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To make lean; to cause to waste away. [Obs. or R.] Harvey.

Belief in the coming of the Mahdi; fanatical devotion to the cause of the Mahdi or a pretender to that title. -- Mah"dist (#), n.

mutilation; injury; deprivation of something essential. See Mayhem. Surely there is more cause to fear lest the want there of be a maim than the use of it a blemish. Hooker. A noble author esteems it to be a maim in history that the acts of Parliament should not be recited. Hayward.

gunlock which impels the hammer. Hence: The chief or most powerful motive; the efficient cause of action.

One who, not being interested, maintains a cause depending between others, by furnishing money, etc., to either party. Bouvier. Wharton.

An officious or unlawful intermeddling in a cause depending between others, by assisting either party with money or means to carry it on. See Champerty. Wharton. Cap of maintenance. See under Cap.

To cause to exist; to bring into being; to form; to produce; to frame; to fashion; to create. Hence, in various specific uses or applications:

n intention to vex, annoy, or injure another person, or to do a wrongful act without just cause or cause or excuse; a wanton disregard of the rights or safety of others; willfulness. Malice aforethought or prepense, malice previously and deliberately entertained.

wicked or mischievous intentions or motives; wrongful and done intentionally without just cause or excuse; as, a malicious act. Malicious abandonment, the desertion of a wife or husband without just cause. Burrill. -- Malicious mischief (Law), malicious injury to the property of another; -- an offense at common law. W…

Disposed to do harm, inflict suffering, or cause distress; actuated by extreme malevolence or enmity; virulently inimical; bent on evil; malicious. A malignant and a turbaned Turk. Shak.

TO cause to move with regular steps in the manner of a soldier; to cause to move in military array, or in a body, as troops; to cause to advance in a steady, regular, or stately manner; to cause to go by peremptory command, or by force. March them again in fair array. Prior.

his station, or what is of great value to him, for the sake of principle, or to sustain a cause. Then if thou fall'st, O Cromwell, Thou fall'st a blessed martyr ! Shak.

martyr; the suffering of death on account of adherence to the Christian faith, or to any cause. Bacon. I came from martyrdom unto this peace. Longfellow.

That which causes wonder; a prodigy; a miracle. I will do marvels such as have not been done. Ex. xxxiv. 10. Nature's sweet marvel undefiled. Emerson.

To cause to go to the masthead as a punishment. Marryat.

Pertaining to the matter, as opposed to the form, of a thing. See Matter. Material cause. See under Cause. -- Material evidence (Law), evidence which conduces to the proof or disproof of a relevant hypothesis. Wharton.

To cause to assume a character appropriate to material things; to occupy with material interests; as, to materialize thought.

Inducing cause or occasion, especially of anything disagreeable or distressing; difficulty; trouble. And this is the matter why interpreters upon that passage in Hosea will not consent it to be a true story, that the prophet took a harlot to wife. Milton.

Apt to cause satiety or loathing; nauseous; disgusting. So sweetly mawkish', and so smoothly dull. Pope.

To cause to become mechanical.