) A person who uses another's belongings or services without paying.
Example:
"Folks, now here's the story 'bout Minnie the Moocher, She was a red-hot hootchie-cootcher" (Cab Calloway's song about Minnie the Moocher)
Synonym: freerider
2. (Brit., Austr.) loiter about in a bored or listless way
Example:
He did nothing but mooch about the house, doing nothing and getting in the way.
Etymology, connotations:
It's actually a most interesting word, one which has been around on the margins of the language since the fifteenth century with a set of meanings, none of them pleasant. In its earliest days, "to mooch" meant to pretend poverty or act the miser. That may come from an even earlier word, "mitch", which by then had been in existence for a couple of centuries with a similar meaning. The latter is believed to derive from the Old French "muchier" or "mucier", which meant to hide, or more pejoratively, to skulk or lurk. Both "mitch" and "mooch" survived in several senses in local dialects in Britain for centuries, with the latter becoming by far the better known. "Mooch" could variously mean to play truant (in particular to pick blackberries, for some unknown reason), to loaf, skulk, sneak, or loiter, or to steal or pilfer. In the 1850s, it meant to sponge on others, to borrow money or cadge things, or to slip away and let others pay for your entertainment. This is clearly where the modern American sense comes from. But it has had other senses in North America, among them to troll for fish, especially on the West Coast. In the 1920s, it was a slang term among gamblers or on fairgrounds for a sucker or easy mark. In the 1940s-50s, the noun could also refer to a drug addict, so to be "on the mooch" was to be addicted and a "mooch pusher" was a drug dealer.

mook

  • moke


(Slang)
1. Some foolish or contemptible person, or more simply, just somebody you dislike; moke.
2. "Testosterone-crazed, perpetually adolescent male." (Douglas Rushkoff)
3. "Boorish, screw-you pacesetter for cravings." (See: www.quinion.com/words/qa/qa-jam1.htm)
Probable etymology:
It wouldnt be altogether surprising to hear that jamoke has evolved further and been abbreviated to moke and then mook. Its also likely that the two terms have influenced each other.
But certainly they started out distinct.


moola

  • dead presidents
  • buck
  • dead
  • presidents
  • president
  • bucks


Money, wealth.
Examples:
1) Bill Gates has lots of moola. 2) I should have gone to law school - lawyers make tons of moola!
Synonyms: dead presidents, buck
Etymology: The origins of this word are unknown, although it sounds like an African word and so may have originated in African-American slang.

moon
To expose one's buttocks; an offensive (although sometimes humorous) gesture where one's nude rear end is displayed.
Example:
Did you see that? That guy just mooned us!
Etymology:
A naked rear end (or at least one half of it) kind of looks like the moon.


moonshine

  • moon shine
  • moon
  • shine


Homemade whiskey, typically found in the American South.
Example:
Let me have a sip of that moonshine, Jeb. Etymology:
Making your own whiskey is against the law, so it has to be done in secret. Traditionally, nighttime is the time of secret or illegal things, and 'moonshine' is liquor that must be hidden from sight, and can be made or transported only at night, by the light of the moon.

mordant

  • morsel
  • remorse


[MOR-dunt, -d'nt]
1. Biting and caustic in thought, manner, or style; incisive; sarcastic.
2. Burning, pungent.
Examples:
1) As the guest of honor at the charity roast, Jacob good-naturedly received the mordant remarks directed at him by his friends, family, and colleagues.
2) Mr. Justice Moorcroft's forte, a part which he had played for so many years that it had become instinctive, was a courteous reasonableness occasionally enlivened with shafts of mordant wit. (P. D. James, "A Certain Justice")
3) I moved from one knot of people to another, surrounded by a kind of envious respect because of Sophie's interest in me, although subjected to a certain mordant raillery from some of this witty company. (Peter Brooks, "World Elsewhere")
4) He had a mordant wit as well . . . , a bit wicked and waspish even. (Janice A. Radway, "A Feeling for Books")
History, related words:
The etymology of "mordant" certainly has some bite to it. That word, which came to modern English from the present participle of Old French "mordre" ("to bite"), through Middle French, ultimately derives from the Latin verb "mordere," which means "to bite." In modern parlance, "mordant" usually suggests a wit used with deadly effectiveness. "Mordere" puts the bite into other English terms, too. For instance, that root gave us the tasty "morsel" ("a tiny bite"). But nibble too many of those and you'll likely be hit by another "mordere" derivative: "remorse" ("guilt for past wrongs"), which comes from Latin "remordere," meaning "to bite back or again; to torment".


