MEAL.
d. To make a meal of, t to make one s meal on
to devour.
1610 SHAKS. Temp. ll. i. 113 O thou mine heire..what
strange fish Hath made his meale on thee ? a 183* BARRY
CORNWALL Eng. Songs 143 Have I Preyed on my brother s
blood, and made His flesh my meal to-day ?
fig.
1827 POLLOK Course T. viii, Slander early rose, And
made most hellish meals of good men s names.
= sense
e. Meal s meat, later meal of meat
:
.
.
:
2 b.
13..
Now
dial, (see
A
meles
(A.) 6845
PI. C. xvi. 36 Crauede
1393 LANGL. P.
.
.
mete ?if thou me.
A meles mete for a
poure man. c 1410 Sir Cleges 347 For my labor schall I
c 1440 Promp. Parv.
nott get but yt be a melys mete,
321/2 Meel of mete.., commestio. 1511 Plumpton Corr.
(Camden) p. cxviii. Sir Robert Plomton
paid for every
maile of meate iiij 1 for himselfe, & ii* for his servant. 1530
PALSGR. 454/2 In this sence I fynde also je inuitc but pro
etc.
perly to a meales meate, or to eate. 1613 FLETCHER,
Honest Man s Fort. II. iii, You never yet had a meales
meat from my Table. 1693 J. DRYDEN in Dryden s Juvenal
xiv. Notes (1697) 366 King Saturn, .gave this Example by
making a Meals-meat of his own Children. 1717 Enter
tainer No. 6. 36 The Parasite may smell a Feast at C t,
and go flatter Some-body there for a Meals-meat.
ff. The phrases a merry meal, a sorry meal,
. .
.
were
ME.
in
sometimes used
fig. for
:
Something
myry
Hermit 425, I haue hade many merry
LOVELICH Merlin 2754 Also sone as the dragouns to-gyderes fele, be-twixen hem schal be-gynnen a sory
14
.
.
:
.
,
King
.
.
<y
c 1440
mele.
3. a. The quantity of milk given by a cow at
one milking also, the time of milking.
1613 \V. BROWNE Brit. Past. i. iv, Each shepheard s
daughter with her cleanly peale Was come afield to milke
;
the morning s meale. 1670 CATT. J. SMITH Eng. Improv.
Reviv d 176 Northern Milch Cows, one of the least of
which shall give 2 Gallons of Milk at one Meal.
1727
BRADLEY Fam. Diet. s.v. Cheese, To make a Cheese of two
Meals, as of the Morning s new Milk, and the Evening s
Cream-milk, you must do also the same. 1775 JOHNSON
Journ. Hebrides 187 A single meal of a goat is a quart.
1805 R. W. DICKSON Pract. Agric. I. 58 It may be fitted up
with such, .coolers as are sufficient to contain a meal s milk.
1844 H. STEPHENS Bk. Farm II. 459
the udder at one milking, or meal, as
The milk drawn from
it is
termed.
trie
meals
surface of the
.
Comb, a 1893 in Cozens-Hardy Broad Norf. 77 Mielbanks, banks of sand blown up by the wind and consoli
dated by the marum grass also called meal-banks
1899
CORNISH in Cornhill Mag. Mar. 313 The fascinating but
little known region of the
meal marshes which fringe the
North Norfolk coast.
.
MEAL i/ 1 ]
.! Somewhat rare.
[f.
To cover with meal; to powder with meal.
& FL. Knt. Burning Pest. v. Enter Jasper
Meal (mfl), v
.
joyful or the contrary. Obs.
13.. E. E. A Hit. P. A. 23 O moul bou marrez a
mele.
mele.
1706 PHILLIPS, Meals or Males, the Shelves or Banks of
Sand on the Sea-coasts of Norfolk Whence Ingom-meals,
Name of a Sandy Shore in Lincoln-shire. 1778 Eng.
Gazetteer (ed. 2) s.v. Edmonds-Chapel, The coast here is
secured against the incursions of the sea, by sand heaps,
commonly called Meales. 1839 Penny Cyel. XVI. 258 Sand
hills., locally termed meals
or marum hills
iSfiySMvm
Sailor s Word-bk., Meales, or Miols, immense sandbanks
thrown up by the sea on the coasts of Norfolk, Lancashire,
etc.
