13.0 M

13.1 macabre...
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macabre adj. grim, ghastly, grisly, gory, gruesome, grotesque,
ghoulish, fiendish, dread, eerie, fearsome, frightful,
frightening, terrifying, terrible, dreadful, dire, morbid;
deathly, deadly, deathlike, ghostly, cadaverous: He told a
macabre story of how they survived by resorting to cannibalism.
The crypt had a macabre eeriness about it.

machiavellian
adj. deceitful, cunning, shrewd, crafty, wily, foxy, scheming,
tricky, perfidious, nefarious, treacherous, sneaky: Mr Williams
has concocted a truly machiavellian plan for getting the
pensioners to move out.


machination
n. plotting, scheming, intriguing, manoeuvring, designing,
manipulating; plot, scheme, intrigue, manoeuvre, design,
stratagem, ruse, trick, trickery, artifice, dirty trick(s),
wile, manipulation, ploy, tactic(s), move, gambit: He escaped
from the machinations of his enemies. Must you resort to such
machinations merely to get them to listen?


machine n. 1 mechanism, device, apparatus, contrivance, appliance,
instrument, implement, tool, utensil, gadget, Colloq
contraption, US gismo or gizmo: What kind of machine is used to
make a corkscrew? 2 engine, motor, prime mover, vehicle; car,
automobile, motor car, US auto: We used to get into the machine
and go for Sunday picnics. 3 organization, system, ring, gang,
cabal, clique, party, faction: The entire council is run by a
political machine.

--v. 4 shape, make, manufacture: In this department we machine
the castings to a tolerance of one ten-thousandth of an inch.

machismo n. masculine pride or arrogance, manliness, virility,
masculinity, grit, Colloq guts, Slang balls: He is just trying
to impress you with his machismo.


macho adj. manly, masculine, virile, proud, arrogant: He's afraid
his macho image will be destroyed if he admits to enjoying
ballet.


mad adj. 1 insane, deranged, crazy, crazed, demented, lunatic,
unhinged, delirious, out of one's mind or head, psychotic,
maniacal, (mentally) unbalanced, mentally ill, of unsound mind,
non compos mentis, Chiefly Brit daft, Colloq out of one's head,
touched (in the head), screwy, cuckoo, mental, certifiable,
having a screw loose, dotty, cracked, mad as a March hare, mad
as a hatter, not all there, off-the-wall, stark raving mad,
Chiefly Brit potty, US nutty as a fruit cake; Slang nuts, loony,
goofy, loopy, crackers, batty, off one's rocker or trolley,
bananas, Brit round the bend or twist, twisted, off one's chump,
barmy or balmy, bonkers, US out to lunch, bughouse, bugs, crazy
as a bedbug or a coot, loco, wacky, out of one's tree, meshuga:
You're mad if you think I'm going in there with that lion. 2
foolish, silly, childish, immature, puerile, wild, nonsensical,

foolhardy, madcap, heedless, senseless, absurd, imprudent,
unwise, indiscreet, rash, ill-advised, ill-considered, reckless,
extravagant, irrational, fatuous: I did many mad things when I
was a student. Hitching to Inverness is a mad idea. 3 wild,
ferocious; rabid: Have they caught that mad dog yet? 4
furious, angry, infuriated, incensed, enraged, irate, fuming,
berserk, irritated, provoked, wrathful, exasperated, Literary
wroth: Will you get mad if I ask you a question? Please don't
be mad with me - I wrecked your car. 5 like mad. madly,
feverishly, in a frenzy, frenziedly, desperately, excitedly,
violently, wildly, hysterically, furiously; enthusiastically,
fervently, ardently; Colloq like crazy: He's been running about
like mad trying to find her. 6 mad (about or for). crazy,
infatuated, ardent, enthusiastic, eager, avid, zealous,
passionate, fervent, fervid, keen, fanatical, wild, Colloq
hooked, Brit dotty, Slang nuts: She's absolutely mad about
cricket.

madden v. 1 infuriate, anger, enrage, incense, provoke, inflame,
excite (someone) to (a) frenzy or rage, make (someone's) blood
boil, raise (someone's) hackles, make (someone) see red, get
(someone's) back up, drive someone crazy, Literary raise
(someone's) ire, Colloq drive (someone) up the wall, Brit drive
(someone) round the bend or twist, US tick (someone) off, burn
(someone) up, tee (someone) off, bug, drive (someone) up the
wall: Their getting away with something like that maddened us
all. 2 irk, vex, pique, exasperate, irritate: He has the
maddening habit of affecting a lisp. 3 bait, badger, torment,
plague, bedevil, US rile, hassle: The dog was maddened into
attacking anything that moved.

madly adv. 1 insanely, hysterically, dementedly, wildly,
distractedly, frenziedly: The patient keeps screaming madly,
day and night. 2 foolishly, stupidly, inanely, ridiculously,
ludicrously, idiotically, absurdly, irrationally, senselessly:
The king madly spurned the proffered aid and was soundly
defeated. 3 furiously, wildly, ferociously, fiercely,
energetically, desperately, like mad, vehemently, feverishly,
excitedly, fanatically, violently, impetuously: He dashed about
madly trying to get help. 4 excessively, extremely,
desperately, intensely, passionately, wildly, ardently,
fervently, fervidly, exceedingly: She was madly in love with
George.


madman n. madwoman; lunatic, psychopath, psychotic, maniac, Colloq
crackpot, psycho, loony, screwball, US kook, Slang nut, nutcase,
Brit nutter: I am working like a madman to finish the book by
the deadline.

madness n. 1 insanity, lunacy, mania, dementia, psychosis, mental
illness: That form of madness is called schizophrenia. 2
craziness, lunacy, folly, foolishness, nonsense, senselessness,
ridiculousness, pointlessness, illogicality, illogic,
illogicalness, impracticality, preposterousness, futility: He
soon realized the madness of trying to stem the tide of public
opinion.


magazine n. 1 periodical, journal, publication: We publish a quarterly
magazine about language. 2 arsenal, ammunition or munitions
dump, armoury: Saboteurs infiltrated the camp and blew up the
magazine.


magic n. 1 witchcraft, sorcery, wizardry, black magic, necromancy,
black art, voodoo, obeahism, devilry or deviltry, diabolism,
demonolatry, occultism; sortilege, theurgy, white magic; spell:
As the magic began to work, he slowly changed into a horrible
ghoul. 2 legerdemain, conjuring, prestidigitation, sleight of
hand, illusion, hocus-pocus, trickery: He performs tricks of
magic, including sawing a woman in half. 3 enchantment, allure,
allurement, charm, bewitchment, spell, witchery, witchcraft,
wizardry, glamour, fascination, magnetism, ensorcellment: She
worked her magic on every man she met.


--adj. 4 magical, miraculous: The magic ointment made her
young again. 5 necromantic, occult, mystic, shamanistic,
theurgical: Using a magic spell, she turned him into a toad. 6
magical, enchanting, entrancing, bewitching, fascinating,
hypnotic, mesmerizing, entrancing, spellbinding, charming,
magnetic, ensorcelling: The music had a magic effect on them.

magician n. 1 conjuror or conjurer, illusionist, wizard, sorcerer,
sorceress, magus, necromancer, enchanter, enchantress, Merlin,
Houdini, Circe, witch, warlock; thaumaturge, theurgist: The
court magician changed the pebbles into precious stones by a
wave of his wand. 2 marvel, miracle-worker, virtuoso, wizard,
genius, master, Colloq whiz: Mary Lou Williams is a magician on

the boogie-woogie piano.

magnetic adj. attractive, attracting, engaging, captivating,
enthralling, seductive, alluring, entrancing, bewitching,
beguiling, arresting, spellbinding, irresistible, charismatic,
winning, winsome, inviting: Because of Amy's magnetic
personality, men flock about her.

magnetism n. attraction, draw, appeal, allure, magic, lure,
attractiveness, charm, pull, seductiveness, irresistibility,
drawing power, charisma, duende, likeableness, sex appeal:
JFK's personal magnetism won him millions of votes.

magnification
n. enlargement, amplification; build-up, strengthening,
enhancement, aggrandizement, raising, elevation, increase,
expansion, heightening, glorification, ennoblement: The
microdot can be read only at a magnification of 260X. The
advertising agency worked on the magnification of the
candidate's record of achievement.

magnificent
adj. great, excellent, splendid, superior, superb, marvellous,
glorious, grand, fine, impressive, imposing, awe-inspiring,
impressive, brilliant, commanding, august, noble, majestic,
regal, distinguished, elegant, exalted, sublime, outstanding;
sumptuous, resplendent, opulent, rich, luxurious, lavish: She
lives in a magnificent country house.


magnify v. 1 enlarge, expand, amplify, inflate, increase, augment,
exaggerate, heighten, build up, boost, dramatize, aggravate,
worsen, exacerbate; overstate, Colloq blow up, make a mountain
out of a molehill: Tiny errors in the beginning are magnified
later on. I fear that he has magnified its importance out of all
proportion. 2 enlarge, blow up: They had to magnify the
photograph to read the registration number of the stolen car.

magnitude n. 1 greatness, size, extent, bigness, immensity, enormousness,
dimensions: You cannot imagine the magnitude of the
unemployment problem in our area. 2 importance, significance,
consequence, note: This is a matter of sufficient magnitude to
warrant a board meeting.

maid n. 1 girl, maiden, lass, miss, nymphet, nymph, wench, damsel,
mademoiselle, demoiselle, Scots lassie; virgin, virgo intacta:
A lovely young maid was milking the cow. 2 housemaid,
maidservant, domestic, chambermaid, lady's maid, Archaic or
literary abigail, Brit daily, Archaic colloq Brit tweeny: When
she rang, the maid brought in the tea. 3 old maid. spinster,
bachelor girl: She never married and now is an old maid.

maiden n. 1 See maid, 1, above.


--adj. 2 virgin, virginal, undefiled, intact, chaste, (virgo)
intacta; unmarried, unwed: His maiden aunt was visiting for the
weekend. 3 inaugural, first, initial, Colloq US shakedown: The
Titanic sank on her maiden voyage.


mail n. 1 post, correspondence; letters: Has the mail arrived?

--v. 2 post, send, dispatch or despatch: Please mail this
letter tonight.


maim v. cripple, mutilate, lame, disable, incapacitate, wound, wing,
impair, hamstring, put out of action or commission; injure,
harm, damage: Their daughter was badly maimed in the fire.


main adj. 1 chief, primary, prime, (most) important, principal,
cardinal, paramount, first, foremost, leading, pre-eminent,
predominant, predominating, dominant, ranking, major;
outstanding: The main cause of traffic deaths is drunken
driving. In Britain, the main street of a town is called 'the
High Street'. We arrived late and missed the main entertainment.
2 largest, biggest, greatest, strongest: The main part of the
strike force landed in Normandy. 3 necessary, essential, basic,
particular, fundamental, critical, crucial, vital: Economic
recovery is the main thrust of our programme for reform. 4
sheer, brute, utter, pure, out-and-out, absolute, mere, plain:
He lifted that block by main force!

--n. 5 pipe, duct, channel, line, pipeline, water or gas main,
Brit (electric) cable, mains, power (supply), conduit: Water
reaches the city through a huge underground main. 6 strength,
power, might, effort, energy, vigour: With all his might and
main he tried to move the stone blocking the cave. 7 in the
main. See mainly, below.


mainly adv. in the main, chiefly, principally, predominantly,
generally, above all, on the whole, in general, mostly, most of
all, effectively, essentially, at bottom, first and foremost,
for the most part, largely, by and large, primarily,as a rule,
usually, all in all, on balance, for all practical purposes, in
the long run: We are concerned mainly with safety. The tourists
are mainly from Italy.


mainstay n. main or chief or principal support, anchor (to windward),
sheet anchor, bulwark, buttress, linchpin, main or greatest
strength: David remains the mainstay of the sales force.

maintain v. 1 continue, preserve, persevere in, keep going, persist in,
keep (up), carry on, retain, perpetuate, prolong, sustain,
uphold: Sarah maintained friendly relations with her
ex-husband. Try to maintain your composure. 2 look after, take
care of, care for, preserve, (keep in) service, keep up, keep in
repair; nurture, support: It is expensive to maintain a vintage
car. Allison maintains an ancient aunt in Piddlington. 3 hold,
state, say, declare, claim, assert, allege, testify, contend,
aver, avow, announce, proclaim, vouchsafe, profess, insist (on),
affirm: Despite evidence to the contrary, he maintains that he
is innocent. 4 defend, stand by, keep, fight for; take up the
cudgels for, make a case for, advocate, champion, take or make a
stand for, plead for, back (up), support, vindicate, justify,
Colloq go to bat for: He maintained his ground in the face of
virulent attacks.


maintenance
n. 1 upkeep, care, preservation, conservation, support,
sustention, sustentation: I can no longer afford the
maintenance of a large country estate. 2 continuation,
continuance, perpetuation, prolongation, persistence,
maintaining: His maintenance of an untenable position will lose
him votes. 3 upkeep, livelihood, subsistence, support,
allowance, living, sustenance, stipend, subvention,
contribution, alimony, keep: How much maintenance does he pay
to his ex-wife and children?


majestic adj. 1 regal, dignified, grand, imperial, royal, noble, lordly,
lofty, elevated, exalted, glorious, magnificent, monumental,
impressive, striking, imposing, awesome, splendid, marvellous,

kingly, queenly, princely: With majestic ceremony, the
procession entered the cathedral. 2 pompous, supercilious,
disdainful, superior, arrogant, haughty, magisterial, imperious,
grandiose, affected: She dismissed him with a majestic wave of
her hand.

major adj. 1 larger, greater, bigger, main, chief, important:
Henderson grabbed the major portion of the credit. 2 vital,
important, critical, crucial, principal, foremost, paramount,
primary, prime, main, big, biggest, pre-eminent, notable,
noteworthy, significant, outstanding, dominant, dominating;
serious, grave, worst: The major problem in commercial kitchens
is sanitation.


majority n. 1 bulk, preponderance, mass, more than half, the better or
best part, the greater part or number, lion's share: The
majority of shares were bought by existing shareholders. 2
adulthood, maturity, seniority, womanhood, manhood: They reach
their majority in 1997.


make v. 1 build, assemble, construct, erect, put together, set up,
fashion, form, mould, shape, frame, create, originate,
fabricate, manufacture, produce, put out, forge, contrive,
devise: She makes her own dresses. They make TV sets here. The
Colossus of Rhodes was said to be made of bronze. 2 cause,
compel, force, impel, coerce, provoke, urge, exhort, press,
pressure, require, command, order, induce, persuade, prevail
upon, insist upon, oblige, Brit pressurize: The devil made me
do it. 3 bring about, occasion, cause, give rise to: The new
regulation is going to make trouble for you. 4 make out or up,
draw (up), create, write, sign, frame: I made a new will
leaving everything to my children. 5 produce, cause, create,
generate: The engine made a funny noise, then died. 6 enact,
pass, frame, establish, institute: He thinks that laws were
made to be broken. 7 earn, return, reap, garner, take in, get,
procure, gather, clear, realize, gross, net, pocket, get,
acquire, obtain, receive; win, gain, Slang US pull down: Has
her invention made money? He makes a good living out of his
shop. He made œ25 playing poker. 8 amount to, constitute,
represent, add up to, total, come to: He knows how many beans
make five. Three and two do not make four. One singer does not
make an opera. 9 change, turn, alter, modify, transform,
convert; transmute, mutate, metamorphose: He made her into a

star. The alchemists tried to make base metal into gold. 10
become, be, change or turn or grow into, perform as: I think
Quentin will make a brilliant surgeon one day. 11 serve as or
for, be suitable for, be, prove to be, turn out to be, turn
into, become: This cut of meat will not make a good roast. 12
fetch, realize, earn, return: The locket made œ1000 at the
auction. 13 score, earn, secure: The West Indies made 654 in
their first innings. 14 reach, arrive at, attain, get (to),
win, achieve, accomplish; come in, Brit be placed, US place:
Fran might make first place in the marathon. 15 prepare,
arrange, rearrange, tidy (up), neaten (up): You have made your
bed, now you will have to lie on it. 16 record, arrange, fix,
decide (on or upon), agree (to): I made an appointment to see
the doctor. 17 prepare, fix, cook: I made what you like for
dinner. 18 deliver, present: Janet made a good speech. 19
traverse, cover, do, travel, navigate: We cannot make more than
100 miles a day over this terrain. 20 do, go, travel or move
at, move: His old banger could hardly make 40 m.p.h. 21 judge,
think, calculate, estimate, reckon, gauge, suppose: What do you
make of Sidney's new book? 22 establish, set up, organize: We
made our headquarters in the farmhouse. 23 appoint, name,
select, choose, elect, vote (in as), designate, authorize,
commission, delegate, depute, deputize, assign, sanction,
approve, affirm, certify, confirm: They made him their leader.
24 seduce, make it with: Kenneth tried to make Sharon last
night. 25 make as if or as though. pretend, feign, act as if or
as though, affect, make a show or pretence of, give the
impression of: He made as if to strike me. 26 make away. run
off or away, flee, fly, make off, abscond, take to one's heels,
decamp, beat a (hasty) retreat, Colloq run for it, make a run
for it, beat it, clear out, cut and run, skedaddle, take off,
cut out, skip (town), make tracks, US fly the coop, Slang scram,
vamoose, US hightail it, take a (run-out) powder: Taking the
jewels, he made away as fast as he could run. 27 make away
with. steal, rob, filch, pilfer, purloin, walk away or off with,
Colloq borrow, liberate, boost, Slang pinch, hook, swipe, rip
off, lift, US boost: That boy has made away with my cherry
tarts! 28 make believe. pretend, fancy, play-act, dream,
fantasize, imagine, act as if: We used to make believe we were
grown-ups. 29 make do. get by or along, cope, scrape by or
along, manage, muddle through, survive, Colloq make out: We
have to make do on the pittance Randolph gets from the
university. 30 make for. a head for or towards, aim for, steer

(a course) for, proceed towards, be bound for: After this is
done, I am making for the nearest pub. b assault, attack, set
upon, charge, rush (at), pounce upon, fall upon or on, go for,
lunge at, storm, assail: The big fellow was making for me with
a knife when the lights went out. c promote, contribute to, be
conducive to, favour, facilitate: Good fences make for good
neighbours. 31 make good. a make up (for), pay (for),
compensate for, recompense (for), repay, offset, make
restitution for, settle, square, rectify, put to rights, set
right, remedy, correct, restore: He agreed to make good any
losses. b succeed, prosper, flourish, thrive, Colloq make it:
In later life he made good as a property developer. c fulfil,
carry out, Colloq deliver (the goods): She made good on her
promise to return my book. 32 make it. a succeed, prosper,
triumph, win, make good, Colloq make the grade: Do you think
she will make it as a doctor? b arrive, get (somewhere), show
up, appear, turn up: They are hoping to catch the 5:03 to
Ipswich but I doubt if they will make it. 33 make known. tell
of, impart, disclose, reveal, divulge, mention, communicate,
announce, declare, promulgate, publish, let slip, Colloq tip
off: She made known her demands. 34 make much of. a
exaggerate, overstate, colour, hyperbolize, Colloq make a big
deal of, blow up: He made much of his new title. b coddle,
cosset, baby, pamper, dote on, flatter, toady (up) to, cajole,
humour, indulge, Colloq butter up: Henry makes much of his
grandchildren. 35 make off. See make, 26, above. 36 make off
with. See make, 27, above. 37 make out. a see, discern,
descry, espy, detect, discover, distinguish, perceive: I made
out a dim figure in the gloom. b complete, fill in, Brit fill
up, US and Canadian fill out: I made out an application for the
job. c draw (up), write (out or down), record, Colloq US cut:
Please make out a list of your complaints. Make out the cheque
to me, personally. d understand, fathom, comprehend, figure out,
perceive, follow, grasp, see, decipher, read: She mumbles so, I
cannot make out what she's saying. Can you make out this name? e
suggest, imply, hint, insinuate, indicate, impute, intimate,
make to appear, pretend, make as if or as though, represent;
present, show, demonstrate, establish: She tried to make out
that I was a fool. He made out a strong case for dog licensing.
f get on, survive, manage, fare, thrive, succeed: How are you
making out in your new house? 38 make over. a do over,
remodel, redecorate, alter: We are making over our kitchen. b
transfer, hand over, sign over, convey, assign, turn over: The

property has been made over to me. 39 make up. a complete,
fill out, finish (out), flesh out: We need another player to
make up the team. b compose, form, constitute, be comprised of:
The gang is made up of ex-convicts. c hatch, invent, concoct,
devise, create, construct, dream up, originate, coin, compose,
Colloq cook up: He made up that story about the murder. d be
reconciled, make peace, settle amicably, come to terms, bury the
hatchet: The litigants have kissed and made up. e construct,
build: The shack is made up of scrap boards. 40 make up for.
compensate, redress, make good, atone, make amends: How can I
make up for all the bad things I said about you? 41 make way.
move aside, clear the way, allow to pass, make room or space:
Make way for the Lord High Executioner!


--n. 42 kind, brand, style, sort, type, mark: Foreign makes of
car currently dominate the market-place. 43 on the make.
aggressive, assertive, go-ahead, enterprising, vigorous,
energetic, Colloq pushy: The book is about a young man on the
make in today's financial world.


makeshift adj. 1 temporary, stopgap, expedient, emergency, temporary,
jury-rigged, improvised, tentative, stand-by, slapdash: We were
able to fashion a makeshift rudder out of an oar.


--n. 2 stopgap, expedient, improvisation, substitute: The
heater broke down and we had to get along with a makeshift.

make-up n. 1 cosmetics, maquillage, greasepaint, Colloq warpaint: Do
you think I am wearing too much make-up? 2 constitution,
character, cast, disposition, personality: There is not an
ounce of sympathy in Janet's make-up. 3 constitution,
arrangement, construction, composition, format, configuration,
build, form: What is the chemical make-up of the plastic?


male adj. masculine, man's; virile, manly, manful; Archaic spear:
His is bound to be a male point of view.

malignant adj. 1 virulent, pernicious, deadly, fatal, toxic, poisonous,
harmful, life-threatening: The tumour proved to be malignant.
2 malign, malevolent, evil, malicious, pernicious, vicious,
invidious, spiteful, bitter, hateful, venomous: The expos‚ was
full of malignant insinuations.

man n. 1 gentleman, male, fellow, Colloq guy, chap, Brit bloke,
squire, Slang gink, geezer, US gazabo: Have you met the man she
is going to marry? 2 people, human beings, mankind, mortals,
Homo sapiens, humanity, humankind, the human race: Man wants
but little here below. 3 valet, manservant, gentleman's
gentleman, servant, retainer, houseboy, houseman: Humberson
sent his man round with a note.

--v. 4 staff, people, crew; cover: Who will man the office
while I am away?

manacle n. 1 manacles. shackles, fetters, handcuffs, gyves, chains,
irons, Colloq cuffs, Slang bracelets, Brit darbies: The
manacles are cutting into his wrists.


