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adjective
Mean  adj.  
1.
Occupying a middle position; middle; being about midway between extremes. "Being of middle age and a mean stature."
2.
Intermediate in excellence of any kind. "According to the fittest style of lofty, mean, or lowly."
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, mean square deviation, 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.






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Mean" Quotes from Famous Books



... house and was ingeaging as Many men as I Could of those that I thought I could intrust but it was not possible to keep the thing Long a Secret when we had to make proposals to five hundred men; in the Mean time Coll McLean arrived with full power from Government to Collect all the Highlanders who had Emigrated to America Into one place and to give Every man the hundred Acres of Land and if need required to give Arms to as many men as were Capable of bearing them for His Majesty's Service. ...
— An Historical Account of the Settlements of Scotch Highlanders in America • J. P. MacLean

... first place, father, I want you to come and embrace me. What do you mean by not saying anything instead of taking my part? who gave me such a father as that? You must perceive that my family life is very unhappy. My husband beats me. ...
— Les Miserables - Complete in Five Volumes • Victor Hugo

... head after a while that us two mean business, Mac, an' he'll get sensible an' fire them outsiders. I'm lookin' for him ...
— Captain Scraggs - or, The Green-Pea Pirates • Peter B. Kyne

... carriages stood in front. The Hotel de l'Epee had a reassuring air of mellow respectability, such as Chirac had claimed for it. He had suggested this hotel for Madame Scales because it was not near the place of execution. Gerald had said, "Of course! Of course!" Chirac, who did not mean to go to bed, required no ...
— The Old Wives' Tale • Arnold Bennett

... to the goose, as if determined to expose and disgrace this intruder from Hudson's Bay by exhibiting a greater compass and volume of voice in a native, and boo-hoo him out of Concord horizon. "What do you mean by alarming the citadel at this time of night consecrated to me? Do you think I am ever caught napping at such an hour, and that I have not got lungs and a larynx as well as yourself? Boo-hoo, boo-hoo, boo-hoo!" It was one of the most thrilling ...
— Journeys Through Bookland, Vol. 7 • Charles H. Sylvester

... to say that if a man was persistent enough he could win a woman in spite of the Devil. I would like to see him! I mean Jack, not Dutchy nor ...
— Lady of the Decoration • Frances Little

... affair had thus far certainly been astonishingly rapid, but it might mean nothing. Egeria's mind and heart were so easy of access up to a certain point that the traveller sometimes overestimated the distance covered and the distance still to cover. Atlas quoted something about her at the end of the very first day, that described her charmingly: ...
— Penelope's Postscripts • Kate Douglas Wiggin

... attended to this subject, a single instance may be here given, namely, that of the Mississippi, which is chosen because the amount of sediment brought down by this great river has been investigated with especial care by order of the United States Government. The result is, as Mr. Croll shows, that the mean level of its enormous area of drainage must be lowered 1/4566 of a foot annually, or 1 foot in 4566 years. Consequently, taking the best estimate of the mean height of the North American continent, viz. 748 feet, and looking to the future, the whole of ...
— The Formation of Vegetable Mould through the action of worms with • Charles Darwin

... heart of the house? To it go the weary, the sick, the sad and the happy, all sure of sympathy and of aid; all secure in their expectation of meeting there the cheering word, the comforting smile, and the loving friend." In thorough ignorance of what a new home should mean, little Willie inquires, "Home is not a house, is it?" Most sensible question for a child. To such as desire an answer to the inquiry, we recommend the work, as one which will be of value to ...
— Mrs Whittelsey's Magazine for Mothers and Daughters - Volume 3 • Various

... Exaltation of Jesus Christ we mean that act of God by which the risen and ascended Christ is given the place of power at the right hand of God. Phil. 2:9—"Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him and given him a name which is above every name." Eph. 1:20, 21—"Which he (God) wrought in Christ, when he raised him from ...
— The Great Doctrines of the Bible • Rev. William Evans

... The beacon of the wise, the tent that searches To th' bottom of the worst. Let Helen go. Since the first sword was drawn about this question, Every tithe soul 'mongst many thousand dismes Hath been as dear as Helen—I mean, of ours. If we have lost so many tenths of ours To guard a thing not ours, nor worth to us, Had it our name, the value of one ten, What merit's in that reason which denies The yielding ...
— The History of Troilus and Cressida • William Shakespeare [Craig edition]

... the old story," said he, rather gently: "a MISUNDERSTANDING. How wise our ancestors were that first used that word to mean a quarrel! for, look into twenty quarrels, and you shall detect a score of mis-under-standings. Yet our American cousins must go and substitute the un-ideaed word 'difficulty'; that is wonderful. I had no quarrel with him: delighted to see either of you. But I had called twice on him; so ...
— A Simpleton • Charles Reade

... what a piece of work about nothing! The old gentleman will never know anything about it, you may be very sure. He is safe enough in bed and asleep after his late hours, you may swear. Besides, it's both best and honestest to begin as you mean to go on, and accustom him to what he's got to expect," said Gigia, fighting loyally for ...
— A Siren • Thomas Adolphus Trollope

... Ocean is deep, 4,000 to 5,000 meters over most of its extent with only limited areas of shallow water; the antarctic continental shelf is generally narrow and unusually deep - its edge lying at depths of 400 to 800 meters (the global mean is 133 meters); the Antarctic ice pack grows from an average minimum of 2.6 million square kilometers in March to about 18.8 million square kilometers in September, better than a sevenfold increase in area; ...
— The 2000 CIA World Factbook • United States. Central Intelligence Agency.

