measuring-faucet 
tions of a faucet, designed to measure the 
amount of a liquid passing through it. Such 
faucets are used in delivering liquids in bulk, in putting 
them up in cans, etc. 
measuring-funnel (mezh'ur-ing-fun"el), n. A 
funnel with a valve to close the nozle, fitted 
with a graduated scale indicating the quantity 
of liquid contained in it. 
measuring-glass (mezh'ur-ing-glas), n. A grad- 
uated glass vessel used by chemists, pharma- 
cists, and others for measuring fluids. 
measuring-line (mezh'ur-ing-Hn), n. A line 
used for measuring lengths. 
measuring-machine (mezh'ur-ing-ma-shen"), 
n. A device for the exact determination of 
length or end-measurement. Such instruments usu- 
ally consist of a metallic bed-piece with a head-stock at 
each end, of sliding bars which in shape are true rectan- 
gular parallelepipeds, and of a combination of two or more 
accurate micrometer-screws, attached to the head-stocks, 
and driven by graduated wheels so as to advance or re- 
tract the bars, which slide in a groove between the head- 
stocks. 
measuring-pump (mezh'ur-ing-pump), n. A 
pump used for measuring liquids. Each stroke 
delivers the same volume, and the strokes are counted, or 
the pump-rod is connected with registering mechanism 
adjusted to indicate the number of strokes or the total 
volume discharged. 
measuring-tape (mezh'ur-ing-tap), n. A tape- 
measure or tape-line. 
measuring-wheel (mezh'ur-ing-hwel), re. A 
small wheel of known circumference, fitted by 
its axis to a handle, used to measure the cir- 
cumference of round bodies, as that of a car- 
riage-wheel when the tire is to be fitted; a cir- 
cumferentor or tire-measurer. 
measuring-worm (mezh'ur-ing-werm), n. The 
larva of any geometrid moth ; a looper : so called 
from its mode of progression: same as geom- 
eter, 3. See cut under Cidaria. 
meat 1 (met), n. [< ME. mete, < AS. mete = OS. 
meti, mat = OFries. mete, meit, met = MD. mete, 
D. met = MLG. met, LG. met, mett = OHG. MHG. 
mas, G. mass, in comp. massleid, aversion to 
food, = Icel. matr, also mata = Sw. mat = Dan. 
mad = Goth, mats, food; root uncertain; per- 
haps orig. ' a portion dealt out,' < AS. metan 
(pret. mat), etc., measure: see mete 1 . Other- 
wise, perhaps cognate with L. mandere, chew: 
see manducate, mange 1 .'] 1. Food in general; 
nourishment of any kind. [Obsolete, archaic, 
or local.] 
The Camaylle fynt alle wey Mete in Trees and on Busshes, 
that he fedethe him with. Mandeville, Travels, p. 58. 
Blysf ul was the fyrst age of men : they heldyn hem apayed 
with the metes that the trewe feeldes browhten forth. 
Chaucer, Boethius, ii. meter 5. 
And the same John had his raiment of camel's hair, . . . 
and his meat was locusts and wild honey. Mat. iii. 4. 
The ants are a people not strong, yet they prepare their 
meat in the summer. Prov. xxx. 25. 
2. Solid food of any kind: as, meat and drink. 
With abstynence of drynk and litel mete 
After this feste as fede hem daies three. 
Pattadiui, Husbondrie (E. E. T. S.), p. 153. 
I have fed you with milk, and not with meat, for hitherto 
ye were not able to bear it. 1 Cor. iii. 2. 
Shall I not take care of all that I think, 
Yea, ev'n of wretched meat and drink ? 
Tennyson, Maud, xv. 
3. The flesh of warm-blooded animals ordinari- 
ly killed for food; butcher-meat; flesh-meat: 
as, to abstain from meat but eat fish on Friday : 
in a narrower sense, the flesh of mammals used 
for food: as, to prefer meat to fowl or fish ; bear- 
meat; deer-meat. 
