M I N 
54 & 
Tell her, that I fome certainty may bring; 
I go this minute to attend the king. Dryden's Aurengs. 
The fir ft draught of any agreement in writing. A minute 
detail of things fingly enumerated.—His garments were 
parted, and lots caft upon his inward coat; they gave 
him vinegar and gall to drink; they brake not a bone of 
him, but they pierced his fide with a fpear, looking upon 
him whom they had pierced ; according to the prophecies 
of him, which were fo clear and defcended to minutes and 
circumftances of 'his paffion, that there was nothing left 
by which they could doubt whether this were he or no 
who was to come into the world. Bp. Taylor. —Till then 
there is a very fit place and feafon for the exercife of the 
other part of the paffion here, that of indignation, the 
laft minute of my laft particular. Hammond. 
To MIN'UTE, v. a. [ minuter , Fr.] To fet down in fhort 
hints.—I no fooner heard this critic talk of my works, 
but I minuted what he had faid, and refolved to enlarge 
the plan of my fpeculations. Spectator. 
MIN'UTE-BELL, f. A bell founded every minute on 
a funeral occafion. 
MIN'UTE-BOOK, f. Book of fhort hints. 
MIN'UTE-GLASS,_/! Glafs of which the fand meafures 
a minute. 
MIN'UTE-GUN, f. A gun fired every minute as a fig- 
nal of diftrefs; a gun fired every minute on fome folemn 
occafion. 
MIN'UTE-HAND, f The hand that points to the 
minutes of a clock or watch.—We have no perception of 
the motion of the index or hour-hand of a clock ; and 
yet this no perception, fo many times repeated, becomes 
real perception, with refpeCt to the minute-hand. Baxter 
on the Soul. 
MIN'UTE-JACK, f. Another name for Jack of the 
Clock ; which fee, vol. x.—Cap-and-knee flaves, vapours, 
and minute-jacks ! Shakefpeare's Timon. 
MIN'UTE-LINE, J\ A kind of log-line ufed at fea to 
determine the courfe of a fhip. 
MIN'UTE-WATCH, J\ A watch in which minutes 
are more diitin&ly marked than in common watches 
which reckon by the hour.—Calling our eyes upon a 
minute-watch , we found that from the beginning of the 
pumping, about two minutes after the coals had been 
put in glowing, to the total difappearing of the fire, there 
had palled but three minutes. Boyle. 
MIN'UTEJLY, adj. [from minute.] Happening every 
minute.—His minutely dread and expectation, the dream 
that fo haunts and hounds him. Hammond. —Thole mi¬ 
nutely prefervations, whereby we are by God’s gracious 
providence kept from danger. Whole Duty of Man. 
Now minutely revolts upbraid his faith-breach; 
Thofe he commands, move only in command. 
Nothing in love. Shakejpeare's Macbeth. 
MIN'UTELY, adv. Every minute ; with very little time 
intervening.—What is it but a continued perpetuated 
voice from heaven, refounding for ever in our ears ? As 
if it were minutely proclaimed in thunder from heaven, 
to give men no reft in their fins, no quiet from Chrift’s 
importunity, till they arife from fo mortiferous a Hate. 
Hammond on Fund. 
MINU'TELY, adv. [from minute.] To a fmall point; 
exaftly; to the leaft part; nicely.—In this pofture of mind 
it was impoftible for him to keep that flow pace, and ob- 
ferve minutely that order of ranging all he faid, from which 
refults an obvious perfpicuity. Locke. 
Change of night and day, 
And of the feafons ever dealing round, 
Minutely faithful. Thomjon's Summer. 
MINUTENESS, /.’ Smallnefs ; exility ; inconfiderable- 
nefs.—The animal fpirit and infenfible particles never 
fall under our ienfes, by reafon of their minutenejs. Bent¬ 
ley-Many other fuch minuteneffes, abundance of varia¬ 
tions beyond number. ShuckJ’ord on the Creation. 
Vol. XV. No. 1064, 
M I N 
MINUTER, adj. Smaller. 
