mean

MEAN, adjective [Latin communis, vulgus, minor and minuo.]1. Wanting dignity; low in rank or birth; as a man of mean parentage, mean birth or origin.2. Wanting dignity of mind; low minded; base; destitute of honor; spiritless.Can you imagine I so mean could prove, To save my life by changing of my love?3. Contemptible; despicable.The Roman legions and great Caesar foundOur fathers no mean foes.4. Of little value; low in worth or estimation; worthy of little or no regard.We fast, not to please men, nor to promote any mean worldly interest.5. Of little value; humble; poor; as a mean abode; a mean dress.MEAN, adjective [Latin medium, medius.]1. Middle; at an equal distance from the extremes; as the means distance; the mean proportion between quantities; the mean ratio.According to the fittest style of lofty, mean or lowly.2. Intervening; intermediate; coming between; as in the mean time or while.MEAN, noun The middle point or place; the middle rate or degree; mediocrity; medium. Observe the golden mean There is a mean in all things.But no authority of gods or menAllow of any mean in poesy.1. Intervening time; interval of time; interim; meantime.And in the mean vouchsafe her honorable tomb.Here is an omission of time or while.2. Measure; regulation. [Not in use.]3. Instrument; that which is used to effect an object; the medium through which something is done.The virtuous conversation of christians was a mean to work the conversion of the heathen to Christ.In this sense, means, in the plural, is generally used, and often with a definitive and verb in the singular.By this means he had them more at vantage.A good character, when established, should not be rested on as an end, but employed as a means of doing good.4. Means, in the plural, income, revenue, resources, substance or estate, considered as the instrument of effecting any purpose. He would have built a house, but he wanted means.Your means are slender.5. Instrument of action or performance.By all means, without fail. Go, by all means.By no 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.By no manner of means, by no means; not the least.By any means, possibly; at all.If by any means I might attain to the resurrection of the dead. Philippians 3:11.MEANtimeMEANwhile, in the intervening time. [In this use of these words there is an omission of in or in the; in the meantime.]MEAN, verb transitive preterit tense and participle passive meant; pronounced ment. [Latin mens; Eng.mind; Latin intendo, propono.]1. To have in the mind, view or contemplation; to intend.What mean you by this service? Exodus 12:26.2. To intend; to purpose; to design, with reference to a future act.Ye thought evil against me, but God meant it for good. Genesis 1:1.3. To signify; to indicate.What mean these seven ewe lambs? Genesis 21:29.What meaneth the noise of this great shout in the camp of the Hebrews? 1 Samuel 4:6.Go ye, and learn what that meaneth-- Matthew 9:13.MEAN, verb intransitive To have thought or ideas; or to have meaning