I smell the smell of roasting meat, 
I hear the hissing fry. 0. W. Holmes. 
4. The edible part of something: as, the meat 
of an egg, of a nut, or of a shell-fish: some- 
times with a plural : as, the meats of nuts or of 
oysters. 
After I have cut the egg i' the middle, and eat up the 
meat. Shak., Lear, i. 4. 174. 
5. The taking of food or a meal; the act of 
eating meat, in the original sense of the word : 
as, grace before meat. 
Till it come to the mete tyme that the kynge made the 
Duke of Tintagel to be set before hym-self. 
Merlin (E. E. T. S.), i. 64. 
He 's within at meat, sir : 
The knave is hungry. 
Fletcher, Pilgrim, ii. 2. 
The ingenious English tourists who visit the United States 
from time to time find us silent over our meat. 
Howells, Venetian Life, vi. 
6f. Dinner. 
After the sondry sesouns of the yeer 
So chaungede he his mete and his soper. 
Chaucer, Gen. Prol. to C. T., 1. S48. 
3678 
The kynge Arthur hym asked whan that was don, and 
he seide, "Seth yesterday after mete." 
Merlin (E. E. T. S.X Hi. 623. 
7. An animal or animals collectively, as used 
or hunted for food: as, to kill meat for an ex- 
ploring party. [Local.] A meal's meat See 
meaiz. Broken meat. See broken. Butchers' meat. 
See butcher-meat. Dark meat, that part of the flesh of 
some fowls which when cooked is not white or light, 
particularly the thighs and legs of turkeys. Light meat, 
the flesh of the breast and wings of various fowls which 
when cooked is of a whitish color. Fowls which have 
light meat are the varieties of the domestic hen, the tur- 
key, various grouse, as the ruffed, many partridges, as 
the bobwhite, etc. It is perhaps confined to the gallina- 
ceous order of birds. Also called white meat. 'Red meat, 
meat which is ordinarily served underdone, or preferred 
to be eaten rare, as beef, mutton, venison, canvasback, 
etc. To be meat for one's master, to be too good for 
one. 
Away, you mouldy rogue, away ! I am meat for your 
master. Shak., 2 Hen. IV., U. 4. 135. 
To hang up meat. See hang. White meat, (a) Same 
as light meat, (b) Meat which must be well cooked, leav- 
ing no trace of bloodiness, as veal. 
meat 1 (met), v. t. [Cf. Goth, matjan, eat, de- 
vour; from the noun: see meat 1 , .] To supply 
with food ; feed. [Old Eng. and Scotch.] 
Strong oxen and horses, wel shod and wel clad, 
Wel mealed, and used. 
Tusser, September's Husbandry. 
Haste then, and meate your men, though I must still say 
My command would lead them fasting forth. 
Chapman, Iliad, xix. 196. 
meat 2 t, v. An obsolete spelling of meet*. 
meatal (me-a'tal), a. [< meatus + -al.~] Of or 
pertaining to a meatus ; having the character 
of a meatus. 
In the hare the meatal part of the tympanic is long, and 
ascends obliquely backward from the frame of the drum- 
membrane. Owen, Anat. 
meat-chopper (met'chop^er), w. Any device 
for chopping or mincing meats, 
meat-earth (met'erth), . Soil. [Prov. Eng.] 
The upper part of this [overburden] consists of soil, or 
meat earth. Spans' Encyc. Manuf., I. 638. 
meated (me'ted), a. Having meat or a fleshy 
part (of a specified kind) : used in composition : 
as, a sweet-meated nut; light-meated or dark- 
meated fowls. 
meat-fly (met'fli), n. A flesh-fly or blow-fly ; a 
dipterous insect which lays its eggs on meat, 
on which the larva? feed: applied to various 
species, especially Calliphora vomitoria and 
Sarcophaga carnaria. See cut under flesh-fly. 
meat-formt, [ME. mete-forme; < meat* + 
form.] A form or long seat on which to sit at 
table. 
