Emily Dickinson Lexicon

MUS'TER-BOOK, n.

A book in which forces are registered. Shak.

MUS'TER-ED, pp.

Assembled, as troops for review.

MUS'TER-MAS-TER, n.

One who takes an account of troops, and of their arms and other military apparatus. The chief officer of this kind is called muster-master-general. Encyc.

MUS'TER-ROLL, n.

A roll or register of the troops each company, troop or regiment. Encyc.

MUS'TI-LY, adv. [from musty.]

Moldily; sourly.

MUS'TI-NESS, n.

The quality of being musty or sour; moldiness; damp foulness. Evelyn.

MUS'TY, a. [from must.]

1. Moldy; sour; foul and fetid; as, a musty cask; musty corn or straw; musty books.
2. Stale; spoiled by age. The proverb is somewhat musty. Shak.
3. Having an ill flavor; as, musty wine. Pope.
4. Dull; heavy; spiritless. That he may not grow musly and unfit for conversation. Addison.

MU-TA-BIL'I-TY, n. [Fr. mutabilité; It. mutibilità; L. mutabilitas, from mutabilis, muto, to change.]

1. Changeableness; susceptibility of change; the quality of being subject to change or alteration, either in form, state or essential qualities. Plato confesses that the heavens and the frame of the world are corporeal, and therefore subject to mutability. Stillingfleet.
2. The state of habitually or frequently changing.
3. Changeableness, as of mind, disposition or will; inconstancy; instability; as, the mutability of opinion or purpose.

MU'TA-BLE, a. [It. mutabile; L. mutabilis, from muto, to change, W. mudaw. See Mew.]

1. Subject to change; changeable; that may be altered form, qualities or nature. Almost every thing we see on earth is mutable; substances are mutable in their form, and we all know by sad experience how mutable are the conditions of life.
2. Inconstant; unsettled; unstable; susceptible of change. Our opinions and our purposes are mutable.

MU'TA-BLE-NESS, n.

Changeableness; mutability; instability.

MU'TA-BLY, adv.

Changeably.

MU-TA'TION, n. [L. mutatio.]

1. The act or process of changing.
2. Change; alteration, either in form or qualities. The vicissitude or mutations in the superior globe are no fit matter for this present argument. Bacon.

MUTATIS-MUTANDIS, n. [Mutatis mutandis; L.]

The things being changed that ought to be changed.

MUTE, a. [L. mutus; W. mûd; Fr. muet; It. muto; Sp. mudo; Ir. muite; Arm. mud or simudet.]

1. Silent; not speaking; not uttering words, or not having the power of utterance; dumb. Mute may express temporary silence, or permanent inability to speak. To the mute my speech is lost. – Dryden. In this phrase, it denotes unable to utter words. More generally, it denotes temporarily silent; as, all sat mute. All the heavenly choir stood mute. – Milton.
2. Uttering no sound; as, mute sorrow.
3. Silent; not pronounced; as, a mute letter.

MUTE, n.¹

1. In law, a person that stands speechless when he ought to answer or plead.
2. In grammar, a letter that represents no sound; a close articulation which intercepts the voice. Mutes are of two kinds, pure and impure. The pure mutes instantly and entirely intercept the voice, as k, p and t, in the syllables ek, ep, et. The impure mutes intercept the voice less suddenly, as the articulations are less close. Such are b, d and g, as in the syllables eb, ed, eg.
3. In music, a little utensil of wood or brass, used on a violin to deaden or soften the sounds. – Busby.

MUTE, n.²

The dung of fowls.

MUTE, n.³

1. In Turkey, a dumb officer who acts as executioner.
2. In England, a person employed by undertakers, to stand before the door of a house in which there is a corpse.

MUTE, v.i. [Fr. mutir.]

To eject the contents of the bowels, as birds. – B. Jonson.

MUTE-LY, adv.

Silently; without uttering words or sounds. – Milton.

MUTE-NESS, n.

Silence; forbearance of speaking.

MU'TI-LATE, v.t. [L. mutilo, probably from the root of meto, to cut off; Fr. mutiler; It. mutilare.]

1. To cut off a limb or essential part of an animal body. To cut off the hand or foot is to mutilate the body or the person.
2. To cut or break off, or otherwise separate any important part, as of a statue or building. – Encyc.
3. To retrench, destroy or remove any material part, so as to render the thing imperfect; as, to mutilate the poems of Homer or the orations of Cicero. Among the mutilated poets of antiquity, there is none whose fragments are so beautiful as those of Sappho. – Addison.

MU'TI-LA-TED, or MU'TI-LATE, a.

In botany, the reverse of luxuriant; not producing a corol, when not regularly apetalous; applied to flowers. – Lee. Martyn.

MU'TI-LA-TED, pp.

Deprived of a limb or of an essential part.

MU-TI-LA-TING, ppr.

Retrenching a limb or an essential part.

MU-TI-LA'TION, n. [L. mutilatio.]

1. The act of mutilating; deprivation of a limb or of an essential part.
2. Mutilation is a term of very general import, applied to bodies, to statues, to buildings and to writings; but appropriately, it denotes the retrenchment of a human limb or member, and particularly of the male organs of generation.