Emily Dickinson Lexicon

MEL-LIT'IC, a.

Pertaining to honey-stone.

MEL'LON, n.

A compound of carbon and azote, in the form of powder. Ure.

MEL'LOW, a. [Sax. melewe; G. mehl, D. Dan. meel, meal; G. mehlig, mehlicht, mellow, mealy; Dan. meelagtig, mellow; L. mollis, Fr. mol, molle, soft, Gr. μαλακος; W. mall, soft, melting, insipid, evil, and as a noun, a malady. The Welsh unites the word with L. malus. These words are evidently allied to mild and melt, and meal would seem to be connected with mill. I am not certain which is the primary word. See Class Ml, No. 2, 4, 9, 12.]

1. Soft with ripeness; easily yielding to pressure; as, a mellow peach or apple; mellow fruit.
2. Soft to the ear; as, a mellow sound; a mellow pipe.
3. Soft; well pulverized; not indurated or compact; as, mellow ground or earth.
4. Soft and smooth to the taste; as, mellow wine.
5. Soft with liquor; intoxicated; merry. Addison.
6. Soft or easy to the eye. The tender flush whose mellow stain imbues / Heaven with all freaks of light. Percival.

MEL'LOW, v.i.

To become soft; to be ripened, matured or brought to perfection. Fruit, when taken from the tree, soon mellows. Wine mellows with age.

MEL'LOW, v.t.

1. To ripen; to bring to maturity; to soften by ripeness or age. On foreign mountains may the sun refine / The grape's soft juice and mellow it to wine. Addison.
2. To soften; to pulverize. Earth is mellowed by frost.
3. To mature; to bring to perfection. This episode – mellowed into that reputation which time has given it. Dryden.

MEL'LOW-ED, pp.

1. Ripened; brought to maturity.
2. Become soft; as fruit when ripe.

MEL'LOW-LY, adv.

In a mellow manner.

MEL'LOW-NESS, n.

1. Softness; the quality of yielding easily to pressure; ripeness, as of fruit.
2. Maturity; softness or smoothness from age, as of wine.

MEL'LOW-TON-ED, a.

Having soft tones.

MEL'LOW-Y, a.

Soft; unctuous. Drayton.

MEL-O-CO-TONE, n. [Sp. melocoton, a peach-tree grafted into a quince-tree, or the fruit of the tree; It. melocotogno, quince-tree; L. malum cotoneum, quince-apple. Cotoneum is probably our cotton, and the fruit so named from its pubescence.]

A quince. But the name is sometimes given to a large kind of peach.

ME-LO'DI-OUS, a. [See Melody.]

Containing melody; musical; agreeable to the ear by a sweet succession of sounds; as, a melodious voice; melodious strains. And music more melodious than the spheres. Dryden.

ME-LO'DI-OUS-LY, adv.

In a melodious manner; musically.

ME-LO'DI-OUS-NESS, n.

The quality of being agreeable to the ear by a sweet succession of sounds; musicalness.

MEL'O-DIST, n.

A composer and singer of elegant melodies, in contradistinction to harmonist.

MEL'O-DIZE, v.t.

To make melodious.

MEL'O-DIZ-ED, pp.

Rendered harmonious.

MEL'O-DIZ-ING, ppr.

Rendering harmonious.

ME-LO-DRA-MAT'IC, a.

Pertaining to a melodrama.

ME-LO-DRAME, n. [Gr. μελος, a song, and drama.]

A dramatic performance in which songs are intermixed. Chalmers.

MEL'O-DY, n. [Gr. μελωδια; μελος, a limb, or a song, and ῳδη, an ode; L. melos.]

An agreeable succession of sounds; a succession of sounds so regulated and modulated as to please the ear. To constitute melody, the sounds must be arranged according to the laws of rhythmus, measure, or the due proportion of the movements to each other. Melody differs from harmony, as it consists in the agreeable succession and modulation of sounds by a single voice; whereas harmony consists in the accordance of different voices or sounds. Melody is vocal or instrumental. Hooker. To make melody in the heart, to praise God with a joyful and thankful disposition, ascribing to him the honor due to his name. Eph. v.

MEL'ON, n. [Fr. from L. melo; Sp. melon; It. mellone, melon; Gr. μελον, an apple; D. meloen; G. melone; Dan. and Sw. melon; Slav. mlun. This word has the elements of mellow, L. mollis, W. mall.]

The name of certain plants and their fruit, as the water-melon, the musk-melon.

MEL'ON-THIS-TLE, n.

A plant of the genus Cactus.

MEL-POM'O-NE, n. [Gr. μελπομαι.]

The muse who presides over tragedy.

MEL'ROSE, n. [L. mel and rosu.]

Honey of roses. Fordyce.