... In the mean time Captain Bramble had found an opportunity that afternoon to see Maud, and to learn from her that Captain Ratlin almost always slept on board his ship, departing soon after dark for the spot through the jungle. Satisfied of this, Capt. Bramble once more proceeded to make ...
— The Sea-Witch - or, The African Quadroon A Story of the Slave Coast • Maturin Murray

... this girl!" Mrs. Sumfit burst out. "And looking so, as she says it. My love, you didn't mean to die?" ...
— The Shaving of Shagpat • George Meredith

... merchant, born and bred within its limits. Yet you had but to notice his walk, and you saw at once that he was a mountaineer, for he threaded his way through the crowd as noiselessly as he did among his native forests, where the crack of a dead twig might mean his ...
— The Tory Maid • Herbert Baird Stimpson

... down the candle, and burst into a wretched mocking laugh. 'There she stands,' cried this strange creature, 'and looks at me with the eyes of a baby that sees something new! I can't frighten her. I can't disgust her. What does it mean?' She dropped into a chair; her voice sank almost to a whisper—I should have thought she was afraid of me, if such a thing had been possible. 'What do you know of me, that I don't know of myself?' ...
— Heart and Science - A Story of the Present Time • Wilkie Collins

... Lucifer, would you abuse My call for witnesses? I did not mean That you should half of Earth and Hell produce; 'Tis even superfluous, since two honest, clean, True testimonies are enough: we lose Our Time, nay, our Eternity, between The accusation and defence: if we Hear both, 'twill ...
— The Works of Lord Byron, Volume 4 • Lord Byron

... when he heard that his sister was trying to get his schoolmistress away from him he had flared up. 'Oh, but I don't think that your schoolmistress would suit a convent school. I shouldn't like my daughter—' 'What do you mean?' Her face changed expression, and in her nasty mincing manner she began to throw out hints that Nora Glynn would not suit the nuns. He could see that she was concealing something—there was something at the back of ...
— The Lake • George Moore

... may be over here, I can not keep pace with your noble acts of charity at home; but one of these days I mean to come out, and then if my feelings regarding money don't change and I have plenty, I shall become a strong competitor of yours ...
— A Portrait of Old George Town • Grace Dunlop Ecker

... mere knowledge only, were the cause of all that actual consciousness and non-consciousness on the part of Selfs which takes place in the world, it might be conceived either as the cause of both—i.e. consciousness and non-consciousness—and this would mean that there is everywhere and at all times simultaneous consciousness and non-consciousness. If, on the other hand, it were the cause of consciousness only, there would never and nowhere be unconsciousness of anything; and if it were the cause of non- consciousness only, there would never and nowhere ...
— The Vedanta-Sutras with the Commentary by Ramanuja - Sacred Books of the East, Volume 48 • Trans. George Thibaut

... slave, I think, and you—er—I mean, there goes the roof, and it is an uncommonly good thing for posterity you thought of the trap-door. Good thing the wind is veering, too. By Jove! look at those flames!" I cried, as the main body of the Continental toppled inward like a house ...
— The Cords of Vanity • James Branch Cabell et al

... Sahib?" she asked him squarely. "I see nothing foolish in what I have said. You wouldn't have me so conceited that I rushed into this immense business without a qualm, without any thought whether I can carry it out creditably—with credit to him, I mean?" ...
— Deadham Hard • Lucas Malet

... She took at once the ground that she had acquired no right from Spain, and had meant to deliver us none eastward of the Iberville, her silence as to the western boundary leaving us to infer her opinion might be against Spain in that quarter. Whatever direction she might mean to give to these differences, it does not appear that she has contemplated their proceeding to actual rupture, or that at the date of our last advices from Paris her Government had any suspicion of the hostile attitude Spain had taken ...
— A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents - Section 3 (of 4) of Volume 1: Thomas Jefferson • Edited by James D. Richardson

... these words, "Pray, my Lord, what am I to do for the pension?" he was assured by that nobleman that it was not given him for any thing he was to do, but for what he had done. The definition he had given of the word pension, in his dictionary, that in England it was generally understood to mean pay, given to a state hireling, for treason to his country, raised some further scruples whether he ought himself to become a pensioner; but they were removed by the arguments, or the persuasion of Mr. Reynolds, to whom he had recourse for advice in this dilemma. What advice Reynolds ...
— Lives of the English Poets - From Johnson to Kirke White, Designed as a Continuation of - Johnson's Lives • Henry Francis Cary

... that phenomenon," remarked Willoughby— "rather the reverse. Probably the person you speak of is a gentleman. Now, the man who is a gentleman by birth and culture—by which I mean a man of good family, who has not only gone through the curriculum of a university, but has graduated, so to speak, in society—such a one has every advantage in any conceivable situation. The records ...
— Such is Life • Joseph Furphy

... know what I mean," retorted Wally. "You chaps are never satisfied unless you're pulling my leg—it's a wonder I don't limp! But seriously, what a jolly rum life for a man ...
— A Little Bush Maid • Mary Grant Bruce