--v. 2 shackle, fetter, handcuff, restrain, put or throw or
clap in irons, chain, Colloq US cuff: The manacled prisoner was
led away. 3 confine, inhibit, restrain, curb, check, control,
hamper: They felt manacled by the nine o'clock curfew.


manage v. 1 handle, administer, run, supervise, look after, watch
over, direct, head, oversee, superintend, direct, preside over,
be in charge (of), take care of, control; rule (over), govern,
regulate: Mr Grant manages the glove department. 2 handle,
cope or deal with, control, govern, manipulate: Will you be
able to manage such a frisky horse? 3 conduct, carry on, carry
out, bring off, control, undertake, take care of, look after,
handle: Is she old enough to manage her own affairs? 4
succeed, function, make do, make it, shift (for oneself), get
along or by or on, make out, muddle through, survive: Will you
be able to manage from here on?

manageable
adj. controllable; tractable, compliant, amenable, docile,
tameable, tame, trainable, teachable, manipulable, submissive:
Keep your spending within manageable limits. The dog is quite
manageable.

management
n. 1 managing, control, supervision, manipulation, handling,
direction, directing, directorship, administration, government,
conduct, governance, operation, running, superintendence,
command, guidance, stewardship: The management of the company

is in your hands. 2 administration, executive(s), bosses,
directors, board (of directors), directorate, Colloq (top)
brass: The management believes that you are the right person
for the job.


manager n. supervisor, superintendent, director, executive, head,
proprietor, overseer, foreman, forewoman, administrator, Chiefly
Brit manageress , US straw boss, Colloq boss, chief: The
position of manager entails a lot of responsibility.


mandatory adj. compulsory, obligatory, requisite, required; essential,
commanded, demanded, necessary, needed: The wearing of safety
belts in cars is mandatory.


mangle v. destroy, mutilate, butcher, deform, disfigure, spoil, mar,
ruin, wreck; cut, hack, lacerate, chop (up), crush, damage,
cripple, maim: Don't you hate the way they mangle the English
language? His hand was badly mangled in the accident.


mangy adj. scruffy, dirty, sleazy, wretched, miserable, repulsive,
sorry, squalid, slovenly, unkempt, filthy, dingy, seedy, poor,
shabby, mean, low, ignominious, base, abject, odious,
disreputable, moth-eaten, contemptible, despicable, nasty,
scurvy: The mangy beggar turned out to be our agent in
Calcutta.

manhandle v. maul, paw, rough up, batter, beat (up), pummel, abuse,
mistreat, maltreat, ill-treat, trounce, belabour, Slang knock
about or around, clobber: His captors manhandled him into a car
and drove off.

man-hater n. misanthrope, misanthropist: He says he prefers to live
alone because he's a man-hater.


manhood n. 1 masculinity, manliness, manfulness, virility, Colloq
machismo: He felt that looking after the children at home
somehow compromised his manhood. 2 bravery, pluck, boldness,
determination, resolution, fortitude, grit, spirit, force, US
intestinal fortitude, Colloq guts: He joined the army to test
his manhood.

mania n. 1 rage, craze, passion, obsession, compulsion, urge,
fascination, preoccupation, furore or US furor, yearning,

craving, desire, cacoethes, Colloq fad, yen: By that time, the
hula hoop mania had died down. She has a mania for collecting
apostle spoons. 2 madness, lunacy, insanity, dementia,
derangement, hysteria, Technical manic disorder: The
psychiatrists diagnosed his problem as a mania.

maniac n. 1 madman, madwoman, lunatic, psychopath, psychotic, Colloq
crackpot, Slang nut, Brit nutter, loony, US kook: In former
times, maniacs were scorned and maltreated. 2 fanatic, fan,
enthusiast, zealot, Slang freak, fiend: Since his retirement,
he has become a golf maniac.

maniacal adj. 1 manic, maniac, insane, lunatic, mad, demented, deranged,
hysterical, mentally ill, of unsound mind, non compos mentis,
psychotic: He had to be hospitalized because of his maniacal
behaviour. 2 hysterical, berserk, wild, crazy, Slang loony:
His maniacal outbursts frightened us.

manifest adj. 1 apparent, clear, evident, obvious, plain, patent,
blatant, conspicuous, unmistakable or unmistakeable,
discernible, recognizable, comprehensible, distinct, palpable,
definite, explicit, unambiguous, unquestionable, indubitable,
indisputable: He lost his job because of his manifest
dishonesty.


--v. 2 show, demonstrate, exhibit, evince, reveal, disclose,
display, betray; express, declare: Fitzsimmons had been
manifesting signs of dissatisfaction with his assignment. 3
prove, corroborate, substantiate, attest: His distaste for
cauliflower was manifested by the look on his face.

manifestation
n. display, exhibition, demonstration, show, disclosure,
appearance, exposure, presentation, sign, indication, mark,
expression, example, instance; declaration, avowal, publication,
announcement: The police feared that the crime wave was a
manifestation of civil unrest. The first manifestation of
thought is speech.


manifestly
adv. evidently, clearly, obviously, plainly, apparently,
patently, unmistakably or unmistakeably, palpably,
unquestionably, indubitably, undoubtedly, indisputably: The

treaty is manifestly to England's advantage.

manifold adj. diverse, diversified, multifarious, varied, various,
assorted, multiplex, miscellaneous, sundry, many-sided, many
different, Literary divers; many, numerous, multitudinous: I
have manifold reasons for wishing you to stay.

manipulate
v. 1 manage, handle, control, manoeuvre, orchestrate,
choreograph, influence, use, exploit, play on, utilize: He
knows how to manipulate people to make them do what he wants. 2
handle, control, operate, direct, work, use, employ, negotiate:
The controls can be manipulated to make the robot imitate human
motion. 3 rig, falsify, juggle, tamper with, doctor, Colloq
cook, Chiefly Brit fiddle: He's been manipulating his expense
account for years.

manly adj. manful, virile, courageous, bold, brave, intrepid,
valorous, valiant, dauntless, fearless, plucky, daring,
venturesome, stout-hearted, resolute, stable, steadfast,
unflinching, unwavering, unshrinking, chivalrous, gallant,
noble, heroic; masculine, male, Colloq macho, red-blooded:
Emerson characterized the English as manly rather than warlike.


manner n. 1 way, mode, style, technique, procedure, method, fashion;
means, approach: Her incisive manner of reporting is widely
admired. 2 air, behaviour, mien, demeanour, bearing,
deportment, comportment, conduct, attitude, aspect: His manner
is overbearing and dictatorial. 3 manners. etiquette, decorum,
(good) form, politeness, proprieties, protocol, politesse,
civility, ceremony, social code, social graces, formalities,
niceties, amenities, social conventions; behaviour, conduct:
Can't you teach him some manners?


mannered adj. artificial, contrived, stilted, stiff, affected,
insincere, pompous, pretentious, posed, unnatural, hypocritical,
Colloq phoney or US also phony, pseudo, highfalutin or
hifalutin, la-di-da or lah-di-dah or la-de-da, hoity-toity, on
one's high horse, high-hat, uppity or Brit uppish: Alice's
speech is too mannered for anyone to feel close to her.

mannerism n. quirk, peculiarity, idiosyncrasy, trait, characteristic,
habit: She has the irritating mannerism of pulling on her ear

lobe.

manoeuvre n. 1 move, stratagem, tactic, trick, gambit, ploy, subterfuge,
ruse, dodge, artifice, device, wile, d‚marche; strategy, plan,
plot, scheme, intrigue, machination: That manoeuvre will never
work on a clever woman. 2 exercise, operation, drill, war-game,
operation, kriegspiel, training: We were out on manoeuvres for
a week.


--v. 3 manipulate, contrive, plot, scheme, machinate, intrigue,
trick, devise, engineer, finesse, manage, Colloq finagle,
wangle: His manoeuvred his way out of going on that mission. 4
manipulate, operate, run, drive, guide, navigate, jockey: She
manoeuvred the car into a surprisingly tiny space.


mantle n. 1 cloak, cape, wrap, shawl, pelisse, pelerine: Over his
armour he wore a mantle embroidered with his bearing. 2
covering, cover, sheet, veil, blanket, screen, cloak, shroud,
pall, canopy, curtain: A mantle of snow lay on the ground.


--v. 3 cover, clothe, envelop, surround, encircle, shroud,
veil, screen, obscure, cloak, conceal, hide, mask, wrap,
disguise: The mountains were brilliantly mantled and capped
with snow.


manual n. handbook, vade-mecum, enchiridion; directions, instructions,
guide: Follow the manual carefully to avoid mistakes.

manufacture
v. 1 make, (mass-)produce, construct, build, assemble,
fabricate, put together, turn out, create, originate: The
company manufactures windscreen wipers. 2 concoct, create,
contrive, invent, make up, fabricate, think up, US and Canadian
create out of or from whole cloth, Colloq cook up: She
manufactured that tale about being an orphan.

--n. 3 making, (mass) production, construction, building,
assembly, fabrication, turning or putting out, putting together,
creation, origination: The manufacture of durable goods
increased .02% in the last quarter.

manufacturer
n. maker, producer, industrialist, fabricator: Manufacturers

of computers usually buy components from specialized firms.

many adj. 1 numerous, multitudinous, myriad, profuse, innumerable,
numberless, uncountable: Many people have an irrational fear of
spiders. 2 diverse, multifarious, varied, various, assorted,
sundry, Literary divers: There are many kinds of courage.

--pron., (n.) 3 horde(s), crowd(s), lot(s), swarm(s),
throng(s), mass(es), profusion, multitude(s), abundance, plenty,
shoal(s), flock(s), drove(s), torrent(s), flood(s), number(s),
score(s), hundred(s), (thousand(s), etc.); Colloq ton(s), scads:
A great many will turn out to vote next week. Many are picked
but few are chosen.


mar v. 1 damage, ruin, mutilate, deface, spoil, scar, disfigure:
The surface of the table was marred by a deep scratch. 2
damage, wreck, ruin, impair, harm, hurt, blight, blot, taint,
stain, tarnish: She claims that her reputation was marred by
the article.


march v. 1 parade, step, stride, strut, tread, pace, walk: They
marched from Baxter Street to the Town Hall.

--n. 2 parade, procession, demonstration, cortege or cortŠge,
walk: The march was organized to protest against the
government's nuclear arms policy. 3 walk, trek, slog, hike: We
had a long march ahead of us to get to Hastings.

margin n. 1 edge, border, perimeter, periphery; rim, lip, side, brink,
verge: Leave a one-inch margin at the left side of the page.
Trees grew at the margin of the pond. 2 limit(s), bound(s),
boundary (line), border, frontier, line, partition line: These
streets form the margin of the inner city. 3 allowance, play,
leeway, latitude, scope, freedom, room, space; compass: These
calculations do not provide much of a margin for error.

marginal adj. 1 borderline, minimal, small, slight, negligible,
insignificant, tiny, infinitesimal: There are marginal
differences in policy on this issue. 2 borderline, on the edge,
disputable, questionable, doubtful, dubious: His qualifications
for the job are marginal.

marine adj. 1 maritime, nautical, naval, seafaring, seagoing,

ocean-going, sea: Marine commerce has declined during recent
decades. 2 maritime, sea, oceanic, aquatic, salt-water,
pelagic, thalassic: Many groups are concerned about the
conservation of marine life.


mark n. 1 spot, stain, blemish, smear, smudge, trace, impression,
dent, nick, scratch, pock-mark or pock, streak, line, Brit
splodge, US splotch: One of the children had made a mark on the
newly painted wall. 2 sign, symbol, insigne, emblem, device,
hallmark, earmark, fingerprint, badge, characteristic, token,
brand, stamp, label, identification, indication, feature,
attribute, trait, quality, property: This work bears the mark
of true genius. 3 standard, criterion, norm, yardstick, level,
measure: I'm afraid your son's work has not come up to the
mark. 4 rating, grade, grading: I'd give her a low mark for
originality but high marks for technique. 5 influence,
impression, effect: Her innovations have left their mark on all
music composed since 1900. 6 target, goal, objective, aim,
purpose, end, object: Her criticisms fell wide of the mark. 7
marker, indicator, guide, signpost, landmark: The next mark, a
bell-buoy, should be left to port. 8 consequence, importance,
note, noteworthiness, notability, distinction, eminence,
dignity, prestige, standing, account: Granada was a place of
little mark as compared with Cordova. 9 make one's mark.
succeed, get ahead, triumph, distinguish oneself, attain
distinction, bring honour upon oneself, acquit oneself, bring
credit to oneself, have an effect, Colloq make it big, make the
grade: Randolph has made his mark in the world of scholarship.


--v. 10 Sometimes, mark up. spot, stain, blemish, smear,
smudge, streak, dent, trace, pock-mark, nick, scratch, cut,
chip, pit, bruise: That glass has marked the finish on the
table. 11 signify, specify, indicate, designate, identify,
tick, label: Mark your choice with an 'X' next to the
candidate's name. 12 pay attention to, attend (to), pay heed
to, note, notice, take notice of, watch, see, look at, observe;
respect, mind, heed, obey: Mark the way she swings the golf
club. Mark my words or you'll be sorry. 13 brand, stamp,
identify, characterize, distinguish: His music is marked by
long atonal passages. 14 correct; grade, evaluate, assess,
appraise: The teachers are busy marking exam papers. 15 mark
down. a write (down), record, register, make (a) note of, note
(down): Mark down these numbers in your book. b decrease,

reduce, devalue, devaluate, cut, slash, discount: We marked
down the prices for a quick sale. 16 mark up. a See 10, above.
b increase, raise, hike, up: Prices were marked up to keep pace
with inflation.


marked adj. noticeable, conspicuous, decided, pronounced,
considerable, remarkable, significant, signal, unmistakable or
unmistakeable, prominent, obvious, patent, evident, apparent:
There is a marked improvement in your work.


market n. 1 market-place, exchange, Stock Exchange: There are some
excellent buys on the market. 2 shop, store, bazaar,
supermarket, Chiefly US superstore: If you are going to the
market, please buy some milk. 3 demand, customer base, call:
The market for computers is still growing rapidly.

--v. 4 sell, merchandise, retail, vend, peddle, hawk, make
available, furnish; trade (in), buy and sell, deal in: We
market these computers worldwide.


maroon v. abandon, cast away, desert, strand, forsake; isolate,
seclude: They were marooned on a desert island.

marriage n. 1 matrimony, wedlock: Their marriage has lasted over forty
years. 2 nuptials, wedding: The marriage took place at noon.
3 association, alliance, confederation, federation, affiliation,
connection, coupling, union, merger, amalgamation, integration,
Colloq hook-up: Would a marriage of the companies benefit the
shareholders?


marry v. 1 wed, join in matrimony or wedlock, become man and wife,
Colloq get hitched or spliced, tie the knot: They married and
lived happily ever after. 2 match (up), go or fit together,
fit; unite, unify, bond, weld, fuse, put together, couple, join,
link; league, affiliate, ally, amalgamate, combine: The marble
head, found in London, married perfectly with the torso, found
in Crete. The best qualities of each earlier model are married
in this new product.


marsh n. swamp, bog, fen, slough, quagmire: The marsh teems with new
life in the spring.

martial adj. 1 warlike, belligerent, bellicose, pugnacious, militant:

We had no suspicion of their martial intentions. He is an expert
in the martial arts. 2 military, soldierly, courageous, brave,
valorous, valiant, stalwart, staunch, stout-hearted: The speech
was intended to rouse the soldiers' martial spirit.


marvel v. 1 wonder (at), gape (at), be awed or amazed (by), be agog or
astonished (at), gape (at): We marvelled at the way the homing
pigeons found their way home.


--n. 2 wonder, miracle, phenomenon: Tammy was a marvel at
fixing electrical equipment.

marvellous
adj. wonderful, astonishing, amazing, astounding, surprising,
remarkable, extraordinary, phenomenal, glorious, splendid,
superb, excellent, spectacular, breathtaking, miraculous,
unbelievable, incredible, sensational, mind-boggling,
unparalleled, Colloq terrific, great, fantastic, fabulous,
smashing, Slang far-out, crazy, wild, groovy, super, out of this
world, fantabulous, Brit spot or bang on, US marvy: It was a
marvellous show, and Renfrew is a marvellous actor.

mask n. 1 false face, domino: She wore a mask, and I don't know who
she was. 2 disguise, guise, camouflage, show, semblance,
pretence, cover, cover-up, false colours, false flag,
concealment, cloak, fa‡ade, veil: He wormed his way into her
confidence under the mask of friendship.

--v. 3 disguise, camouflage, cover (up), conceal, hide,
obscure, veil, screen, shroud: She was unable to mask her true
feelings for him.

masquerade
n. 1 masked ball, masquerade ball, costume party, ballo in
maschera, bal masqu‚: He went to the masquerade as Lorenzo di
Medici. 2 disguise, deception, pose, dissimulation, bluff,
subterfuge, false show, outward show, fakery, imposture,
play-acting, false front, cover-up, camouflage, Colloq act,
front, Slang put-on: How long will she continue her masquerade
as a wealthy widow?

--v. 3 Usually, masquerade as. pretend (to be), pass oneself
off (as), impersonate, simulate, pose (as), imitate, mimic: He

is a conservative masquerading as a liberal to garner votes.

mass n. 1 pile, heap, mountain, load, stack, mound, bunch, bundle,
lot, batch, quantity, hoard, store, collection, accumulation,
aggregation, agglomeration, congeries, assortment, miscellany,
assemblage, conglomeration: There was a mass of boulders at the
bottom of the cliff. 2 abundance, quantity, profusion, volume,
multitude, horde, host, mob, crowd, throng, drove(s), herd(s),
swarm(s), legion(s), score(s), number(s), Colloq bunch(es),
ton(s), mountain, piles, bags, barrels, oodles, lots, oceans,
loads, scads, US mess, slew(s): A mass of bills awaited my
return from a trip abroad. Masses of people greeted us at the
airport. 3 block, concretion, chunk, lump, hunk, nugget: A mass
of sludge was clogging the valve. 4 majority, best or better or
greater part, bulk, body, preponderance, almost all, lion's
share: The great mass of the votes was still uncounted. 5
dimension, size, magnitude, bulk, bigness, massiveness,
enormousness, immensity: The very mass of the elephant made it
a hard target to miss. 6 the masses. the common people, the
(common) herd, the proletariat, the plebeians, hoi polloi, the
lower class(es), the man or woman in the street, Brit the man or
woman on the Clapham omnibus, A. N. Other, US John Q. Public,
John or Jane Doe or Roe: The taxes became burdensome and the
masses rebelled.


--v. 7 amass, pile or heap up, gather: Thunderclouds began to
mass over the mountains. 8 aggregate, accumulate, collect,
assemble, congregate, meet, get or come together, gather,
forgather or foregather, throng, convene, flock together, rally,
group, cluster, marshal, muster, mobilize: Thousands of people
massed in front of the embassy. The massed bands made a
tremendous noise.

massacre n. 1 slaughter, slaughtering, carnage, annihilation,
annihilating, blood bath, killing, execution, extermination,
exterminating, butchery, butchering, (mass) murder, murdering,
slaying, liquidation, pogrom, genocide: The massacre of
millions of innocent people followed the coup.


--v. 2 slaughter, annihilate, kill, execute, exterminate,
butcher, murder, slay, liquidate, destroy, eliminate,
obliterate, eradicate, put to the sword, decimate, Colloq mow
down, Slang bump off: It was their policy to massacre all the

men and take captive all the women and children.

massage n. 1 rub-down, rub, manipulation, kneading: I felt really
relaxed after the massage and steam bath.


--v. 2 rub down, manipulate, knead, palpate: She gently
massaged my temples with her fingertips. 3 manipulate, handle,
manoeuvre, Colloq finagle, Brit fiddle: He massaged the figures
to make it look as if the company was solvent.


massive adj. big, large, oversized, huge, bulky, enormous, hulking,
immense, gigantic, towering, mammoth, colossal, titanic, vast,
tremendous, prodigious, mountainous, gargantuan, Brobdingnagian,
Cyclopean, elephantine, jumbo, stupendous, mighty, weighty,
ponderous, Literary massy, Colloq walloping, whopping, monster,
Brit whacking (great), US ginormous, humongous: They built a
massive wall round the city. Massive beams support the roof.

master n. 1 owner, head, chief, leader, chieftain, commander, lord,
governor, director, controller, employer, manager, overseer,
supervisor, superintendent, taskmaster, slave-driver, principal,
sovereign, monarch, ruler, Colloq lord high muck-a-muck,
Pooh-Bah, kingpin, big fish, boss, skipper, Brit gaffer, US
king-fish, the man, big fish, big boss, bossman; Slang US big
cheese, big wheel, Mr Big, chief or head honcho: He is master
of all he surveys. Decisions about punishment are referred to
the master. 2 expert, authority, genius, craftsman, adept,
maestro, mastermind, past master, old hand, virtuoso, ace,
professional, Colloq pro, wizard, Chiefly Brit dab hand, US
crackerjack; Slang US maven or mavin: He is a master in the art
of chicanery. 3 teacher, tutor, instructor, guide, leader,
guru, swami: She studied under the master for years.

--adj. 4 adept, ingenious, expert, masterful, masterly,
skilful, skilled, proficient: After twenty years, he became a
master craftsman. 5 overall, controlling, principal, main,
prime, basic, chief: Only the leader knows the master plan for
conquering the planet. This is the master switch that turns off
all the power. 6 main, biggest, principal, owner's: The master
bedroom had a bathroom en suite.

--v. 7 learn, grasp, become expert in, know inside out and
backwards, know, understand: He claims to have mastered the art

of levitation. 8 control, overcome, repress, suppress, subdue,
bridle, check, quell, get the better of, Colloq get a grip on:
You must learn to master your emotions.


masterful adj. 1 masterly, adept, expert, excellent, superior, superb,
adroit, exquisite, superlative, supreme, consummate,
accomplished, peerless, matchless, first-rate, proficient,
dexterous, deft, skilful, skilled, Colloq crack: She gave a
masterful performance of Bruch's violin concerto. 2
authoritarian, dictatorial, tyrannical, despotic, arbitrary,
domineering, imperious, overbearing, arrogant, dominating,
autocratic, high-handed, magisterial, overweening, self-willed,
Colloq bossy: I dislike Ian's masterful attitude, always
telling everyone what to do.


mastermind
v. 1 plan, devise, conceive, think up, engineer, design,
generate, create, manage, organize, develop, work up or out: It
was probably Fu Manchu who masterminded this diabolical plot.


--n. 2 planner, contriver, conceiver, creator, architect,
genius, mind, intellect, Colloq brain(s): it would take a
mastermind to get even a pass mark on that exam.


masterpiece
n. master-work, magnum opus, chef-d'oeuvre, tour de force,
jewel, work of art, work of genius, piŠce de r‚sistance: Among
his many fine paintings, I consider this his masterpiece.


match n. 1 equal, equivalent, peer, equivalent, fellow, mate;
parallel, replica, copy, double, twin, look-alike, facsimile,
counterpart: When it comes to punning, Crosby has finally met
his match. 2 contest, competition, game, meet, tourney,
tournament, bout, duel, rivalry, trial: The match was between
the top-seeded players. 3 marriage, betrothal, alliance,
combination, compact, contract, partnership, union, affiliation:
It was a match made in heaven. 4 prospect, candidate: With his
inheritance, he's considered a good match.


--v. 5 match up, join, marry, unite, link, combine, put
together, pair up or off, juxtapose, conjoin: However did you
manage to match names and faces? Glynis matched them up at the
dinner table. 6 equal, be equivalent (to), resemble, compare

(with), tie, measure up (to), compete (with), vie (with), rival:
His skill on the flute will never match hers. 7 fit, go with,
suit, accord, agree, harmonize, go (together), coordinate,
blend, correspond: Who will notice that your socks match your
tie? Your eyes don't match.

matching adj. 1 corresponding, homologous, comparable, equivalent,
complementary: Birds' wings and fishes' fins are matching
parts. 2 analogous, like, corresponding, identical: He wore a
pink jacket and matching shoes. She bought a set of matching
luggage.

matchless adj. unique, original, peerless, unequalled, without equal,
inimitable, unmatched, incomparable, unparalleled, beyond
compare: Stefania has a contralto voice of matchless quality.

mate n. 1 companion, associate, colleague, fellow, chap, co-worker,
comrade, crony, ally, friend, alter ego, Colloq chum, pal, US
buddy, cohort, Slang Brit cully, china: After work, my mates
and I stop off for a beer or two (or three ) . 2 spouse,
partner, helpmeet, helpmate, consort, husband or wife, better
half, Colloq hubby, old man or lady or woman, lord and master,
US bride, Slang trouble and strife (= 'wife'): He scarcely
seems a worthy mate for the winner of a Miss World contest. 3
fellow, twin, counterpart, parallel, one of a pair: Have you
seen the mate to this sock anywhere?

--v. 4 pair (up), match (up), marry, wed, join, unite, couple,
link (up): People should be free to mate with whom they wish.
5 breed, couple, copulate, pair (up): The zoo was able to get
the rhinoceroses to mate. A lion was mated with a tiger to
produce a tigon. 6 match (up), fit (together), synchronize,
join: I cannot get these gears to mate.


material n. 1 substance, matter, stuff, fabric: It is hard to tell what
material this is made of. 2 cloth, fabric, textile, stuff:
This material is too sheer for a dress. 3 constituents,
elements, components: We import the raw materials and make the
finished product here. 4 information, data, facts, statistics,
figures, documents, documentation, papers, notes, resources,
means, research, apparatus, supplies: I have not yet gathered
enough material for the article.