more than meets the eye

  • there's more than meets the eye
  • there is more than meets the eye
  • more than
  • meets
  • eye
  • more
  • than
  • meet


1. More than it appears, more than it seems.
2. A part of the story has not been told; there are hidden facts that can't be seen or understood right away.
Examples:
1) In a government scandal, there's always more than meets the eye.
2) Sherlock Holmes realized immediately that there was more to the murder than met the eye.
History:
This British cliche from the 1800s says that often things have deeper levels of meaning and importance than you can see at first. The full truth of a situation has to be thoroughly investigated. You might have to use a microscope or research skills to uncover the real facts of something.


more than one way to skin a cat

  • there are more ways of killing a cat than choking it with cream
  • there're more ways of killing a cat than choking it with cream
  • to skin a cat
  • skin a cat
  • ways
  • killing
  • choking
  • cream
  • more than
  • one way
  • skin a cat
  • more
  • one
  • way
  • skin
  • cat


There are several different ways of reaching the same goal.
Example:
Scott tried every solution to the puzzle he could think of because he knew there was more than one way to skin a cat.
History, synonyms, antonyms, more examples:
This American idiom has been in use since the mid-1800s, when removing animals' pelts was more common than it is today. Each person who skinned a cat or animal had his or her own particular way of doing it. Over the years the saying took on broader meaning, and now it can refer to the many methods of accomplishing goals. There are several versions of this saying. Charles Kingsley used the older British form in "Westward Ho!" in 1855: "There are more ways of killing a cat than choking it with cream", meaning that there are good ways of doing something, and then there are foolish ways, one of the latter being to give a cat cream in the hope of killing it. Mark Twain used your version in "A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court" in 1889: "She was wise, subtle, and knew more than one way to skin a cat", that is, more than one way to get what she wanted. The latter version seems to have nothing to do with the American English term 'to skin a cat', which is to perform a type of gymnastic exercise.


mores
[MOR-ayz; -eez]
1. The fixed customs of a particular group that are morally binding upon all members of the group.
2. Moral attitudes.
3. Customs; habits; ways.
Examples:
1) But even before that, the increasing secularization and urbanization of society, the employment of women in large numbers and diverse occupations, the suffragette movement (culminating in the acquisition of the vote after the war), the widespread practice and, no less important, the candid discussion of contraception, the advent of automobiles providing an unprecedented degree of mobility and freedom - all of these led to a relaxation of traditional social and sexual mores. (Gertrude Himmelfarb, "One Nation, Two Cultures")
2)
Colonel William Mann, after all, proved a thorn in society's side because he claimed to understand its mores, to have found out just how his presumed betters were violating the code that should have governed them, and then rebuked them by wielding it not only more expertly than they did but more lethally. (Mark Caldwell, "A Short History of Rudeness")
3)
Usually the laws mirror the mores of the populace in this regard, though at times they run ahead, and at times they lag behind. (Daniel C. Maguire, "Death, Legal and Illegal," The Atlantic, February 1974)
4)
In much the same bold spirit, I rapidly absorbed the other gestures, turns of phrase and exclamations popular among my peers, as well as grasping the deeper mores and etiquettes prevailing in my new surroundings. (Kazuo Ishiguro, "When We Were Orphans")
5)
Artists rebelled against the stodgy mores of the bourgeoisie. (David Brooks, "The Organization Kid," The Atlantic, April 2001)
Etymology, related words:
"Mores" comes from Latin, plural of "mos" ("custom"). It is related to moral.


morganatic
[mor-guh-NAT-ik]
of, relating to, or being a marriage between a member of a royal or noble family and a person of inferior rank, in which the rank of the inferior partner remains unchanged and the children of the marriage do not succeed to the titles, fiefs, or entailed property of the partner of higher rank
Example:
England's Prime Minister rejected King Edward's offer of a morganatic marriage to Mrs. Simpson, so the king abdicated.
History:
The deprivations imposed on the lower-ranking spouse by a morganatic marriage may seem like a royal pain in the neck, and yet the word "morganatic" comes from a word for a marriage benefit. New Latin "morganatica," a term based on Middle High German's "morgen" ("morning"), means "morning gift." It refers to a gift that a new husband traditionally gave to his bride on the morning after the consummation of their marriage. So why was the New Latin phrase "matrimonium ad morganaticam," which means literally "marriage with morning gift," the term for a morganatic marriage? Because it was just that - the wife got the morning gift, but that's all she was entitled to of her husband's possessions.


