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Originally, a napkin; later, an ornamental band or scarf worn upon the left arm as a part of the vestments of a priest in the Roman Catholic Church. It is sometimes worn in the English Church service.

tone; a variety of calcite, capable of being polished and used for architectural and ornamental purposes. The color varies from white to black, being sometimes yellow, red, and green, and frequently beautifully veined or clouded. The name is also given to other rocks of like use and appearance, as serpentine or verd an…

A follower of Marcion, a Gnostic of the second century, who adopted the Oriental notion of the two conflicting principles, and imagined that between them there existed a third power, neither wholly good nor evil, the Creator of the world and of man, and the God of the Jewish dispensation. Brande & C.…

hey differ from ordinary mammals in having the corpus callosum very small, in being implacental, and in having their young born while very immature. The female generally carries the young for some time after birth in an external pouch, or marsupium. Called also Marsupiata.

An ornamental border made of paper, pasterboard, metal, etc., put under the glass which covers a framed picture; as, the mat of a daguerreotype. Mat grass. (Bot.) (a) A low, tufted, European grass (Nardus stricta). (b) Same as Matweed. -- Mat rush (Bot.), a kind of rush (Scirpus lacustris) used in England for making m…

ence: Pertaining to, or affecting, the physical nature of man, as distinguished from the mental or moral nature; relating to the bodily wants, interests, and comforts.

An ornamental border. See 3d Mat, 4.

Tearful; easily moved to tears; exciting to tears; excessively sentimental; weak and silly. "Maudlin eyes." Dryden. "Maudlin eloquence." Roscommon. "A maudlin poetess." Pope. "Maudlin crowd." Southey.

Pertaining to a mausoleum; monumental.

Easily disgusted; squeamish; sentimentally fastidious. J. H. Newman.

perty, 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.

ion; pertaining to the quantitative relations of force and matter, as distinguished from mental, vital, chemical, etc.; as, mechanical principles; a mechanical theory; mechanical deposits.

Like a medusa; having the fundamental structure of a medusa, but without a locomotive disk; -- said of the sessile gonophores of hydroids. -- n.

A form of mental alienation in which the patient has grandiose delusions.

A kind of mental unsoundness characterized by extreme depression of spirits, ill-grounded fears, delusions, and brooding over one particular subject or train of ideas.

Great and continued depression of spirits, amounting to mental unsoundness; melancholia.

A large, ornamental, marine, univalve shell of the genus Melo. Melon beetle (Zoöl.), a small leaf beetle (Diabrotiea vittata), which damages the leaves of melon vines. -- Melon cactus, Melon thistle. (a) (Bot.) A genus of cactaceous plants (Melocactus) having a fleshy and usually globose stem with the surface divided…

Of or pertaining to mental culture; serving to improve or strengthen the mind. [R.]

Resembling the arts of a harlot; alluring by false show; gaudily and deceitfully ornamental; tawdry; as, meretricious dress or ornaments. -- Mer`e*tri"cious*ly, adv. -- Mer`e*tri"cious*ness, n.

Hence: The scientific knowledge of mental phenomena; mental philosophy; psychology. Metaphysics, in whatever latitude the term be taken, is a science or complement of sciences exclusively occupied with mind. Sir W. Hamilton. Whether, after all, A larger metaphysics might not help Our physics. Mrs. Browning.…