Emily Dickinson Lexicon

MEND, v.i.

To grow better; to advance to a better state; to improve. We say, a feeble constitution mends daily; a sick man mends, or is convalescent.

MEND, v.t. [L. emendo; Fr. amender; It. mendare; from L. menda, a fault, spot or blemish. Mend is contracted from emendo, amend, for the L. negative e for ex, is necessary to express the removal of a fault.]

1. To repair, as a breach; to supply a part broken or defective; as, to mend a garment, a road, a mill-dam, a fence, &c.
2. To correct; to set right; to alter for the better; as, to mend the life or manners.
3. To repair; to restore to a sound state; as, to mend a feeble or broken constitution. Locke. 4. To help; to advance; to make better. This plausible apology does not mend the matter. Though in some lands the grass is but short, yet it mends garden herbs and fruit. Mortimer.
4. To improve; to hasten. He saw the monster mend his pace. Dryden.

MEND'A-BLE, a.

Capable of being mended.

MEN-DA'CIOUS, a. [L. mendax.]

Lying; false.

MEN-DAC'I-TY, n. [L. mendax, false, lying. See Class Mn, No. 4.]

Falsehood. Brown. [The proper signification of this word would be a disposition to lie, or habitual lying.]

MEND'ED, pp.

Repaired; made better; improved.

MEND'ER, n.

One who mends or repairs.

MEND'I-CAN-CY, n. [L. mendicans.]

Beggary; a state of begging.

MEND'I-CANT, a. [L. mendicans, from mendico, to beg, Fr. mendier; allied to L. mando, to command, demand.]

1. Begging; poor to a state of beggary; as, reduced to a mendicant state.
2. Practicing beggary; as, a mendicant friar.

MEND'I-CANT, n.

A beggar; one that makes it his business to beg alms; one of the begging fraternity of the Romish church.

MEND'I-CATE, v.t.

To beg, or practice begging. [Not used.]

MEN-DIC'I-TY, n. [L. mendicitas.]

The state of begging; the life of a beggar.

MEND'ING, ppr.

1. Repairing.
2. Convalescing; recovering from sickness; becoming better in health.

MEND'MENT, n. [for Amendment. Not in use.]

MENDS, n. [for Amends, not used.]

Shak.

MEN-HA'DEN, n.

A species of fish.

ME'NI-AL, a. [Norm. meignal, meynal, from meignee or meiny, a family. The Norm. has also mesnie and mesnee, a family, household or company, and meinez, many. Qu. the root of maison, messuage, or of many.]

1. Pertaining to servants, or domestic servants; low; mean. The women attendants perform only the most menial offices. Swift. [Johnson observes on this passage, that Swift seems not to have known the meaning of this word. But this is the only sense in which it is now used.]
2. Belonging to the retinue or train of servants. Johnson. Two menial dogs before their master pressed. Dryden. [If this definition of Johnson is correct, it indicates that menial is from meinez, many, rather than from mesnie, family. But the sense may be house-dogs.]

ME'N-I-AL, n.

A domestic servant.

MEN'I-LITE, a.

A mineral substance found at Menil Montant near Paris, of the nature of silex, of a brown liver color on the interior, and ordinarily of a clear blue on the surface. It is found in the shape of the kidneys, of the size of the hand or larger; sometimes in globules of the size of a nut. Dict. Nat. Hist.

ME-NIN'GES, n. [Gr.]

In anatomy, the two membranes that envelop the brain; the pia mater and dura mater.

ME-NIS'CAL, a.

Pertaining to a meniscus.

ME-NIS'CUS, n. [plur. Meniscuses. Gr. μηνισκος, a little moon.]

A lens convex on one side, and concave on the other. Encyc.

MEN-I-SPERM'ATE, n.

A compound of menispermic acid and a salifiable base.

MEN-I-SPERM'IC, a.

The menispermic acid is obtained from the seeds of the Menispermum cocculus of Linnæus, the Anamirta paniculata of later botanists.

MEN-I-SPER'MI-NA, or MEN-I-SPER'MINE, n. [L. menispermum, from Gr. μήνη, the moon, and σπιρμα, a seed.]

An alkaloid obtained from Anamirta paniculata, once called Menispermum. This alkaloid is a white opake crystalline solid, which is tasteless, and medicinally inert.