morpheme

  • phoneme
  • lexeme
  • grapheme
  • toneme


[MOR-feem]
A word or part of a word that contains no smaller unit of meaning.
Example:
The word "unloader" includes the morphemes "un-," "load," and "-er."
Etymology, related words:
Morphemes are the indivisible basic units of language, much like the atoms which physicists once assumed were the indivisible units of matter. English speakers borrowed "morpheme" from French "morpheme," which was itself created from the Greek root "morphe," meaning "form." The French borrowed "-eme" from their word "phoneme," which, like English "phoneme," means "a basic unit of speech that distinguishes one utterance from another." The French suffix and its English equivalent "-eme" are used to create words that refer to distinctive units of language structure. Words formed from "-eme" include "lexeme" ("a meaningful linguistic unit in the vocabulary of a language"), "grapheme" ("a unit of a writing system"), and "toneme" ("a unit of intonation in a language in which variations in tone distinguish meaning").


mortsafe

  • burke
  • burkism
  • watch box
  • watch
  • box
  • janker


An iron frame put over a coffin to prevent the body being stolen.
Example:
Next door to it is a mortsafe - a relic of the times of Grave robbing at the end of the 18th century.
History, synonym, etymology:
Medical schools in the eighteenth century, and increasingly so in the early nineteenth century, found it difficult to teach anatomy because the supply of bodies for dissection was limited (legally, only the corpses of convicted murderers might be used, and even those were often hard to obtain because of public revulsion against the practice). So a clandestine trade grew up of grave-robbing: the anatomists paid "resurrectionists" to go out at night, especially in winter when the cold would slow putrefaction, to dig up freshly interred bodies and convey them to the schools. At the time, a dead body was not legally regarded as property, so body snatchers could not be convicted of theft. When this supply proved inadequate, some gangs - such as that of the infamous Burke and Hare - turned to murder to meet demand, leading to the verb "to burke" and to "burkism" as a name for the practice. Various methods were tried to thwart the resurrectionists, such as setting guards or traps over the grave. Another was to employ metal coffins, such as the patent coffin invented by Edward Bridgman in 1781. In Scotland the most common method in the eighteenth century - for those who could afford it - was the "watch box" or "mortsafe" (from French "mort", death). This was an iron grid or cage either placed over the coffin or set in mortar above ground to cover the whole area of the grave. Some of the latter type can still be seen in churchyards. Poor people sometimes erected communal mortsafes or placed huge coffin-shaped pieces of stone or metal on new graves (they were called "jankers"; the source of this word is unknown, but may derive from the name of the device employed to move the weights; it's probably not connected with the twentieth-century sense of a military punishment, whose origin is also unknown).


mosey along

  • mosey
  • saunter
  • along
  • mose about


To walk slowly and casually.
Examples:
1) Let's mosey along over to campus and get something to eat. 2) Are you crazy? You can't just mosey on in here 2 hours late for work! Who do you think you are?
Etymology:
This word is cowboy slang that is still used today. It is derived from an old British expression "mose about", which meant "to walk with a slouch". Synonym: saunter


mosfet

  • MOSFET
  • metal oxide semiconductor field-effect transistor
  • metal oxide
  • semiconductor
  • field-effect
  • transistor
  • metal
  • oxide


Also: MOSFET; metal oxide semiconductor field-effect transistor
(electronics) A field-effect transistor in which the gate is separated from the conducting channel by an insulation.
Example:
Details of the improved mosfet were revealed at a recent VLSI technology symposium in Japan.
Etymology:
Abbreviation of "metal oxide semiconductor field-effect transistor".


mosh
(noun)
1. a type of dance, performed to loud rock music, in which people throw themselves about in a frantic and violent manner; dance in a mosh pit; crush of moshers in a mosh pit;
2. jam; crowd; crush;
Synonyms: bumrush, bum rush
(verb)
[intransitive]
3. to dance the slam dance.
Synonyms: slam, thrash.
4. to dance in a mosh pit.
Etymology: 20th Century; of uncertain origin.
[transitive]
5. to knock against others intentionally while dancing at a rock concert.
Synonym: slam-dance.
Etymology: Perhaps, an alteration of mash.

mosh diving

  • mosh
  • diving


diving of a performer into the crowd and being caught

mosh pit

  • mosh
  • pit


1. a crowd of people, typically just in front of the stage, who catch a performer who jumps into the crowd;
2. an area at a rock-music concert, usually in front of the stage, where members of the audience dance in a frantic and violent manner.