... a space the watchers on the wall Were silent, wond'ring what these things might mean. But, at the last, sent messengers to call Priam, and all the elders, and the lean Remnant of goodly chiefs, that once had been The shield and stay of Ilios, and her joy, Nor yet despair'd, but trusted Gods unseen, And cast their spears, and shed ...
— Helen of Troy • Andrew Lang

... man saying all this with a purpose? Did he know more than he told, and did he mean it for a warning? For it must have been in the parish of Kilgower where he had laid down the body of his wife. And it must have been Brownrig whom the "wee bowed wifie" had cursed. She grew sick at the thought of what might be coming upon ...
— Allison Bain - By a Way she knew not • Margaret Murray Robertson

... fiery love of her had spread, Diviner things he had not seen, She feared her woman's heart and head Were armed with charms and powers too mean To ...
— The Mistress of the Manse • J. G. Holland

... "You can't mean it, Piecola!" exclaimed the Signora, in evident consternation. "Stay at home!—why stay at home? Euchre is very well when there is nothing else to do: but change is pleasant; le bon Dieu ...
— The Parisians, Complete • Edward Bulwer-Lytton

... idols, which are set up and worshipped, instead of Allah the Most High, and from this we seek refuge with Allah." Q "What sayest thou of the words of the Most High 'Thou knowest what is in my soul, and I know not what is in Thy soul'"?[FN379] "They mean, 'Thou knowest the truth of me and what is in me, and I know not what is in Thee;' and the proof of this are His words,[FN380] 'Thou art He who wottest the hidden things'; and it is said, also, 'Thou knowest my essence, but I know not ...
— The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, Volume 5 • Richard F. Burton

... interview that I had with him I discovered that whilst he but vaguely suspected me to be St. Auban—and when I say "he suspected me" I mean he suspected him whose place I had taken—he was, nevertheless, aware of the profit which his captor, whoever he might be, derived from this business. It soon grew clear to me from what he said that St. Auban had mocked ...
— The Suitors of Yvonne • Raphael Sabatini

... they never whipped up business sufficiently to attract the required number of boarders. Nevertheless, I must admit that old Trigger, with all his faults and severity, was really good-hearted. He was a little sniffing, rasping man, with small, spare, feeble, bent figure; mean irregular features badly arranged round a formidable bent, broken red nose; thin straggling grey hair and long grey mutton-chop whiskers; constantly blinking little eyes and very assertive, energetic ...
— The Great White Queen - A Tale of Treasure and Treason • William Le Queux

... but, mixed up with us as they would be, they would have to fight whether they liked it or not. At any rate, if we don't mean to fight, ...
— With Frederick the Great - A Story of the Seven Years' War • G. A. Henty

... and rationalism mean? Reduced to their most pregnant difference, empiricism means the habit of explaining wholes by parts, and rationalism means the habit of explaining parts by wholes. Rationalism thus preserves affinities with monism, since wholeness goes with union, while ...
— A Pluralistic Universe - Hibbert Lectures at Manchester College on the - Present Situation in Philosophy • William James

... Piero know more about Marina than her own father knew? Did he profess to be a physician that one should credit his every word? What did he mean by his impudent boast of "dying for her, if need should be!" Had she not her husband and father to care for her? Her husband "who was denying her the only thing that could give her life and peace," Piero had said.—What was the matter with his insulting words, that he could not forget them?—Had ...
— A Golden Book of Venice • Mrs. Lawrence Turnbull

... alio sub sole, are not likely to bring beauty of colour to their pictures—that the fables of Eastern skies are, with regard to art, fables; and though there is now always an attempt, and that by no mean powers, to drag the spectators at our exhibitions under the very chariot of the sun, "sub curru nimium propinqui solis," real beauty of colour will be found much ...
— Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 58, Number 360, October 1845 • Various

... to denote a basis for a plan, signifies "the taking of something for granted". It does not mean a conjecture, guess, or probability. The proposed action, resulting from a decision made under an assumption, is designed to be taken only upon the disclosure of the truth of the assumption. The fact that the assumption upon ...
— Sound Military Decision • U.s. Naval War College

... we couldn't post up there. We have no ladders that would reach; in fact we have no ladders at all. I mean the farmer has no ladders ...
— The Circus Boys on the Plains • Edgar B. P. Darlington

... of us feared for an instant that this might mean not enough to eat. But fortunately this was not the case. There was plenty, but all of a milky, bunny, fruity, vegetable sort. We soon got used to it, and liked it ...
— New Treasure Seekers - or, The Bastable Children in Search of a Fortune • E. (Edith) Nesbit

... "I know I owe you money, so much money. I shall pay it. I mean to pay it all. At first I could not. I could not earn it. I tried. Oh, I tried SO hard! In London I tried and tried, but all the companies were filled, it was late in the season and I—no one would have me. Then I got this chance through an agency. ...
— Kent Knowles: Quahaug • Joseph C. Lincoln

... must mean "antarctic." "Arctic" is used figuratively for "cold," but not as a synonym ...
— The Works of Lord Byron - Poetry, Volume V. • Lord Byron

... God inspires great praise, and in great praise small cares and small meannesses are utterly consumed away. When praise is mean, anxieties multiply. Therefore let me contemplate the greatness of God in nature and in providence, in His power, and His holiness, and His love. Let me "stand in awe" before His glory: and in the fruitful reverence the soul will ...
— My Daily Meditation for the Circling Year • John Henry Jowett