1897 Spectator 209 At present only the highest tides
the
ever cover
E. D. D.).
Guy Warw.
MEAL-MOUTHED.
268
.
1. trans.
1611 BEAUM.
i,
with his Face mealed. 1882 Garden 21 Jan. 33/3 All their
flowers will be more or less mealed on the surface.
b. fig. To meal one s mouth : to become mealy-
mouthed
to speak in gentle terms. ? nonce-use.
;
1826 SOUTHEY in Corr. m. C. Bowles (1881) 96 Though
there is as much civility as can be desired . . yet I have
neither mealed my mouth nor minced my words.
2. a. trans. To grind into meal ; to reduce to
a
fine
powder,
meal or powder.
1669
b. intr.
To become
STURMY Mariner s Mug.
v.
xiii.
89
reduced to
Meal
all
these
very iine,and mix them together. Ibid., I twill Meal presently.
3. intr. To yield or be plentiful in meal.
1799 J. ROBERTSON Agric. Perth 155 It U a little earlier
than the old Polish oat, and meals equally well.
MEAL
[f.
(m/1), v.to eat meals ; to feed.
1. intr. To make a meal
1827 HONE Every-day Bk. II. 218 There were.. worms
there. ., which would have mealed handsomely upon him.
1840 R. H. DANA Bef. Mast xxx. 109 Mess, any number of
men who meal together. 1886 M. K. MACMILLAN Dagonet
the Jester 5, I will not meal with a churl, nor moil with a
Meal
st>.-]
;
churl.
To feed, give fodder to (cattle). 1 Obs.
Let. in Neiu Eng. (1825) I. 378 Some more
be
cows would
brought, especially two new milch, which
must be well mealed and milked by the way.
2. trans.
1630
WIMHROP
1
t Meal, zv Obs. rare[Identical with OE.
mxlan, f.
spot, stain, MOLE so.^
!
b. dial. (See quot.)
.
>ndl
have mail
(Northern dialects
vb., to spot, stain, f. mail,
northern form of mole see E. D. D.ij
trans. To spot, stain ; by Shaks. used_/fy.
1603 SHAKS. Meas.for M. IV. ii. 86 Were he meal d with
that Which he corrects, then were he tirrannous.
Meal, obs. form of MAIL
:
oakin H
and Comb.
meal-going, used attrib.
meal-hour, -tray; meal(after church-going) ;
pendant, -pennant, U. S. Navy, a red pennant
displayed during meal-times (Cent. Diet. 1890) ;
? f meal-settle, a seat at meals.
4. attrib.
:
1858 HOGG Life Slulley II. 295 Startled at his books by
the sound of the "meal-going bell. 1801 MRS. E. PARSONS
r
Myst. l isit. IV. 92 He seldom saw her but at "meal hours.
1899 Scribner s Mag. XXV. 89/2 The quartermaster, -hauled
Marker,
*Mel
down the "meal pennant. 11235
seotel softest ant guldene jerde alre gold smeatest.
1905
Cent. Jan. 922 She
Sh gets ady the patients *meal-trays
n
>^-
1
in
a tasteful manner.
Forms: i meli, meeli,
Obs.
t Meal f j.
mele, -meele, 3-6 mele, 4 miele, 4-5 meel, 5-6
meyle, 6 meale, meele.
[OE. mtfe, (ws&ter}mgele str. masc., prob. repr. OTeut. type *m&ljo-z,
and so corresponding to ON. m&li-r measure see
MKAL sb. 3*] A tub, bucket. Also used as a measure.
In OE. sometimes used to gloss L. Patera^ carchesiitm
:i
;
t
cyafkus, which mean bowl, disn, or cup.
-1700 EpinalGloss. $6Afoiuw, meeli. cioooSax. Leechd.
c 1290 S, Eng.
II. 86 Do bonne mele fulne buteran on.
Leg. I. 240/6 pat child. .Ase it was in ane mele i-babed al
one upri^t it stod. a 1300 Cursor M. 3306 Wantes vs here
na uebsell, ne mele, ne bucket, ne funell. 1357-8 Durham
Ace. Rolls (Surtees) 124 In j Mele empt. pro carbonibus
portandis.