--adj. 5 physical, tangible, concrete, solid, real,
substantive, substantial, palpable, corporeal, bodily: It was
many years before scientists could persuade people that air is a
material substance. 6 consequential, important, significant,
serious, substantial: How could one horseshoe nail be material
in the outcome of a battle? 7 worldly, earthly, mundane,
temporal, non-spiritual, secular, lay, materialistic: He
ponders the abstract, not the base, material things of everyday
life.


materialistic
adj. expedient, money-oriented, possession-oriented, greedy,
Slang yuppy: He's very materialistic and only married her for
her money.


materialize
v. 1 appear, turn up, become visible, become manifest, be
revealed, take shape or form, form, emerge: A hulking shape
began to materialize out of the fog. 2 happen, come to pass,
take place, occur, become manifest or real, be realized, become
an actuality, be actualized: The dream of a united Europe is
finally materializing.

materially
adv. substantially, palpably, significantly, seriously,
essentially, basically, considerably, greatly, much, in the long
run, at bottom: I doubt that his criticism will materially
affect the success of the play.


maternal adj. motherly, warm, nurturing, caring, understanding,
affectionate, tender, kind, kindly, devoted, fond, doting;
maternalistic: Her interest in him is strictly maternal.

maternity n. 1 motherhood, parenthood, pregnancy: Maternity brings about
great changes in a woman's life. 2 parenthood, motherhood: The
maternity of the child was not questioned until the hospital
revealed that there had been a mix-up in the nursery.

mathematical
adj. arithmetical; precise, exact, rigorous: He went about his
plans with mathematical precision.

matrimonial

adj. marital, marriage, wedding, conjugal, nuptial; married,
wedded, connubial: She obtained a court injunction banning him
from the matrimonial home. They enjoy matrimonial bliss.


matter n. 1 material, substance, stuff, sum and substance: Some
yellowish matter oozed out of the wound. It is a question of
mind over matter. 2 situation, issue, question, affair,
business, subject, topic, condition, thing, fact, concern;
occurrence, episode, incident, event, occasion, proceeding: It
was a matter of life and death. His loss of face is not a matter
that need involve you. 3 problem, difficulty, trouble,
complication, worry, upset, dilemma, quandary, enigma, puzzle:
What is the matter? 4 content, essentials, pith, context,
theme, argument, purport, implication; signification, meaning,
meaningfulness, import, importance, significance, moment,
weight, consequence: Pay attention to the matter in his speech,
not his manner. It is of little matter to me whether you go or
not. 5 amount, sum, quantity, question: It was only a matter of
a few pennies' difference.


--v. 6 be important or of importance, count, be of consequence,
make a difference, mean something: What you think matters a
great deal.


matter-of-fact
adj. straightforward, direct, forthright, sober, factual,
unimaginative, unartistic, prosaic, unpoetic, dry, dry-as-dust,
dull, boring, tiresome, flat, mundane, lifeless, featureless,
unvarnished, colourless, unembellished, unadorned: The report
contained a matter-of-fact description of the events.

mature adj. 1 adult, grown (up), full-grown, fully grown, of age,
fully fledged, full-fledged, fully developed, matured,
experienced, knowledgeable, sophisticated: At twenty-two, she
is mature enough to be on her own. 2 ripe, ready, ripened,
mellow, aged,' seasoned: A good wine, like fruit, should not be
consumed till it is mature. 3 complete, matured, perfect,
perfected, polished, refined, ready, fully developed,
consummated: Our plans are not yet mature.


--v. 4 grow up, age, develop, come of age; Brit be one's age,
US act one's age: Has he matured sufficiently to be trusted
alone in the house for the weekend? I wish he'd mature a bit

more. 5 ripen, mellow, age, season; maturate: Fruit that has
matured on the plant tastes best. 6 develop, perfect, refine,
polish, maturate, bring to fruition: Their plans for major
changes in company structure have not yet fully matured.


maturity n. 1 adulthood, majority, full growth or development: Maturity
is as much a state of mind as a matter of age. 2 ripeness,
readiness, mellowness; maturation: Different wines need ageing
for different periods to attain maturity. 3 readiness,
perfection, completion, fullness, consummation, operability,
applicability; maturation: Their plans were brought to
maturity.

maudlin adj. sentimental, (over)emotional, mawkish, romantic; tearful,
lachrymose, weepy, teary(-eyed); Colloq mushy, slushy, Brit
soppy, US soupy: He gets maudlin thinking about his childhood
in the countryside.

maxim n. saying, proverb, axiom, aphorism, adage, byword, saw,
apophthegm or apothegm, epigram, motto, slogan; mot, witticism;
clich‚, truism: Her maxim is, 'What you don't know, can't hurt
you'.

maximize n. 1 increase, broaden, improve, magnify, augment, add to,
expand, build up, enlarge: He maximizes his chances for winning
by betting on several numbers. To compete, you must maximize
your productivity. 2 inflate, overplay, overdo, overstate,
exaggerate, oversell, make much of, overstress, (over)colour,
enhance, embroider (on), embellish, elaborate, magnify: Roland
tends to maximize his role while minimizing others'.

maximum n. 1 most, utmost, uttermost, greatest, peak, extreme,
extremity, pinnacle, top, highest, (upper) limit: Turn the
volume up to the maximum. 2 zenith, pinnacle, peak, limit,
apex, acme, apogee, climax, crest, high(est) point, top, summit:
Her career reached its maximum in the 1930s.

--adj. 3 maximal, greatest, most, utmost, uttermost,
superlative, supreme, paramount, extreme, highest, top, topmost,
climactic, crowning: The maximum amount that I can afford for a
car is œ2000.

maybe adv. perhaps, possibly, Literary perchance, Archaic or dialect

mayhap, Archaic peradventure: We could go and see a film
tonight, or maybe have a meal somewhere.

mayhem n. maihem, violence, havoc, destruction, disorder, devastation,
chaos; fracas, commotion, confusion: Someone screamed 'Fire!',
and the ensuing mayhem was unbelievable.

maze n. labyrinth, complex, intricacy, twistings and turnings,
convolutions: His application has been lost in the maze of
bureaucratic bungling.

13.2 meadow...
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-



meadow n. field, meadow-land, pasture, pasture land, Archaic or
literary lea, mead: The entire meadow was dotted with little
puffy clouds of white sheep.


meagre adj. 1 scanty, scant, poor, paltry, inadequate, skimpy,
scrimpy, sparse, spare, insufficient, bare, puny, piddling,
trifling, pathetic, exiguous, Colloq measly: Angela scraped out
a meagre living as a shop assistant. The meagre supplies
wouldn't last another day. 2 spare, skinny, scrawny, bony,
emaciated, gaunt, thin, lean, bare-boned, (half-)starved,
underfed, undernourished, starving: The meagre faces of the
survivors told of their ordeal. 3 spare, plain, bare-boned,
unadorned, unembellished, unelaborate, unelaborated, simple,
simplified, oversimplified, bare, inadequate, deficient,
undetailed, indefinite, non-specific, general, broad, loose,
vague: The police have only a meagre description to go on. 4
unfruitful, infertile, barren, deficient, poor, unproductive:
This land is too meagre to provide the people with a living.


meal n. 1 food, repast, victuals, nourishment, spread, collation,
refection; dinner, supper, breakfast, lunch, luncheon, Brit tea:
Meals will be served in the main dining room. 2 make a meal of.
overdo, overplay, go overboard, go or carry to extremes, carry
or go too far, do to excess: Perkins is bound to make a meal of
the slightest thing.

mealy-mouthed
adj. mincing, reticent, reluctant, hesitant, equivocal,

equivocating, ambiguous, indirect, unwilling to call a spade a
spade, euphemistic, roundabout, vague, circumlocutory,
periphrastic, hypocritical, deceitful, artful, slick, oily,
unctuous: All you'll get from that mealy-mouthed hypocrite is
platitudinous twaddle.

meanฐ v. 1 intend, design, purpose, plan, aim, have in mind,
contemplate, have in view; want, wish, expect, hope; be
motivated by, have as justification: I did mean to phone you
but had no time. I am sure she meant nothing by her remark. 2
denote, signify, indicate, note, specify, designate, represent,
betoken, signal, carry, convey, drive at, refer to, allude to,
communicate, express, bring out, get over or across; imply,
suggest, connote, intimate, hint (at): What does 'canicular'
mean? It depends on what you mean by 'liberty'. The footprints
meant that someone had already been here. 3 portend, show,
foretell, foreshadow, promise, presage, augur, herald: Those
clouds mean that it will soon rain. 4 carry or have the weight
or significance or importance of: Money means little to someone
in her circumstances.

mean adj. 1 stingy, miserly, tight, close, cheap, parsimonious,
penurious, stinting, niggardly, penny-pinching, tight-fisted,
close-fisted, mercenary, uncharitable, ungenerous,
mean-spirited, unaccommodating, small, petty, Colloq near,
money-grubbing, measly, Brit mingy: He is far too mean to buy
anyone a Christmas present. It seems rather a mean contribution
to the fund, given his wealth. 2 lowly, low, base, inferior,
abject, menial, servile, degraded, degenerate, undignified,
ignoble, plebeian, proletarian, modest, humble, common: He rose
to a position of great power in spite of his mean background. 3
disgraceful, run-down, poor, sorry, miserable, scruffy, seedy,
scurvy, shabby, squalid, wretched, vile, mangy, sordid,
contemptible, dismal, dreary, abysmal: They live in very mean
circumstances. 4 unkind, malicious, cruel, unaccommodating,
disobliging: It was very mean of you to steal that toy from the
baby. 5 cantankerous, churlish, nasty, hostile, ill-tempered,
bad-tempered, sour, unpleasant: That mean old lady would never
even talk to us. 6 excellent, wonderful, marvellous, great,
exceptional, effective, skilful, skilled, Slang far-out, US bad:
The saxophonist in that combo is one mean cat.

meanฐ n. 1 average, middle, norm, (happy) medium: We are attempting

to achieve the mean between the two extremes. 2 by all means.
a absolutely, definitely, certainly, surely, assuredly, of
course, positively: By all means, do tell us what you think is
wrong. b in any event, at all events, no matter what, without
fail, at any cost, in any case: By all means, you must do what
you think is right. 3 by means of. by dint of, via, through, by
way of, with the help or aid of, employing, using, utilizing:
She gained access to her victims by means of the telephone
directory. We entered by means of the front door. 4 means. a
instrument, agency, method, process, technique, mode, manner,
way(s), approach, course, procedure, avenue, medium, vehicle:
If you can find the means, then get the job done at once. b
resources, funds, money, wherewithal, capital, finances,
backing, support: I wanted to go to Australia to see my
brother, but I simply didn't have the means. c substance,
wealth, property, position, financial stability: She is a woman
of considerable means. 5 by no means. by no manner of means, in
no way, not at all, definitely or absolutely not, on no account,
not conceivably, not in one's wildest dreams or fantasies, not
by any stretch of the imagination, Colloq no way, US no way
Jos‚: This is sometimes but by no means always the case. He is
by no means a great artist.

--adj. 6 middle, centre, intermediate, medial, medium, median,
average, middling: The mean temperature for the year has
increased.

meander v. 1 wander, ramble, zigzag, snake, wind, twist, turn; stroll,
amble, rove, Colloq mosey, Brit swan around or about: The river
meandered with a mazy motion through the meadows. We meandered
through the forest.

--n. 2 Often, meanders. meandering(s), turn(s), turning(s),
twist(s), twisting(s), winding(s), curve(s), curving(s),
loop(s), looping(s), bend(s), coil(s), zigzag(s), convolutions;
tortuosities, flexuosities, anfractuosities: We followed the
river's meanders till we came to the ruined church.

meandering
adj. wandering, roundabout, circuitous, sinuous, tortuous,
winding, serpentine, indirect, flexuous, curvy, crooked,
convoluted, labyrinthine, mazy, anfractuous: The meandering
road followed the river through the valley.


meaning n. 1 sense, import, content, signification, denotation,
message, substance, gist: The meaning of the word 'lucid' is
clear. 2 purport, implication, drift, spirit, connotation,
significance, intention: You understand my meaning, so I need
not explain. 3 interpretation, explanation: What is the
meaning of my dream about being attacked by my philodendron?

meaningful
adj. 1 significant, important, consequential, serious, sober,
deep, substantial, pithy, substantive, telling, weighty, valid,
relevant: Tired of casual encounters, he was ready for a
meaningful relationship. 2 suggestive, pregnant, tell-tale,
pointed, sententious, significant, expressive, eloquent: She
gave him a meaningful look.

meaningless
adj. 1 empty, hollow, vacuous, unsubstantial, absurd, silly,
foolish, fatuous, asinine, ridiculous, preposterous,
nonsensical: He gave some meaningless excuse for having
forgotten the appointment. This gibberish is entirely
meaningless to me. 2 ineffective, ineffectual, inefficacious,
bootless, unavailing, to no avail, trivial, nugatory, trifling,
puny, paltry, worthless, not worth anything or a straw or a rap,
valueless, inconsequential, unimportant, of no moment,
insubstantial, vain, pointless, senseless, purposeless,
undirected, irrelevant, insignificant: Considering the enemy
forces, anything we could do would be meaningless.


means n. See meanฐ, 4, above.

meantime n., adv. See meanwhile, below.

meanwhile n. 1 interim, meantime, interval: In the meanwhile, you could
study for the exam.

--adv. 2 in the meanwhile, meantime, in the meantime, in the
interim, for the moment, temporarily, for now, for the time
being, during the interval, in the intervening time: Ruth was
watching TV; meanwhile George was washing up.

measly adj. sparse, scant, scanty, meagre, paltry, pathetic, skimpy,
puny, piddling, miserly, niggardly, miserable, beggarly, stingy,

Colloq Brit mingy: 'Nouvelle cuisine' is the name given to a
restaurateur's design to serve decorative, but measly, portions.

measure n. 1 amount, quantity, magnitude, amplitude, size, bulk, mass,
extent, reach, dimension, scope, proportions, range, spread;
capacity, volume; width, length, breadth, height; weight: It is
difficult to calculate the measure of an irregularly shaped
object. 2 scale, gauge or technical gage, yardstick, rule, US
litmus test: I cannot determine the length without a proper
measure. 3 system, standard, criterion, rule, method;
barometer, Richter scale: The measure by which ice-cream is
sold ought to be weight, not volume. What sort of measure do you
apply when judging character? 4 assessment, evaluation,
valuation, appraisal, value, gauge or gage, rank, rating,
measurement, stamp, estimation: It is not easy to get the
measure of a man who wants to marry your daughter. 5 quota,
allotment, ration, share, amount, degree, proportion, quantity,
allowance; portion, part: He was accorded a measure of freedom
in choosing the method for getting the job done. She has had her
measure of praise. 6 Often, measures. step(s), procedure,
proceeding, action, course (of action), plan, method, means,
avenue, tactic(s), way, direction, approach, technique: They
took measures to ensure that it never happens again. 7 bill,
resolution, legislation, act, statute, law; plan, proposal: A
measure to change the speed limit is before the council. 8
bound, limit, end, extreme, extent, limitation, moderation,
control, constraint, restraint: Drug trafficking has gone
beyond all measure in some countries. 9 beat, rhythm, cadence,
metre, time; melody, tune, bar, theme, motif: The ambassador
entered, and the band played in stately measures. 10 for good
measure. to boot, in addition, additionally, as a dividend, into
the bargain, besides, as or for a bonus, moreover, furthermore:
The job includes a company car and, for good measure, free
medical insurance.


--v. 11 rank, rate, gauge or gage, meter, weigh, calculate,
reckon, compute, calibrate, determine, ascertain, figure out or
up, assess, appraise, estimate, evaluate, judge, value; survey,
find out: We must measure the effect of the new safety
regulations on our equipment budget. Public acceptance of the
new product may be difficult to measure. 12 proportion, pace,
adapt, gauge, relate, tailor, fit, adjust, regulate, control:
Teachers should measure homework assignments according to

pupils' available time. Measure your words when speaking to
young children. 13 measure off or out. mark off or out, limit,
delimit, fix, pace off or out, lay off: Now measure off exactly
122.5 metres due north. 14 measure out. mete out, dole out,
ration (out), parcel out, apportion, allot, share out, assign,
allocate; give out, deal out, distribute, issue, pass out, hand
out, dispense, disperse, spread around or about: The relief
workers measured out food and water to the victims of the
famine. 15 measure up (to). a meet, equal, fulfil, match,
reach, attain: The first eleven have not measured up to their
coach's expectations. Will they ever measure up? b qualify
(for), be suitable (for), be equal to, be fit or fitted for, be
adequate (to), be up to, Colloq make the grade, come up to
scratch, be up to snuff, US cut the mustard: If Clive gets the
assignment, are you sure that he'll measure up? No one else
measures up to the job.

measured adj. 1 slow, regulated, unhurried, leisurely, stately,
majestic, dignified, sedate, solemn: The silent procession
moved through the streets at a measured pace. 2 careful,
cautious, prudent, calculated, studied, considered, deliberate,
systematic, sober, intentional, planned, regulated,
premeditated, well-thought-out, reasoned: He planned the murder
with the same measured deliberation he used in writing computer
programs. 3 rhythmic(al), regular, cadenced, steady, uniform,
even, monotonous: The measured marching of the soldiers echoed
through the night. 4 precise, regulated, exact, predetermined,
modulated, quantified; clockwork: A measured amount of each
ingredient is automatically added at each stage of the
manufacturing process.

measurement
n. 1 measuring, reckoning, gauging or gaging, ascertainment,
determination, assessment, estimation, appraisal, evaluation,
valuation, judgement, calculation, computation, mensuration,
commensuration; metage: The measurement of astronomical
distances can only be approximate. 2 dimension, extent, size,
amount, magnitude, amplitude; length, breadth, height, width,
depth; area; volume, capacity; weight, tonnage; (elapsed) time,
period; (square or cubic) footage, (square) yardage, mileage,
acreage,: I need the measurements of the room to order the
fitted carpet.

meat n. 1 flesh; food, nourishment, sustenance, viands, victuals,
nutriment, provisions, provender, comestibles, edibles,
eatables, Colloq eats, chow, grub: She's turned vegetarian and
won't touch meat in any form. 2 pith, core, heart, marrow,
kernel, vital part, essence, gist, substance, basics,
essentials, crux: The sub-plot seems to swamp the real meat of
the play.

mechanical
adj. 1 automatic, automated, machine-driven; machine-made:
Early mechanical toys are sometimes quite intricate. This is a
mechanical, not a hand-crafted device. 2 automatic, reflex,
involuntary, instinctive, routine, habitual, unconscious,
perfunctory, machine-like, robot-like: Good manners ought to be
mechanical. Blinking is a mechanical reaction to bright light. 3
impersonal, distant, cold, matter-of-fact, unfeeling,
insensible, ritualistic, lifeless, spiritless, dead, inanimate,
unanimated, unemotional, unartistic, mechanistic, colourless,
uninspired, business-like: The girl at the check-out gave us a
mechanical smile.

mechanism n. 1 device, appliance, contrivance, apparatus, instrument,
machine: This mechanism will detonate the bomb at the right
moment. 2 machinery, workings, works, structure, system,
organization, arrangement: Astrophysicists can offer only an
imperfect account of the mechanism of the universe. 3 way,
means, method, procedure, approach, technique, medium, process,
agency: We shall use every mechanism at our disposal to have
the case heard by a different judge. 4 materialism,
mechanicalism, physicalism, logical positivism, identity theory,
monism: His notions of mechanism reject the idea of
free-thinking individualism.

meddle v. interfere, intrude, butt in, pry, intervene, interlope,
tamper, snoop, Rare intermeddle, Colloq stick or poke one's nose
in, have a or one's finger in the pie, kibitz: Why are you
always meddling in things that don't concern you?

mediator n. arbitrator, arbiter, referee, umpire, judge, negotiator,
intermediary, go-between, middleman, moderator, liaison,
intercessor, interceder, conciliator, appeaser, peacemaker: To
avoid a lawsuit, they agreed to allow a mediator to settle their
differences.


medicinal adj. healing, remedial, therapeutic, curative, restorative,
sanative; medical, iatric(al), Medicine roborant, analeptic,
alexipharmic: The doctor prescribed a medicinal ointment for
the rash.

medicine n. medication, medicament, remedy, drug, pharmaceutical,
prescription, Archaic physic; nostrum, panacea, cure-all: There
is no medicine that can cure your affliction.


mediocre adj. middling, indifferent, ordinary, commonplace, average,
medium, everyday, US garden-variety, run-of-the-mill,
pedestrian, undistinguished, uninspired, unimaginative,
unexceptional, tolerable, fair, not (that or too) good, not bad,
second-rate, third-rate, inferior, poor, Brit common-or-garden
variety, US garden-variety, Colloq so so, fair to middling,
nothing to brag or to write home about, no great shakes: It was
a mediocre play, and we couldn't be bothered to sit through it.


meditate v. 1 reflect, think, muse, ponder, study, ruminate, cogitate,
contemplate, cerebrate, be lost in thought, be in a brown study:
Please don't interrupt me while I'm meditating. 2 Often,
meditate on or upon. consider, contemplate, mull over, reflect
on or upon, ponder on or over, chew over, plan, scheme, devise,
design, conceive, frame, think up, have in mind: She was
meditating revenge, while I was meditating on how to discourage
her.

meditative
adj. thoughtful, pensive, contemplative, reflective, studious,
cogitative, excogitative, abstracted, rapt, engrossed, lost or
deep in thought, ruminative, brooding: She suddenly stopped
talking and became meditative, looking at me with a curious
expression.


medium adj. 1 average, middle, mid, medial, median, normal, standard,
usual, everyday, ordinary; mid-sized: His wife has an estate
car of medium size - nothing extravagant. 2 See mediocre,
above.


--n. 3 average, middle, mid-point, compromise, centre, mean,
norm, mediocrity: Instead of going to extremes, try for the
happy medium. 4 atmosphere, environment, ambience or ambiance,

milieu: The air serves as a medium of sound. The light is
refracted as it passes into a denser medium. 5 means, method,
mode, approach, instrumentality, device, mechanism,
intermediation, technique, contrivance, agency, expedient, way,
course, route, road, avenue, channel, conveyance, vehicle:
Latin and Greek were the media of the scholarship, the science,
and the theology of the Middle Ages. Television is a powerful
advertising medium.


medley n. mixture, assortment, combination, miscellany, m‚lange,
collection, conglomeration, agglomeration, hotchpotch or US and
Canadian hodgepodge, olio, blend, gallimaufry, omnium gatherum,
pastiche, pot-pourri, salmagundi, olla podrida, mishmash,
jumble, mess, farrago, stew, goulash, Colloq mixed bag: The
programme consisted of a medley of show tunes.

meek adj. 1 modest, humble, submissive, unassuming, unambitious,
unpretentious, mild, bland, patient, deferential, shy, retiring,
lowly: The meek shall inherit the earth. 2 tame, timid, weak,
docile, compliant, submissive, yielding, acquiescent, docile,
unaggressive, non-militant, tractable, manageable, subdued,
repressed, spiritless, suppressed, broken, Colloq wimpish: The
people are meek and will not offer any resistance to such
dictatorial government.


meetฐ v. 1 encounter, come across, chance on or upon, happen on or
upon, stumble on or into, see, Colloq run across or into, bump
into: Guess who I met in the park this morning! 2 Often, meet
with. rendezvous (with), get together (with); convene, assemble,
gather, collect, forgather or foregather, congregate: I met
with the mysterious stranger as arranged. The board meets at
9.00 am. 3 make the acquaintance of, be introduced to, first
encounter, come across, find: Where did you meet your wife? 4
link up, join, come together, unite, adjoin, abut, touch,
intersect: The horizon is where the sky meets earth. 5 answer,
deal with, handle, satisfy, fulfil, take care of, dispose of,
heed, observe, carry out; gratify, pay, settle, defray,
liquidate: Will these precautions meet the requirements of the
Department of the Environment? The police advised the parents
not to meet the kidnapper's demands. 6 meet with. encounter, be
met by, experience; undergo, endure, suffer, have, go through:
All our efforts met with little or no response. Gary met with an
accident yesterday.


