Mean (mēn), v. t. [imp. &
p. p. Meant (m&ebreve;nt); p. pr. & vb.
n. Meaning.] [OE. menen, AS.
m&aemacr;nan to recite, tell, intend, wish; akin to OS.
mēnian to have in mind, mean, D. meenen, G.
meinen, OHG. meinan, Icel. meina, Sw.
mena, Dan. mene, and to E. mind. √104.
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
meaneth.
Matt. ix. 13.
Mean, v. i. To have a purpose or
intention. [Rare, except in the phrase to mean well, or ill.]
Shak.
Mean (mēn), a.
[Compar. Meaner (mēn"&etilde;r);
superl. Meanest.] [OE. mene, AS.
m&aemacr;ne wicked; akin to mān, a., wicked, n.,
wickedness, OS. mēn wickedness, OHG. mein, G.
meineid perjury, Icel. mein harm, hurt, and perh. to
AS. gem&aemacr;ne common, general, D. gemeen, G.
gemein, Goth. gamáins, and L. communis.
The AS. gem&aemacr;ne prob. influenced the meaning.]
1. Destitute of distinction or eminence;
common; low; vulgar; humble. "Of mean parentage."
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 Cæsar found
Our fathers no mean foes.
J. Philips.
4. Of poor quality; as, mean
fare.
5. Penurious; stingy; close-fisted;
illiberal; as, mean hospitality.
&fist; 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.
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.
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.
&fist; 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.
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