mosque

  • mihrab
  • minaret
  • muezzin


[MAHSK]
A building used for public worship by Muslims.
Example:
On the last day of Ramadan, Fatimah and her family attended prayer services at a local mosque.
History, related words:
Mosques were known to the English-speaking world long before Englishmen called them "mosques." In the 15th, 16th, and 17th centuries, Englishmen used many different variations of the word - "moseak," "muskey," "moschy," "mos'keh," among others - until they finally hit on "mosquee," emulating Middle French. The Middle French word had come by way of Italian and Old Spanish from the Arabic word for "temple," which is "masjid." In the early 1700s, Englishmen settled on the present spelling, and "mosque" thus joined other English words related to Muslim worship: "mihrab," for the special niche in a mosque that points towards Mecca; "minaret," for the tall slender tower of a mosque; and "muezzin," for the crier who, standing in the minaret, calls the hour of daily prayers.


motley
[MAHT-lee]
1. Variegated in color; having sections or patches colored differently and usually brightly.
Example:
Lenny went to the medieval festival dressed in the bright motley garb of a court jester.
Synonyms:
calico, multicolor, multicolour, multicolored, multicoloured, painted, particolored, particoloured, piebald, pied, varicolored, varicoloured
2. Composed of diverse, often incongruous elements; consisting of a haphazard assortment of different kinds (even to the point of incongruity); mixed; of great variety.
Examples:
1) We saw motley spring flowers.
2) They have motley sizes now.
Synonyms: assorted, miscellaneous, mixed, sundry(a)
3. A multicolored fabric; esp. a multicolored woolen fabric woven of mixed threads in 14th to 17th century England.
4. A garment made from a multicolored fabric, or made of different colored patches of cloth.
Example:
Motley is his only wear.
5. The fool who often wore multicolored outfits in the European courts of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance.
6. A jester, a fool.
7. A collection containing a variety of sorts of things.
Examples:
1) Motley of cars was on display.
2)
He had motley of disorders.
3) There was motley of religions in his head. Synonyms:
assortment, mixture, mixed bag, miscellany, miscellanea, variety, salmagundi, smorgasbord, potpourri
8. To make something more diverse and varied.
9. To make motley; color with different colors Synonym: parti-color
Example:
Motley the menu. Synonyms: vary, variegate
History:
"Motley" made its debut as an English adjective in the 14th c., but etymologists aren't completely sure where it came from. Many think it probably derived from the Middle English "mot," meaning "mote" or "speck." The word is also used as a noun identifying


mountebank

  • charlatan
  • deceiver
  • impostor
  • quack


1. A peddler of quack medicine, who stands on a platform to appeal to the audience.
2. A boastful pretender to knowledge or a skill.
Examples:
1) The man whom Mr. Masson had described as his father's guru is finally regarded by the alert, knowing, newly skeptical son as "a phony, a charlatan, a mountebank, an impostor, a quack". (Robert Coles, "His First Fallen Idol", New York Times, February 7, 1993)
2)
Nevertheless, in William Avery Rockefeller one clearly detects the blarney and easy conviviality of the mountebank. (Ron Chernow, "Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller, Sr.")
3)
To his critics including some of the other topnotchers in the school of Paris, he is a talented mountebank and irrepressible showman who has lured his followers and the world up a blind artistic and intellectual alley. ("Captain Picasso's Voyages", Time, June 26, 1950)
4)
Yet to make such judgments on any question rather than trying to examine the question properly, to discover what the full answers might be, is coercive philistinism: it is to allow the mountebank to triumph over the critic, the mob orator to drown the doubts of the sceptic. (Kevin Myers, "An Irishman's Diary", Irish Times, November 12, 1999)
Etymology:
"Mountebank" comes from the Italian "montambanco", "montimbanco", combining the verb "montare" ("to mount"), the preposition "in" (converted to "im," meaning "in" or "on") and the noun "banco" ("bench"), from the phrase "monta in banco", literally "mounts on bench" (i.e. "gets up on a bench") - the "bench" being the platform on which charlatans from the 16th and 17th centuries would stand to sell their phony medicines. Mountebanks often included various forms of light entertainment on stage in order to attract customers. Later, extended uses of "mountebank" referred to someone who falsely claims to have knowledge about a particular subject or a person who simply pretends to be something he or she is not in order to gain attention.
Synonyms:
charlatan, deceiver, impostor, quack.


