M E A 
anatomical difleftions, have fearched into thofe various 
meanders of the veins, arteries, and integrals, of the body. 
Hale. 
While ling’ring rivers in meanders glide. 
They fcatter verdant life on either fide ; 
The vallits fmile, and with their flow’ry face 
And wealthy births confefs the floods embrace. Blackmore. 
To MEAN'DER, v. n. To run winding ; to be intricate : 
Whether we fringe the Hoping hills, 
Or fmoothe below the verdant mead : 
Whether we break the falling rill, 
Or through meandering mazes lead. Shakefpeare. 
MEAN'DERING, f. The aft of running with a Ter¬ 
pentine courfe. 
MEAN'DROUS, adj. Winding; flexuous. 
MEANG', a town of Guzerat: forty miles north-weft 
©f Puttan Sumnaut. 
MEAN'GIS, a clufter of fmall iflands in the North Pa¬ 
cific Ocean. Lat. 4. 58. N. Ion. 126. 55. E. 
ME'ANING, f. [from to mean.] Purpofe; intention. 
—I am no honed man, if there be any good meaning to¬ 
wards you. Shakefpeare's King Lear. —Habitual intention : 
Some, whofe meaning hath at firft been fair, 
Grow knaves by ule, and rebels by defpair. Rojcommon. 
The fenfe ; the thing underftood.—No word more fre¬ 
quently in the mouths of men than confcience ; and the 
meaning of it is, in forne meafure, underftood ; however, it 
is a word extremely abufed by many, who apply other mean.' 
ings to it which God Almighty never intended. Swift. 
Thefe loft the fenfe their learning to difplay. 
And thofe explain’d the meaning quite away. Pope. 
Senfe ; power of thinking : 
He was not fpiteful though he wrote a fatyr. 
For ftill there goes fome meaning to ill-nature. Dryden. 
ME'ANLY, adv. [from mean.'] Moderately ; not in a 
great degree.— Dr. Metcalfe, mafter of St. John’s College, 
a man meanly learned himfelf, but not meanly affeftioned 
to fet forward learning in others. Afckam. —Without dig¬ 
nity ; poorly: 
The heav’n-born child 
All meanly wrapt in the rude manger lies. Milton. 
Without greatnefs of mind ; ungeneroufly : 
Would you meanly thus rely 
On power, you know, I mull obey ? Prior. 
Without refpect.—Our kindred, and our very names, 
feem to have fomething defirable in them : we cannot 
bear to have others think meanly of them. Watts's Logick. 
ME'ANNESS, f. Want of excellence.—The minitter’s 
greatnefs or meannefs of knowledge to do other things, 
llandeth in this place as a ftranger, with whom our form 
of Common Prayer hath nothing to do. Hooker. —Wantof 
dignity; low rank; poverty.—Poverty, and meannefs of 
condition, expofe the wifeft to fcorn, it being natural for 
men to place their efteem rather upon things great than 
good. South. 
No other nymphs have title to men’s hearts. 
But as their meannefs larger hopes imparts. Waller. 
Lownefs of mind.—The name of fervants has been rec¬ 
koned to imply a certain meannefs of mind, as well as low¬ 
nefs of condition. South. —Sordidnefs ; niggardlinefs. 
MEA'NY, a town of Hindooftan, in Guzerat, near the 
coaft : forty miles fouth-weit of Junagur. 
MEA'NY (Choupa), a town of Hindooftan, in Guze¬ 
rat, on the coaft : fifty-five miles- weft of Junagur. 
MEA'O, one of the fmall Molucca iflands, in the Ealtern 
Indian Sea. Lat. 1. 12. N. Ion. 127. 3. E. 
MEAR, or Meare,/ - . See Mere. 
MEA'RAH, [Hebrew.] The name of a place. 
M , E A 591 
MEARIM', a river of Brafil, which runs into the Bay 
of Baranhao in lat. 2. 40. S. Ion. 45. 30. W. 
MEAR'NS. See Kincardineshire, vol. xi. p. 724. 
ME'ASE; f. Probably a corruption of meafure ; as, A 
rneafe of herrings is five hundred. Ainfwortk. 
Mease is alfo an old word for a manfion-houfe, from 
the Latin mejfuagium. 
ME'ASLES, f. A cutaneous difeafe attended with a 
fever, in which there is an appearance of eruptions that 
do not tend to a fuppuration.—Before the plague of Lon¬ 
don, inflammations of the lungs were rife and mortal, as 
likewife the meajles Arbuthnot. 
This difeafe, like the Imall pox and fcarlet-fever, .was 
not particularly defended or named by the Greek and 
Roman phyficians, but is firft mentioned by the Arabians. 
The tranflators of the writings of the latter into Latin ap¬ 
plied the term morbili to the difeafe ; as it were “ a little 
plague,” the word il morbe, in Italy, fignifying the plague, 
or “the difeafe,” by way of eminence. Subsequently, 
from the red colour of the raft), the terms rubiola and rubeoice 
were given to this difeafe, and to fcarlet-fever, which was 
confounded with it. The appellation of rubeola has been 
adopted for the meaftes by our bed nofologilts, Sauvages 
and Cullen. The Englifh term meajles feems to have been 
borrowed from an appearance, which was fo denominated 
in the flefh of pork, to which the eruption of rubeola was 
fuppofed to bear fome refemblance. 
The difeafe in queftion is propagated folely by conta¬ 
gion ; and it commences in children, or in adult perfons 
of an irritable conllitution, from ten to fourteen days after 
they have been expofed to the infection. Others, who are 
lefs fufceptible, may have frequent communication with 
perfons affefted with the difeafe during feveral fuccelTive 
weeks ; but the contagion does not aft upon them, unlefs 
the body be brought into a feverifli ftate by fome incidental 
caufe, as by taking cold, by watching, fatigue, or mental 
diltrefs. For the different fpecies and cure, lee the article 
Pathology. 
ME'ASLES, f. A critical eruption in a fever, well- 
known in the common practice. Quincy. 
My lungs 
Coin words till their decay, againft thofe meajles, 
Which we difdain fhould tetter us, yet feek 
The very way to catch them. Shakejpeare's Coriolanus. 
A difeafe of fwine.—One, when he had an "unlucky old 
grange, would needs fell it, and proclaimed the virtues of 
it 5 nothing ever thrived on it, no owner of it ever died in 
his bed ; the fwine died of the meajles , and the fheep of the 
rot. B. Jonfon's Dfcovery. —A difeafe of trees. — Fruit- 
bearers are often infefted with thtmea/les, by being fcorched 
with the fun. Mortimer’s Hujbandry. 
ME'ASLED, adj. Infefted with the mealies; 
Thou vermin wretched, 
As e’er in meajled pork was hatched ; 
Thou tail of worfhip, that dolt grow 
On rump of juftice as of cow. Hudibros, 
ME'ASLY, adj. Scabbed with the mealies ; 
Laft trotted forth the gentle fwine. 
To eafe her againft the flump, 
And difmally was heard to whine, 
All as flte ferubb’d her meajly rump. Swift. 
MEAS'URABLE, adj. [from meafure.] Such as may b* 
mealured ; Inch as may admit of computation.—God’s 
eternal duration is permanent and invifible, not meajurable 
by time and motion, nor to be computed by number of 
fucceflive moments. Bentley’s Sermons .— Moderate; in fmall 
quantity. 
MEAS'UR ABLENESS, f. Quality of admitting to be 
meafured. 
MEAS'URABLY, adv. Moderately. — Wine meafurably 
drunk, and in feafon, bringeth gladnefs of the heart. 
£celns xxxi. a8. 
MEAS'URE. 
