English Dictionary: mean | by the DICT Development Group |
6 results for mean | |
From WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006) [wn]: | |
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From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]: | |
Mean \Mean\, a. [Compar. {Meaner}; superl. {Meanest}.] [OE. mene, AS. m[?]ne wicked; akin to m[be]n, a., wicked, n., wickedness, OS. m[?]n wickedness, OHG. mein, G. meineid perjury, Icel. mein harm, hurt, and perh. to AS. gem[?]ne common, general, D. gemeen, G. gemein, Goth. gam[a0]ins, and L. communis. The AS. gem[?]ne prob. influenced the meaning.] 1. Destitute of distinction or eminence; common; low; vulgar; humble. [bd]Of mean parentage.[b8] --Sir P. Sidney. The mean man boweth down, and the great man humbleth himself. --Is. ii. 9. 2. Wanting dignity of mind; low-minded; base; destitute of honor; spiritless; as, a mean motive. Can you imagine I so mean could prove, To save my life by changing of my love ? --Dryden. 3. Of little value or account; worthy of little or no regard; contemptible; despicable. The Roman legions and great C[91]sar found Our fathers no mean foes. --J. Philips. 4. Of poor quality; as, mean fare. 5. Penurious; stingy; close-fisted; illiberal; as, mean hospitality. Note: Mean is sometimes used in the formation of compounds, the sense of which is obvious without explanation; as, meanborn, mean-looking, etc. Syn: Base; ignoble; abject; beggarly; wretched; degraded; degenerate; vulgar; vile; servile; menial; spiritless; groveling; slavish; dishonorable; disgraceful; shameful; despicable; contemptible; paltry; sordid. See {Base}. | |
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]: | |
Mean \Mean\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Meant}; p. pr. & vb. n. {Meaning}.] [OE. menen, AS. m[aemac]nan to recite, tell, intend, wish; akin to OS. m[emac]nian to have in mind, mean, D. meenen, G. meinen, OHG. meinan, Icel. meina, Sw. mena, Dan. mene, and to E. mind. [?]. See {Mind}, and cf. {Moan}.] 1. To have in the mind, as a purpose, intention, etc.; to intend; to purpose; to design; as, what do you mean to do ? What mean ye by this service ? --Ex. xii. 26. Ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good. --Gen. 1. 20. I am not a Spaniard To say that it is yours and not to mean it. --Longfellow. 2. To signify; to indicate; to import; to denote. What mean these seven ewe lambs ? --Gen. xxi. 29. Go ye, and learn what that me[?]neth. --Matt. ix. 13. | |
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]: | |
Mean \Mean\, v. i. To have a purpose or intention. [Rare, except in the phrase to mean well, or ill.] --Shak. | |
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]: | |
Mean \Mean\, a. [OE. mene, OF. meiien, F. moyen, fr. L. medianus that is in the middle, fr. medius; akin to E. mid. See {Mid}.] 1. Occupying a middle position; middle; being about midway between extremes. Being of middle age and a mean stature. --Sir. P. Sidney. 2. Intermediate in excellence of any kind. According to the fittest style of lofty, mean, or lowly. --Milton. 3. (Math.) Average; having an intermediate value between two extremes, or between the several successive values of a variable quantity during one cycle of variation; as, mean distance; mean motion; mean solar day. {Mean distance} (of a planet from the sun) (Astron.), the average of the distances throughout one revolution of the planet, equivalent to the semi-major axis of the orbit. {Mean error} (Math. Phys.), the average error of a number of observations found by taking the mean value of the positive and negative errors without regard to sign. {Mean-square error}, [or] {Error of the mean square} (Math. Phys.), the error the square of which is the mean of the squares of all the errors; -- called also, especially by European writers, {mean error}. {Mean line}. (Crystallog.) Same as {Bisectrix}. {Mean noon}, noon as determined by mean time. {Mean proportional} (between two numbers) (Math.), the square root of their product. {Mean sun}, a fictitious sun supposed to move uniformly in the equator so as to be on the meridian each day at mean noon. {Mean time}, time as measured by an equable motion, as of a perfect clock, or as reckoned on the supposition that all the days of the year are of a mean or uniform length, in contradistinction from apparent time, or that actually indicated by the sun, and from sidereal time, or that measured by the stars. | |
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]: | |
Mean \Mean\, n. 1. That which is mean, or intermediate, between two extremes of place, time, or number; the middle point or place; middle rate or degree; mediocrity; medium; absence of extremes or excess; moderation; measure. But to speak in a mean, the virtue of prosperity is temperance; the virtue of adversity is fortitude. --Bacon. There is a mean in all things. --Dryden. The extremes we have mentioned, between which the wellinstracted Christian holds the mean, are correlatives. --I. Taylor. 2. (Math.) A quantity having an intermediate value between several others, from which it is derived, and of which it expresses the resultant value; usually, unless otherwise specified, it is the simple average, formed by adding the quantities together and dividing by their number, which is called an arithmetical mean. A geometrical mean is the square root of the product of the quantities. 3. That through which, or by the help of which, an end is attained; something tending to an object desired; intermediate agency or measure; necessary condition or coagent; instrument. Their virtuous conversation was a mean to work the conversion of the heathen to Christ. --Hooker. You may be able, by this mean, to review your own scientific acquirements. --Coleridge. Philosophical doubt is not an end, but a mean. --Sir W. Hamilton. Note: In this sense the word is usually employed in the plural form means, and often with a singular attribute or predicate, as if a singular noun. By this means he had them more at vantage. --Bacon. What other means is left unto us. --Shak. 4. pl. Hence: Resources; property, revenue, or the like, considered as the condition of easy livelihood, or an instrumentality at command for effecting any purpose; disposable force or substance. Your means are very slender, and your waste is great. --Shak. 5. (Mus.) A part, whether alto or tenor, intermediate between the soprano and base; a middle part. [Obs.] The mean is drowned with your unruly base. --Shak. 6. Meantime; meanwhile. [Obs.] --Spenser. 7. A mediator; a go-between. [Obs.] --Piers Plowman. He wooeth her by means and by brokage. --Chaucer. {By all means}, certainly; without fail; as, go, by all means. {By any means}, in any way; possibly; at all. If by any means I might attain to the resurrection of the dead. --Phil. iii. ll. {By no means}, [or] {By no manner of means}, not at all; certainly not; not in any degree. The wine on this side of the lake is by no means so good as that on the other. --Addison. |