mouse potato

  • mouse
  • potato


A person who spends a lot of time at the computer; the on-line, wired generation's answer to the couch potato. Example:
Log onto the World Wide Web, type in the address www.superbowl.com, and you enter a football fantasyland featuring equal amounts of statistics, hype, commercialism and cutting edge Internet technology.
By combining their considerable resources, the National Football League, NBC and software powerhouse Microsoft have created a Web site that in its unabashed worship of excess rivals the Super Bowl itself.
There's a complete history of the 30- year-old event, memorable plays of the past, and everything you could possibly want to know about the Cowboys and the Steelers.
It's enough to turn a diehard football fan into a mouse potato, planted in front of a PC, beer in lap. (David Einstein, "Super Bowl's tangled Web," The San Francisco Chronicle, January 24, 1996)
History: This word appeared originally in Gareth Branwyn's "Jargon Watch column", in the January 1994 issue of "Wired" magazine. In an e-mail to the American Dialect Society, Gareth notes that the writer Alice Kahn appears to have coined mouse potato in 1993 (a refererence to her as coiner appears in a message to The Well BBS on September 11, 1993). Cf. "couch potato".


mouthbreather

  • mouth-breather
  • mouth breather
  • mouth
  • breather
  • blogger
  • bloggers
  • nose breather
  • nose
  • sleep apnea
  • sleep
  • apnea


mouthbreather = mouth-breather, mouth breather (noun; mainly American English, offensive): a stupid person
mouthbreathing (adjective; mainly American English, offensive): stupid
Examples:
1) These mouthbreathers cannot offer any new ideas, so instead of trying to compete with conservatives, they're busy with the electronic equivalent of sticking their fingers into their ears and shouting, "LA-LA-LA-LA, NO ONE CAN HEAR YOU!!" as loudly as possible. ("The Jawa Report", 23rd January 2006) 2) Please listen closely, as we believe you are a mouthbreathing idiot who would be lucky to remember how to find your way back to the house from the mailbox if you didn't leave yourself a trail of breadcrumbs. ("Mister Green", 29th April 2006) History, related words:
From "berk" to "blockhead", "dimwit" to "dork" and "plonker" to "prat", over the centuries the English language has never been short of ways of referring to a stupid person. In fact, theres practically one word with this definition for every letter of the alphabet, and if you dont believe it, consider: "ass, birdbrain, chump, dipstick, fool, goon, half-wit, imbecile, jerk, knucklehead, lemon, moron, nincompoop, oaf, plonker, schmuck, twit" and "wally", to name but a few. Potentially joining the ranks at the letter m is "mouthbreather", a term which is rapidly gaining currency in the popular media, as the citations above illustrate. "Mouthbreather", yet another pejorative term for describing a stupid person, also occurs as both an open and hyphenated compound. There is also some evidence for it having morphed into an adjective "mouthbreathing". Essentially a metaphoric expression, it is based on the idea that someone who breathes though their mouth often has their jaw hanging open, which has a tendency to make them look rather vacant or stupid. Like many new words, its popular use has been propagated on the web, particularly by "bloggers" (writers of weblogs), as the two citations above demonstrate. The original definition of the word "mouthbreather", is simply someone who habitually breathes though their mouth, rather than through their nose. In medical contexts the term contrasts with "nose breather", a person who breathes only through their nose, rather than through their mouth (babies and infants are nose breathers). Mouthbreathers are people that are forced to breathe through their mouth due to medical problems associated with the sinuses or nose. They can suffer from chronic snoring and sleep apnea (a condition whereby someone can essentially suffocate during the night due to a snoring/breathing lapse).
The use of the word as an insult, based on the idea of the dopey expression of someone with their jaw hanging open and possibly the nasal sound of their voice, actually dates as far back as the 1940s, but has recently emerged from obscurity through use on the web, especially in the US, where it has also been used on television and by the popular press.

moxie
[MAHK-see]
1. Energy, pep.
2. Courage, determination.
Example:
It took a lot of moxie for Brandon to go back to school to follow his dream of becoming a lawyer.
3. Know-how, expertise.
History, more examples:
"Hot roasted peanuts! Fresh popcorn! Ice-cold Moxie!" You might have heard such a vendor's cry at a baseball game - if you attended one in 1924. That was the heyday of the soft drink called "Moxie," which some claim outsold Coca-Cola at the height of its popularity. The beverage was a favorite of American writer E.B. White, who wrote, "Moxie contains gentian root, which is the path to the good life. This was known in the second century before Christ and is a boon to me today." By 1930, "moxie" had become a slang term for nerve and verve, perhaps because some people thought the drink was a tonic that could cure virtually any ill and bring vim back to even the most lethargic individual.