... devil?" she asked. " How do you mean?" She was palpably interested for his answer. She waited for his reply for an interval, and then she asked him outright. " Rufus Coleman do you mean that I am not a ...
— Active Service • Stephen Crane

... the star which they had seen in the east went before them, until it stood over the place where the young child was—he who was born King of kings. They had travelled many a long and weary mile; "and what had they come for to see?" Instead of a sumptuous palace, a mean and lowly dwelling; in place of a monarch surrounded by his guards and ministers and all the terrors of his state, an infant wrapped in swaddling clothes and laid upon his mother's knee, between the ox and the ass. They had come, perhaps, from some far-distant savage land, or from some nation calling ...
— Legends of the Madonna • Mrs. Jameson

... consistently might we disturb the harmonious operation of some complex machinery, as to act in opposition to the great fundamental law of human nature—viz: that every created being, endowed with a ruling passion, should seek its legitimate gratification. By legitimate gratification, I mean, that indulgence which interferes not with the enjoyments or interests of others. The miser should not accumulate his gold at the expense of another; the libertine should not revel in beauty's arms, by force; the lady must make a willing sacrifice—thus ...
— Venus in Boston; - A Romance of City Life • George Thompson

... to embroil himself with political enemies at home. His own and his father's intimate acquaintance with failure in the planting of Virginia and of Newfoundland had taught him what not to do in such enterprises. If the proprietor meant to succeed (and he did mean to) he was shut up without alternative to the policy of impartial non-interference with religious differences among his colonists, and the promotion of mutual forbearance among sects. Lord Baltimore may not have been a profound political philosopher ...
— A History of American Christianity • Leonard Woolsey Bacon

... "I didn't mean anything," said Jack, in a melancholy tone of voice. "It was all Eva's doing. I never cared twopence whether the old fellows were deposited or not, but I do think that if your own time had come near, I shouldn't ...
— The Fixed Period • Anthony Trollope

... go, probing your nose into everybody's business. You may be a keen fellow in commerce, but in diplomacy you are impertinent and quite beside yourself. You better be off from here, inasmuch as I am the biggest toad in this puddle, and mean to remain so. We are not inclined to know anything about Mr. Smooth; so the quicker he packs himself and his baggage up and is off from this, the better.' The earnestness with which he said this left me no reason to doubt his intention to remain the biggest ...
— The Adventures of My Cousin Smooth • Timothy Templeton

... that we will obey you, and acknowledge you for our sovereign in place of the great lord whom you mention, and that there shall be no default or deception on our part. And you have the power in all this land, I mean wherever my power extends, to command what is your pleasure, and it shall be done in obedience thereto, and all that we have is at your disposal. And since you are in your own proper land and your own house, rest and refresh yourself after the toils of your journey, ...
— South American Fights and Fighters - And Other Tales of Adventure • Cyrus Townsend Brady

... hold of his nick-nacks and hangings again. But Fagerolles had borrowed money on them, so it seems. You can imagine the state of affairs; the dealer accuses the artist of having spoilt his game by exhibiting with the vanity of a giddy fool; while the painter replies that he doesn't mean to be robbed any longer; and they'll end by devouring each other—at least, I ...
— His Masterpiece • Emile Zola

... mother, reprovingly, "do you mean to say there aren't any Christians in Montana City? How you talk! There are lots of good Christian people there, though I must say I have my doubts about that new Christian Science church they started last spring." "The term, Mrs. Thorndike, was used in its ...
— The Spenders - A Tale of the Third Generation • Harry Leon Wilson

... and a brother and niece. They landed in New York in August; and, after some difficulties and hardships on account of poverty, finally settled in what appears to have been then a wilderness, "the woods of Watervliet, near Niskeyuna, about seven miles northwest of Albany." In the mean time Ann Lee had supported herself by washing and ironing in New York, and her husband had misconducted himself so grossly toward her that they finally separated, he going off ...
— The Communistic Societies of the United States • Charles Nordhoff

... against the rail near where Jim Finch was pinned. Big Finch was howling and weeping with fright; and a little man of the crew with a rat's mean soul who hated Finch had found his hour. He was leaping about the mate, lashing him mercilessly with a heavy end of rope; and Finch screamed and twisted ...
— All the Brothers Were Valiant • Ben Ames Williams

... systems being that the rewards of political service bestowed in England not only entail no expense upon the taxpayers, but actually, I believe, bring a certain amount in the way of fees into the Treasury, whereas in France such rewards mean a steady ...
— France and the Republic - A Record of Things Seen and Learned in the French Provinces - During the 'Centennial' Year 1889 • William Henry Hurlbert

... "I mean that if the men in question are not taken back before to-morrow noon, every man, woman, and child in the employ of the Rathbawne Mills will be out on strike. The question is, what is Peter Rathbawne prepared ...
— The Lieutenant-Governor • Guy Wetmore Carryl

... Roussillon. There she is received with honor, takes state upon her in her husband's absence as the "lady of the land," administers justice, and rules her lord's dominions so wisely and so well, that she is universally loved and reverenced by his subjects. In the mean time, the Count, instead of rejoining her, flies to Tuscany, and the rest of the story is closely followed in the drama. The beauty, wisdom, and royal demeanor of Giletta are charmingly described, as well as her ...
— Characteristics of Women - Moral, Poetical, and Historical • Anna Jameson