--n. 7 competition, contest, meeting, match, tourney,
tournament; muster, rally: The track meet was won by our team.


meet adj. fitting, suitable, appropriate, proper, fit, congruous:
It is meet to offer praises to God.

meeting n. 1 appointment, engagement, rendezvous, encounter,
assignation, tryst, Slang US meet: She arranged a meeting with
her ex-husband. 2 assembly, convention, conference, gathering,
congress, conclave, session, congregation, convocation, US
caucus, Colloq get-together: Nominations for next year's
officers will be presented at the next meeting. 3 convergence,
converging, confluence, joining, union, junction, conjunction,
intersection: The earliest settlement was at the meeting of the
two rivers. 4 See meet, 7, above.

melancholy
adj. 1 sad, morose, depressed, unhappy, dejected, despondent,
blue, downhearted, glum, gloomy, woeful, woebegone, lugubrious,
disconsolate, downcast, dispirited, low-spirited, cheerless,
crestfallen, chap-fallen, forlorn, heartbroken, mournful,
sorrowful, miserable, dismal, Colloq down in the mouth, (down)
in the dumps, low: Harold has been melancholy ever since Lucy
left.

--n. 2 sadness, sorrow, misery, woe, gloom, unhappiness, blues,
moroseness, depression, dejection, dejectedness, despondence,
despondency, downheartedness, glumness, gloominess, woefulness,
lugubriousness, disconsolateness, dispiritedness, cheerlessness,
mournfulness, sorrowfulness, miserableness, dolour, anguish:
Getting Harold's mind off his problems may relieve his
melancholy.


mellow adj. 1 soft, juicy, luscious, delicious, rich, sweet,
flavourful, full-flavoured, ready, ripe, mature, ripened, aged:
She set before us a dish of mellow peaches. Amontillado sherry
is noted for its mellow taste. 2 musical, melodious, full, pure,
rich, sweet, dulcet, mellifluous, euphonious, vibrant: Her
voice was low, mellow, and suggestive. 3 soft, softened,
subtle, muted, pastel: The mellow shades of this painting would
fit well into the d‚cor. 4 easygoing, genial, gentle,
good-natured, easy, cordial, friendly, warm, amiable, agreeable,

pleasant, cheerful, happy, jovial, felicitous: Patrick seems to
have become more mellow with age.

--v. 5 mature, ripen, age, season, sweeten, develop, improve
(with age), soften: Frank has mellowed since taking up golf.

melodious adj. sweet(-sounding), dulcet, tuneful, euphonious, harmonious,
melodic, lyrical, musical, mellifluous, mellisonant, silvery,
golden: I agreed with her father that Sylvia has a most
melodious voice.

melodramatic
adj. sensational, sensationalistic, dramatic, stagy,
theatrical, emotionalistic, (over-)sentimental,
(over-)sentimentalized, overdrawn, overworked, overwrought,
overdone, exaggerated, blood-and-thunder, histrionic, Colloq
hammy, US schmaltzy, hokey: The slightest thing that happened
to him he blew up with melodramatic effect to elicit Maria's
sympathy.


melody n. 1 song, tune, air, strain, measure, theme, refrain: Isn't
that the melody from Mimi's aria in La BohŠme ? 2 tunefulness,
melodiousness, euphoniousness, euphony, harmony, musicality,
sweetness: The older music seems to be marked by so much more
melody than rock 'n' roll.

melt v. 1 soften, thaw, liquefy, fuse, dissolve, liquidize,
deliquesce: You'd better eat that ice-cream before it melts. 2
soften, thaw, mollify, assuage, touch, move, disarm, mellow:
The look on the child's face melted his icy reserve. 3 Usually,
melt into. blend, fade, merge, disappear, dissolve, shrink: As
soon as the police arrived, Phyllis tried to melt into the
background. 4 melt away. disappear, dissolve, vanish, evaporate,
go away, fade, pass, decline, decrease, shrink, dwindle,
diminish: When the company began to make a profit, all his
previous reservations melted away.

member n. colleague, associate, fellow: I am going to propose Fred as
a member of the club.


memento n. 1 souvenir, keepsake, remembrance, relic, trophy, token: I
kept his medals as a memento of our time together. 2 mementos.
memorabilia: There will be an auction of war mementos next

week.

memoir n. 1 account, report, reportage, narrative, essay,
dissertation, disquisition, paper, journal, record, biography,
life: They found her memoir about life in the jungle very
exciting. 2 memoirs. autobiography, reminiscences,
recollections, memories, diary, confessions, letters, life
story; annals, history, account(s), record(s), chronology: She
was reading the memoirs of Henry Kissinger.


memorable adj. unforgettable, catchy, never-to-be-forgotten, noteworthy,
notable, remarkable, significant, important, worthy, momentous,
eventful, historic, illustrious, celebrated, great: His first
book contains many memorable and quotable passages.


memorandum
n. note, record, minute, reminder, message, Brit chit or
chitty, Colloq memo: Send a memorandum reminding them of the
meeting.


memorial adj. 1 commemorative: A memorial plaque will be dedicated to
him tomorrow.

--n. 2 monument, marker, plaque, cenotaph, statue, memento,
remembrance, reminder, souvenir: Let this serve as a memorial
to those who died in the wars. Wreaths were laid at the foot of
the memorial.

memorialize
v. honour, commemorate, pay homage or respect or tribute to,
remember, eulogize, celebrate, mark: His life, devoted to
botany, is memorialized in these beautiful gardens.

memorize v. learn by heart or rote, commit to memory, learn word for
word, retain; remember: He memorized the entire Rime of the
Ancient Mariner .

memory n. 1 recall, recollection, retention: My memory of the
incident is very vivid. She has a poor memory for faces. 2
recollection, reminiscence, thought: The interviewer was
drawing on grandfather's memories of the 1920s. 3 remembrance,
honour, homage, respect, tribute, celebration: He wrote a
sequence of poems in memory of a dear friend.


menace v. 1 threaten, intimidate, daunt, terrorize, terrify, cow,
bully, frighten, scare, alarm: The loan sharks menaced him when
he refused to pay.


--n. 2 threat, danger, peril, hazard, risk: The sunken wreck
is a menace to navigation. 3 intimidation, scare, threat,
warning, commination: According to law, a menace alone does not
constitute an injury.


menacing adj. threatening, looming, impending, ominous, frightening,
terrifying, intimidating, minacious, minatory or minatorial,
louring or lowering; dangerous, perilous, hazardous, risky,
chancy: Menacing storm clouds scudded across the darkening sky.


mend v. 1 repair, fix, patch (up), rectify, correct, remedy,
restore, rehabilitate; heal: When will you get round to mending
the roof? 2 correct, improve, better, ameliorate, reform,
revise, rectify, set or put right, emend: When are you going to
mend your ways? 3 heal, improve, recover, convalesce,
recuperate, get better: It took me a few months to mend after
the accident.

--n. 4 repair, patch: You can hardly see where the mend is. 5
on the mend. recovering, recuperating, convalescing,
convalescent, improving: The good news is that father is on the
mend after his attack.

menial adj. 1 lowly, servile, humble, subservient, base, low, mean,
slavish, demeaning, degrading, ignoble; routine, unskilled: He
took a number of menial jobs to pay for his daughter's wedding.
2 servile, fawning, grovelling, toadying, sycophantic,
obsequious, cringing, time-serving, flattering, snivelling,
Colloq boot-licking, Taboo slang brown-nosing: His insecurity
makes him surround himself with menial hangers-on.

--n. 3 lackey, flunkey, serf, slave, underling, minion, Brit
fag, Colloq Brit dogsbody, skivvy, US gofer: He works as one of
the menials in the hotel kitchen. 4 toady, sycophant, yes-man,
lickspittle, leech, parasite, time-server, Colloq bootlicker,
Taboo slang brown-nose(r): The film star was attended by a
retinue of menials, all anxious to keep in her favour.

mental adj. 1 intellectual, cognitive, cerebral, perceptual, rational,
conceptual, theoretical, noetic, abstract: The boy staggered us
with his ability to perform rapid mental arithmetical
calculations. 2 lunatic, mad, crazy, psychotic, demented,
mentally ill, unstable, unbalanced, deranged, disturbed, daft,
certifiable, Slang off one's rocker, nutty, batty, balmy or
barmy, loony, screwy, bonkers, crackers, nuts, bananas, loco:
My great-aunt has gone a bit mental in her old age.


mentality n. 1 intelligence, brain, capacity, intellect, wit, sense,
judgement, acuity, acumen, I.Q., rationality, understanding:
I'd say that Frank is a man of average mentality. 2
inclination, attitude, bent, mind-set, disposition, frame of
mind, temperament, outlook, view: The news betrays little about
what is actually happening, but much about the mentality of the
leadership. They criticized Britain's 'island mentality'.

mention v. 1 speak or write about, refer to, allude to, touch on or
upon, make mention (of), bring up or in, introduce, broach, call
or direct attention to, note, name, cite, acknowledge; point
out, indicate, make known, adduce, report, quote: Sergeant
Payne was mentioned in dispatches from the front. He mentions
the works of Conrad in support of his thesis. 2 divulge, reveal,
intimate, disclose, impart, suggest, animadvert on or upon, hint
(at), imply, insinuate: Did he mention that Liz was present?

--n. 3 reference, allusion, note, naming, citation, mentioning,
Colloq cite: There was a mention of you in the newspaper today.
4 recognition, tribute, acknowledgement, kudos, praise: She won
no prize but came in for an honourable mention. 5 announcement,
reference, referral, remark: The speaker's mention of the
conference reminded me of something.

mercantile
adj. commercial, business, trade, marketing, market: The book
dealt with the mercantile affairs of the Hanseatic League.

mercenary adj. 1 money-oriented, grasping, greedy, acquisitive, covetous,
predatory, avaricious, venal, Colloq money-grubbing: She
objected that the 'financial world' ought to be renamed the
'mercenary world'. 2 venal, bribable, corrupt, bought, Colloq US
on the take: They found themselves a mercenary judge and the
indictment was quashed.


--n. 3 hireling, legionnaire, soldier of fortune: The highly
trained task force was made up entirely of mercenaries.


merchandise
n. 1 goods, commodities, products, stock, staples, produce:
The merchandise you ordered was shipped yesterday.

--v. 2 trade, deal in, traffic in, market, distribute, retail,
(buy and) sell, promote, advertise: We are merchandising the
new product line via direct mail.

merchant n. 1 dealer, retailer, seller, shopkeeper, store owner, trader,
tradesman or tradeswoman, vendor: High Street merchants are
complaining about a decline in sales. 2 pedlar, hawker;
(travelling) salesman, (sales) representative, commercial
traveller, huckster, door-to-door salesman, US old-fashioned
drummer, Colloq (sales) rep: His work as an itinerant merchant
took him away from home most of the week. 3 distributor,
wholesaler, jobber, broker, agent, forwarder; businessman,
merchant prince, mogul, tycoon, magnate, industrialist, US
baron: She comes from a family of steel merchants.

merciful adj. compassionate, sympathetic, forgiving, kind, kindly,
clement, kind-hearted, forbearing, sparing, lenient, tender,
humane, liberal, mild, tender-hearted, soft-hearted, gracious,
generous, magnanimous, benignant, beneficent, charitable,
thoughtful, considerate, indulgent, big: She begged the
governor to be merciful and to spare her life.


merciless adj. cruel, pitiless, ruthless, heartless, unmerciful,
inhumane, inhuman, brutal, savage, barbarous, barbaric,
barbarian, crude, rude, rough, harsh, tough, callous, hard,
hard-hearted, illiberal, tyrannical, stony-hearted, cold,
severe, unsparing, insensitive, indifferent, unsympathetic,
unforgiving, ungracious, malevolent, thoughtless, uncharitable,
inconsiderate, unmoved, unbending, inflexible, relentless,
unrelenting, inexorable: Their captors proved to be utterly
merciless. The merciless sun beat down on the desert outpost.


mercy n. compassion, pity, forbearance, quarter, tolerance, sympathy,
favour, forgiveness, kindness, kindliness, leniency, tenderness,
humanity, humaneness, liberality, kind-heartedness,

tender-heartedness, soft-heartedness, graciousness, generosity,
magnanimity, benignity, beneficence, charity, thoughtfulness,
consideration, indulgence: May the Lord have mercy on your
soul. We could expect no mercy from that slave-driver.


mere adj. bare, basic, scant, stark, sheer; absolute, unmixed, only,
just, nothing but, pure (and simple), unmitigated, undiluted:
She was a mere slip of a girl. We need something more to go on
than mere hearsay evidence.


merely adv. 1 only, simply; basically, purely, essentially,
fundamentally, at bottom: I was merely going to ask if you'd
like to go to the cinema. 2 only, no more than; barely,
scarcely, simply, solely, entirely: She was merely the
scullery-maid. We can't unlock the safe merely on your
authority.

merge v. combine, coalesce, unite, join, amalgamate, consolidate,
pool, blend, mix, mingle, commingle, fuse: If we merge our
companies, we shall save on overhead costs.

merger n. combination, coalescence, union, merging, amalgamation,
consolidation, coalition, pooling, blending, mixing, mingling,
commingling, fusing, fusion: A merger of the two firms might
result in a monopoly.

merit n. 1 worth, worthiness, value, excellence, quality, virtue,
good, goodness: Philip's plan has a good deal of merit. 2
Often, merits. assets, strong point, advantage, rights and
wrongs: What exactly are the merits of his approach over mine?
The case should be tried on its own merits.

--v. 3 earn, deserve, warrant, rate, have a right or claim to,
be entitled to, be qualified for, be worthy of: What gave you
the idea that you merited any special consideration?

meritorious
adj. honourable, laudable, praiseworthy, commendable,
creditable, admirable, estimable, excellent, exemplary,
outstanding: Penny has won the company award for meritorious
service five months in a row.

merriment n. jollity, joviality, merrymaking, revelry, gaiety, high or

good spirits, mirth, mirthfulness, joyfulness, felicity,
jubilation, festivity, exhilaration, buoyancy, exuberance,
cheer, cheerfulness, glee, fun, hilarity, enjoyment, happiness,
blithefulness, blithesomeness, frolicking: Everyone joined in
the merriment at the office party.

merry adj. 1 cheerful, happy, gay, cheery, jolly, jovial, in high or
good spirits, mirthful, joyful, joyous, hilarious, jubilant,
rejoicing, festive, exhilarating, exuberant, vivacious,
convivial, buoyant, gleeful, blithe, blithesome, carefree,
light-hearted, delighted: Didn't we have a merry old time at
the Christmas party! 2 make merry. revel, celebrate, carouse,
frolic: The guests made merry till the wee hours of the
morning.


mesh n. 1 mesh-work, network, netting, net, web, webbing, lattice,
lattice-work, screen, screening, interlacing, lace-work, grid,
grate, grating, grater, sieve, strainer, trellis, trellis-work,
decussation, Technical rete, reticle or reticule or graticule,
reticulation, plexus, plexure, reticulum; interstice: The mesh
of the hammock broke and I fell to the ground. 2 Often, meshes.
grip, clutches, grasp, toils, web, trap, entanglement, tangle,
complex, complexity, intricacy: Her papers were lost in the
meshes of the filing system.


--v. 3 catch, entangle, enmesh, grab, trap, entrap, snare,
ensnare, involve: I became meshed inextricably in the
complexities of her life. 4 engage, fit (together), dovetail,
knit, enmesh, match, interlock: After they were aligned, the
gears meshed perfectly.

mess n. 1 chaos, disorder, disarray, disorganization, shambles,
muddle, disarrangement, clutter, hotchpotch or US also
hodgepodge, litter, tangle, jumble, confusion, mishmash;
untidiness: Would you help me clean up this mess? Drugs have
made a mess of her life. 2 concoction, mixture, medley,
miscellany, hash, gallimaufry, farrago, olio, olla podrida,
pot-pourri, smorgasbord or sm”rg†sbord, kedgeree: They
presented us with a huge mess of things from which we must
select what we want. 3 predicament, difficulty, plight, pinch,
trouble, dilemma, quandary, imbroglio, Colloq foul-up, stew,
fix, hot water, (pretty or fine) kettle of fish, pickle, jam,
Slang screw-up, Brit balls-up, can of worms, US snafu: You have

got yourself into a fine mess this time!

--v. 4 mess about or around (with). a potter, fool (around),
dally, busy oneself, fiddle about or around, play: He enjoys
messing about in boats. b philander, trifle, toy, flirt,
seduce, sleep around, fool around, run around: She doesn't want
him to mess about with other women. 5 mess up. a disarrange,
disarray, dishevel, tousle, Colloq US muss (up): He always
messes up my hair when he kisses me. b ruin, destroy, make a
shambles of, wreck, bungle, botch, foul up, Colloq make a hash
of, Slang muck up: Making that one little mistake messed up his
whole career. c dirty, clutter up, make untidy, turn upside
down, pull to pieces, upset: The police messed up my whole
house looking for the pistol. 6 mess with. interfere in or
with, intervene, meddle with or in, intrude in, butt in or into,
tinker with, tamper with, get involved in or with: They ought
to learn not to mess with things that don't concern them.

message n. 1 communication, bulletin, report, communiqu‚, news,
dispatch or despatch, information, word, intelligence, tidings;
note, missive, letter, memorandum: The message reached us by
carrier pigeon. 2 speech, address, presentation, statement,
declaration: His message was delivered via television to people
everywhere. 3 idea, point, import, meaning, essence,
implication: The message that he isn't liked around here still
hasn't penetrated his thick skull.

messenger n. envoy, emissary, legate, nuncio, intermediary, go-between;
page, errand-boy, errand-girl, messenger-boy, messenger-girl,
courier, runner, dispatch-rider, Pheidippides, Mercury, Hermes;
herald, harbinger; Colloq US gofer: If you don't like the
message, don't take it out on the messenger.

Messiah n. deliverer, liberator, emancipator, saviour, rescuer: They
believe in a Messiah who will release them from earthly bondage.

metaphor n. figure (of speech), allusion, analogy, analogue, reference,
image, trope, symbol; simile, parabole; metonymy, symbolism,
imagery: When she said she was blue, she was using 'blue' as a
metaphor. Poetry is rife with metaphor.

metaphoric
adj. metaphorical, non-literal, allusive, analogic(al),

analogous, figurative, symbolic, referential, parabolic(al),
metonymic, metonymous, tropological: I meant 'filthy' in a
metaphoric, not a literal, sense.


mete v. Usually, mete out. deal (out), apportion, distribute, dole
(out), allot, assign, allocate, parcel out, share (out), ration
(out), measure out, dispense, hand out, give out, pass out,
Colloq dish out: Punishment was meted out to those who deserved
it.


meteoric adj. 1 brief, short-lived, temporary, transitory, transient,
ephemeral, evanescent, impermanent, fleeting, momentary, swift,
overnight: She enjoyed a meteoric rise as a singer, but after
two years at the top she disappeared without a trace. 2
brilliant, dazzling, flashing, spectacular, sensational: His
meteoric career was launched in 1974.

method n. 1 way, means, procedure, approach, route, avenue, road,
mode, manner, technique, process, routine, modus operandi; plan,
scheme, programme, course, routine, practice, pattern, system,
methodology; Colloq US M.O.: What method was used to arrive at
the answer? 2 arrangement, order, system, structure,
organization, design, pattern, orderliness, neatness,
regularity, discipline: There is a discernible, underlying
method to what seems superficially chaotic.

methodical
adj. organized, ordered, systematic, structured, businesslike,
orderly, neat, tidy, regular, routine, balanced, disciplined,
painstaking, meticulous, deliberate, paced, laborious, plodding,
laboured: The weaver resumed his methodical throwing of the
shuttle, back and forth, back and forth.

meticulous
adj. careful, precise, accurate, exact, fastidious, scrupulous,
thorough, particular, painstaking, punctilious, fussy, finicky,
demanding, strict, critical, exacting, perfectionist: His work
is noted for its meticulous attention to detail.


metropolis
n. capital, (capital) city; metropolitan area, urban sprawl,
megalopolis, municipality: Street crime has become a problem in
every major metropolis.


13.3 microbe...
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-



microbe n. micro-organism, microzoon, germ; bacterium, virus, Colloq
bug: Only recently has science learnt that diseases are caused
by microbes.


midday n. noon, noontime, twelve (o'clock) noon, US high noon: By
midday, the temperature had reached 34๘ Celsius.

middle adj. 1 central, centre, halfway, mid, midway, mean, medial,
Technical mesial: We had reached the middle stage of our
journey. Her index finger and middle finger are almost exactly
the same length.

--n. 2 centre, mid-point, midst, halfway point; heart,
bull's-eye: He lives in the middle of the city. The arrow found
the very middle of the target. 3 midriff, waist, mid-section,
stomach: She wore a red sash round her middle.

midst n. middle, centre, mid-point, halfway point: In the midst of
life we are in death. They live in a fairy-tale chƒteau in the
midst of beautiful Breton countryside. This proved a welcome
boost in the midst of a difficult election campaign.

midwife n. accoucheur or accoucheuse: Most babies in the world are
delivered by midwives.


might n. 1 strength, power, energy, force, muscle, potency, Literary
puissance: I hit my attacker with all my might. Might doesn't
always make right. 2 influence, authority, weight, sway,
dominion, ascendancy, superiority, mightiness, capability,
capacity, power, effect, effectiveness, Colloq clout: It was
not till the 20th century that the might of the United States
was felt outside its borders.

mighty adj. 1 powerful, strong, potent, influential, dominant,
predominant, ascendant, weighty, doughty, authoritarian,
autocratic, indomitable: The pen is mightier than the sword. He
should have thought twice before challenging such a mighty
opponent. 2 strong, muscular, powerful, robust, strapping,

sturdy, brawny, burly, well-built, able-bodied, hardy, Colloq
husky, hefty: The smith a mighty man was he, With large and
sinewy hands. 3 big, large, huge, grand, great, enormous,
gigantic, tremendous, towering, monumental, prodigious, massive,
bulky: The giant plucked a mighty tree from the earth and flung
it across the sea.

--adv. 4 very, extremely: It was mighty nice of you to visit
me here in the Ozarks.


migrant n. 1 wanderer, rover, drifter, gypsy, nomad, itinerant,
transient, migrator, wayfarer, bird of passage, peregrinator,
traveller; vagrant; Colloq US wetback: The townspeople were
having difficulty finding accommodation for the migrants.


--adj. 2 transient, migratory, itinerant, peripatetic,
drifting, nomadic, travelling, gypsy, floating; vagrant: The
farmers depend on migrant workers to bring in the harvest.


migrate v. 1 go, move, travel, settle, resettle, relocate, move house;
emigrate, immigrate, expatriate: During the potato famine, many
migrated from Ireland to America. 2 wander, roam, voyage, rove,
drift, range: Some say that the American Indians migrated
across the Bering land bridge from Asia.


mild adj. 1 placid, peaceful, calm, tranquil, bland, mellow,
inoffensive, gentle, serene, good-natured, affable, amiable,
kind, kindly, equable, easygoing, temperate, non-violent,
conciliatory, indulgent, merciful, forgiving, compassionate,
lenient, forbearing, peaceable, pacific, passive, submissive,
yielding, tractable, meek, unassuming, modest, quiet, subdued:
Judge Leaver is known for his mild disposition. 2 clement,
balmy, warm, fair, pleasant, temperate, placid, moderate: We've
had a succession of mild winters here. 3 bland, soothing,
lenitive, mollifying, demulcent, emollient, gentle, calming,
softening: The doctor recommended a mild laxative.

milieu n. environment, climate, surroundings, environs, background,
ambience or ambiance, sphere, setting, atmosphere, medium,
element, precincts: The British Library was the perfect milieu
in which to pursue his research and writing.

militant adj. 1 aggressive, combative, pugnacious, belligerent, hostile,

contentious, antagonistic, offensive, truculent, fierce,
ferocious, warlike, bellicose, martial, jingoistic, hawkish:
Those who have experienced war are not likely to be militant. 2
warring, fighting, combatant, combating, embattled; at war, up
in arms: The militant members of the council refused to discuss
terms.

--n. 3 fighter, aggressor, combatant, belligerent, warrior,
soldier: Anyone who experiences the hardships of a long strike
may think twice before being a militant.

military adj. 1 martial, soldierly, naval, army, fighting, service: The
military machine was poised to strike.