MIN'UTER, f. A writer of minutes, or fmall memo¬ 
randums. 
MINU'TIA, a veftal virgin, accufed of debauchery on 
account of the beauty and elegance of her drefs. She was 
condemned to be buried alive, becaule a female fupported 
the falfe accufation, A.U. C. 418. Livy. 
MINU TldE, J. pi. [Latin.] The lmalleft particulars. 
A word of modern ufage.—l will venture to tranfmit to 
you fome anecdotes concerning him, which fell under my 
own obfervation. The very minutiae of fuch a character 
mull be interefting, and may be compared to the filin°-s 
of diamonds. BoJ'well's Life of Johnjbn. 
MIN'UTING, J. The a Cl of taking down minutes. 
MINU'TION, J. The aft of letting or drawing blood. 
Objblete. 
MINUTIUS FE'LIX (Marcus), an able apologift for 
Chriftianity in the third century, probably a native of 
Africa, who flouriflied towards the clofe of the reign of 
the emperor Septimius Severus, or about the year 210. 
He was educated to the profelfion of the law, and became 
an eminent pleader at Rome; where he renounced the 
heathen religion, and embraced that of Cbrill. He was 
author of an excellent defence of Chriftianity, entitled 
“ OClavius,” written in the form of a dialogue between 
a Heathen and a Chriltian, in which Minutius himfelf fits 
as judge and moderator. By this contrivance, he replies 
to the objections and arguments brought forward by the 
adversary of Chriftianity, refutes the calumnies caft upon 
Chriltians by the heathen philofophers, and at the fame 
time expofes the abfurdities of their creed and worlhip, 
powerfully demonftrating the realbnablenefs and excel¬ 
lence of the Chriftian religion. This work was, for a 
confiderable time, attributed to Arnobius; but in the 
year 1560, Francis Baldwin, a learned lawyer, publilhed 
it at Heidelberg, and made the difcovery, in a preliminary 
dilfertation, that Minutius was its true author. It has, 
flnce that time, gone through many editions, of which 
the bell is that printed at Cambridge in 1712, with the 
dilfertation of Baldwin prefixed, and “ Commodiam 
InftruCtiones adverfus Gentium Deos,” added in the way 
of Appendix. Gen. Biog. 1 
MINUZIA'NO (Alelfandro), a learned printer, was 
bom in the fifteenth century at St. Severo in Puglia 
After ftudying under George Merula at Milan, he fuc- 
ceeded him as profeffor of rhetoric, and held that chair 
with the profeflbrlhip of hiftory for feveral years. He 
greatly interefted himfelf in the correCt editing of the 
learned works which were then illuing from the prefs, and 
at length fet up a printing-office of his own. The firft 
lpecimen that he gave to the public was the magnificent 
edition of all Cicero’s works in four volumes, folio, 
1498-99, which had never before been printed collectively. 
He afterwards gave editions of various authors, ancient 
and modern, to many of which he prefixed learned pre¬ 
faces in a very elegant ftyle. He was a diligent collator 
of old manufcripts, and took great pains to eftabliih the 
moll authenticated readings. He was not exempt from 
the unfair practice then common among printers, of pi¬ 
rating each other’s works; and, when Leo X. caufed the 
Annals of Tacitus to be printed for the firft time at Rome, 
he found means to obtain the flieets as they went through 
the prefs, fo that he brought out a rival edition. This 
fraud expofed him to the pope’s difpleafure, and involved 
him in troubles from which he with difficulty extricated 
himfelf. The lateft notice of him is in 1521, which year 
he probably did not long furvive. Tirahojchi. 
MINX, J. [contracted from minneken, or minikin, and 
derived probably from mignon, darling ; minx having been 
at firft a word of endearment. Burton gives it, with a 
fpelling which countenances this etymology: “Some 
pretty mitikes." Anatomy.of Melancholy, p.604.] Apert 
wanton girl: 1 
Some torches bore, fome links. 
Before the proud virago minx. 
• 7 A 
HiMjhrae. 
She, 