... Osmanlis, be it remembered, were and are foreigners in a great part of their Asiatic empire equally with the Greeks of Byzantium or the Romans of Italy; and their establishment in Constantinople nearly five centuries ago did not mean to the indigenous peoples of the Near East what it meant to Europe—a victory of the East over the West—so much as a continuation of immemorial 'Roman' dominion still exercised from the same imperial centre. Since Rome first spread its shadow over the Near East, ...
— The Balkans - A History Of Bulgaria—Serbia—Greece—Rumania—Turkey • Nevill Forbes, Arnold J. Toynbee, D. Mitrany, D.G. Hogarth

... the same thing a hundred times; and yet, at the bottom of my heart, I know we cannot fight—not while this cloud of uncertainty hangs over us. To fight, with this power in the hands of Germany, would mean more than defeat—it would mean annihilation. There would be other statues to be draped ...
— The Destroyer - A Tale of International Intrigue • Burton Egbert Stevenson

... bite that is very painful, and when hundreds of thousands of ants are biting a man all at once, the feeling is something fearful. The ant-hill torture was generally successful. After submitting to it for a time, the bushranger generally gave up the secret of the whereabouts of his gold. I do not mean to say that all the police officials indulged in this harsh treatment, but it is certain that many ...
— The Land of the Kangaroo - Adventures of Two Youths in a Journey through the Great Island Continent • Thomas Wallace Knox

... she was of a world to which the rest of his attendants did not belong. 'Twas not that she was of greatly superior education and manners, since all those who waited upon him had been carefully chosen; 'twas that she seemed to love him more gravely than did the others, and to mean a deeper thing when she called him "my lord Marquess." She was a pock-marked woman (she having taken the disease from her late husband the Chaplain, who had died of that scourge), and in her earliest bloom could have been ...
— His Grace of Osmonde • Frances Hodgson Burnett

... leader in those wanderings from the right path; that their community has been opposed all through to the adoption of the theories which led to them, have spurned them with contempt, and even refused to inquire into them: with these thoughts and recollections in his mind, he may understand what we mean when we assert that the Irish have stubbornly refused to enter upon the European movement. Although, by the reception of Christianity, they were admitted into the European family, the Christianity which ...
— Irish Race in the Past and the Present • Aug. J. Thebaud

... of Bologna was founded before 1200 for the untrammelled study of medicine and philosophy; Abelard, who died in 1142, represented, to put it pithily, the spirit of free inquiry in matters theological, and lectured to thousands in Paris. What do these men and movements mean? I am wofully wrong in my ethnographical calculations if these things do not mean, that the people of whom Tacitus wrote, "No man dictates to the assembly; he may persuade but cannot command," were shaping and moulding the life of Europe, ...
— Germany and the Germans - From an American Point of View (1913) • Price Collier

... horseshoeing in south Germany fell back very quickly, and loses all scientific holds of support after the thirty years war. In the mean time toe protection in the form of a calk had spread from the colder north over southern Germany; whereas this north German invention did not find favor in England in consequence ...
— Scientific American Supplement No. 819 - Volume XXXII, Number 819. Issue Date September 12, 1891 • Various

... mean time, let us rejoice,' said Fausta, 'that the noble Calpurnius joins our cause. If we may judge by the eye, the soft life of a Persian Satrap has not quite exhausted ...
— Zenobia - or, The Fall of Palmyra • William Ware

... visitor, quickly, "I don't quite know what you mean. One who professes to be an infidel professes more or less intelligent disbelief in the Bible, yet you admit that you have never studied the book which you profess to disbelieve—much less, I suppose, have you studied ...
— Dusty Diamonds Cut and Polished - A Tale of City Arab Life and Adventure • R.M. Ballantyne

... which I gave out: 'The Christian must be born twice;' and also read the Scriptures in chapter iii of the Gospel St. John, and explain to them. I said if a man in this world born twice, he only die once, and if a man born once he die twice. I mean if a man born twice he must born again of the spirit; his soul shall save; that is, he only die once. If a man born once his body shall die and his soul also perish; that is, he die twice. After the meeting was pass one of the old gentleman ...
— American Missionary, Volume 43, No. 1, January, 1889 • Various

... wanderings, he found himself at length in Asia Minor, and he made his way at last to the kingdom of Bithynia, on the northern shore. The name of the king of Bithynia was Nicomedes. Caesar joined himself to Nicomedes's court, and entered into his service. In the mean time, Sylla had ceased to pursue him, and ultimately granted him a pardon, but whether before or after this time is not now to be ascertained. At all events, Caesar became interested in the scenes and enjoyments of Nicomedes's court, and allowed the ...
— History of Julius Caesar • Jacob Abbott

... you mean?" asked Panda angrily. "Have you not heard this low fellow, whom I made great, giving him the rule over tribes and my daughter in marriage, confess with his own lips that he murdered his child, the child of my blood, in order that he might eat a fruit which grew by the roadside ...
— Child of Storm • H. Rider Haggard

... de Rome, which the poor boy had struggled so long to win, and now did not care so much for, as going to Italy would mean to leave Paris. On August 23, 1830, he ...
— The World's Great Men of Music - Story-Lives of Master Musicians • Harriette Brower