And whenne his swerde brokene was, 
A mete-forme he gatt percas, 
And there-with he ganne hym were. 
MS. Lincoln A. i. 17, f. 105. (Halliwell.) 
meatht (meth), n. Same as mead*. 
meat-hunter (met'hun"ter), . Same as pot- 
hunter, 1. 
The meat-hunters are still devoting their attention to 
the killing of larger game ; but, as it decreases, the deer's 
turn will surely come. Harper's Mag., LXXVIII. 878. 
meatiness (me'ti-nes), . The state or quality 
of being meaty, in any sense; fleshiness; pithi- 
ness : as, the meatiness of an ox, or of a dis- 
course. 
meatless (met'les), a. [ME. nteteles, < AS. mete- 
leas (= Icel. matlauss), without food, < mete, 
food, H- -leas, E. -less : see meat* and -less.~] Des- 
titute of meat ; without food. 
Thre dawes and thre nygt meteles hii wuste hem so, 
That hii m-.ste hou on take, ne wat vor hunger do. 
Rob. of Gloucester, p. 170. 
Growling over his unenvied virtue as a cur growls over 
a meatless bone. O. H. Lewes, Hist Philos., 1. 194. 
meat-maggot (met'ma"got), . The larva of 
the flesh-fly, Calliphora vomitoria, found in 
meat. 
meat-offering (met'of''er-ing), n. A Jewish 
sacrificial offering, constituting a part of the 
daily service of the altar or of special services, 
consisting of fine flour either raw or baked 
without leaven but with salt, or of dried or 
parched and pounded corn of the first-fruits, 
etc., with fine oil and frankincense. See Lev. 
ii. and vi. 14-23, etc. In the revised version 
rendered meal-offering. 
meatometer (me-a-tom'e-ter), n. [< L. meatus 
(see meatus) 4- Gr. /terpov, a measure.] An in- 
strument for measuring the meatus urinarius. 
meat-pie (met'pi), n. 1. A pie made of meat 
or flesh. 2. A mince-pie. [Local, New Eng.] 
meatrife (met'rif), a. [< meat* + rife.] Abound- 
ing with food; plentifully supplied with food. 
[Scotch.] 
mechanic 
The mill it is a meatrtf place. 
Robin, Hood and the Beggar (Child's Ballads, V. 202). 
meat-safe (met'saf), n. A cupboard or chest 
in which to keep meat, made with walls of wire 
gauze or perforated zinc. 
meat-saw (met'sa), n. A saw used by butch- 
ers, having a thin, narrow blade fastened in 
an iron frame or bow, which gives it rigidity. 
meat-tea (met'te), n. A tea at which flesh-meat 
is furnished ; a high tea (which see, under high). 
[Vulgar.] 
A good hearty meat-tea being the usual premier pas in 
amatory matters. 6. A. Sala, Baddington Peerage, 1. 120. 
meatus (me-a'tus), . ; pi. meatus, sometimes, 
as English, meatuses. K L. meatus, a passage, 
< meare, go. Cf. conge*, permeate.] In anat., 
a passage: applied to various ducts of the 
body. Inferior meatus (of the nose), the passage in 
the nose between the inferior turbinate bone and the 
floor of the nasal cavity. Also called meatus ventral!*. 
Meatus acustiCUS. See meatus auditorium. Meatus 
auditorius externus, the external opening of the ear, 
closed at the bottom by the membrana tympani. Also 
called meatus acunticus externus. Meatus auditorius 
iuternus, the passage in the petrous bone by which 
the auditory and facial nerves leave the cranial cavity. 