--n. 2 (armed) services or forces, army, navy, air force,
military establishment, soldiery: The military will oppose any
reductions in spending for arms.

militate v. 1 Usually, militate against. discourage, work or go or
operate against, foil, counter, countervail, cancel (out),
reduce (possibility of), prevent, hinder, resist, oppose: His
poor prison record militates against his early parole. 2
Usually, militate for or in favour of. be on the side of,
favour, further, promote, help, aid: The same reasoning that
militated in favour of lower taxes then persists today.

milk v. drain, bleed, extract, tap, exploit, wring, draw off or out,
withdraw: The comic milked the joke for yet another laugh. The
taxman is milking me dry.


milksop n. sissy or Brit also cissy, coward, weakling, namby-pamby,
mollycoddle, cry-baby, nancy (boy), dastard, poltroon, caitiff,
(little) Lord Fauntleroy, poltroon, Archaic caitiff, US
milquetoast, Colloq chinless wonder, Brit mother's or mummy's
boy, US mama's boy, pantywaist, Slang pansy: We want men, not
milksops, in the Marines.

mill n. 1 grinder, quern, crusher, roller: In many parts of the
world, corn is still ground by hand in a stone mill. 2 plant,
factory, works, workshop, shop, foundry: This mill turns out
rolled steel. 3 been through the mill. experienced,
knowledgeable, sophisticated, toughened, hardened, seasoned,
battle-scarred, Colloq been through the wringer, in the know:

He's been through the mill and knows what to expect. 4
run-of-the-mill. average, unexceptional, ordinary, common,
unremarkable, everyday, basic, simple, Brit common-or-garden
variety, US garden-variety: Critics found her voice pleasant
but rather run-of-the-mill.

--v. 5 grind, crush, comminute, powder, pulverize, grate,
granulate, pound, triturate, masticate, bray; crunch, mince:
Flour milled to a very fine consistency is more suitable for
pastries than for breads. 6 mill about or around. meander,
wander, walk, stroll, amble, move about or around, crowd,
throng, swarm: There were quite a few people milling about our
stand at the trade fair.


mimic v. 1 imitate, ape, copy, simulate, mirror, echo: The image in
the mirror mimicked every move I made. 2 reproduce, duplicate,
copy: This frieze mimics one on the Parthenon. 3 mock,
ridicule, satirize, caricature, parody, make fun of, lampoon,
impersonate, Colloq take off: It is rude to mimic your elders.


--n. 4 impersonator, imitator, impressionist, caricaturist,
parodist, Colloq copycat: Professor Eidolon, the greatest mimic
in the world, is here to entertain you!


--adj. 5 imitative, imitation, mock, simulated, mimetic, sham,
make-believe, pretend(ed); fake, counterfeit, feigned:
Naumachia is the name given to the mimic sea battle staged in
ancient Rome.


mincing adj. effeminate, dainty, delicate, niminy-piminy, foppish,
dandyish, over-dainty, affected, put-on, pretentious, precious,
Brit twee, Colloq la-di-da or lah-di-dah or la-de-da: His
mincing speech sets my teeth on edge.


mind n. 1 intelligence, intellect, wit, wits, mentality, brain,
brains, brainpower, sense, sagacity, wisdom, perception,
percipience, reason, astuteness, insight, shrewdness, sapience,
Colloq grey matter: There is nothing wrong with your son's
mind, Mr Field; he just doesn't want to apply it to school work.
2 memory, recollection; remembrance: Keep in mind what I am
about to tell you. 3 aptitude, head, perception, capacity,
brain: She has a great mind for dates - for figures of all
kinds. 4 intellect, intellectual, sage, genius, thinker, Colloq

brain: There is no doubt that your daughter is one of the great
minds of all time. 5 intention, disposition, temper,
temperament, humour, fancy, tendency, bent, inclination, bias,
persuasion: I was of a mind to let him have his own way. 6
opinion, sentiment, attitude, (point of) view, feeling,
judgement, belief, viewpoint, position: She has a mind of her
own. To my mind, the process could be greatly speeded up. 7
feeling, position, will, wish, desire, plan(s): Won't you
change your mind and stay to dinner? 8 attention, thoughts,
concentration, thinking: Try to keep your mind on your work. 9
bear or keep in mind. remember, do not forget or overlook,
recall, retain, be aware or cognizant or mindful of, consider:
Bear in mind that the post office is closed tomorrow. 10 give
someone a piece of one's mind. castigate, scold, rebuke,
reprimand, rail at, reprove, reproach, chastise, upbraid,
berate, read (someone) the riot act, Colloq tell off, dress
down, haul or rake over the coals, skin alive, US bawl out;
Slang give someone hell, US chew out: This time my father
really gave the maŒtre d'h“tel a piece of his mind. 11 in or of
two minds. vacillating, undecided, ambivalent, uncertain,
shilly-shallying, unsure, wavering: Sam was in two minds about
ordering a new computer. 12 know one's (own) mind. be decided
or resolved, be firm or resolute, be sure or certain or
positive, be (self-)assured or (self-)confident, be in touch
with oneself: He knows his own mind when it comes to his
career. 13 make up one's (own) mind. decide, choose, conclude,
form an opinion; determine, consider, weigh, judge, deem: Sally
hasn't yet made up her mind about marrying Jan. Let her make up
her own mind. 14 out of one's mind. insane, mad, crazy: You're
out of your mind if you think I'll go swimming in that
shark-infested bay!

--v. 15 object to, resent, take offence at, be offended by,
dislike, be troubled or annoyed by, care, have any objection to,
disapprove of, be bothered or affronted by: Do you mind not
smoking? Yes, I mind very much. Would you mind moving your car,
you're blocking the drive. 16 heed, attend to, pay attention to,
obey, listen to, make or take note of, mark, note: Please mind
what your mother says. 17 watch, be careful of, take care with,
be cautious of: Mind your head at that low doorway! 18 watch
over, take care of, care for, look after, sit with, babysit,
guard, keep an eye on or out for, have or take charge of,
attend: Suzie is minding the children so that we can get some

work done. 19 never mind. ignore, disregard, forget, pay no
attention to, do not think twice about, do not give a second
thought to, erase or obliterate or cancel from the mind, slough
off: Never mind what that naughty boy calls you!


minder n. 1 child-minder, babysitter, sitter, nanny, nurse, governess:
The minder will put the children to bed. 2 bodyguard, escort,
protector: Arthur hired an ex-fighter as his minder.


mindful adj. Often, mindful of. aware, alert, attentive to, alive,
conscious, heedful, conscientious, watchful, vigilant, on the
qui vive, on the lookout, circumspect, cautious: I am ever
mindful of the way you like things done. She was always mindful
of keeping the plants well watered.


mindless adj. 1 stupid, asinine, thick, thickheaded, obtuse, idiotic,
imbecilic, moronic, thoughtless, witless, senseless, brainless,
feeble-minded, fatuous, addle-brained, addle-pated,
feather-brained, Colloq Brit gormless: Many of the programmes
on television are mindless twaddle. 2 inattentive, unthinking,
thoughtless, unaware: He plunged into the pool, mindless of any
of the perils that awaited him.

mine n. 1 pit, excavation, lode, vein; colliery, coalfield: My
father worked in a mine from the age of 14. 2 source,
mother-lode, vein, store, storehouse, supply, deposit,
depository or depositary, repository, reserve, hoard, treasure
trove, reservoir, well-spring; abundance, fund, gold-mine,
wealth, treasury: This encyclopedia is a rich mine of
information.

--v. 3 excavate, dig, quarry, extract, scoop out or up, remove,
unearth; derive, extract, draw: He claims to have mined coal in
Wales and gold in South Africa. Analysis shows this ore was
mined in Pennsylvania. 4 ransack, search, rake through, scour,
scan, read, survey, look through, probe: Several directories
were mined to compile our list of sales prospects.

mingle v. 1 mix, blend, intermingle, commingle, intermix, combine,
amalgamate, merge, compound, marry, join, unite: The stories
cleverly mingle gravity and levity, the mundane and the magical.
There was loud applause, mingled with a few chuckles and gasps.
2 mix, socialize, associate, join, circulate, fraternize,

hobnob, consort, go, spend time, Colloq hang about or around or
out, rub shoulders, Brit pal up, US pal around: I asked Fred to
mingle with the guests and make them feel at home.


miniature adj. small, small-scale, little, tiny, diminutive, minute, wee,
minuscule, mini, microscopic, micro, midget, dwarf, bantam,
baby, pygmy,pocket, Lilliputian, US vest-pocket, Colloq minimal:
This miniature TV fits in the palm of your hand.


minimal adj. least, smallest, minutest, littlest, tiniest, slightest;
minimum, nominal, token: As a house plant, the cactus requires
minimal attention. There is a minimal charge for service.

minimize v. 1 reduce, shrink, lessen, diminish, prune, abbreviate, pare
(down), cut (down), curtail, abridge, shorten, decrease, minify:
Our stringent safety measures minimize the chance of an
accident. 2 belittle, de-emphasize, downplay, play down, make
little or light of, disparage, decry, deprecate, depreciate,
misprize or misprise, devalue, devaluate, undervalue, underrate,
underestimate, US talk down: Being modest, she minimizes her
role in the organization.

minimum n. 1 least, lowest, nadir: The hotel offered the minimum of
comfort for the maximum price.


--adj. 2 minimal, nominal, reduced, minutest, littlest, least,
slightest, lowest: What is the minimum deposit the travel agent
will accept? He refused to make even the minimum effort needed
to save himself.


minister n. 1 cleric, clergyman, clergywoman, ecclesiastic, pastor,
vicar, priest, father, reverend, churchman, divine, parson,
preacher, man or woman of the cloth, evangelist, missionary,
dean, curate, cur‚, abb‚, chaplain, Colloq padre, Slang US
military sky pilot, Holy Joe: The marriage was performed by a
visiting minister. 2 envoy, delegate, legate, diplomat,
ambassador, emissary, plenipotentiary, minister plenipotentiary,
envoy extraordinary, minister resident, consul, agent, charg‚
d'affaires, Brit cabinet officer or member: The minister
himself signed the treaty.

--v. 3 Usually, minister to. attend (to or on or upon), wait
on, care for, look after, see to, accommodate; serve, supply,

aid, help, assist, support: In his last days, she ministered to
him in every way.

ministry n. 1 priesthood, sacred calling, the church, the pulpit, the
cloth; religion, holy orders: Burt retired from the ministry to
write tracts. 2 clergy, clergymen or clergywomen, clericals,
the cloth, church elders or elders of the church: During his
regime, the ministry exercised great influence on the
government. 3 department, office, bureau, agency: Military
affairs are the responsibility of the Ministry of Defence.

minor adj. 1 lesser, smaller, secondary, subordinate, subsidiary:
The minor planets are bodies orbiting the sun in the asteroid
belt. 2 insignificant, obscure, inconsequential, unimportant,
trifling, trivial, negligible, inconsiderable, slight, petty,
paltry, small, Colloq small-time, one-horse, Brit two a penny,
US minor-league, bush-league, penny-ante, two-bit, picayune: It
is a minor matter to me whether you stay or go. She is only a
minor player in this game.


--n. 3 child, youngster, youth, stripling, teenager,
adolescent, schoolboy, schoolgirl, boy, girl, lad, laddie, lass,
lassie, Law ward, infant: At your age, you are still a minor in
the eyes of the law.


minstrel n. bard, troubadour, balladeer, jongleur, skald or scald,
minnesinger, Meistersinger: The medieval minstrels wandered the
countryside, entertaining as they went.


mint n. 1 (small) fortune, lot, king's ransom, millions, billions,
Colloq bundle, pile, heap, wad(s), packet, pot(s), loads, ton,
Slang Brit bomb, US (big) bucks: He lost a mint at roulette
last night. She made a mint on her inventions.


--v. 2 make, coin, produce, earn: Special commemorative coins
were minted to celebrate the Coronation.

minuteฐ n. 1 instant, second, split second, flash, moment, before you
can say 'Jack Robinson', blink or wink or twinkling of an eye,
coup d'oeil, trice, Colloq one sec, two secs, bat of an eye,
shake, jiffy, tick, Brit half a mo, two shakes (of a lamb's
tail): I'll be with you in a minute. 2 minutes. log, record,
journal, transcript, notes, summary, r‚sum‚, proceedings,

transactions, memorandum: Have you the minutes of the last
meeting? 3 up to the minute. latest, newest, modern, up to
date, trendy, fashionable, smart, all the rage, in vogue,
stylish, in style, in fashion, … la mode, Colloq in, with it,
hep or hip, hot, cool, US now: She always wears the most
up-to-the-minute clothes.

--v. 4 record, transcribe, take down, write down, note, make
(a) note of, document, log: We need someone to minute the
meeting.

minute adj. 1 small, little, tiny, tiniest, minuscule, miniature, wee,
infinitesimal, microscopic, micro, diminutive, mini, baby,
pint-sized, bantam, Lilliputian, Colloq teeny, teensy(-weensy),
itty-bitty, itsy-bitsy: The minute furniture in the doll's
house was made entirely by hand. 2 unimportant, petty,
insignificant, least, slight, mere, meagre, trifling, trivial,
minor, small, little, Colloq piddling, US picayune: The
painting was a perfect copy, down to the minutest detail.


miraculous
adj. marvellous, wonderful, wondrous, incredible, unbelievable,
inexplicable, unexplainable, extraordinary, spectacular,
amazing, astounding, astonishing, mind-boggling, remarkable,
phenomenal, fantastic, fabulous; magical, supernatural,
preternatural, superhuman, Colloq out of this world, Slang
far-out, crazy: Langley has made a miraculous recovery from
yellow fever.


mire n. 1 swamp, bog, fen, marsh, quagmire, morass, slough, Brit
dialect sump: The horse stumbled into the mire and began to
flounder. 2 mud, ooze, muck, slime, dirt: I had to wade
through muck and mire to get to your front door.


--v. 3 enmire, bog down, become entangled or tangled, become
enmeshed or meshed, become involved: Sorry I'm late; I got
mired in a problem at the office. 4 dirty, soil, begrime,
muddy, befoul, besmirch, sully, tarnish, smear, blacken, defile,
smudge: My boots were badly mired. The scandal badly mired his
reputation.

mirror n. 1 looking-glass, glass, speculum, reflector: She stared at
her reflection in the mirror, wondering whether she should grow

her hair. 2 reflection, reproduction, picture, representation,
replication, (mirror) image: Language is the mirror of society,
reflecting every social change.


--v. 3 reflect, reproduce, represent, depict, repeat, echo,
send back: The calm lake mirrored the moonlight. The people's
misery was mirrored in their faces.

mirth n. merriment, merrymaking, jollity, gaiety, fun, laughter,
amusement, frolic, frolicking, joviality, joyousness, revelry,
rejoicing, glee, high spirits, mirthfulness, hilarity, buoyancy,
Formal jocundity: Life without mirth is a lamp without oil.
Christmas is a time for mirth.


misalliance
n. m‚salliance, mismarriage, mismatch, mismatchment, bad match,
mismating: No one is surprised that John and Marsha's
misalliance has ended in divorce.


misanthrope
n. misanthropist, mankind-hater; man-hater, woman-hater,
misogynist; loner, hermit, recluse, anchorite or anchoret,
Colloq lone wolf: The longer he lived and the more he learned
of his fellow-man, the more of a misanthrope he became.


misanthropic
adj. man-hating; antisocial, unsocial, unfriendly, egocentric,
egoistic: In his misanthropic moods, Joel disdains human
company.


misappropriate
v. 1 embezzle, steal, filch, expropriate, pocket, Formal
peculate, defalcate: He was found guilty of misappropriating
club funds. 2 misapply, misuse, pervert, misemploy: The money
intended for the health service was misappropriated for the war
effort.

misbehave v. disobey, behave badly or improperly, be bad or naughty or
mischievous, Colloq carry on, act up, Slang raise hell, raise
Cain: The teacher sent for me because Robyn misbehaved in
class.

misbehaviour

n. naughtiness, badness, misconduct, misdemeanour(s),
disorderliness, disobedience, delinquency, disorderly conduct,
rowdyism: She was severely reprimanded for persistent
misbehaviour in class.


miscalculate
v. misjudge, err, misevaluate, misestimate, misreckon,
miscompute, miscount, misappreciate, misread; underestimate,
undervalue, underrate; overestimate, overvalue, overrate: She
miscalculated the effect of her resignation.

miscarriage
n. failure, abortion, collapse, breakdown, failing,
mismanagement, non-fulfilment, defeat, non-success, frustration:
Her acquittal was a miscarriage of justice.

miscarry v. abort, fail, fall through, break down, go wrong, founder,
come to nothing or naught or nought, go awry, come to grief, go
amiss, misfire, go up or end up in smoke, perish, die: The plan
to steal the crown jewels miscarried.

miscellaneous
adj. varied, heterogeneous, diverse, mixed, diversified,
divers, motley, sundry, assorted, various, varying,
multifarious, multiform, many-sided, multiplex, manifold: A
large part of the exhibition is devoted to miscellaneous
paintings and prints from his early period.

miscellany
n. mixture, assortment, variety, medley, diversity, mixed bag,
job lot, rag-bag, m‚lange, pot-pourri, gallimaufry, motley,
hotchpotch or US and Canadian hodgepodge, salmagundi, olio, olla
podrida, smorgasbord or sm”rg†sbord, odds and ends, omnium
gatherum, hash, mess, Brit lucky dip, jumble, US grab-bag: A
miscellany of household goods was contributed for the jumble
sale.

mischief n. 1 misbehaviour, naughtiness, impishness, elfishness or
elvishness, roguishness, rascality, devilry or deviltry,
mischievousness, playfulness, devilment, badness, Colloq monkey
business, shenanigans, Brit monkey tricks or US monkeyshines:
That boy is always up to some mischief. 2 harm, injury, damage,
detriment, trouble, hurt, wrong, difficulty, disruption,

destruction, misfortune, evil: He didn't realize the mischief a
casual remark could do. She was accused of malicious mischief
when she punctured his car tyres.


mischievous
adj. 1 naughty, impish, roguish, rascally, devilish, elfish or
elvish, puckish, scampish, frolicsome, playful, sportive: Tying
his cousin's shoelaces together was a mischievous prank and not
malicious. 2 harmful, injurious, hurtful, damaging, pernicious,
detrimental, destructive, deleterious, dangerous, spiteful,
malicious, vicious, malign, baleful, baneful, noxious, wicked,
evil, bad: The government regards as mischievous the detention
of any Foreign Office personnel.


misconceive
v. misunderstand, misconstrue, misjudge, mistake, misapprehend,
misinterpret, misread, get or have the wrong idea, get or have
(hold of) the wrong end of the stick: He has misconceived the
purpose in banning firearms.


misconception
n. false or wrong notion or idea, misunderstanding,
misconstruction, misconstrual, misjudgement, miscalculation,
misapprehension, mistaken belief, error, mistake, delusion: The
confused wording of the warranty could result in a misconception
of one's rights.

miscreant n. 1 villain, wretch, mischief-maker, scamp, rascal, criminal,
evil-doer, felon, malefactor, rogue, reprobate, scoundrel,
wrongdoer, good-for-nothing, ne'er-do-well, blackguard,
hooligan, ruffian, hoodlum, thug, rowdy, Archaic knave, caitiff,
varlet, rapscallion, Colloq crook, roughneck, scallywag or
scalawag, Slang hood, Brit mug, rough, Australian larrikin, US
baddy, bad actor: The police have apprehended the miscreant who
had been attacking passers-by.

--adj. 2 villainous, wretched, mischievous, rascally, criminal,
felonious, corrupt, malefic, malevolent, evil, depraved, base,
nefarious, iniquitous, vicious, unprincipled, ne'er-do-well,
reprobate, scoundrelly, wicked: The miscreant terrorists may be
hiding in Greece.

misdeed n. Often, misdeeds. offence, crime, felony, wrongdoing,

misdoing, transgression, misdemeanour, fault, misconduct, sin,
trespass, wrong, peccadillo: Who will punish him for his
misdeeds now that he is safe in Argentina?


misdirect v. misguide, misadvise; misaddress: He misdirected us by
saying the lavatory was downstairs. The letter, misdirected, was
returned.

miser n. skinflint, hoarder, niggard, penny-pincher, pinchpenny,
cheese-parer, Scrooge, Colloq cheapskate, US tightwad: For that
old miser, charity begins and ends at home.

miserable adj. 1 wretched, unhappy, depressed, woeful, woebegone, sad,
dejected, forlorn, disconsolate, despondent, heartbroken,
sorrowful, broken-hearted, mournful, desolate, desperate,
despairing, downhearted, melancholy, glum, low-spirited, gloomy,
dismal, lachrymose, tearful, Colloq Brit cut up: Tanya is
miserable because no one invited her to go to the dance. 2
unpleasant, inclement, inconvenient, untoward, bad,
unfavourable, awful, terrible, adverse, Colloq rotten, lousy:
The weather was miserable throughout the weekend. 3 inadequate,
unworthy, poor, deplorable, contemptible, bad, despicable,
sorry, pitiful, pathetic, lamentable, Colloq rotten, lousy:
That was the most miserable play I have ever had the misfortune
to sit through. 4 squalid, wretched, bad, abject, deplorable,
shabby, mean, vile, shameful, scurvy, awful, disgraceful,
contemptible: He lives in a cellar in the most miserable
conditions.


miserly adj. stingy, penurious, niggardly, penny-pinching,
parsimonious, mean, cheap, cheese-paring, tight, tight-fisted,
close, close-fisted, mercenary, avaricious, greedy, covetous,
Colloq money-grubbing, Brit mingy, US chintzy: Flynn is too
miserly to lend you a penny.


misery n. 1 unhappiness, distress, discomfort, wretchedness, woe,
sadness, melancholy, sorrow, dolour, heartache, grief, anguish,
anxiety, angst, depression, despair, desperation, desolation,
despondency, gloom: Worn out by grief and misery, she collapsed
into a chair. 2 squalor, poverty, destitution, privation,
indigence, penury, wretchedness, sordidness: The misery of
those slums is unbelievable. 3 hardship, suffering, calamity,
disaster, curse, misfortune, ordeal, woe, trouble, catastrophe,

trial, tribulation, adversity, burden, affliction: She cannot
bear the twin miseries of illness and poverty. 4 spoilsport,
damper, killjoy, dampener, Job's comforter, grouch, grump,
malcontent, pessimist, cynic, prophet of doom, Cassandra, Colloq
wet blanket, sourpuss, US party pooper, gloomy Gus, picklepuss:
How can you stand living with such a misery?

misfire v. 1 fail, abort, miscarry, go wrong, fizzle (out), fall
through, Colloq flop, come a cropper, Brit go phut, US go pfft
or phft: The plan to take over the conglomerate misfired when
the shares soared in price.

