mark 
vulgar do to this day keep up, by signing a cross for their 
mark when unable to write their names. 
Blackstone, Com., II. xx. 
She had grown up with a twin brother, studying from 
the same books and in the same classes, and getting the 
same marks, or higher ones. 
Nineteenth Century, XXIV. 918. 
3. A distinguishing physical peculiarity; a 
spot, mote, nvus, special formation, or other 
singularity; a natural sign: as, a birth-morfc; 
the marks on sea-shells or wild animals. In far- 
riery the mark is a deep median depression on the cut- 
ting surface of the incisor tooth of a horse, due to the in- 
flection of a vertical fold of the tooth. It is seen of differ- 
ent characters according to the wear of the tooth, being 
thus to some extent an index of a horse's age. It disap- 
pears after the tooth is worn down beyond the extent of 
the fold. The dark color is due simply to the accumulation 
in the fold of food or dirt. See the quotation under mark- 
tooth. 
He that by good use and experience hath in his eye the 
right tnark and very true lustre of the diamond rejecteth 
and will not look upon the counterfeit, be it ever so well 
handled, ever so craftily polished ! 
Sir T. More, Utopia (tr. by Eobinson), Int., p. xc. 
For marks descried in men's nativity 
Are nature's faults, not their own infamy. 
Shak., Lucrece, L 538. 
4. A significant note, character, sign, token, or 
indication; a determinative attestation. Inlogic, 
to say that a thing has a certain mark is to say that some- 
thing in particular is true of it. Thus, according to a cer- 
tain school of metaphysicians, " incognizability is a mark 
of the Infinite." 
I do spy some marks of love in her. 
Shak., Much Ado, ii. 3. 254. 
Pride and covetousnesse are the sure market of those 
false Prophets which are to come. 
Milton, Apology for Smectymiiuus. 
I saw his Ma'tie (com'ing from his Northern Expedi- 
tion) ride in pomp, and a kind of ovation, with all the 
markes of an happy peace. Evelyn, Diary, Oct. 30, 1640. 
A mark is that in a thing which constitutes a part of the 
cognition of it ; or, what cornea to the same thing, a par- 
tial representation, so far as it is considered as a ground 
of cognition of the whole representation. All our con- 
cepts are therefore marks, and all thinking is nothing but 
representing by marks. Kant, Logic (trans.), Int., viii. 
5. A guiding or indicative sign or token, (a) 
That which serves as an indication of place or direction ; 
an object that marks or points out: as, a book-mar*; 
boundary-marts; to guide a vessel by land-marts on the 
shore. 
The steamer swung into her (to me) utterly invisible 
marks. S. L. Clemens, Life on the Mississippi, p. 97. 
(6) A badge, banner, or other distinguishing device. 
The banners (or marks) of the ancient Danes were in 
times of peace light-colored, but in war times of a blood 
color, with a black raven on a red ground. 
Preble, Hist, of the Flag, p. 23. 
6. An object aimed at ; a point of assault or at- 
tack ; especially, something set up or marked 
out to be shot at : often used figuratively : as, 
to hit or miss the mark; a mark for detraction. 
By fifty pase, our kynge sayd, 
The merkts were to longe. 
liytell Qeste of Robyn Hode (Child's Ballads, V. 113). 
I will shoot three arrows at the side thereof, as though 
I shot at a mark. 1 Sam. xx. 20. 
For slander's mark was ever yet the fair. 
Shak., Sonnets, Ixx. 
Death loves a shining mark, a signal blow. 
Young, Night Thoughts, v. 1011. 
7. An object of endeavor; a point or purpose 
striven for ; that which one aims to reach or 
attain. 
I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling 
of God in Christ Jesus. Phil. Hi. 14. 
Make therefore to yourself some mark, and go towards 
it allegrement. Donne, Letters, xx. 
Define it well; 
For fear divine Philosophy 
Should push beyond her mark, 
Tennyson, In Memoriam, liii. 
8. An attainable point or limit ; capacity for 
reaching; reach; range. [Rare.] 
