Search the Dictionary

ed from a solid to a liquid state under the influence of heat; as, butter and wax melt at moderate temperatures.

Having teeth of moderate size.

Of middle rank, state, size, or quality; about equally distant from the extremes; medium; moderate; mediocre; ordinary. "A town of but middling size." Hallam. Plainly furnished, as beseemed the middling circumstances of its inhabitants. Hawthorne. -- Mid"dling*ly, adv. -- Mid"dling*ness, n.

Gentle; pleasant; kind; soft; bland; clement; hence, moderate in degree or quality; -- the opposite of harsh, severe, irritating, violent, disagreeable, etc.; -- applied to persons and things; as, a mild disposition; a mild eye; a mild air; a mild medicine; a mild insanity. The rosy morn resigns her light And milder gl…

culiar rules; especially, such an association of knights in the Middle Ages, or a body in modern times taking a similar form, membership of which confers some distinction. -- Military tenure, tenure of land, on condition of performing military service.

Originally, a painting in colors such as those in mediæval manuscripts; in modern times, any very small painting, especially a portrait.

poetry and music, and sang verses to the accompaniment of a harp or other instrument; in modern times, a poet; a bard; a singer and harper; a musician. Chaucer.

stly in the actor, author, or speaker; not showing presumption; not excessive or extreme; moderate; as, a modest request; modest joy.

The quality or state of being modest; that lowly temper which accompanies a moderate estimate of one's own worth and importance; absence of self-assertion, arrogance, and presumption; humility respecting one's own merit.

Moderateness; smallness; meanness. [Obs.]

To limit or reduce in extent or degree; to moderate; to qualify; to lower. Of his grace He modifies his first severe decree. Dryden.

Moderately wet; damp; humid; not dry; as, a moist atmosphere or air. "Moist eyes." Shak.

A moderate degree of wetness. Bacon.

lectric motor. An electric motor forms an integral part of many machine tools in numerous modern machine shops.

Slimy; moist, and moderately viscous.

of Egypt. No botanist now believes that genuine mummy wheat has been made to germinate in modern times. -- To beat to a mummy, to beat to a senseless mass; to beat soundly.

An extemporaneous funeral song, composed and sung by a woman on the death of a friend. [Modern Greece]

A term used by modern archæologists instead of cella. See Cella.

e under person, n. -- Natural philosophy, originally, the study of nature in general; in modern usage, that branch of physical science, commonly called physics, which treats of the phenomena and laws of matter and considers those effects only which are unaccompanied by any change of a chemical nature; -- contrasted wi…

about 1,220 cubic centimeters, being about midway between that of the Pithecanthropus and modern man. Hence, designating the Neanderthal race, or man, a species supposed to have been widespread in paleolithic Europe.