1370-71 Ibid. 263 In una mele lingnea pro pedibus lavandis. 1390 OOWER Con/. III. 21 Thei in hope to
assuage The peine of deth..Of wyn let fille full a Miele,
And dronken til [etc.]. 1408 tr. I egetiits (MS. Douce 291,
If. 47 b), Bokettis, meles, and payles.
1440 Durham Ace.
Kolls (Surtees) 410, viij meel calcis extincUt; empt. ..ad xijrf.
I
1459-60 Ibid. 89, j kyrn, j meyle, ij Chesfattez. 1565 COOI EK
Thesaurus^ Alueits. .a meele or vessell to waslie in. 1567
Wills $ Inv. N. C. (Surtees) I. 278, iij milk meales.
Sc. Forms: 5, 8 meel, 6 meale,
(m/l),
Meal
.?/<.*
maile, meill, meil, 8 mail, miel, 9 meil. [a.
ON. mxli-r measure (Norw. msele a measure of
7
capacity varying in different localities) : OTeut.
m
type *mljo-z, f. *mxlo measure: see MEAL sb.^]
A relative weight used in Orkney* (Jam.).
1597 SKENE De Verb. Sign. s.v. Serplaith^ Item [in OrkItem 24 meales makis ane
nayj, 6 settings maks ane mail.
Last.
1624 Wttch Trial \a. Abbotsford Club Misc. I. 148-9
His brother haid twa mells [of corn]. 1629 Witck Trial in
County Folklore (1903) III. 78 She wantit the proffeitt of
ane meill of malt that she was brewing. 1698 M. MARTIN
Voy. St. Kilda (1749) 48 Ancient Measures, as the Maile.
.
:
Maile contains ten Pecks. 1793 Statist. Aic. Seotl. V.
412 The stipend consists of 86 mails malt (each mail weigh
ing about 12 stones Amsterdam weight). Ibid. VII. 477,
6 settings make i meel. Ibid, 563 On the first is weighed
settings and miels.
1805 FORSYTH Beauties ScotL V. 52
Six setteens or lispunds make a meil.
(mil), sb.5 dial. Also 8 male, 8-9 meale,
this
Meal
9 miol, miel.
[a. ON. mel-r sandbank, also bentgrass (the latter is prob. the original sense ; for the
sand-dune.
development cf. MABBAM).]
A
si>.-
-nieal,
suffix,
forming advs.
(all obs. cxc./;Vi
-
meal), repr. ME. -mele (down to the I4th c. bomeThe OE. advs. in
times -meluni), OE. -niteluin.
-tnxlutn are in form the instrumental case plural
of compounds of ma-l MEAL s/i.-, in the sense of
measure , quantity taken at one time , as in
cucldrmxl spoonful (as a measure) the instr. pi. of
which would be *cuile!rmselum by spoonfuls. The
particular compounds of this formation actually
recorded in the instr. pi. however, do not occur in
the other cases, and already in OE. -mxlum had
come to be a mere suffix with the sense expressed
in Latin by -atiin, -tint, and in mod. Eng. by the
Examples
repetition of the sb. preceded by by.
,
,
which existed in OE. are ciropniselum DBOPMEAL,
jloccmxlum FLOUKHEAL, ftitmxlum FOOTMEAL,
k^afinxliim HEAPMEAL, limm&lum LIMBMEAL,
sctafmxhim sheaf by sheaf, stemmxlum turn by
turn, alternately, stundmselum STOUNUMEAL, stycctThe
m:i lum bit by bit, ^arniKlum year by year.
suffix continued to be productive in ME., among
the formations dating from that period being cantlemeal, cupmeal, gobbetmeal, littlcmail, parcelmeal,
pennymeal, piecemeal, poundmeal, and the Latinisms ravishmeal (Wyclif)
raptim , table-meal
tabulatim .
remarkable survival of the OE.
A
inflexion
appears in Wyclifs hipyllmeluni (see
RIPPLE). To the j6th c. belong fitmcal inchmeal,
joint meal, himpmeal; in later Eng. the suffix has
not been productive, though nonce-words such as
pagemeal have occasionally been formed, more or
A trace of the originally substan
less playfully.
tival character of the sufnx remains in the use of
by piecemeal as a synonym of the simple adv. (cf.