You are abused 
Beyond the mark of thought. 
Shak., A. and C., iii. 6. 87. 
9. An object of note or observation ; hence, a 
pattern or example. [Rare.] 
He was the mark and glass, copy and book, 
That fashion'd others. Shak., 2 Hen. IV., ii. 3. 31. 
10. Eight to notice or observation ; claim or 
title to distinction ; importance ; eminence : as, 
a man of mark. 
And left me in reputeless banishment, 
A fellow of no mark nor likelihood. 
Shak., 1 Hen. IV., iii. 2. 45. 
Soldiers of royal mart scorn such base purchase. 
Fletcher (and another), False One, Iv. 2. 
For performance of great mark it needs extraordinary 
health. Emerson, Conduct of Life. 
11. A marking or noting; note; attention: 
observance. [Rare.] 
3632 
Bot first, of shippe-craft can I right noght, 
Of ther makyng haue I no merke. York Plays, p. 42. 
He hath devoted . . . himself to the contemplation, 
mark, and denotement of her parts and graces. 
Shak., Othello, ii. 3. 322. 
12. A license of reprisals. See marque. 13. 
A boundary ; a bound or limit noted or estab- 
lished; hence, a set standard, or a limit to be 
reached: as, to speak within the mark; to be up 
to the mark. 
In that Contree of Libye is the See more highe than the 
Lond ; and it semethe that it wolde covere the Erthe, and 
natheles zit it passethe not his Markes. 
Mandevitte, Travels, p. 144. 
Choose discreetly, 
And Virtue guide you ! There all the world, in one man, 
Stands at the mark. Fletcher, Mad Lover, v. 4. 
It's only a question between the larger sum and the 
smaller. I shall be within the mark any way. 
Dickens, Bleak House, xxxvii. 
The ancient capital of Burgundy is wanting in charac- 
ter ; it is not up to the mark. 
H. James, Jr., Little Tour, p. 253. 
14. In the middle ages, in England and Ger- 
many, a tract of laud belonging in common to a 
community of freemen, who divided the culti- 
vated portion or arable mark among their indi- 
vidual members, used the common or ordinary 
mark together for pasturage or other general 
purposes, and dwelt in the village mark or cen- 
tral portion, or apart on their holdings. It was 
a customary tenure, like that of the existing 
Russian mir, and was similarly managed and 
governed. 
The Mark System, as it was called, according to which 
the body of kindred freemen, scattered over a considerable 
area and cultivating their lands in common, use a domestic 
constitution based entirely or primarily on the community 
of tenure and cultivation. Stubbs, Const. Hist., 19. 
15f. Image; likeness. 
Which mankynde is so fair part of thy werk 
That thou it madest lyk to thyn owene merk. 
Chaucer, Franklin's Tale, 1. 152. 
Hence 1 6f. The mass of beings having a com- 
mon likeness; posterity. 
If wommen hadde writen stories, 
As clerkes han withinne hire oratories, 
They wolde han writen of men moore wikkednesse 
Than al the mark of Adam may redresse. 
Chaucer, Prol. to Wife of Bath's Tale, 1. 696. 
Accidental synthetical mark, a mark not predicated of 
the subject in the definition of it. Adequate mark. 
Same as adequate definition (which see, under definition). 
Analytical mark. Same as essential mart. Arable 
mark. See def. 14. Beside the mark. See betide. 
Bird mark, a well-known mark of certain pieces of pot- 
tery, indicating Liverpool wares, and supposed to be the 
crest belonging to the arms of the city of Liverpool. Ca- 
dence-mark, in music, a vertical stroke in a text arranged 
for chanting, to indicate how the words are to be fitted to 
the measures of the cadences. Common mark. See 
def. 14. Constitutive mark, in logic. See constitutive. 
Coordinate marks, in logic, independent predicates 
of the same subject. Demerit mark. See demerit?. 
