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Measure; limit; boundary; -- used chiefly in the plural, and in the phrase metes and bounds.

Lit., mine; that which is mine; -- used in the phrase meum et tuum, or meum and tuum; as, to confound meum and tuum, to fail to distinguish one's own property from that of others; to be dishonest.

ctly to say -- "I love you." Shak. Siren, now mince the sin, And mollify damnation with a phrase. Dryden. If, to mince his meaning, I had either omitted some part of what he said, or taken from the strength of his expression, I certainly had wronged him. Dryden.

Hence: Any place regarded as a source of unlimited supply; the supply itself. A mint of phrases in his brain. Shak.

Prevailing popular custom; fashion, especially in the phrase the mode. The easy, apathetic graces of a man of the mode. Macaulay.

sation or equivalent given instead of payment of tithes in kind, expressed in full by the phrase modus decimandi. Blackstone. They, from time immemorial, had paid a modus, or composition. Landor. Modus operandi ( Etym: [L.], manner of operating.

, one only] give silver to the poore freres. Chaucer. So mote it be, so be it; amen; -- a phrase in some rituals, as that of the Freemasons.

The theme or subject; a leading phrase or passage which is reproduced and varied through the course of a comor a movement; a short figure, or melodic germ, out of which a whole movement is develpoed. See also Leading motive, under Leading. [Written also motivo.]

er of movement; particularly, movement with increased rapidity; -- used especially in the phrase con moto, directing to a somewhat quicker movement; as, andante con moto, a little more rapidly than andante, etc.

A sentence, phrase, or word, forming part of an heraldic achievment.

dly big or swelling; to speak in a strained or unnaturally sonorous manner. "Mouthing big phrases." Hare. Mouthing out his hollow oes and aes. Tennyson.

ecated sweeping and unjust charges of corruption against public men and corporations. The phrase was taken up by the press, and the verb to muck"rake`, in the above sense, and the noun muck"rak`er, to designate one so engaged, were speedily coined and obtained wide currency. The original allusion was to a character in…

r, a pimp [Low & Obs.] Chapman. -- To return to one's muttons. Etym: [A translation of a phrase from a farce by De Brueys, revenons à nos moutons let us return to our sheep.] To return to one's topic, subject of discussion, etc. [Humorous] I willingly return to my muttons. H. R. Haweis.

so, but; -- used to mark the addition or substitution of a more explicit or more emphatic phrase.

laws, were produced the several planets, satellites, and other bodies of the system. The phrase may indicate any hypothesis according to which the stars or the bodies of the solar system have been evolved from a widely diffused nebulous form of matter.

A new word, phrase, or expression.

An innovation or novelty; a neoteric word or phrase.

A short turn in a rope. Nip and tuck, a phrase signifying equality in a contest. [Low, U.S.]

The one or single occasion; the present call or purpose; -- chiefly used in the phrase for the nonce. The miller was a stout carl for the nones. Chaucer. And that he calls for drink, I 'll have prepared him A chalice for the nonce. Shak. Nonce word, "a word apparently employed only for the nonce". Murray (New English D…

A word, phrase, or clause toward which an action is directed, or is considered to be directed; as, the object of a transitive verb. Object glass, the lens, or system of lenses, placed at the end of a telescope, microscope, etc., which is toward the object. Its office is to form an image of the object, which is then vie…