Also called meatus acusticus internus. Meatus cys- 
ticus, the gall-duct. Meatus urinarius, the exter- 
nal orifice of the urethra. Meatus venosus, the short 
trunk formed by the union of the right and left vitelline 
or omphalomesenteric veins in the fetus. Meatus ven- 
tralis, the inferior nasal meatus. Middle meatus (of 
the nose), the passage in the nose between the inferior tur- 
binate part of the ethmoid bone and the inferior turbinate 
bone. Nasal meatus (pi.), the nasal passages between 
and below the turbinated parts of the ethmoid and the in- 
ferior turbinate bones. Superior meatus (of the nose), 
the passage in the nose between the turbinate parts (su- 
perior and inferior) of the ethmoid bone. 
meaty (me'ti), a. [< meat 1 + -y 1 .] 1. Abound- 
ing in meat; fleshy: as, meaty cattle. 2. Re- 
sembling meat, or characteristic of it: as, a 
meaty flavor. 3. Figuratively, pithy; full of 
meaning or significance ; condensed, as a trea- 
tise giving much information in small compass. 
I think any discussion of it [practice and theory in es- 
thetics] would be likely to be rather more meaty than the 
inane speculations about the nature of the Beautiful and 
Sublime which fill so many pages of text-books on aesthet- 
ics. 0. S. Hall, German Culture, p. 105. 
meawt. An obsolete spelling of mew 1 , mew 1 *. 
meazel, n. See measle. 
meazlet, v. i. See mistle, mizzle*. 
mebbe (meb'e), adv. A dialectal form of may- 
Tie. 
meblet, a. and n. See moble*. 
mecate (me-ka'te), n. [Mex.] 1. A Mexican 
square measure, equal to about one tenth of 
an acre. 2. A rope made of hair or of the 
fiber of the maguey. [Southwestern U. S.] 
Mecca balsam. Same as balm of Gilead. 
Meccan (mek'an), a. and n. [< Mecca (see 
def.) + -an.'] 1. a. Pertaining or relating to 
Mecca, a city of Arabia, the birthplace of Mo- 
hammed, and the chief holy city and pilgrim 
resort of the Mohammedan world. 
Only about one third of the Meccan pilgrims proceed 
thither [to the tomb of Mohammed at Medina]. 
Encyc. Brit., XIX. 93. 
II. n. A native or an inhabitant of Mecca. 
mech. An abbreviation of mechanics and me- 
chanical. 
mechalt (me'kal), a. [Early mod. E. mechall, 
michall; < L. "maichus, < Gr. /'o^of, an adul- 
terer.] Wicked; adulterous. 
That done, straight murder 
One of thy basest Groomes, and lay you both 
Grasp'd arme in arme on thy adulterate bed, 
Then call in witness of that mechall sinne. 
T. Heyirood, Rape of Lucrece. 
mecha-meck (mech'a-mek), n. The wild po- 
tato-vine. See Ipomcea. 
mechanic (me-kan'ik), a. and . [< ME. ie- 
chanike, mechanic art; < OF. mecanique, F. me- 
canique = Pr. mechanic = Sp. mecditico = Pg. 
mechanico = It. meccanico (cf. D. G. meclianisch 
= Sw. Dan. mekanisk), < L. meehatiictis, of or be- 
longing to machines or mechanics, inventive ; 
as a noun, mechanicus, m., a mechanic, mecltani- 
ca, f., mechanics; < Gr. faj^aviKo^, pertaining to 
machines or contrivance, mechanic, ingenious, 
inventive; as a noun, utixavutAg, an engineer, 
[ir/xaviKr!,t. sing., [iqxaviKa, neut. pi., mechanics; 
([aixavi] (>L. machina), a machine, contrivance : 
see machine. Mechanic is thus ult. the adj. to 
machine; but the words came into E. at differ- 
ent times and under different circumstances.] 
I. a. 1. S&me &s mechanical : now used chiefly 
in the phrase the mechanic arts. 
Thrust some mechanic cause into his [God's] place, 
Or bind in matter, or diffuse in space. 
Pope, Dunciad, iv. 471. 