Diacritical mark. See diacritical. Essential mark, 
in logic, one of the characters predicated in the definition 
of anything. Also called analytical mart. Fruitful 
mark, in logic. See fruitful. Qo& bless or God save 
the mark ! Save the mark ! etc., ejaculatory or paren- 
thetical phrases expressive of irony, scorn, deprecation, 
surprise, or a humorous sense of the extraordinary. "In 
archery, when an archer shot well it was customary to cry 
out ' God save the mark .' ' that is, prevent any one coming 
after to hit the same mark and displace my arrow. Ironi- 
cally it is said to a novice whose arrow is nowhere." 
Brewer, Diet. Phrase and Fable, p. 790. 
For he made me mad 
To see him shine BO brisk and smell so sweet, 
And talk so like a waiting-gentlewoman 
Of guns and drums and wounds Ood save the mark ! 
Shak., 1 Hen. IV., i. 3. 56. 
To be ruled by my conscience, I should stay with the 
Jew my master, who, God bless the mark, is a kind of devil. 
SAat., M. of V.,ii. 2. 25. 
My father had no more nose, my dear, saving the mark I 
than there is upon the back of my hand. Sterne. 
" Deny myself " meant simply pleasure you. 
The sacred and superior, save the mark .' 
Browning, Ring and Book, II. 278. 
God's markt. See Godl. Hall mark. See hall-mark. 
Harmonic mark. See harmonic. High- water mark. 
See wafer. Leading marks. See leadinyi. Lenticu- 
lar mark. Seelenticular. Low- water mark. See wa- 
ter. Mark moot, formerly, in England, a village assem- 
bly which had such direction of the affairs of the mark or 
village community as devolved in later times on the mano- 
rial court and the vestry. See def. 14. Mark of expres- 
sion. Same as expression-mark. Mark Of mouth, in 
farriery. See def. 3. Mark Of Venus, in palmistry, the 
thoral line of the hand. Marks of cadency, in her. See 
cadency. Mark system. See def. 14. Merchant's 
mark. See merchant. Metronomic mark, a mark at 
the beginning of a piece of music, like "M. M. J = 120," 
M. M. meaning Maelzel's Metronome, and J = 120 mean- 
ing that the sliding weight is to be set at 120, and that 
then the time of a single oscillation is that intended for 
each J of the piece, or, in other words, that each J is to 
occupy yin of a minute. Any note may be chosen as the 
unit of reference. Necessary mark, a mark which not 
only happens to be a mark of the subject, but would be so 
in every possible state of things. Ordinary mark. See 
def. 14. PlimsolTs mark, a mark required by statute 
mark 
to be placed on the outside of the hull of a British vessel, 
showing the depth to which the vessel may be loaded : so 
called from Samuel Plimsoll, a member of Parliament, at 
whose instance the law was made. Also called load-line. 
Remote mediate mark, in logic, a mark of a mark ; 
a predicate of a predicate. Repeat-mark. See repeat. 
Staccato mark. See staccato. Synthetical mark. 
Same as accidental mark. To come up to the mark. 
See come. To cut the mark. See cut. To keep one's 
mark, in falconry, to wait, as a hawk, at the place where 
it lays game, until it is retrieved. Halliwell.lo make 
one's mark, (a) To affix a cross (either Latin or St. An- 
drew's), in place of signing one's name : done by illiterate 
persons, (o) To make one's influence felt ; gain a position 
of influence and distinction. To toe the mark, to stand 
with the toes touching a line drawn or indicated for some 
purpose, as a person about to make a jump, or a child or 
a row of children in school ; hence, colloquially, to stand 
up to one's obligation or duty; face the consequences of 
one's action or situation ; take a bold stand. 
He had too much respect for his wife's judgment and 
discretion to refuse to toe the mark, even when it was an 
imaginary one. The Century, XXXVIII. 79. 