--n. 2 miscarriage, failure, fizzle, dud, Colloq abort, flop:
After two misfires, we gave up trying to buy a time-share in the
Algarve.

misfit n. oner, eccentric, individual, nonconformist, maverick, square
peg in a round hole: People regard him as one of society's
misfits and tend to steer clear.


misfortune
n. 1 bad luck, ill luck, ill fortune, hard luck, infelicity,
adversity, loss: He had the misfortune to marry the wrong
woman. 2 accident, misadventure, mishap, calamity, catastrophe,
mischance, disaster, contretemps, tragedy, blow, shock; reverse,
stroke of bad luck, Colloq bad news: With the death of his
father, then his illness, then the loss of his business, one
misfortune followed another.


misgiving n. apprehension, mistrust, worry, concern, anxiety, qualm,
scruple, disquiet, hesitation, doubt, question, uncertainty,
suspicion, unease, uneasiness, discomfort; dread, premonition,
foreboding, Colloq funny feeling: I had grave misgivings about
driving all that way on my own.


misguided adj. misled, wrong, misdirected, foolish, unreasonable,
erroneous, mistaken, misplaced, imprudent, unwise, impolitic,
ill-advised, fallacious, uncalled-for, labouring under a
misapprehension, wide of the mark, Colloq off (the mark),
barking up the wrong tree: Her helpfulness is often misguided,
ending in disaster for all concerned.

mishandle v. 1 abuse, mistreat, maltreat, ill-treat, beat (up),

brutalize, maul, molest, injure, hurt, harm, handle or treat
roughly, manhandle, Colloq knock about or around: The poor
child was mishandled by her parents. 2 mismanage, bungle,
botch, misconduct, mangle, mess up, muddle, wreck, ruin,
destroy, Colloq muff, make a mess or hash of, Slang screw up,
bugger up, Taboo fuck up: Forster mishandled the deal so badly
that it cost the company millions.

mishap n. See misfortune, 2, above.


mishmash n. mess, medley, hash, gallimaufry, farrago, pot-pourri,
jumble, pastiche, mixture, salmagundi, hotchpotch or US and
Canadian hodgepodge, tangle, omnium gatherum, m‚lange, olio,
olla podrida, goulash, stew: His paper is nothing more than a
mishmash of other people's ideas.

misinform v. misguide, mislead, misadvise, misdirect, delude, deceive,
dupe, defraud, fool, gull, lead astray, throw someone off the
scent, Colloq con, slip or put something over on someone, pull a
fast one on, US give (someone) a bum steer, throw someone a
curve: If you think you have a right to compensation, you've
been misinformed.

misinformation
n. disinformation, misintelligence; red herring, false trail,
false scent: When we uncover an enemy agent in our midst, we
allow him to collect misinformation.

misinterpret
v. misunderstand, mistake, misconstrue, misconceive, misread,
misjudge, misapprehend, Slang screw up, bugger up: He
misinterpreted what I said and stepped off the ledge.

mislay v. misplace, lose, mislocate; misfile: I have mislaid my
reading spectacles.

mislead v. misinform, lead astray, misguide, misdirect, throw off the
scent or track, pull the wool over someone's eyes, fool, outwit,
bluff, hoodwink, trick, humbug, bamboozle, deceive, dupe, gull,
cozen, Colloq con, take in, lead up the garden path, flimflam,
slip or put or pass one over on, Slang take, US give someone a
bum steer: I was misled into believing that she loved only me.
He is misleading you if he says that the shares will soon

increase in value.

mismatched
adj. mismated, ill-matched, ill-mated, incompatible, unfit,
inappropriate, unsuited, unsuitable, incongruous, misallied,
disparate, uncongenial, inconsistent, inharmonious, discordant:
With her interest in art and his in football, they made a
mismatched pair.


misprint n. error, mistake, erratum, typographical error, printer's or
printing error, Brit literal, Colloq typo: We cannot publish a
book containing so many misprints.

misrepresent
v. distort, twist, pervert, garble, misstate, mangle, falsify,
belie, disguise, colour: In his report, he misrepresented
everything I said.

missฐ v. 1 skip, forgo, absent oneself from, be absent from, fail to
keep; avoid, evade, escape, dodge, Colloq pass up: I missed my
dentist's appointment. I missed school because my grandmother
was ill. 2 long for, yearn for, pine for, feel nostalgia for, be
nostalgic for or about, want, need, wish for: I miss those long
summer evenings by the lake. 3 misunderstand, misinterpret,
misconstrue, misapprehend, fail to understand or perceive,
mistake: You have completely missed the point. 4 Sometimes,
miss out (on). pass up, omit, leave out, slip up (on), overlook,
let slip (by), let pass, pass over, disregard, ignore: You can
be sure that Frobisher would never miss a free meal.


--n. 5 omission, oversight, slip, failure, mistake, error,
blunder, Colloq slip-up: A miss is as good as a mile.

miss n. Ms., girl, lass, lassie, maid, maiden, young lady, young
woman, schoolgirl, mademoiselle, nymphet, teenager, virgin,
spinster, old maid, Brit bachelor girl, Irish English colleen,
Literary nymph, Archaic demoiselle, damsel, Colloq old-fashioned
gal, US coed, Valley girl, bachelorette, Slang teeny-bopper,
groupie, Chiefly Brit bird, Old-fashioned US bobby-soxer: She's
a pretty young miss, isn't she?

misshapen adj. distorted, twisted, contorted, crooked, deformed,
crippled, malformed, grotesque, awry, warped, gnarled,

ill-proportioned, ill-made, monstrous, Technical acromegalic:
The misshapen bell-ringer in The Hunchback of Notre Dame was
named Quasimodo.


missile n. projectile, brickbat; guided missile, ballistic missile:
Bottles, stones, and other missiles were thrown at the police
during the riot.

mission n. 1 task, duty, function, purpose, job, office, work,
assignment, errand, charge, business, commission, undertaking,
pursuit, activity, aim, objective: He accepted the mission to
convert the natives to Christianity. 2 calling, occupation,
vocation, trade, line (of work), profession, m‚tier: It has
become my mission in life to see that you learn how to do sums.
3 delegation, legation, deputation, commission, committee,
group, ministry: She has been sent on a governmental trade
mission to Botswana.

missionary
n. evangelist, preacher, minister, proselytizer: During the
19th century, many missionaries were dispatched to spread the
faith in Africa.

missive n. letter, communication, message, dispatch, note, line,
postcard, card, epistle: I have just received a missive from
great-aunt Cecilia that took me an hour to read.

misspent adj. wasted, squandered, idle, dissipated, thrown away,
profitless, prodigal: Proficiency at billiards is a sign of a
misspent youth.

misstatement
n. 1 falsification, misreport, misquotation, miscitation,
distortion, misrepresentation, misconstruction,
misinterpretation, perversion, lie, falsehood, untruth,
fabrication: The prosecutor's indictment is a misstatement of
the charges against the defendant. 2 solecism, error, mistake,
gaffe, faux pas, slip of the tongue, lapsus linguae, blunder,
Slang howler, Brit bloomer, US and Canadian blooper: For an
educated man his speech is sprinkled with too many grammatical
misstatements.

misstep n. 1 false step, blunder, mistake, error, bad or wrong or false

move, trip, stumble, slip: One misstep meant a fall into the
abyss. 2 indiscretion, mistake, lapse, faux pas, oversight,
error, gaffe, Colloq slip-up, Slang howler, Brit bloomer, US and
Canadian blooper, goof: Her misstep was telling her fianc‚'s
mother that she had formerly been an artist's model.

mist n. 1 fog, haze, smog, (low-hanging) cloud, vapour; drizzle,
Brit dialect mizzle: I could scarcely make out the road in the
mist.


--v. 2 Usually, mist up or over. cloud (up or over), becloud,
fog, befog, dim, blur, film, steam up: The mirror in the
bathroom had misted up when I was having a shower.


mistake n. 1 misconception, misapprehension, error, fault,
miscalculation, misjudgement, blunder, botch, fumble, bad move,
misstep, slip, erratum, gaffe, faux pas, Colloq boo-boo,
clanger, muff, howler, Brit boob, bloomer, US blooper, goof,
goof-up, flub: Giving Aston a salary rise was a mistake. 2
indiscretion, misstep, false step, wrong move: It was a mistake
not to stand up when she entered.

--v. 3 misunderstand, misinterpret, misjudge, misconstrue, take
the wrong way, get wrong, misread, misapprehend: The fool
mistook my remark as a compliment. 4 mistake for. mix up with,
misidentify as, confuse with, take for: In the dark, she
mistook him for her husband.

mistaken adj. 1 (all or completely) wrong, amiss, incorrect, in error,
wide of the mark, in the wrong, inaccurate, out of order, Colloq
barking up the wrong tree, off, (way) off the beam, on the wrong
track, US full of hot air, Slang full of it (= Taboo 'full of
shit'), US all wet: I may be mistaken, but I thought I saw your
wife with Lord Cholmondley. 2 erroneous, faulty, false,
fallacious, misinformed, incorrect, wrong, inaccurate, flawed,
warped, distorted, twisted, misguided, Slang cock-eyed: You
have a mistaken impression of me.

mistreat v. abuse, maltreat, ill-use, ill-treat, misuse, damage,
manhandle, harm; hurt, injure, molest, maul, rough up,
brutalize: He was found guilty of mistreating his dogs. She was
mistreated by her husband for years.

mistreatment
n. abuse, maltreatment, ill use, ill-treatment, brutalization,
misuse; manhandling, molestation, mauling, roughing-up, rough
handling, battery, assault: This mistreatment of employees must
stop at once. The children complained of their parents'
mistreatment.

mistress n. 1 lover, girlfriend, live-in lover, kept woman, concubine,
inamorata, paramour, Literary odalisque, Archaic doxy, Colloq US
alternative other, POSSLQ (= 'Person of the Opposite Sex Sharing
Living Quarters'): She was the mistress of a leading
politician. 2 schoolmistress, instructress, governess;
headmistress: She had a rewarding career as a mistress in a
girls' school in Lancashire.


mistrust v. 1 suspect, distrust, be suspicious of, doubt, be or feel
wary or suspicious or doubtful of or about, have (one's) doubts
about, question, have reservations; beware; Slang be or feel
leery of or about: He has not done anything specifically bad,
but I mistrust his motives.

--n. 2 suspicion, distrust, doubt, scepticism, wariness,
reservation, chariness, misgiving(s), uncertainty, unsureness,
apprehension, apprehensiveness: Is there nothing I can say to
dispel your mistrust of me?

misty adj. cloudy, foggy, hazy, murky; fuzzy, dim, blurred, blurry,
unclear, indistinct, vague, dark, opaque, shadowy, obscure,
unintelligible: It is very misty, so drive carefully. I have
only the mistiest idea of what you mean.

misunderstand
v. misconceive, misconstrue, misinterpret, misapprehend, get
(it or it all) wrong, get the wrong idea (about), misread,
misjudge, miscalculate, miss the point (of): He understood your
words but misunderstood your meaning.

misunderstanding
n. 1 misconception, misconstruction, misinterpretation,
misapprehension, misreading, misjudgement, miscalculation, wrong
idea, wrong or false impression, mistaking, Technical
parasynesis: Misunderstanding of the law is no excuse for
flouting it. 2 disagreement, discord, dispute, argument,

difference, dissension, controversy, quarrel, rift, Colloq
falling out: We had a slight misunderstanding about who was to
pay the restaurant bill.


misuse n. 1 misapplication, misusage, misappropriation, misemployment,
diverting, diversion, perverting, perversion: He was accused of
the misuse of public funds for his personal gain. 2 misusage,
abuse, corruption, solecism, malapropism, barbarism,
catachresis, ungrammaticality, infelicity: His misuses of
English have made him a laughing-stock. 3 See mistreatment,
above.

--v. 4 abuse, misapply, misemploy, misappropriate; pervert: I
broke the knife blade misusing it as a screwdriver. He was
accused of misusing the courts to his own ends. 5 See mistreat,
above.

mitigate v. moderate, temper, reduce, abate, lessen, decrease, relieve,
ease, ease up (on), relax, alleviate, remit, assuage, allay, let
up (on), slacken, slacken up (on), tone down, lighten, appease,
palliate, mollify, calm, tranquillize, soothe, placate, quiet or
chiefly Brit quieten, still, soften, dull, blunt, take the edge
off, US lighten up (on): The pain was mitigated by taking
aspirin. The relief organizations did their best to mitigate the
effects of the disaster.

mitigating
adj. extenuating, justifying, excusatory, palliating,
vindicating, qualifying: Were there mitigating circumstances in
her taking the money?

mix v. 1 mingle, combine, intermingle, blend, incorporate, put
together, merge, unite, alloy, commingle, amalgamate, coalesce:
Mix the ingredients to a creamy consistency. 2 socialize,
fraternize, consort, hobnob, go round or around or about
(together), get together, keep company, join (with), associate
(with), Colloq hang out or about or round or around (with): The
Hatfields and the McCoys do not mix very well, so you'd best
invite them separately. 3 mix in. add, stir in, combine, fold
in: Mix in the chocolate at the very end. 4 mix up. a See
mix, 1, above. b confuse, confound, bewilder, muddle, perplex,
puzzle, fluster, upset; addle, disturb; Colloq US and Canadian
discombobulate: She mixed me up so that I cannot decide what to

do. c snarl, ensnarl, tangle, entangle, scramble, jumble: The
treasures were all mixed up with the rubbish at the church sale.
d confuse, interchange, exchange: Have they mixed up our room
keys again? 5 mix up in. involve, implicate, include, connect,
draw or drag into: Wasn't Wilcox mixed up in that scandal last
year? 6 mix up with. confuse, mistake, misidentify, confound;
interchange, exchange: I think you must have me mixed up with
somebody else. The porter mixed up my bag with someone else's.


--n. 7 mixture, blend, compound; amalgam, combination, alloy,
assortment, distribution: Was this cake made from a mix or from
scratch? The centre party has a good mix of liberals and
conservatives.


mixed adj. 1 hybrid, half-bred, mongrel, interbred, cross-bred;
impure, tainted, adulterated: This horse has mixed blood. 2
confused, muddled; varied, various, diverse; conflicting,
contradictory, opposing, clashing, opposite: He had mixed
feelings about ending his relationship with her. 3 mixed up in
or with. involved, connected, associated: Wasn't she mixed up
in that scandal last year? He doesn't want his children mixed up
with people who take drugs.

mixture n. 1 assortment, amalgam, amalgamation, medley, combination,
mingling, intermingling, composite, blend, jumble, mix,
miscellany, m‚lange, mess, mishmash, hotchpotch or US and
Canadian hodgepodge, gallimaufry, farrago, olio, olla podrida,
hash, pot-pourri, ragout, goulash, omnium gatherum, salmagundi:
The design is an unfortunate mixture of many incompatible
styles. 2 mixing, amalgamation, amalgamating, combining,
mingling, intermingling, combination, blend, blending,
association, associating, compound, compounding, synthesis,
interweaving, merging, merger, fusion, fusing, alloy, alloying:
The mixture of household ammonia and bleach creates noxious
fumes.

mix-up n. confusion, mess, muddle, hotchpotch or US also hodgepodge,
tangle, jumble, Colloq botch, mishmash, foul-up, Slang US
screw-up, snafu , Taboo slang Brit balls-up: The mix-up in the
files is due to a computer malfunction.

13.4 moan...
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-



moan n. 1 complaint, lament, lamentation, groan, wail, moaning,
grievance: Disregard his moans about money - he has plenty.


--v. 2 complain, lament, groan, wail, bewail, grumble, bemoan,
deplore, whine, whimper, Colloq grouse, gripe, beef, bitch, Brit
whinge: She's always moaning about the way people take
advantage of her. 3 sigh, mourn, weep, sorrow, cry, wail, keen,
grieve, sob, snivel, bawl, mewl, pule, ululate: The women, all
in black, moaned and tore their hair as they neared the coffin.

mob n. 1 horde, host, press, throng, crowd, pack, herd, swarm,
crush, jam, multitude, mass, body, assemblage, collection,
group: The mob surged forward, hurling sticks and stones at
anyone in uniform. 2 rabble, riff-raff, proletariat, populace,
the masses, great unwashed, hoi polloi, canaille, bourgeoisie,
lower classes, scum (of the earth), dregs of society: The mob
cheered when the king was beheaded.


--v. 3 crowd (round or around), jostle, throng, surround,
beset, clamour over, swoop down on or upon: Thousands of
screaming teenagers mobbed the singer.


mobbed adj. crowded, packed, thronged, congested, teeming, swarming,
full, filled: They tried to leave by the emergency exit, but
that was mobbed, too.

mobile adj. 1 movable, non-stationary, unstationary, unfixed,
travelling, portable, transportable: A mobile display was
designed for industrial fairs. 2 motorized, mechanical,
transportable, movable: They live in a mobile home. The mobile
library comes round every Wednesday. 3 expressive, sensitive,
animated, plastic, flexible, US facile: Her mobile face at once
reflected her thoughts. 4 agile, versatile, nimble, quick,
alert, active, responsive: You need your wits about you to keep
up with Randolph's mobile mind. 5 ambulatory, ambulant: After
the artificial joint surgery, Keith was once again completely
mobile.


mobilize v. assemble, marshal, conscript, enrol, enlist, organize,
muster, levy, rally, activate, call up, prepare, ready, US
draft: A huge army was mobilized, virtually overnight.


mock v. 1 deride, ridicule, make fun of, tease, taunt, tantalize,
jeer (at), gibe (at), thumb one's nose at, chaff, laugh at, poke
fun at, make sport of, guy, scorn, flout, abuse, defy, scoff
(at), sneer (at), disdain, disparage, decry, Archaic fleer (at),
Colloq rag, rib, kid, put (someone) on, Brit take the mickey out
of, cock a snook at: He was taken in for questioning only
because he mocked a police officer. Jealousy is the green-eyed
monster that mocks the meat it feeds on. 2 ape, mimic, imitate,
caricature, lampoon, satirize, parody, burlesque, travesty,
Colloq spoof, take off, Brit send up: The political cartoonist
mocks governments daily on the pillory of his pen.

--adj. 3 substitute, artificial, simulated, fake, synthetic,
imitation, false, forged, ersatz, sham, feigned, counterfeit,
fraudulent, bogus, make-believe, pretend, Colloq phoney or US
also phony, pseudo: By means of a mock car accident they
demonstrated how to rescue victims. Mock turtle soup, though
good, does not taste like real turtle soup.


mockery n. 1 ridicule, derision, disdain, taunting, disparagement,
abuse, scorn, contempt, contumely, decrial: John was expelled
for his mockery of the headmaster. 2 semblance, imitation,
impersonation; caricature, parody, burlesque, travesty, lampoon,
satire, pasquinade, farce; miscarriage; Colloq spoof, take-off,
Brit send-up: That wasn't a trial, it was a mockery of justice.
3 disappointment, joke, laugh, absurdity: It is a mockery to
speak of that wretched sadist and humanity in the same breath.


modeฐ n. 1 way, manner, method, approach, form, course, fashion,
procedure, technique, system, wise, modus operandi, methodology,
standard operating procedure, SOP: What mode of teaching
foreign languages do you use? 2 status, condition, state,
configuration, set-up: The computer is now in printing mode.


mode n. fashion, style, look, vogue; trend, rage, craze, Colloq fad:
We went to the ball dressed in the mode of the 1920s.

model n. 1 representation, replica, mock-up, maquette, scale model,
working model, miniature, dummy, image, likeness, facsimile,
copy: This is a model of the house he is planning. 2 original,
mould, archetype, prototype, pattern, paragon, ideal, exemplar,
example, standard: When the wax model is finished, we cast it

in bronze using the cire perdue process. Their government was
established after the Roman model. 3 ideal, paragon, exemplar,
epitome, beau id‚al, cream, crŠme de la crŠme, ne plus ultra,
nonpareil, nonsuch or nonesuch: He is the very model of what a
father should be. 4 subject, sitter, poser: Dali's wife served
as his model for many paintings. 5 mannequin; dummy: She is
tall and thin enough to be a fashion model. May I see the hat
that is on that model in the window? 6 design, kind, type,
style, version; variety, sort, form, fashion, configuration;
brand, mark: I'm intending to trade my car in for a newer
model.

--v. 7 fashion, mould, shape, form, sculpt, carve (out), make,
fabricate, produce: She modelled these figures out of fine
clay. 8 pose in, display, show (off), wear, Colloq sport: She
makes a fortune modelling swimwear. 9 model after or on.
imitate, copy, pattern on or after, emulate, follow: Architects
often used to model public buildings after the temples on the
Acropolis.


--adj. 10 copy, imitation, facsimile, representative,
miniature: He enjoys building model aeroplanes. 11 ideal,
exemplary, perfect, archetypal, unequalled, consummate,
inimitable: Oliver has been a model student.


moderate adj. 1 temperate, calm, reasonable, cool, judicious, rational,
balanced, unexcessive, modest, sober, sensible, commonsensical,
controlled, deliberate, steady: In view of the conflicting
interests expressed, the council has adopted a moderate policy
regarding parking. 2 centre, middle-of-the-road, non-radical,
non-reactionary: Bella's political outlook is said by some to
be moderate. 3 fair, middling, average, ordinary, medium,
middle, modest, mediocre, unexceptional, Colloq fair to
middling: They have a good range of clothing, all sold at very
moderate prices.

--n. 4 middle-of-the-roader, non-radical, non-reactionary,
centrist: Where do the moderates stand on the issue of
constitutional reform?


--v. 5 abate, calm, mollify, soothe, ease, relax, alleviate,
mitigate, soften, dull, blunt, cushion, relieve, reduce, lessen,
remit, slacken, diminish, decrease, defuse, temper, Colloq let

up (on): He would get along better if he moderated the violence
of his reactions and learned to relax. 6 mediate, arbitrate,
referee, judge, chair, supervise, preside (over), coordinate,
run, regulate, manage, direct: Professor Gill will moderate the
panel discussion.

moderately
adv. somewhat, rather, quite, fairly, pretty, comparatively,
slightly, passably, more or less; to some extent, within reason,
to a certain extent, to a degree, to some degree, in some
measure, in moderation, within limits; temperately; Colloq sort
of, kind of: Clifford is moderately well off. It was a
moderately hot day.


moderator n. mediator, arbiter, arbitrator, judge, referee, umpire;
Chiefly US chair, chairperson, chairman, chairwoman, chairlady,
presiding officer, president, coordinator, (discussion) leader;
anchorman, anchorwoman; master of ceremonies, toastmaster, Brit
compŠre, Colloq emcee, MC: Lady Felicia was chosen as the
moderator of next year's panel.

modern adj. up to date, current, contemporary, today's, new, fresh,
novel, brand-new, up to the minute, present-day, latest,
new-fashioned, newfangled; … la mode, modish, in vogue,
fashionable, in fashion, stylish, in style, chic, Chiefly Brit
flavour of the month, Slang trendy, in, with it, mod, hip, hot:
Elaine has little patience with modern electronic gadgets.

modernize v. renovate, streamline, redo, redecorate, refurbish,
refurnish, update, do over, rejuvenate, refresh, revamp,
redesign, remodel, refashion, remake: We installed air
conditioning when we modernized our offices.

modest adj. 1 unassuming, unpresuming, humble, unpretentious,
unobtrusive, reserved, retiring, diffident, shy, bashful,
demure, coy, shame-faced, self-effacing, self-conscious,
reticent, reluctant, timid, meek, timorous, Rare verecund:
Caroline is quite modest about her accomplishments. 2 humble,
simple, plain, ordinary, unpretentious, homely, lowly,
unexceptional, unostentatious; inconspicuous, unobtrusive: They
live in a modest little cottage. 3 moderate, limited,
understated, unimportunate, unexaggerated, reasonable, sensible,
constrained, restricted, restrained: The workers' demands seem

modest enough.

modicum n. bit, trifle, jot, jot or tittle, atom, scintilla, spark,
particle, iota, speck, grain, whit, scrap, shred, snippet,
sliver, fragment, splinter, morsel, crumb, ounce, dram, drop,
dash, spot, touch, tinge, hint, suggestion, Colloq smidgen or
smidgin: One must exercise a modicum of judgement in affairs of
the heart.


modify v. 1 adjust, adapt, change, transform, alter, revise, amend,
redo, remake, remould, reshape, reconstruct, reform, revamp,
refashion, remodel, rework, reword, reorient, reorganize: They
are modifying the car to increase its performance. He should
modify his views on censorship. 2 reduce, decrease, diminish,
lessen, moderate, temper, soften, lower, abate, tone down,
modulate; qualify, limit, restrict: The severity of the winter
is modified by our proximity to the sea. We shall have to modify
our demands.


modulate v. adjust, regulate, set, tune, balance, temper, moderate,
modify; lower, tune or tone or turn down, soften: Modulate the
volume to suit the size of the auditorium. Please modulate your
voice - everyone can hear you!


mogul n. magnate, tycoon, baron, mandarin, Colloq big shot, big gun,
big cheese, Pooh Bah, bigwig, big wheel, big (White) Chief, big
Daddy, hotshot, VIP, big noise, nabob, Slang US Mr Big: In the
old days, he was one of the moguls in Hollywood.


moist adj. 1 damp, wettish, dampish, dewy, dank, humid, clammy,
muggy, steamy, misty, foggy: During the monsoon everything
becomes so moist that your clothes never seem to dry. 2 damp,
wet, rainy, drizzly, soggy, moisture-laden: The moist climate
keeps Ireland green. 3 tearful, teary, misty, lachrymose:
Every eye in the theatre was moist at the end of that scene.

molest v. 1 annoy, irritate, vex, disturb, pester, badger, needle,
provoke, nettle, tease, harass, harry, worry, hector, irk,
bother, gall, chafe, roil, torment, plague, beleaguer: For
weeks people on the beach have been molested by green flies. 2
accost, meddle with, interfere with, annoy, abuse, bother,
attack, ill-treat, maltreat, manhandle; paw: The police are
looking for a man who has been molesting girls in the park.


moment n. 1 instant, second, minute, half a second, two seconds,
flash, twinkling, blink or wink of an eye, twinkling of an eye,
trice, Colloq jiffy, shake, two shakes (of a lamb's tail),
before you can say 'Jack Robinson', Brit mo, half a mo, tick:
I'll be with you in a moment, Madam. 2 instant, time, second,
minute, hour, point (in time), juncture, stage: At that very
moment, the phone rang. 3 importance, weight, consequence,
significance, import, gravity, seriousness, prominence, concern,
note, interest, consideration: What you decide to do is of no
great moment.

momentary adj. fleeting, temporary, ephemeral, evanescent, impermanent,
fugitive, passing, transitory, brief, short-lived, quick, short,
hasty: The medicine afforded only momentary relief from the
pain.

momentous adj. important, weighty, consequential, significant, grave,
serious, decisive, crucial, critical, vital, pivotal,
portentous, charged, laden, fraught, of concern: The Augustan
Age was a momentous period in Latin literature.

momentum n. energy, force, drive, strength, impetus, power, inertia,
impulse, thrust, push: The car's momentum carried it over the
cliff. Her encouragement has given me the momentum needed to
carry on.

monarch n. 1 ruler, sovereign, potentate, crowned head; queen, king,
empress, emperor, tsar or czar: Mary was the monarch of
Scotland from 1542 to 1567. 2 ruler, sovereign, chief, lord,
master, owner, Colloq boss: He is monarch of all he surveys.

monarchy n. 1 kingdom, empire, domain, dominion, principality; state,
nation, country: According to Gibbon, a hereditary monarchy
presents the fairest scope for ridicule. 2 monocracy, autocracy,
absolutism, royalism, monarchism, sovereignty, totalitarianism,
authoritarianism; despotism, tyranny: Those who are
discontented with monarchy call it tyranny.


monastery n. abbey, cloister, priory, friary, charterhouse, hospice,
Buddhism vihara, Hinduism ashram, Tibetan Buddhism lamasery: In
later life he retired to a monastery to contemplate the world.

monetary adj. pecuniary, cash, money, fiscal, financial, capital;
numismatic, Technical nummular, nummary: Monetary shortages
result from the government's tightening its hold on the economy
by raising interest rates.


money n. 1 currency, legal tender, medium of exchange, specie, (hard)
cash, ready money, banknotes, paper money, Brit notes, US bills,
coin(s), change, small change, Derogatory (filthy) lucre, pelf,
Colloq shekels, Brit lolly, readies, US folding money, cold
(hard) cash, US and Canadian and Australian shin-plasters; Slang
loot, dough, bread, spondulicks or spondulix, boodle, readies or
the ready, moolah, Brit rhino, US (long) green, greenbacks,
mazuma, wampum, simoleons, bucks, scratch, gelt, kale, cabbage,
lettuce, spinach: He makes daily rounds to collect the money
from the launderettes he owns. 2 resources, wealth, fortune,
funds, capital, wherewithal, affluence, means, (liquid) assets,
riches; Slang bundle: All the family money is invested in
long-term bonds. 3 gain, profit, net, Colloq take, percentage,
Slang rake-off: How much money does the shop take in at the end
of the day? 4 in the money. rich, wealthy, affluent, moneyed or
monied, well off, well-to-do, prosperous, Colloq flush, in
clover, in or on Easy Street, Slang loaded, well-heeled, rolling
in it or in money or in dough, filthy rich, stinking rich, fat:
They have been in the money since their uncle died.


mongrel n. cur, mutt, cross-breed, mixed breed, hybrid, half-breed,
Technical bigener; lurcher: There is little chance of that
mongrel winning a prize in the dog show.


monitor n. 1 watchdog, supervisor, sentinel, guard, guardian,
custodian; Brit invigilator, prefect, Rare prepositor or
praepostor; US proctor: The government has appointed a
committee to monitor oil prices. 2 (television) screen,
cathode-ray tube screen, CRT, display, Chiefly Brit visual
display unit, VDU: Do you prefer an amber, green, or
black-and-white monitor?

