Emily Dickinson Lexicon

MIN'IM-US, n. [L.]

A being of the smallest size. Shak.

MIN-ING, ppr.

1. Digging into the earth, as for fossils and minerals; sapping.
2. adj. Designating the business of digging mines; as, the mining districts of Siberia. Sparks.

MIN'ION, a. [infra.]

Fine; trim; dainty. [Not used.]

MIN'ION, n.¹ [min'yon; Fr. mignon; It. mignone, a darling; from W. main, Fr. menu, small; W. mwyn, tender, gentle.]

A favorite; a darling; particularly, the favorite of a prince, on whom he lavishes his favors; one who gains favors by flattery or mean adulation. Edward sent an army into Ireland, not for conquest, but to guard the person of his minion, Piers Gaviston. Davies. The drowsy tyrant by his minions led. Swift.

MIN'ION, n.² [W. main, Fr. menu, small; L. minor. See Mince.]

A small kind of printing types.

MIN'ION-ING, n.

Kind treatment. Marston.

MIN'ION-LIKE, or MIN'ION-LY, adv.

Finely; daintily.

MIN'ION-SHIP, n.

State of being a minion.

MIN'IOUS, a. [from L. minium.]

Of the color of red lead or vermilion. Brown.

MIN'ISH, v.t. [L. minuo, to lessen.]

To lessen; to diminish. [Obs.] [See Diminish.]

MIN'IS-TER, n. [L; probably from Ar. مَهَنَ mahana, to serve, wait, attend, Class Mn, No. 2, and Sax. steore, helm, direction; steoran, to steer.]

1. Properly, a chief servant; hence, an agent appointed to transact or manage business under the authority of another; in which sense, it is a word of very extensive application. Moses rose up and his minister Joshua. Exo. xxiv.
2. One to whom a king or prince intrusts the direction of affairs of state; as, minister of state; the prime minister. In modern governments, the secretaries or heads of the several departments or branches of government are the ministers of the chief magistrate.
3. A magistrate; an executive officer. For he is the minister of God to thee for good. Rom. xiii.
4. A deli; an embassador; the representative of a sovereign at a foreign court; usually such as is resident at a foreign court, but not restricted to such.
5. One who serves at the altar; one who performs sacerdotal duties; the pastor of a church duly authorized or licensed to preach the Gospel and administer the sacraments. Eph. iii.
6. Christ is called a minister of the sanctuary. Heb. viii.
7. An angel; a messenger of God. Who maketh his angels spirits, his ministers a flaming fire. Ps. civ.

MIN'IS-TER, v.i.

1. To attend and serve; to perform service in any office, sacred or secular. I will sanctify also both Aaron and his sons, to minister to in the priest's office. Ex. xxix.
2. To afford supplies; to give things needful; to supply the means of relief; to relieve. When saw we thee hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or naked, or sick; or in prison, and did not minister to thee? Matth. xxv.
3. To give medicines. Canst thou not minister to a mind diseased? Shak. In this sense, we commonly use administer.

MIN'IS-TER, v.t. [L. ministro.]

To give; to afford; to supply. He that ministereth seed to the sower. 2 Cor. xi. That it may minister grace to the hearers. Eph iv.

MIN'IS-TER-ED, pp.

Served; afforded; supplied.

MIN-IS-TE'RI-AL, a.

1. Attending for service; attendant; acting at command. Enlight'ning spirits and ministerial flames. Prior.
2. Acting under superior authority; pertaining to a minister. For the ministerial offices in court, there must be an eye to them. Bacon.
3. Pertaining to executive offices, as distinct from judicial. The office and acts of a sherif are ministerial.
4. Sacerdotal; pertaining to ministers of the Gospel; as, ministerial garments; ministerial duties. Genuine ministerial prudence keeps back no important truth, listens to no compromise with sin, connives at no fashionable vice, cringes before no lordly worldling. H. Humphrey.
5. Pertaining to ministers of state; as, ministerial circles; ministerial benches. Burke.

MIN-I-STE'RI-AL-LY, adv.

In a ministerial manner or character. Waterland.

MIN'IS-TER-ING, ppr.

1. Attending and serving as a subordinate agent; serving under superior authority. Heb. i.
2. Affording aid or supplies; administering things needful.

MIN'IS-TER-Y, n. [See MINISTRY.]

MIN'IS-TRAL, a.

Pertaining to a minister. [Little used.] Johnson.

MIN'IS-TRANT, a.

Performing service as a minister; attendant on service; acting under command. Princedoms and dominations ministrant. Milton.

MIN-IS-TRA'TION, n. [L. ministratio.]

1. The act of performing service as a subordinate agent; agency; intervention for aid or service. Because their widows were neglected in the daily ministrations. Acts vi.
2. Office of a minister; service; ecclesiastical function. As soon as the days of his ministration were ended. Luke i.

MIN'IS-TRESS, n.

A female that ministers. Akenside.

MIN'IS-TRY, n. [L. ministerium.]

1. The office, duties or functions of a subordinate agent of any kind.
2. Agency; service; aid; interposition; instrumentality. He directs the affairs of this world by the ordinary ministry of second causes. Atterbury.
3. Ecclesiastical function; agency or service of a minister of the Gospel or clergymen in the modern church, or of priests, apostles and evangelists in the ancient. Acts i. Rom. xii. 2 Tim. iv. Num. iv.
4. Time of ministration; duration of the office of a minister, civil or ecclesiastical. The war with France was during the ministry of Pitt.
5. Persons who compose the executive government or the council of a supreme magistrate; the body of ministers of state. Swift.
6. Business; employment. He abhorred the wicked ministry of arms. Dryden.

MIN'IS-TRY-SHIP, n. [for Ministry, is little used and hardly proper.]

Swift.

MIN'I-UM, n. [L.]

Lead exposed to air while melting is covered with a gray dusky pellicle. This taken off and agitated becomes a greenish gray powder, inclining to yellow. This oxyd, separated by sifting from the grains of lead which it contaans, and exposed to a more intense heat, takes a deep yellow color, and in this state it is called massicot. The latter, slowly heated, takes a beautiful red color, and is called minium. It is a salt composed of two equivalents of protoxyd of lead, with one equivalent of the deutoxyd. Fourcroy.