... last exquisite cadences died away, Van Berg saw that there were tears in her eyes. What did they mean? "Stanton repeated my harsh words and she recalls them," was the best explanation he could think of. "By the fates!" he exclaimed, "if there isn't Sibley with a toilet as spotless as he is himself smirched and blackened. Curse him! he actually has the impudence ...
— A Face Illumined • E. P. Roe

... "What do you mean? Is the duchess ill? I got a letter from her yesterday, in which she said she was quite well. It met me at Marseilles. She continues well. I hope? Why don't you speak?" ...
— The Lost Lady of Lone • E.D.E.N. Southworth

... For I mean to grow as little as the dolly at the helm, And the dolly I intend to come alive; And with him beside to help me, it's a-sailing I shall go, It's a-sailing on the water, when the jolly breezes blow And ...
— Pinafore Palace • Various

... I'm tired of these mixing wax and realities together. Here's a man's head four feet across in this glass case. What does it mean?" ...
— The Adventures of Uncle Jeremiah and Family at the Great Fair - Their Observations and Triumphs • Charles McCellan Stevens (AKA 'Quondam')

... keep out of it, Merritt Crawford," said the elder lad, a hulking, thick-set youth with a mean look on his heavy features. "I'm just reading this kid here a lesson. This orchard is my father's and mine and you'll keep out of it in future or suffer the ...
— The Boy Scouts of the Eagle Patrol • Howard Payson

... and seemed busied like a woman who puts on her cloak to go abroad, then dropped them slowly and stiffly; and the same idea of a journey still floating apparently through her head, she proceeded, in a hurried and interrupted manner,"Call Miss NevilleWhat do you mean by Lady Geraldin? I said Eveline Neville, not Lady Geraldin there's no Lady Geraldin; tell her that, and bid her change her wet gown, and no' look sae pale. Bairn! what should she do wi' a bairn?maidens hae nane, I trow.TeresaTeresamy lady calls us!Bring a candle; the grand ...
— The Antiquary, Complete • Sir Walter Scott

... politician of no mean order, asked the major what he thought would be the effect of the ...
— The Life and Adventures of Maj. Roger Sherman Potter • "Pheleg Van Trusedale"

... ordeal of labor with natural courage and normal fortitude. It would be "the making of them," it would make new women out of them, it would start them out on the road to real living. At the same time we do not mean to advocate that women should suffer unnecessary pain in childbirth any more than we allow them to ...
— The Mother and Her Child • William S. Sadler

... of what she declared. When asked if she had ever been charged with any offence, she replied, 'O yes, sir, some time back I was accused of stealing a watch from a house, but I did not do it.' The magistrate observed, that the father should be made acquainted with the circumstance, and, in the mean time, gave the gaoler instructions that the two little delinquents should be taken ...
— The Infant System - For Developing the Intellectual and Moral Powers of all Children, - from One to Seven years of Age • Samuel Wilderspin

... a confused statement, after what just precedes it and according to the evidence of Father Chirino (see VOL. XII, chapter vii). Morga must mean that they wore no cloak or covering when they went outside the house, as did the Tagals (both men and women), who used a kind of cape.—Rizal. [This is the sense in which Stanley understood and ...
— History of the Philippine Islands Vols 1 and 2 • Antonio de Morga

... In the mean time, in order to supply money all Italy was pillaged, the provinces ruined, both the people in alliance with us and the states which are called free. Even the gods were not exempt from plunder on this occasion, their temples ...
— The Great Events by Famous Historians, Volume 03 • Various

... offered. 'That I should very early tell thee of his favor, kindness' sounds well; but 'his' is badly placed to limit 'est.'—Perhaps, 'eft' with verbs of saying may have the force of Lat. prefix 're,' and the H.-So. reading mean, 'that I should its origin rehearse ...
— Beowulf - An Anglo-Saxon Epic Poem • The Heyne-Socin

... just been in with the good tidings that he has heard Macquarie and the Bluff (New Zealand) sending their weather reports and exchanging signals. Can this mean that they have heard our recent signals and are trying to get us now? Our motor has ...
— South! • Sir Ernest Shackleton

... and I was just dyin' to know if they was gettin' ready for Edith's weddin'. We heard it had been put off, and so I asked him out straight if he saw much sewin' around. 'They were sewin' onion seed,' says he. He seems kinda stoopid sometimes. But I says to him, makin' it as plain as I could, 'I mean, did ye see any sewin' around the house, did ye see anything in the line of sewin?' because I know people often put it away, but if he was half smart he'd see the bastin' threads or somethin', so I says, 'Did you see anythin' ...
— The Second Chance • Nellie L. McClung

... the one thus addressed. "I'm afraid you boys failed to get what I was driving at. I didn't mean there was no such thing as mystery. That depends on your point of view. It is only people who are easily startled or confused by unusual things who are easily mystified. I don't mean to say that it would be impossible to ...
— The Radio Boys in the Thousand Islands • J. W. Duffield

... know how your brother goes on. Is he likely to make a very good fortune, and in how long a time? And how is he, in the way of home comforts?—I mean, is he very happy with Mrs. Stoddart? This was a question I could not ask while you were there, and perhaps is not a fair one now; but I want to know how you all went on—and, in short, twenty little foolish questions that one ought, perhaps, rather to ask when we meet, than to write about. ...
— The Works of Charles and Mary Lamb, Vol. 5 • Edited by E. V. Lucas