--v. 3 watch, oversee, observe, check (out or up on), audit,
supervise, superintend, scan, examine, study, follow, keep an
eye on, survey, keep track of, track, trace, record, Brit vet:
Before a drug is approved, it must be monitored through
thousands of tests.

monk n. brother, religious, coenobite, monastic, Loosely friar: He
was accepted into the Benedictine order, also called the black
monks.


monkey n. 1 simian, ape, primate, Colloq monk: The monkeys' antics
forever delight the children. 2 fool, ass, laughing-stock,
butt, victim, target, (fair) game, Colloq goat, Slang sucker:
The teacher should not have made a monkey out of Hubert in front
of his classmates. 3 imp, devil, mischief-maker, rascal, scamp,
rapscallion: She's a real little monkey: you wouldn't believe
what she got up to this morning.

--v. 4 mimic, mime, imitate, impersonate, copy, ape, duplicate:
He monkeys everything you do. 5 Usually, monkey around or about
(with). fool around (with), play (with), fiddle (about or
around) with, meddle (with or in), interfere (with or in), mess
(about or around) (with), tinker (with), tamper (with), Colloq
US screw around (with): Stop monkeying around with that switch
or the light will fuse. Colin is always monkeying around in
class.

monograph n. treatise, dissertation, disquisition, essay, paper:
Entwhistle's monograph is the definitive work on Hawthorne.


monolithic
adj. massive, huge, enormous, monumental, imposing, colossal,
gigantic, giant; featureless, uniform, undifferentiated,
characterless; rigid, impenetrable, invulnerable, unbending,
inflexible, solid, stolid, intractable, immovable: These
monolithic international conglomerates, assembled with the aid
of junk bonds, staffed by yuppies, and controlling markets worth
hundreds of billions, resemble the monolithic glass towers that
house them.


monopolize
v. corner (the market in), control, dominate, own, Slang hog:
Till recently, one company monopolized the telephone business in
the US.


monotonous
adj. boring, tedious, dull, tiresome, humdrum, sleep-inducing,
soporific, wearisome, wearying, tiring, monotonic, repetitious,
prosaic, banal, dry, dry-as-dust, uninteresting, dreary,

colourless, unexciting, run-of-the-mill, ordinary, commonplace,
routine, uneventful, everyday, mechanical, banausic, Colloq
ho-hum: Working in an assembly line became monotonous, so I
took a job in advertising.


monster n. 1 beast, fiend, ogre, giant, dragon, brute, demon, troll,
bogeyman: Why are so many children's fairy tales populated by
monsters? 2 monstrosity, (living) abortion, mutant, mutation,
freak, deformity, lusus naturae, eyesore, horror, miscreation,
missing link: Monsters of every description were the main
features of circus sideshows for centuries.

--adj. 3 See monstrous, 3, below.


monstrosity
n. 1 See monster, 2, above. 2 monstrousness, heinousness,
horribleness, horridness, hideousness, awfulness,
nightmarishness, dreadfulness, frightfulness, horror,
hellishness, ghoulishness, fiendishness, barbarity: The
monstrosity of the concentration camps was not widely known till
after the war.

monstrous adj. 1 awful, horrible, horrid, horrific, horrendous,
horrifying, hideous, ugly, nightmarish, dreadful, heinous,
grisly, gruesome, disgusting, nauseous, nauseating, repulsive,
repellent, revolting, frightful, grotesque, hellish, ghoulish,
freakish, fiendish, barbaric, barbarous, savage, inhuman,
merciless, ruthless, brutal, brutish, beastly: How could anyone
treat another human being with such monstrous cruelty! 2
outrageous, shocking, scandalous, atrocious, appalling, wicked,
villainous, evil, vile, insensitive, cruel, base, debased,
shameful, shameless, infamous, disgraceful, nefarious,
egregious, foul, vicious, flagitious, loathsome, depraved: It
is monstrous to suggest that money could compensate for the loss
of a child. It was a monstrous trick to make him think he had
failed the exam when he'd got the top mark. 3 gigantic, giant,
huge, vast, enormous, colossal, monster, gargantuan, jumbo,
immense, tremendous, titanic, prodigious, massive, towering,
elephantine, mammoth: They are planning to build a monstrous
shopping mall in the town centre.

monument n. 1 marker, cairn, memorial, tablet, shrine, commemoration;
sepulchre, gravestone, tombstone, headstone, tomb, mausoleum,

cenotaph: Many monuments have been established in memory of
those who died in the war. 2 testimony, testimonial, testament,
token, witness, record, evidence, example, exemplar: The book
will survive as a lasting monument to her scholarship.


monumental
adj. 1 staggering, awe-inspiring, outstanding, prominent,
stupendous, vast, awesome, epoch-making, historic,
history-making, memorable, lasting, permanent, unforgettable,
significant, notable, noteworthy, impressive, marvellous,
prodigious, wonderful, wondrous, spectacular, magnificent,
grand, striking, glorious, enduring, classic: This work is a
monumental contribution to linguistic theory. 2 massive, huge,
gigantic, enormous, prodigious, colossal, immense, vast,
tremendous: These monumental stones, each as big as a house,
were dragged from a quarry hundreds of miles away. 3
commemorative, memorial: A monumental obelisk will be raised to
mark the battle. 4 egregious, catastrophic, calamitous, huge,
enormous, awful, abject, terrible, unforgivable, unbelievable,
monstrous, Colloq whopping: Announcing our plans in advance
could prove to be a monumental blunder.

mood n. 1 humour, attitude, inclination, disposition, nature,
temper, frame of mind, spirit, atmosphere, sense, feeling: The
mood of the people is rebellious. She's in a bad mood. 2 in the
mood. ready, willing, eager, keen, (well-)disposed, inclined,
sympathetic, minded: I'm not in the mood for a film tonight,
but I am in the mood to go dancing.


moody adj. 1 sullen, melancholy, blue, sad, unhappy, dejected,
depressed, crestfallen, downcast, despondent, chap-fallen, in
the doldrums, downhearted, gloomy, glum, moping, mopy, mopish,
sulky, sulking, morose, brooding, broody, heavy-hearted, dour,
cheerless, dismal, desolate, disconsolate, lugubrious,
disheartened, saturnine, Colloq down in the mouth, (down) in the
dumps, out of sorts, US off (one's) feed: He's been moody the
past few days, and I don't know how to cheer him up. 2 testy,
crotchety, short-tempered, abrupt, short, curt, impatient,
crabby, crusty, huffy, huffish, crabbed, cantankerous,
curmudgeonly, ill-humoured, ill-tempered, cranky, petulant,
waspish, temperamental, snappish, snappy, irritable, peevish,
cranky, touchy, piqued; in a (fit of) pique, in high dudgeon:
If I were you, I shouldn't ask her for a favour today as she's

very moody. 3 fickle, volatile, capricious, mercurial, unstable,
fitful, flighty, unsteady, changeable, erratic, uneven,
inconstant, undependable, unreliable, unpredictable: Being
artists, they are moody, and there's no telling if they will
want to be interviewed today.

moonshine n. 1 moonlight, moonbeams: Her hair reflected silver in the
moonshine. 2 (stuff and) nonsense, rubbish, taradiddle, humbug,
drivel, twaddle, balderdash, blather or blether, Colloq hot air,
claptrap, pack of lies, con, bosh, gas, eyewash, hogwash, bunk,
guff, piffle, hokum, rot, malarkey, bilge (water), tripe, (the
old) song and dance, line, Brit tommy-rot, US apple-sauce,
razzmatazz, jive, Slang crap, bull, hooey, Brit tosh, US
garbage, BS, Taboo slang horseshit, bullshit: He fed her a load
of moonshine about owning a big yacht. 3 poteen, Colloq chiefly
US and Canadian hooch or hootch, white lightning, white mule,
home-brew, bootleg: Government agents raided a still that
produced 100 gallons of moonshine a day.


moorฐ n. heath, moorland, wasteland, No. Eng. and Scots fell: The
police pursued the escaped prisoner across the moor, but they
lost him.

moor v. secure, tie up, make fast, dock, berth, (drop) anchor; fix:
The vessel was soon moored and the passengers disembarked. The
huge aerial is moored by cables.

moot adj. 1 debatable, arguable, undecided, undetermined,
controversial, doubtful, disputable, open to debate, at issue,
indefinite, problematic(al), questionable, open (to question or
to discussion), confutable, confuted, contestable, contested,
unsettled, unresolved, up in the air, unconcluded: Whether he
would be found innocent was still a moot point.


--v. 2 bring up or forward, introduce, broach, put forward,
proffer, posit, propound, advance, submit, suggest: It has been
mooted that she was with the victim just before the murder.

moral adj. 1 ethical; right, good, pure, honest, proper, upright,
honourable, decent, moralistic, respectable, high-minded,
virtuous, upstanding, righteous, principled, scrupulous,
incorruptible, noble, just: She is one of the most moral people
I have ever met. 2 ethical, moralizing, moralistic: Questions

of right and wrong are a subject for moral philosophy. It is a
moral, not a legal, issue.

--n. 3 lesson, homily, teaching, point, message; aphorism,
maxim, precept, apophthegm or apothegm, adage, saw, proverb,
epigram, motto, slogan: The moral of the story is, 'Do unto
others before they do unto you'. 4 morals. behaviour, conduct,
mores, belief, habit(s), custom(s), practice(s), principle(s),
scruples, ethics, ideals, standards; probity, morality,
rectitude, integrity: For this appointment, we require a person
of the highest morals.

morale n. dedication, spirit(s), unity, esprit de corps, disposition,
attitude, confidence, self-confidence, self-esteem: The team's
morale improved after they won their first game in five weeks.

morality n. 1 ethics, morals, ethicalness, moralness, principle(s),
mores, integrity, propriety, standards, ideals; honesty, right,
rightness, righteousness, rectitude, justice, fair play,
fairness, decency, uprightness, integrity: Morality should not
be conditioned by expediency. 2 behaviour, conduct, habit(s),
custom(s): Are you suggesting that utilitarianism is a guide
for morality?


morass n. 1 bog, marsh, swamp, fen, quagmire, slough, marshland,
moorland, No. Eng. and Scots moss: The land not under
cultivation was morass or forest. 2 entanglement, confusion,
muddle, mess, quagmire, tangle, quicksand: It took years to
extricate the company from the legal morass of the bankruptcy
courts.

moratorium
n. halt, hiatus, suspension, stay, respite, freeze, delay,
waiting-period, postponement: The arts commission requests a
six-month moratorium on sales to foreign purchasers.

morbid adj. 1 unhealthy, unwholesome, disordered, unsound, sick,
pathological, pathogenic: Inhalation of fumes containing lead
has caused this morbid condition. 2 grim, ghoulish, macabre,
monstrous, ghastly, grotesque, grisly, gruesome: At an early
age, Glynis exhibited a morbid interest in cadavers. Spare me
the morbid details - please! 3 gloomy, lugubrious, glum, morose,
sombre, blue, sad, melancholy, despondent, depressed, dejected,

downcast: With Charley again in one of his morbid moods, we can
anticipate another cheerless visit.

moreover adv. furthermore, further, besides, not only that, more than
that, what is more; to boot, into the bargain, in addition,
additionally, as well, too: She was pleased that I had brought
some wine - it was, moreover, her favourite burgundy.

moribund adj. 1 dying, in extremis, at death's door, failing, fading,
with one foot in the grave, half-dead, breathing one's last,
expiring, on one's last legs, on one's deathbed: Apparently
moribund for weeks, he suddenly revived when he saw her. 2
ending, declining, obsolescent, weak, on the way out, waning, on
the wane, dying out; stagnating, stagnant: At the time, the
Ottoman Empire was already moribund.

morning n. 1 forenoon, a.m., dawn, daybreak, sunrise, Literary morn,
Archaic cock crow, day-spring, morrow, Chiefly US sun-up: The
meeting will be at nine o'clock in the morning.


--adj. 2 matutinal, matinal, a.m., forenoon: I prefer a
morning meeting.

morsel n. 1 mouthful, bite, gobbet, spoonful, forkful, chew, taste,
sample, nibble, bit, drop, dollop, soup‡on: She delicately ate
tiny morsels of the banana. 2 bit, crumb, fragment, scrap,
sliver, splinter, shard or sherd, shred, remnant, particle,
atom, speck, whit, fraction, grain, granule, pinch, piece,
Colloq smidgen or smidgin: There wasn't the slightest morsel of
evidence to connect me with the crime.

mortal adj. 1 human; transitory, temporal, transient, ephemeral: It
finally dawned on him that the king was mortal, like other men.
2 physical, bodily, corporeal, corporal, fleshly, earthly,
worldly, perishable: Her mortal remains are buried at Bognor
Regis. 3 deadly, fatal, lethal, terminal, destructive,
disastrous: The admiral lay dying from a mortal wound. 4
relentless, implacable, unrelenting, bitter, sworn, deadly,
unremitting, unappeasable, unceasing: Halifax was the mortal
enemy of despotism. 5 abject, extreme, awful, great, enormous,
intense, terrible, inordinate, dire: Giles lived in mortal fear
of offending his mother.

--n. 6 human (being), man, woman, person, soul, individual,
creature, earthling: The novel depicts a lifestyle far removed
from that of ordinary mortals. We mortals have nothing to fear
from intergalactic aliens.


mortify v. 1 humiliate, shame, humble, embarrass, abash, chagrin,
rebuff, crush, discomfit, deflate, bring down, degrade,
downgrade, reduce, chasten, subdue, suppress, make someone eat
humble pie, teach someone his or her place, Colloq put down:
She was mortified to learn that she had been disqualified. 2
punish, castigate, discipline, control, subdue, subjugate:
Repentance was considered insufficient penance, so the
flagellants mortified the flesh with scourges. 3 gangrene,
fester, necrose, putrefy, rot, decompose, decay, putresce:
After a fortnight, the flesh mortifies and falls away.

mother n. 1 dam, materfamilias, (female) parent, Old-fashioned or
formal or jocular mater, Formal progenitrix; matriarch, Colloq
ma, old lady, old woman, Brit mummy, mum, US mom, mommy, mama,
mamma, maw, mammy, mam: He runs crying to his mother whenever
anyone teases him. 2 source, origin, genesis: Necessity is the
mother of invention. 3 nourisher, nurturer, nurse: Poverty was
the mother of anarchy.


--adj. 4 native, natural, innate: She has the mother wit to
know better.

--v. 5 nurture, nourish, nurse, care for, look after, protect,
shelter, watch over, take care of: She mothered me when I
needed her, and I won't desert her now. 6 pamper, baby, coddle,
spoil, indulge, fuss over, overprotect: You mother the child
too much.

motif n. theme, idea, topic, subject, concept, leitmotif; pattern,
figure, refrain, device, ornament, decoration, element,
convention: The painter repeats the motif throughout his
pictures in much the same way that a composer repeats a bar of
music.


motion n. 1 movement, moving, change, shift, shifting, action, going,
travelling, travel, progress, passage, transit; activity,
commotion, stir, agitation, turmoil, turbulence: One could
barely sense the slow motion of the train. The leaves of the

aspen appear to be in constant motion. 2 mobility, movability,
motility: I could feel the motion gradually returning to my
numbed limbs. 3 gait, bearing, carriage, tread, walk, step:
The machine works with alternate upward and downward motions. 4
gesture, gesticulation, signal, sign: She made a motion for me
to come nearer. 5 proposal, suggestion, proposition,
recommendation, offering, submission: A motion must be seconded
by a member in good standing.


--v. 6 gesture, gesticulate, beckon, signal, sign, wave: The
cashier motioned to me and I went over to the window.

motivate v. prompt, activate, move, inspire, incite, induce, actuate,
stimulate, provoke, influence, encourage, occasion, bring about,
cause; excite, egg (on), urge, prod, spur, galvanize, goad,
rouse, arouse, stir (up), wheedle, coax, persuade, cajole,
tempt, push, impel, drive, instigate: The biggest problem is
motivating students to apply themselves to academic subjects.


motive n. 1 inducement, incentive, motivation, stimulus, motivating
force, stimulation, incitement, influence, cause, reason,
rationale, grounds; attraction, lure, enticement, goad, spur,
urge, prod: It is thought that jealousy was his motive for
murder. 2 purpose, aim, intention, intent, object, objective,
goal, end, arriŠre pens‚e (= 'hidden motive'); ambition, desire;
Colloq angle: I asked the chairman what his motive was in
trying to expand the company.

--adj. 3 driving, impelling, propelling, propulsive, moving,
kinetic, activating, operative: The motive power used in the
ultra-light aircraft is provided entirely by the pilot's
pedalling.

mottled adj. dappled, brindled, marbled, streaked, splodgy or US
splotchy, blotched, blotchy, freckled, spotted, spotty, patchy,
speckled, flecked, sprinkled, spattered, splashed, streaky,
stippled, pied, piebald; multicoloured, variegated,
particoloured, Colloq splodged or US splotched: Do you like
that mottled effect on the wallpaper?


motto n. maxim, proverb, saying, adage, saw, aphorism, apophthegm or
apothegm, gnome, slogan, byword, catchword, battle-cry, guide,
moral, principle, rule, precept: The motto of the Order of the

Garter is Honi soit qui mal y pense, 'Shame on whoever thinks
ill of it'.

mouldฐ n. 1 form, cast, matrix, die; template or templet, pattern,
form: He broke the mould to prevent the casting of a duplicate
statuette. 2 form, shape, pattern, format, structure, build,
construction, design, arrangement, organization, configuration,
kind, brand, make, line, type, stamp, cut: Was man made in the
same mould as his God, or vice versa? 3 character, nature,
stamp, type, kind, kidney, ilk, sort: Grandpa said that he
wouldn't want someone of her mould in the family.

--v. 4 shape, form, make, work, fashion, configure, sculpture
or sculpt, model, knead, construct: carve, cut: The artist
moulded the original design in clay. 5 forge, cast, stamp,
die-cast: These beads are moulded from solid gold. 6
influence, shape, form, affect, make, control, direct, guide,
lead: The speech-writer's job is to mould the language to fit
his client's ideas. The candidate is trying to mould public
opinion in his favour.

mould n. mildew, fungus, blight, smut: A mild solution of bleach
will clean that mould off the bathroom tiles.


mouldฐ n. soil, earth, loam, topsoil, dirt, humus: Add some rich
mould to the house-plants periodically and they will flourish.

mouldy adj. aged, ancient, outdated, old-fashioned, antediluvian,
unused, stale, decayed, decaying, carious, mildewed, mouldering,
musty; spoilt or spoiled, rotten, rotting, putrid, putrescent,
putrefying, rancid, rank, decomposed, decomposing, mucid:
Digging about in the files, he unearthed some mouldy old plans
of the house. All the food in the fridge had gone mouldy while
they were away.


mound n. 1 hillock, rise, hummock, hill, hump, bank, elevation,
knoll, knob, swell, dune, slope, tor, Chiefly W US and Canadian
butte,: We stood on a high mound from which we could see for
miles. 2 heap, pile, stack, Archaeology tumulus, tell, barrow,
(kitchen) midden: Excavation of the mound yielded scores of
Iron Age artefacts.

mount n. 1 See mountain, 1, below.


--v. 2 climb (up), go up, ascend, scale, clamber up, make one's
way up: We mounted the ladder to the roof. The speaker mounted
the dais. 3 rise (up), arise, soar, fly (up), rocket (upwards):
With the salmon in its grasp, the eagle mounted to the sky. 4
climb or get or clamber up on, bestride, straddle, bestraddle:
The gunfighter mounted his horse and rode off. 5 (put on)
display, (put on) exhibit, put on exhibition, present, install
or instal, stage, prepare, ready, put on, put in place, set up;
arrange, coordinate, compose, organize, set in motion, launch:
The gallery will mount a show of John's sculpture next spring.
They have mounted a major advertising campaign for their face
cream. 6 frame, mat or matt, set off: This print should be
mounted using an olive green paper. 7 increase, wax, rise,
escalate, intensify, swell, expand, grow, mount up, multiply,
pile up, build up, accumulate: Complaints have been mounting
against the vulgar language heard on prime-time TV.