mufti
[MUFF-tee]
Ordinary dress as distinguished from that denoting an occupation or station; especially: civilian clothes when worn by a person in the armed forces.
Example:
Maureen's family is thankful to have her at home, dressed comfortably in mufti, after a six-month tour of duty overseas.
Etymology:
In the Islamic tradition, a mufti is a professional jurist who interprets Muslim law. When religious muftis were portrayed on the English stage in the early 19th century, they typically wore costumes that included a dressing gown and a tasseled smoking cap, an outfit that some felt resembled the clothing preferred by the off-duty military officers of the day. The clothing sense of "mufti," which first appeared in English around that same time, is thought to have developed out of this association of stage costume and civilian clothing.


mug

  • mug-hunter
  • hunter


1. The face.
Examples:
1) He's got a mug that only a mother could love. 2) Have you ever seen such an adorable mug?
Etymology:
In the old days, beer glasses would sometimes have human faces on them, and 'mug' can refer to a face or a drinking cup. A related term is 'mug shot', which is a photo of the face made when one is arrested by the police. 2. To rob.
Example: The city is so safe these days - you don't hear about anybody getting mugged.
Etymology: From a 19th century British term, 'mug-hunter' which refers to a thief who seeks out victims with innocent looking faces.


mugwump

  • mug-wump


Also: mug-wump
[MUG-wump]
1. A bolter from the Republican party in 1884.
2. A person who is independent in politics or who remains undecided or neutral.
Example:
Campaigning heated up in the swing states as the election approached, both sides making a last bid for the mugwump vote.
History:
An 18th-century Massachusett Indian might not recognize his people's word for "war leader" if he saw it used today. In early America, "mugwump," our version of the Native American "mugquomp," was sometimes jestingly applied to someone who was the "head guy." The first political mugwumps were Republicans in the presidential race of 1884 who chose to support Democratic candidate Grover Cleveland rather than their own party's nominee. Their independence prompted one 1930s humorist to define a mugwump as "a bird who sits with its mug on one side of the fence and its wump on the other, ready to fly any way the wind blows".


mulct
[MULKT]
1. A fine or penalty.
2. To punish for an offense or misdemeanor by imposing a fine or demanding a forfeiture.
3. To obtain by fraud or deception.
4. To defraud; to swindle.
Examples:
1) Officials repaid such loans by mulcting the public in a variety of legal and extra-legal ways. (William H. McNeill, "A World History")
2) The fact that major corporations don't have to pay their own way, and instead are able to enlist legislators to mulct common citizens - and businesses with more modest Washington connections -- deforms the entire political system. (Doug Bandow, "The Bipartisan Scandal of U.S. Corporate Welfare")
3)
State lawmakers and state courts... [have] ditched old common law rules so as to charge deep-pocket defendants with harms that were once considered other people's fault, thus making it thinkable to mulct automakers for the costs of drunk drivers' crashes (Walter Olson, "Firing Squad," Reason, May 1999)
Etymology:
"Mulct" comes from Latin "multa" ("a fine").


mule

  • hinny


1. An animal that is half horse and half donkey; the offspring of a male donkey and a mare (for which the counterpart is the hinny - crossbreed between a male horse and a female donkey).
2. Someone who transports illegal drugs.
Example:
Despite the efforts of the Border Patrol, plenty of mules manage to make it into the U.S.
Etymology:
To be a 'mule' is to be known for being stubborn, and for carrying heavy loads.
3. A stubborn person.
Example:
I wish you would stop being such a mule and come over here and help us.


multifarious
[muhl-tuh-FAIR-ee-uhs] Having great diversity or variety; of various kinds; diversified.
Examples:
1) She is good at constructing a long, multifarious narrative, weaving many minor stories into one, so that you are left with a sense of the fluidity and ambiguity of historical interpretation. (Jason Cowley, "It's bright clever... but the result is academic", The Observer, May 27, 2001)
2) Men's opinions, accordingly, on what is laudable or blamable, are affected by all the multifarious causes which influence their wishes in regard to the conduct of others, and which are as numerous as those which determine their wishes on any other subject. (John Stuart Mill, "On Liberty")
3) But as he reached the verge of the lawn and vaulted the retaining wall there, cro