... Rollant feels he's no more time to seek; Looking to Spain, he lies on a sharp peak, And with one hand upon his breast he beats: "Mea Culpa! God, by Thy Virtues clean Me from my sins, the mortal and the mean, Which from the hour that I was born have been Until this day, when life is ended here!" Holds out his glove towards God, as he speaks Angels descend from heaven ...
— The Song of Roland • Anonymous

... you mean rather as to the railways. Great fortunes will be made there, sir; but still I think that our ...
— The Caxtons, Complete • Edward Bulwer-Lytton

... a counter measure to the French preparations;[42] German military preparations, by July 30, had in fact gone far beyond the preliminary stage which she thus indicated.[43] Germany had already warned England, France, and Russia that, if Russia mobilized, this would mean German mobilization against both France and Russia.[44] But on July 27, Russia had explained that her mobilization would in no sense be directed against Germany, and would only take place if Austrian forces crossed the Servian frontier.[45] On July 29, the day on which Russia actually mobilized ...
— Why We Are At War (2nd Edition, revised) • Members of the Oxford Faculty of Modern History

... he fin' dat out. He is wan devil, dat ole man. I lak firs'-rate help you; I lak' dat hundred dollar. On Ojibway countree dey make hees nam' Wagosh—dat mean ...
— Conjuror's House - A Romance of the Free Forest • Stewart Edward White

... Eby," she giggled, "you're just like Aunt Maria says still you are—always cuttin' up and talkin' so abody don't know if you mean it or what. Goin' in to town, ...
— Patchwork - A Story of 'The Plain People' • Anna Balmer Myers

... contrasts, so to speak, should be as soft as is consistent with decisive effect. We mean, that a gradual change is better than instantaneous transfiguration; for, though always less effective, it is more agreeable. But this must be left very much ...
— The Poetry of Architecture • John Ruskin

... of situations exist, but in general, most countries make the following claims measured from the mean low-tide baseline as described in the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea: territorial sea - 12 nm, contiguous zone - 24 nm, and exclusive economic zone - 200 nm; additional zones provide for exploitation of continental ...
— The 2007 CIA World Factbook • United States

... additional land which would be required. It is melancholy to think that this 22 pounds, and the price of the additional land must, in thousands of cases, have determined the health and morality of the inmates. I do not mean to say that this pecuniary difference is a slight matter, but still I do think it is somehow or other to be provided for. There is always this to be considered, that the better the tenement, the more it will be cared for. In the same Committee I have mentioned before, ...
— The Claims of Labour - an essay on the duties of the employers to the employed • Arthur Helps

... Sally Meeker?" was the reply. "Oh, you mean the hoss? Why she's gone up the flume. Broke her neck the first heat. But ole Sim Salper is never a-goin' to fret hisself to a shadder about it. He struck it pizen in the mine she was named a'ter and the stock's gone up from nothin' out o' sight. You couldn't tech ...
— The Collected Works of Ambrose Bierce, Volume 8 - Epigrams, On With the Dance, Negligible Tales • Ambrose Bierce

... "I mean rested. Frank lad, we had a narrow escape of our lives last night. I hear already that about fifty dragoons were more ...
— In Honour's Cause - A Tale of the Days of George the First • George Manville Fenn

... ghost; yet every nerve I have is unstrung: for a moment I am beyond my own mastery. What does it mean? I did not think I should tremble in this way when I saw him, or lose my voice or the power of motion in his presence. I will go back as soon as I can stir: I need not make an absolute fool of myself. I know another way to the house. It does not signify if I knew twenty ways; ...
— Jane Eyre - an Autobiography • Charlotte Bronte

... falling, for instance, a woman (although doubtless helped by the tight skirts of the day) cannot extricate herself. She is caught in the pommels or entangled by the stirrups, both of which calamities mean dragging, and often result in a ...
— A Girl's Ride in Iceland • Ethel Brilliana Alec-Tweedie

... 'Do you mean the lady who is with that man wrapped up from head to foot in a large cloak, so that ...
— Life And Adventures Of Martin Chuzzlewit • Charles Dickens

... adjustment of its 0 deg. to the surface of the mercury in the cistern, was found to be most certain in its results. All the barometers used by the parties in the field were therefore reduced to this by their mean differences. ...
— A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents: Tyler - Section 2 (of 3) of Volume 4: John Tyler • Compiled by James D. Richardson

... expression to the feelings which for several generations had clustered around the sacred text. They spoke with the voice of a people, which is more than the voice of the most highly gifted man. They spoke with the voice of a people to whom the Bible had come to mean all that it meant to the men who wrote it. To the Englishmen who listened to Latimer, to the Scotchmen who listened to Knox, the Bible more than filled the place which in modern times is filled by poem and essay, by novel ...
— The Beginnings of New England - Or the Puritan Theocracy in its Relations to Civil and Religious Liberty • John Fiske

... mouth. Slovens and incompetents raged against him; the weak-minded strove to lure him from the ways of justice; the small-minded—yea, men whom Cottar believed would never do "things no fellow can do"—imputed motives mean and circuitous to actions that he had not spent a thought upon; and he tasted injustice, and it made him very sick. But his consolation came on parade, when he looked down the full companies, and reflected how few were in hospital or cells, and ...
— The Day's Work, Volume 1 • Rudyard Kipling