--n. 8 backing, setting, support, mounting, background, set,
arrangement, backdrop, scene: This style of mount sets off the
ruby to its best advantage. 9 horse, steed, charger, palfrey:
Her mount was a grey mare.

mountain n. 1 height, elevation, mount, eminence, prominence, peak, alp,
tor, summit, No. Eng. and Scots fell, Scots and Irish English
ben: Her favourite sport is climbing mountains. 2 heap, pile,
stack, mound, accumulation, abundance, mass, Colloq ton(s),
heaps, piles, stacks: I have a mountain of laundry to do.


mountainous
adj. 1 craggy, alpine, Himalayan: It was very slow going
through the mountainous parts of the country. 2 huge, towering,
high, steep, enormous, immense, formidable, mighty, monumental,
prodigious, staggering: Their tiny craft was almost engulfed by
the mountainous seas.

mourn v. grieve (over), lament, sorrow (over), bemoan, bewail, keen,
weep for or over, regret, rue, deplore: We all mourned the loss
of a great leader. After his death, the nation mourned for a
month.

mournful adj. 1 sad, sorrowful, dismal, melancholy, blue, afflicted,
doleful, dolorous, grief-stricken, rueful, forlorn, woebegone,

sombre, lugubrious, funereal, joyless, dispirited, cheerless,
unhappy, downhearted, heavy-hearted, disconsolate, heartbroken,
inconsolable, despondent, desolate, despairing, heartsick,
overcome, prostrate: The mournful crowd filed past the bier to
pay their last respects. 2 deplorable, sorrowful, grievous,
distressing, upsetting, tragic, saddening, disheartening,
depressing, lamentable, catastrophic, calamitous, disastrous:
The mournful news of the great loss of life in the explosion was
broadcast round the world.


mourning n. 1 grief, lament, grieving, lamentation, sorrowing, keening,
weeping, wailing: The Highlanders are wont to mingle a degree
of solemn mirth with their mourning. 2 bereavement, loss,
anguish, sorrow, misery, grief, sadness, woe, woefulness,
melancholy, heartache, despondency, despair, desolation: In
China people wear white as a sign of mourning. 3 black, widow's
weeds, sackcloth and ashes: It was customary at that time to
spend at least one month in mourning.


mousy adj. 1 mousey, mouse-coloured, dun, grey, greyish-brown,
brownish-grey, brownish, brown, dull, lustreless, lacklustre,
drab, flat, plain, colourless: Her lank, mousy hair hung down
over her shoulders. 2 timid, cowering, timorous, shy,
self-effacing, diffident: Adrian is far too mousy to ask for an
increase in salary.

mouth n. 1 lips; maw, jaws, oral cavity, Technical stoma, Slang trap,
kisser, muzzle, gob, chops, yap, US bazoo: I want to hear that
you don't love me from your own mouth. 2 opening, aperture,
doorway, door, gateway, gate, access, entrance, inlet, entry,
entry-way, way in, entr‚e; passage, passageway, way, orifice;
exit, way out, vent, outlet, outfall, Technical debouchment or
debouchure, debouch or d‚bouch‚, embouchure: We stood at the
mouth of the cave. An enormous delta formed at the mouth of the
river. 3 bragging, boasting, braggadocio, empty or idle talk,
bombast, rodomontade, fustian, Slang claptrap, hot air, gas:
The fellow is all mouth and no action. 4 disrespect, impudence,
insolence, sauciness, rudeness, impertinence, pertness,
boldness, audacity, presumptuousness, brashness, flippancy,
Colloq lip, cheek, backchat, sauce, freshness, US sass, back
talk: He'd better not give me any of his mouth or I'll have his
guts for garters. 5 grimace, pout, moue, face: She made a mouth
when I said she couldn't go. 6 down in or at the mouth.

dejected, despondent, sad, sorrowful, unhappy, melancholy, blue,
crestfallen, dispirited, disheartened, downcast, Colloq (down)
in the dumps, broken up: He was very down in the mouth after
seeing the results of the laboratory tests.


--v. 7 utter, say, speak, pronounce, announce, enunciate,
articulate, voice, sound, express, vocalize; declaim, orate: He
mouthed each word with excruciating care. Who wants to hear some
pompous fool mouthing platitudes?


mouthful n. morsel, bite, spoonful, forkful, lump, chunk, gob, hunk: He
took a mouthful of food.

mouthpiece
n. 1 embouchure; bit: I need a new mouthpiece for my clarinet.
2 spokesman, spokeswoman, spokesperson, agent, representative,
intermediator, mediator, delegate: He is always quoted through
his mouthpiece, never directly. 3 lawyer, attorney, Slang US
shyster: A good mouthpiece could get me out of this fix.


movable adj. moveable, floating, variable, changeable, unfixed;
portable, transportable, transferable or transferrable: Easter
Sunday is a movable feast and has no fixed date on the calendar.
Recent developments have produced computers that are smaller
than an attach‚ case and easily movable.

move v. 1 shift, stir, budge, make a move, go; proceed, advance,
progress: It is difficult to move in a strait-jacket. The train
is moving at a rate of sixty miles an hour. Don't move - I have
a gun. 2 move house, move out, remove, move away, relocate,
decamp, depart, change residence, emigrate, go or make off,
transfer, Colloq take off (for), pull up stakes, Brit up sticks,
Slang US split (for): When did you say you were moving to
London? 3 shake (up), disturb, stir (up), agitate, affect,
touch: We moved heaven and earth to find a proper place for her
to stay. 4 affect, touch, stir, shake up, agitate, hit (hard),
upset, strike, smite, disturb, ruffle, disquiet, have an (or a
profound) effect (on), make a (deep) impression (on): The
pictures of starving children moved everyone. 5 provoke,
arouse, excite, stir up, lead, rouse, stimulate: At the end of
the film, when she died, I was moved to tears. 6 arouse, rouse,
provoke, actuate, lead, prompt, spur, motivate, influence,
impel, prod, remind, inspire, make: His mention of families

moved me to ask when he had last seen his father. 7 propose, put
forward or forth, forward, advance, submit, suggest, advocate,
propound: The question of budget was moved at the last meeting.


--n. 8 change, change-over, relocation, transfer, shift,
removal: My supervisor suggested a move to a different
department. 9 manoeuvre, device, trick, caper, dodge, ploy,
stratagem, artifice, ruse, action, act, deed, Colloq gimmick:
Getting Diana to invite Colin was a very good move. 10 turn,
time, opportunity: I have had my turn, now it's your move. 11
gesture, gesticulation, action, motion, stirring: One move and
you're a dead man! 12 get a move on. a get moving, begin,
start, commence, get going, get under way, get started, stir or
bestir oneself, Colloq get or start the ball rolling, get the
show on the road, break the ice, get cracking, step on it or the
gas: He doesn't usually get a move on till noon. b hurry,
hasten, make haste, rush, run: Get a move on down to the
supermarket before it closes. 13 on the move. a travelling, in
transit, on the way, on one's way, on the road, on the go,
moving: She is always on the move and it is difficult to catch
her. b on the go, working, on the run, busy, occupied: I have
been on the move since six this morning. c proceeding,
progressing, advancing, moving ahead, succeeding, on the go: It
looks as if the industry is again on the move after a brief
decline.

movement n. 1 repositioning, move, motion, relocation, moving,
migration, shift, transfer, flow, displacement: Population
movement increased dramatically in the Middle Ages. 2 action,
activity, move, moving, stir, stirring: There was a sudden
movement in the bushes. 3 gesture, gesticulation, move,
flicker, sign, signal; manoeuvre, change of attitude or
position: Only the slightest upward movement of his eyebrow
indicated his surprise. Every little movement has a meaning all
its own. 4 mechanism, works, workings, moving parts, machinery,
action, gears, Colloq innards: Technically, the movement of a
watch does not include the escapement. 5 campaign, crusade,
drive; front, faction, party, group, wing: The 1960s saw many
successes for the civil rights' movement in America. 6 change,
activity, action, shift, advance or decline, increase or
decrease, upward or downward movement, stirring; development,
progress: Shares displayed little movement in today's trading.
7 drift, trend, tendency, course, swing: They have noted a

growing movement towards religious fundamentalism.

movie n. 1 motion picture, film, moving picture, silent (picture),
talking picture, Colloq talkie, flick: Her grandfather was one
of the first actors in silent movies. 2 Usually, movies.
picture show, cinema, flicks, Colloq big or large screen, silver
screen: Why don't we go to the movies instead of watching
television tonight?


moving adj. 1 touching, poignant, emotive, affecting, stirring,
heart-rending, emotional, telling, effective, impressive,
striking, compelling; pathetic, exciting, thrilling, inspiring,
inspirational, impelling, persuasive: He related a moving story
of his years in various concentration camps. 2 active, mobile,
unfixed, unstationary, motile, going, operating, working, in
motion, on the move: Be careful not to touch any of the moving
parts inside the clock.

mow v. 1 cut (down), scythe, trim, shear: You don't need to mow
the lawn so much during a dry spell. 2 mow down. annihilate,
kill, massacre, butcher, slaughter, exterminate, liquidate,
eradicate, wipe out, cut down, cut to pieces, destroy, decimate:
The first platoon was mowed down by machine-gun fire.


13.5 muck...
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-



muck n. 1 ordure, manure, dung, excrement, faeces, droppings; guano:
The muck is saved for use as fertilizer. 2 dirt, filth, bilge,
slime, sludge, ooze, scum, sewage, mire, mud, feculence, Colloq
gunge, gunk, US grunge: Give me a chance to get the muck off my
shoes.


--v. 3 muck about. fool around, waste time, idle, loiter, mess
around or about: She told me to stop mucking about and get a
job. 4 muck up. ruin, wreck, destroy, make a mess of, botch,
mess up, bungle, Colloq screw up, Slang bugger up, make a muck
of: She's mucked up her own life, and, given the chance, she'll
muck up mine.

mud n. muck, ooze, slime, mire, clay, sludge, silt, dirt, US and
Canadian gumbo or gombo: The mud came up to my ankles.


muddle v. 1 bewilder, confuse, confound, mystify, baffle, mix up,
disorient, befuddle, perplex, bemuse, puzzle, befog: I am
totally muddled by your explanation of differential calculus. 2
confuse, mix up, jumble, scramble, entangle, tangle, mess up,
disorder, disarrange, disorganize, bungle, mismanage, Colloq
muff: My financial affairs got hopelessly muddled when I
changed banks. 3 muddle through. (barely) manage, cope, make
it, scrape through or along, contrive, make do, get by, get
along: We were just muddling through when James was offered
this wonderful job.

--n. 4 mess, confusion, mix-up, jumble, tangle, disorder,
hotchpotch or US also hodgepodge, mishmash, chaos, disaster,
Colloq stew, Slang US screw-up, snafu, Taboo slang Brit
balls-up: A lot of muddles, mix-ups, and misunderstandings
ensued.

muddy adj. 1 fouled, befouled, muddied, mud-spattered, dirty, grubby,
grimy, soiled, mud-caked, slimy, mucky, miry; oozy, squelchy,
squashy, boggy, fenny, marshy, swampy; Formal feculent; Colloq
squishy, squushy: Take off those muddy boots before you come
into the house. The walk up to the house has become all muddy in
the rain. 2 confused, unclear, vague, obscure, dull, dim, fuzzy,
muddled, addled, mixed-up: Greg has only a muddy idea of what
you're talking about. 3 drab, subdued, blurred, dingy, flat,
murky, mat, washed out: The colours in her paintings look very
muddy to me.


--v. 4 obscure, dull, dim, confuse, mix up, befog, cloud: His
explanation muddied the issue rather than clarifying it. 5
dirty, soil, begrime, smirch, besmirch, spatter, bespatter: A
passing car muddied my new skirt.


muffle v. 1 Often, muffle up. wrap, swathe, swaddle, cloak, envelop,
cover (up), enfold, shroud, enshroud, conceal, protect: Make
sure your neck is muffled when you're out in that icy wind. 2
deaden, silence, suppress, stifle, subdue, damp, dampen, mute,
hush, quiet, tone down, still: A few more thicknesses of
flannel will muffle the noise of the motor.

muffler n. scarf, boa; shawl, wrap: Wrap this muffler round your neck
for added warmth.


mug n. 1 jug, tankard, stein, toby (jug), pot, beaker, cup: The
relief workers passed round mugs of hot coffee to the homeless.
2 face, visage, features, countenance, Slang puss, kisser, mush,
Brit clock, dial, Archaic phiz or phizog, US pan: The ex-boxer
has a mug that only a mother could love. 3 fool, duffer,
simpleton, dupe, gull, innocent, Colloq chump, mark, soft or
easy touch, Brit muggins, Slang sucker: The mug thought he had
found a full wallet.


--v. 4 make a face or faces, grimace: Here are some pictures
of the twins mugging for the camera. 5 attack, set upon, rob,
assault; garrotte, throttle: Anyone who walks through the park
at night risks getting mugged. 6 mug up (on). study, Formal
lucubrate, Colloq cram, burn the midnight oil, get up (on), Brit
swot, bone up (on): I have to mug up on my Latin for tomorrow's
examination.

muggy adj. humid, damp, sticky, sultry, oppressive, clammy, steamy,
close, stuffy, moist, soggy: It was so muggy that every night
the bedlinen was completely soaked.

mull v. Usually, mull over. ponder, consider, study, think (over or
about), cogitate (on or over or about), con, evaluate, turn
over, weigh, deliberate (on or over), reflect (on), muse (on),
review, examine, contemplate, meditate (on), chew over, ruminate
(on or over),: I have been mulling over your suggestion that I
should join the navy.


mum adj. 1 silent, mute, close-mouthed, quiet, tight-lipped: She
swore she would keep mum about where the money was hidden.

--n. 2 Mum's the word. Don't tell a soul, Keep silent, Keep
secret, Keep quiet, Keep (something) to oneself, Keep
(something) under one's hat, Say nothing, Tell no-one, Play
dumb: He told who stole the bell, but mum's the word.

mumble v. murmur, mutter, say inarticulately, utter indistinctly,
swallow one's words: He mumbled the name of the person who had
shot him, but she didn't catch it.

mumbo-jumbo
n. 1 gibberish, nonsense, rubbish, gobbledegook or

gobbledygook, drivel, humbug, bunkum, double-talk, rigmarole or
rigamarole, jabberwocky, blather or blether, poppycock, Colloq
eyewash, rot, tommy-rot, hogwash, bilge, bosh, bull, malarkey,
claptrap, piffle, US hooey, moonshine, bunk Slang bull, crap,
Brit tosh, Taboo slang bullshit: Before he would give me the
cheque, the lawyer made me sign something full of legal
mumbo-jumbo. 2 spell, incantation, chant, formula, charm,
abracadabra, hocus-pocus, rite, ritual, conjuration, magic: She
had to sit through all the mumbo-jumbo of her husband's
investiture.

munch v. chew, crunch, masticate, champ, chomp, scrunch: He just sat
there munching peanuts.


municipal adj. civic, civil, metropolitan, urban, city, town, village,
borough, parish, Brit council: Voting takes place in the
municipal elections next week.

municipality
n. city, metropolis, town, village, borough, district,
township; suburb, exurb: The recreational facilities offered by
the municipality are in need of refurbishing.

murder n. 1 homicide, manslaughter, regicide, patricide, matricide,
parricide, fratricide, sororicide, uxoricide, infanticide;
killing, slaying, assassination: In many countries, murder is a
crime punishable by death. 2 slaughter, butchery, genocide,
massacre, liquidation, decimation, extermination, eradication,
wiping out, murdering, slaying, killing, bloodshed, carnage:
Their wanton murder of thousands of prisoners of war has been
proven.

--v. 3 kill, slay, assassinate, put to death, end the life of,
put away or down, put out of one's misery, wipe out, destroy,
butcher, massacre, liquidate, exterminate, eradicate,
annihilate, extinguish, slaughter, lay low, Slang eliminate,
bump off, knock off, do in, polish off, blow away, US rub out,
waste, ice, take for a ride, fit with a concrete overcoat or
with concrete overshoes, snuff (out): The drug dealers were
murdered, one by one, by a rival gang. 4 spoil, ruin, mar,
destroy, wreck, kill, mangle, butcher, mutilate: She murdered
the song by singing it far too fast.

murderer n. murderess, killer, slayer, assassin, homicide, cutthroat,
liquidator, executioner, butcher, Slang hit man: The police
have arrested someone they are certain is the murderer.


murderous adj. 1 fatal, lethal, deadly, deathly, mortal, destructive,
devastating, sanguinary, bloody, brutal, savage, bloodthirsty,
barbarous, fell, cruel, inhuman: The tolling of the bell
signalled that the murderous deed had been done. 2 killing,
strenuous, stressful, difficult, arduous, exhausting, hellish,
harrowing, rigorous, intolerable, unbearable: You cannot keep
up such a murderous pace, without any rest, and remain healthy.

murky adj. dark, gloomy, threatening, dim, clouded, cloudy, overcast,
grey, dismal, dreary, bleak, sombre, grim, funereal, shady,
shadowy: I could barely make out her face in the murky corner
of the chapel.

murmur n. 1 undercurrent, undertone, background noise or sound,
rumble, rumbling, mumble, mumbling, drone, droning, buzz,
buzzing, murmuration, murmuring, hum, humming, whispering,
Formal susurration or susurrus: They spoke in low voices,
barely audible above the murmur of the mourning doves. 2
muttering, complaining, complaint, grumble, grumbling, Colloq
grousing, grouse: We have heard not any murmurs since everyone
had an increase in salary.

--v. 3 mumble, mutter, whisper: He murmured into her ear
something about being pleased to see her. 4 complain, grumble,
mutter, moan, lament, wail, Colloq grouse: Employees will
always find something to murmur about.

muscular adj. sinewy, brawny, burly, powerful, powerfully built,
strapping, rugged, husky, robust, athletic, sturdy,
well-muscled, broad-shouldered: We all envied Nick's muscular
physique.

muse v. cogitate, meditate, reflect, contemplate, ruminate, think
over, think about, consider, chew over, deliberate, revolve,
weigh, evaluate, study, mull over, brood (over), ponder; be
absorbed (in thought), be in a brown study, dream, day-dream, be
in a trance or reverie: Asked for a decision, Michael mused for
a while before answering.

mushy adj. 1 soft, pulpy, squashy, doughy, squidgy, spongy; swampy,
boggy, miry; Colloq squishy, squushy, squashy: The peach was
overripe and mushy. The bottom of the pond is all mushy and
feels awful when you stand up. 2 mawkish, maudlin, sentimental,
romantic, saccharine, sugary, syrupy, Colloq corny, sloppy,
gooey, slushy, Brit wet, Slang schmaltzy: She cried three
handkerchiefs-full over the mushy parts of Gone With The Wind .

musical adj. tuneful, melodic, harmonious, lilting, lyrical, melodious,
mellifluous, dulcet, euphonious: Many modern compositions,
while technically competent, are not as musical as the
old-fashioned pieces.

must v. 1 ought (to), should, have to, be obliged or obligated to,
be compelled or forced to, be required to: I must get this work
done before lunch-time. Must you go? Yes, I must.

--n. 2 necessity, requisite, requirement, obligation, sine qua
non, essential: Patience is an absolute must in this job.


muster v. 1 call or come together, assemble, convoke, convene,
collect, mobilize, rally, round up, gather, marshal, summon
(up): Within a month he had mustered a force of thousands to
fight the invaders. I mustered up enough courage to ask Joan out
to dinner.

--n. 2 rally, assembly, assemblage, convocation, meet, meeting,
convention, congress, round-up, turnout, gathering,
congregation, aggregation, aggregate: We attended the annual
muster of bagpipe marching bands. 3 pass muster. come up to
scratch, make the grade, measure up, be acceptable, Colloq come
or be up to snuff: Are you sure that your new design will pass
muster with the art director?


musty adj. 1 mouldy, damp, mildewed, mildewy, sour, rancid, spoilt,
decayed, rotten, putrid, fetid or foetid, fusty, stale: Open
the windows to get rid of that musty odour. 2 stale,
old-fashioned, antiquated, antediluvian, ancient, out of date,
bygone, pass‚, old hat, obsolete, archaic, tired, hoary, worn
out, trite, clich‚d, stereotypical: I've heard all those musty
jokes of his a thousand times before.

mutation n. 1 change, changing, alteration, altering, modification,

modifying, transformation, transforming, metamorphosis,
metamorphosing, transmutation, transmuting, transfiguration,
transfiguring, evolution, evolving, variation, varying: For
years he studied the mutation of the sweet pea. 2 variant,
variation, deviation, deviant, mutant, anomaly, departure: The
mutations exhibited marked differences over the generations.

mute adj. 1 silent, dumb, speechless, voiceless, wordless,
tight-lipped, taciturn, tacit, reserved, quiet, Colloq mum:
Though I persisted in asking his name, he remained mute. 2
unspoken, unsaid, tacit, silent: The stain on the floor was a
mute reminder of the crime.

--v. 3 deaden, silence, muffle, stifle, dampen, damp, subdue,
suppress, quiet or Brit also quieten, hush, soft-pedal, turn
down, tone down: The carpet muted her footsteps as she crept up
behind him.

mutilate v. 1 maim, disfigure, mangle, cripple, lame, butcher, disable;
dismember, amputate, hack off, cut off, lop off, tear off, rip
off: Formerly, the hands of thieves were mutilated as an
example to others. 2 spoil, mar, ruin, damage, deface,
vandalize, destroy: As the book had been mutilated, he had to
buy the library a replacement.


mutinous adj. 1 rebellious, revolutionary, subversive, seditious,
insurgent, insurrectionary: The mutinous crew was finally
subdued and clapped in irons. 2 recalcitrant, refractory,
contumacious, obstinate, defiant, insubordinate, disobedient,
unruly, unmanageable, ungovernable, uncontrollable: Whenever we
told Clare to work harder at school she became mutinous.

mutiny n. 1 revolt, rebellion, revolution, subversion, subversiveness,
insurgency, insurgence, insurrection, uprising: The crew are
threatening a mutiny.

--v. 2 rebel, rise up (against), strike, revolt; disobey,
subvert, agitate (against): The crew of the Bounty mutinied and
set Captain Bligh adrift.


mutter v. 1 mumble, murmur, grunt: He was muttering something to
himself that I didn't catch. 2 grumble, complain, Colloq
grouch, grouse, Brit chunter: She has been muttering about cuts

in the postal service ever since I can remember.

mutual adj. 1 reciprocal, reciprocated, requited, interactive,
complementary: I love her and I hope that the feeling is
mutual. 2 common, communal, joint, shared: Gerald is our
mutual friend.

13.6 mysterious...
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-



mysterious
adj. 1 puzzling, enigmatic, baffling, insoluble, unsolvable,
bewildering, confounding, confusing, perplexing, mystifying,
weird, bizarre, strange, uncanny, curious: A mysterious force
makes the saucer rise off the ground and fly at incredible
speeds. 2 cryptic, arcane, secret, inscrutable, covert, hidden,
furtive, unclear, dark, concealed, occult, inexplicable,
incomprehensible, mystic(al), unknown, unfathomable, mystical,
recondite, abstruse: It is mysterious how the agency
accomplishes its ends.

mystery n. 1 puzzle, enigma, conundrum, riddle, question: How he
escaped from the locked room is a mystery. 2 obscurity,
secrecy, indefiniteness, vagueness, nebulousness, ambiguity,
ambiguousness, inscrutability, inscrutableness: The identity of
the beautiful lady in the green dress is shrouded in mystery. 3
detective story or novel, murder (story), Colloq whodunit:
Joel, who once fancied himself an intellectual, now reads
nothing but mysteries.

mystical adj. 1 allegorical, symbolic(al), mystic, cabbalistic, arcane,
unrevealed, secret, occult, supernatural, esoteric,
other-worldly, preternatural, cryptic, concealed, hidden,
clandestine, private, veiled, ineffable, mysterious: A mystical
spirit dwells in the raven that sits on his shoulder. 2 See
mysterious, 2, above.

mystify v. fool, hoax, humbug, confuse, confound, mix up, bewilder,
stump, puzzle, baffle, Colloq bamboozle, stump, flummox, Slang
beat: We were totally mystified by the unfamiliar symbols on
the wall.

mystique n. mystery, magic, charisma, aura, inscrutability,
supernaturalism, preternaturalism, strangeness: She has a
certain mystique about her.


myth n. 1 legend, fable, allegory, parable, tradition, saga, epic,
(folk) tale, story, mythos; history: The ancient myths have
provided sources for much of modern literature. 2 fable, lie,
(tall) tale, fib, prevarication, fiction, untruth, falsehood,
fabrication, cock-and-bull story, Colloq whopper: He told her
some myth about his being a multimillionaire and she believed
it.

mythical adj. 1 mythic, mythological, fabled, legendary, traditional,
folkloric, storied, romantic, fairy-tale, story-book;
allegorical, symbolic, parabolic(al): Campbell has demonstrated
astounding similarities amongst the mythical tales of unrelated
cultures. 2 mythic, fanciful, imaginary, fictitious,
make-believe, made-up, chimerical, untrue: When she was about
seven, my daughter had a mythical friend named Theodosia.


mythology n. (body of ..) myths, folklore, tradition, lore, stories,
mythos: After only one generation, an extraordinary mythology
has been created about Marilyn Monroe.