'Mean' definitions:

Definition of 'mean'

(from WordNet)
adjective
Approximating the statistical norm or average or expected value; "the average income in New England is below that of the nation"; "of average height for his age"; "the mean annual rainfall" [syn: average, mean(a)]
adjective
Characterized by malice; "a hateful thing to do"; "in a mean mood" [syn: hateful, mean]
adjective
Having or showing an ignoble lack of honor or morality; "that liberal obedience without which your army would be a base rabble"- Edmund Burke; "taking a mean advantage"; "chok'd with ambition of the meaner sort"- Shakespeare; "something essentially vulgar and meanspirited in politics" [syn: base, mean, meanspirited]
adjective
Excellent; "famous for a mean backhand"
adjective
Marked by poverty befitting a beggar; "a beggarly existence in the slums"; "a mean hut" [syn: beggarly, mean]
adjective
(used of persons or behavior) characterized by or indicative of lack of generosity; "a mean person"; "he left a miserly tip" [syn: mean, mingy, miserly, tight]
adjective
(used of sums of money) so small in amount as to deserve contempt [syn: beggarly, mean]
adjective
Of no value or worth; "I was caught in the bastardly traffic" [syn: bastardly, mean]
noun
An average of n numbers computed by adding some function of the numbers and dividing by some function of n [syn: mean, mean value]
verb
Mean or intend to express or convey; "You never understand what I mean!"; "what do his words intend?" [syn: mean, intend]
verb
Have as a logical consequence; "The water shortage means that we have to stop taking long showers" [syn: entail, imply, mean]
verb
Denote or connote; "`maison' means `house' in French"; "An example sentence would show what this word means" [syn: mean, intend, signify, stand for]
verb
Have in mind as a purpose; "I mean no harm"; "I only meant to help you"; "She didn't think to harm me"; "We thought to return early that night" [syn: intend, mean, think]
verb
Have a specified degree of importance; "My ex-husband means nothing to me"; "Happiness means everything"
verb
Intend to refer to; "I'm thinking of good food when I talk about France"; "Yes, I meant you when I complained about people who gossip!" [syn: think of, have in mind, mean]
verb
Destine or designate for a certain purpose; "These flowers were meant for you"

Definition of 'Mean'

From: GCIDE
  • Mean \Mean\ (m[=e]n), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Meant (m[e^]nt); p. pr. & vb. n. Meaning.] [OE. menen, AS. m[=ae]nan to recite, tell, intend, wish; akin to OS. m[=e]nian to have in mind, mean, D. meenen, G. meinen, OHG. meinan, Icel. meina, Sw. mena, Dan. mene, and to E. mind. [root]104. See Mind, and cf. Moan.]
  • 1. To have in the mind, as a purpose, intention, etc.; to intend; to purpose; to design; as, what do you mean to do? [1913 Webster]
  • What mean ye by this service ? --Ex. xii. 26. [1913 Webster]
  • Ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good. --Gen. 1. 20. [1913 Webster]
  • I am not a Spaniard To say that it is yours and not to mean it. --Longfellow. [1913 Webster]
  • 2. To signify; to indicate; to import; to denote. [1913 Webster]
  • What mean these seven ewe lambs ? --Gen. xxi. 29. [1913 Webster]
  • Go ye, and learn what that meaneth. --Matt. ix. 13. [1913 Webster]

Definition of 'Mean'

From: GCIDE
  • Mean \Mean\, v. i. To have a purpose or intention. [Rare, except in the phrase to mean well, or ill.] --Shak. [1913 Webster]

Definition of 'Mean'

From: GCIDE
  • Mean \Mean\ (m[=e]n), a. [Compar. Meaner (m[=e]n"[~e]r); superl. Meanest.] [OE. mene, AS. m[=ae]ne wicked; akin to m[=a]n, a., wicked, n., wickedness, OS. m[=e]n wickedness, OHG. mein, G. meineid perjury, Icel. mein harm, hurt, and perh. to AS. gem[=ae]ne common, general, D. gemeen, G. gemein, Goth. gam['a]ins, and L. communis. The AS. gem[=ae]ne prob. influenced the meaning.] [1913 Webster]
  • 1. Destitute of distinction or eminence; common; low; vulgar; humble. "Of mean parentage." --Sir P. Sidney. [1913 Webster]
  • The mean man boweth down, and the great man humbleth himself. --Is. ii. 9. [1913 Webster]
  • 2. Wanting dignity of mind; low-minded; base; destitute of honor; spiritless; as, a mean motive. [1913 Webster]
  • Can you imagine I so mean could prove, To save my life by changing of my love ? --Dryden. [1913 Webster]
  • 3. Of little value or account; worthy of little or no regard; contemptible; despicable. [1913 Webster]
  • The Roman legions and great Caesar found Our fathers no mean foes. --J. Philips. [1913 Webster]
  • 4. Of poor quality; as, mean fare. [1913 Webster]
  • 5. Penurious; stingy; close-fisted; illiberal; as, mean hospitality. [1913 Webster]
  • Note: Mean is sometimes used in the formation of compounds, the sense of which is obvious without explanation; as, meanborn, mean-looking, etc. [1913 Webster]
  • Syn: Base; ignoble; abject; beggarly; wretched; degraded; degenerate; vulgar; vile; servile; menial; spiritless; groveling; slavish; dishonorable; disgraceful; shameful; despicable; contemptible; paltry; sordid. See Base. [1913 Webster]