Trademark. See trade-mart. =Syn. 1. Impress, impres- 
sion (on wax, etc.), print (of the hand, etc.), trace, track, in- 
dication, symptom. 2. Badge. 4. Characteristic, proof. 
mark 1 (mark), v. [< ME. marken, merken, < 
AS. mearcian = OS. markon = OFries. merkia 
= I), merken = MLG. merken, marken, LG. 
marken = OHG. marchon, merchan, merkan, 
MHO. G. merken = Icel. marka = Sw. marka = 
Dan. m<erke (cf. P. marquer, OF. merker, mer- 
cneer = Pr. Sp. Pg. marcar = It. marcare, mar- 
chiare, < ML. marcare), mark; from the noun. 
Cf. remark, demarcation.'] I. trans. 1. To make 
a mark or marks on; apply or attach a mark 
to; affect with a mark or marks by drawing, 
impressing, stamping, cutting, imposing, or the 
like. 
My body 's mark'd 
With Roman swords. SAat., Cymbeline, iii. 3. 56. 
2. To apply or fix by drawing, impressing, 
stamping, or the like ; form by making a mark 
or marks: as, to mark a line or square on a 
board; to mark a name or direction on a pack- 
age. 
The line of demarcation between good and bad men is 
so faintly marked as often to elude the most careful in- 
vestigation. Macaulay, Mitford's Hist, of Greece. 
3. To serve as a mark or characteristic of ; 
distinguish or point out, literally or figurative- 
ly; stamp or characterize. 
For leagues no other tree did mark 
The level waste, the rounding gray. 
Tennyson, Mariana. 
An advance in metallurgy was marked by the use of a 
silver coinage. C. Elton, Origins of Eng. Hist., p. 305. 
4. To notice; observe particularly; take note 
of; regard; heed. 
And marke what shall be read to thee, 
Or given thee to learne. 
Babees BookfE. E. T. S.), p. 291. 
Let them cast back their eyes unto former generations 
of men, and mark what was done in the prime of the world. 
Hooker, Eccles. Polity, ii. 4. 
Mark them which cause divisions and offences. 
Eom. xvi. 17. 
Mark, madam, we live amongst riddles and mysteries. 
Sterne, Tristram Shandy, iv. 17. 
5. To single out; designate; point out. 
At the knight Carion cast he that one, 
As he mellit with his maistur, merkit hym euyn, 
Hit hym so hitturly with a hard dynt> 
That he gird to the ground, <fc the gost yalde. 
Destruction of Troy (E. E. T. S.), 1. 6497. 
If we are inark'd to die, we are enow 
To do our country loss. Shak., Hen. V., iv. 3. 20. 
I am inark'd for slaughter, 
And know the telling of this truth has made me 
A man clean lost to this world. 
Fletcher, Valentinian, i. 3. 
6f. To wound; strike. 
He merkit hym in mydward the mydell in two, 
That he felle to the flat erthe, flote he no lengur. 
Destruction of Troy (E. E. T. S.), 1. 7325. 
To mark down, (a) To set down in writing or by marks; 
make a note or memorandum of : as, to mark down a sale 
on credit ; to mark down the number of yards. {&) To 
mark at a lower rate ; reduce the price-marks on : as, to 
mark down prices ; to mark down a line or stock of goods. 
To mark out. (a) To lay out or plan by marking ; 
mark the figure or fix the outlines of: as, to mart out a 
building or a plot of land ; to mark out a campaign. (6) 
To notify, as by a mark ; point out ; designate : as, the 
ringleaders were marked out for punishment. 
I wonder he should mart me out so ! 
B. Jonson, Sejanus, i. 2. 
To mark time, (a) MW,, to move the feet alternately 
in the same manner, and at the same rate, as in march- 
ing, but without changing ground. (&) To indicate the 
rhythm for music ; beat time. To mark up, the oppo- 
site of to mark dmrn (b). =Syn. 1. To brand. 3. To show, 
evince, indicate, betoken, denote. 4. To note, remark. 
II. hi trait*. 1. To act as marker or score- 
keeper; keep a score; set down or record re- 
sults at successive stages. 
You marking, as well as T, we may put both our marks 
together, when they are gone, and confer of them. 
B. Jonson, Poetaster, ii. 1. 