... European states upon the subject of visit or search. These states will naturally make their own commentary on the treaty of Washington, and draw their own inferences from the fact that such a treaty has been entered into. Its stipulations, in the mean time, are plain, explicit, and satisfactory to both parties, and will be fulfilled on the part of the United States, and, it is not doubted, on the part of Great Britain also, with the ...
— The Great Speeches and Orations of Daniel Webster • Daniel Webster

... elegant but baseless theory, has been evolved through ages of past drinking, is proving itself intemperate when its members are exposed in towns to the industrial conditions which look like national success and the continuance of which would mean ...
— Woman and Womanhood - A Search for Principles • C. W. Saleeby

... is represented as the sister of Guenther the King of Burgundy; the gallant Siegfried having heard of her surpassing beauty, resolves to woo her for his bride, but all his splendid achievements fail to secure her favors. In the mean time tidings reach the court of the fame of the beautiful Brunhild, queen of Isenland, of her matchless courage and strength; every suitor for her hand being forced to abide three combats with her, and if vanquished to suffer a cruel death. Guenther resolves to try his fortune, and to win her ...
— Handbook of Universal Literature - From The Best and Latest Authorities • Anne C. Lynch Botta

... that if they can find the means to keep England in subjection, they would do more with the land than with all the rest of his kingdoms. I speak not of any fool's communication, but of the wisest, and that no mean persons. Yea, and they trust that there shall means be found before that time to despatch the Lady Elizabeth well enough by the help of assured traitors, as they have already in England plenty, and then they may the more easier destroy ...
— The Reign of Mary Tudor • James Anthony Froude

... agrarian maximum; and we cannot but ask whether the legislators dealt altogether honourably, and whether they did not on the contrary designedly evade a solution, really tending to the common benefit, of the unhappy question of the domains. We do not mean, however, to express any doubt that the regulations of the Licinian laws, such as they were, might and did substantially benefit the small farmer and the day-labourer. It must, moreover, be acknowledged that in the period immediately succeeding the passing of the law ...
— The History of Rome (Volumes 1-5) • Theodor Mommsen

... "I mean, would you always hold me as much your friend, always care for me as much as you do now—if, indeed, you care for me at all—if any one else ...
— Lippincott's Magazine, Vol. XVII, No. 99, March, 1876 • Various

... idea that no one will have much influence over Alexina as time goes on. She hasn't that jaw and chin for nothing. They mean things in ...
— The Sisters-In-Law • Gertrude Atherton

... They are not the first to turn back, as a rule; but they like wind and mist even less than we do. The guides know what wind and mist mean." ...
— No Hero • E.W. Hornung

... king of Portugal, to propose entering into a treaty of peace and commerce advantageous for the king and city of Malacca. The king sent back a message in dubious language, such as is usual among the orientals when they mean to act treacherously, as some of the Moorish merchants, from enmity to the Portuguese, had prevailed upon him and his favourite Bandara, by means of rich presents, to destroy Lopez and the Portuguese. On the third day, Lopez sent Hierom Teixeyra in the character ...
— A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Volume VI - Early English Voyages Of Discovery To America • Robert Kerr

... with the courses; as, by contributing for odes, the best of which should be rewarded by medals. Our nobility would find their vanity gratified; for, as the pedigrees of their steeds would soon grow tiresome, their own genealogies would replace them; and, in the mean time, poetry and medals would be improved. Their lordships would have judgment enough to know if their horse (which should be the impression on one side) were not well executed; and, as I hold that there is no being more ...
— Letters of Horace Walpole, V4 • Horace Walpole

... as his own. This sympathy of the members of the holy family toward each other, is strongly enforced, and beautifully illustrated by St. Paul. "Ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich. I mean not that other men may be eased, and you burdened; but by an equality, that now at this time your abundance may be a supply for their want, that their abundance also may be a supply for your want, that there may be equality; as It is written: "He that ...
— Christian Devotedness • Anthony Norris Groves

... in this century he went with camera to photograph the life of land, cattle, horses, and men on the big ranches of West Texas. In him feeling and perspective of artist were fused with technical mastership. "I don't mean," wrote Tom Lea, "that he made just the best photographs I ever saw on the subject. I mean the best pictures. That includes paintings, drawings, prints." On 9 by 12 pages of 100-pound antique finish paper, the photographs are ...
— Guide to Life and Literature of the Southwest • J. Frank Dobie

... I know. He's an awful ass, as I said before, one of the few supreme fools who never think of themselves. I knew that he was caught all right ages back in Switzerland, and—being a low hound of mean instincts—I set to ...
— Greatheart • Ethel M. Dell



Words linked to "Mean" :   destine, arithmetic mean, think, mean deviation from the mean, geometric mean, drive, symbolise, mean deviation, intend, meaning, harmonic mean, designate, beggarly, propose, average, link, imply, typify, mean solar time, ungenerous, name, Greenwich Mean Time, mean sun, golden mean, link up, mean time, have in mind, purpose, hateful, spell, advert, first moment, get, cant, relate, represent, design, jargon, connect, expected value, be after, mean solar day, patois, signify, mention, aim, skilled



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