Definition of 'Mean'

From: GCIDE
  • Mean \Mean\, a. [OE. mene, OF. meiien, F. moyen, fr. L. medianus that is in the middle, fr. medius; akin to E. mid. See Mid.]
  • 1. Occupying a middle position; middle; being about midway between extremes. [1913 Webster]
  • Being of middle age and a mean stature. --Sir. P. Sidney. [1913 Webster]
  • 2. Intermediate in excellence of any kind. [1913 Webster]
  • According to the fittest style of lofty, mean, or lowly. --Milton. [1913 Webster]
  • 3. (Math.) Average; having an intermediate value between two extremes, or between the several successive values of a variable quantity during one cycle of variation; as, mean distance; mean motion; mean solar day. [1913 Webster]
  • Mean distance (of a planet from the sun) (Astron.), the average of the distances throughout one revolution of the planet, equivalent to the semi-major axis of the orbit.
  • Mean error (Math. Phys.), the average error of a number of observations found by taking the mean value of the positive and negative errors without regard to sign.
  • Mean-square error, or Error of the mean square (Math. Phys.), the error the square of which is the mean of the squares of all the errors; -- called also, {mean square deviation}, mean error.
  • Mean line. (Crystallog.) Same as Bisectrix.
  • Mean noon, noon as determined by mean time.
  • Mean proportional (between two numbers) (Math.), the square root of their product.
  • Mean sun, a fictitious sun supposed to move uniformly in the equator so as to be on the meridian each day at mean noon.
  • Mean time, time as measured by an equable motion, as of a perfect clock, or as reckoned on the supposition that all the days of the year are of a mean or uniform length, in contradistinction from apparent time, or that actually indicated by the sun, and from sidereal time, or that measured by the stars. [1913 Webster]

Definition of 'Mean'

From: GCIDE
  • Mean \Mean\, n.
  • 1. That which is mean, or intermediate, between two extremes of place, time, or number; the middle point or place; middle rate or degree; mediocrity; medium; absence of extremes or excess; moderation; measure. [1913 Webster]
  • But to speak in a mean, the virtue of prosperity is temperance; the virtue of adversity is fortitude. --Bacon. [1913 Webster]
  • There is a mean in all things. --Dryden. [1913 Webster]
  • The extremes we have mentioned, between which the wellinstracted Christian holds the mean, are correlatives. --I. Taylor. [1913 Webster]
  • 2. (Math.) A quantity having an intermediate value between several others, from which it is derived, and of which it expresses the resultant value; usually, unless otherwise specified, it is the simple average, formed by adding the quantities together and dividing by their number, which is called an arithmetical mean. A geometrical mean is the nth root of the product of the n quantities being averaged. [1913 Webster]
  • 3. That through which, or by the help of which, an end is attained; something tending to an object desired; intermediate agency or measure; necessary condition or coagent; instrument. [1913 Webster]
  • Their virtuous conversation was a mean to work the conversion of the heathen to Christ. --Hooker. [1913 Webster]
  • You may be able, by this mean, to review your own scientific acquirements. --Coleridge. [1913 Webster]
  • Philosophical doubt is not an end, but a mean. --Sir W. Hamilton. [1913 Webster]
  • Note: In this sense the word is usually employed in the plural form means, and often with a singular attribute or predicate, as if a singular noun. [1913 Webster]
  • By this means he had them more at vantage. --Bacon. [1913 Webster]
  • What other means is left unto us. --Shak. [1913 Webster]
  • 4. pl. Hence: Resources; property, revenue, or the like, considered as the condition of easy livelihood, or an instrumentality at command for effecting any purpose; disposable force or substance. [1913 Webster]
  • Your means are very slender, and your waste is great. --Shak. [1913 Webster]
  • 5. (Mus.) A part, whether alto or tenor, intermediate between the soprano and base; a middle part. [Obs.] [1913 Webster]
  • The mean is drowned with your unruly base. --Shak. [1913 Webster]
  • 6. Meantime; meanwhile. [Obs.] --Spenser. [1913 Webster]
  • 7. A mediator; a go-between. [Obs.] --Piers Plowman. [1913 Webster]
  • He wooeth her by means and by brokage. --Chaucer. [1913 Webster]
  • By all means, certainly; without fail; as, go, by all means.
  • By any means, in any way; possibly; at all. [1913 Webster]
  • If by any means I might attain to the resurrection of the dead. --Phil. iii. ll. [1913 Webster]
  • By no means, or By no manner of means, not at all; certainly not; not in any degree. [1913 Webster]
  • The wine on this side of the lake is by no means so good as that on the other. --Addison. [1913 Webster]

Words containing 'Mean'