,
the obs. byjlockmeal, by pennymeal, etc.).
1493 Fcstivall (W. de W. 1515) 8b, Hymselfe with his
owone handes kest away the fleshe lompe mele. 1827 Bltukui.
Mag. XXi. 884 How pleasant it would be to tear it pagemeal, and fling it in the author s face.
Mealable (.nu -lab !), a.
[f.
MEAL w.l
+ -ABLE.]
Capable of being mealed.
<y
MEAL
Mealed (mrtd),
[f.
Finely pulverized spec, of gunpowder.
1692 Capt. Smith s Seaman s Gram. 11. xxxi. 150 Fine
Mealed Powder. 1859 F. A. GRIFFITHS Arlil. Man. (1862)
89 A hole is bored through the mealed powder at the top.
;
1
(mrlai).
[f.
MEAL sb.- and
.
2
+ -ER
.]
In parasynthetic derivatives (no>uc-wds.~) One
who eats (one, half a) meal in the day.
1849 D. J. BROWNF. Amer. Poultry Yd. (1855) 48 Certain
1.
:
hens.. are called Monosita: (that is, one-mealers, or such as
eat only once a day).
1899 R. WHITEI NO 5 John St. 1 1 1 The
half-mealers, who always leave off with a hungry belly.
One who takes his meals at one
2. U.S. colloq.
place and lodges at another ; a table-boarder .
1883 M. F. SWEETSER Summer Days 126 That class of the
community known as hauled mealers
1887 A. A. HAYES
Jesuit s Ring 52 You are a mealer here.
3. slang. One pledged to take alcoholic drink
only at meals.
1890 in BARRERE & LELAND Diet. Slang.
.
MEAL vl
(mi-lai).
[f.
for mealing powder.
Mealer-
+
-ERl.]
A
wooden rubber
KNIGHT
Mealer,
Diet. Mech.
variant of MAILEU
Mealie
(mi
1875 in
1.
Also 9 (from//.) milice. [a.
Cape Du. milje (pronounced n li), a. Pg. mil/to
MILLET used also (with denning v/oidsmi/Aogrande,
m. da India) for maize.] A South African name
for maize chiefly used in the pi.
1853 GALTON Tropical S. Afr. vi. 182 The Ovampo had
li).
,
;
pipkins to cook in, and eat corn (milice) steeped in hot
water. 1855 J. W. COLENSO Ten Weeks in Natal, Hist.
Sk. p. vi, The second range of land.. furnishing abundant
crops of hay, oats, mealies, or Indian corn, and barley. 1901
Scotsman 1 1 Mar. 8/1 For eight days they bad to live on
half a pound of mealie a day, with very little meat.
attrib.
5 June (Cent.), A bivouac was
1879 Cape A
made near a deserted kraal, there being . a mealie-field
hard by. ..A volley was fired from the adjacent mealiegarden. 1893 ll estm. Gaz. 10 Oct. 2/1 Their staple diet
then being mealie meal porridge majde with water.
MEALY a. + -SESS.]
v mrlines).
[f.
little
>gus
.
Mealiness
The
quality or condition of being mealy.
1609 C. BUTLER Fern. Mon. (1634) 127 They [teredines]
offend the Bees also with their mealiness, as the Snails do
with their sliminess. 1776 WITHERING Brit. Plants (1796)
IV. 69 Leaves covered with a kind of ash-coloured meali
ness.
1820 L. HUNT Indicator No. 37 (1822) I. 294 There
was a sort of exquisite silver clearness and soft mealiness in
her utterance of these verses. 1844 STEPHENS Bk. Farm
II. 666 The mealiness consists of a layer of mucilage im
mediately under the skin, covering the starch or farina.
1876 ABNEY Instr. Photogr. (ed. 3) 125 The cause of meali
ness or measles in the print 1886 BESANT Childr. Gibeon.
ii. ii, To bring out the full mealiness of a potatoe.
Mealing
[f.
1.
MEAL
The
(mrliq), vbl.
sb. 1
Also s melwynge.
+ -ING L]
v"
action of grinding meal
;
also, the action
of finely pulverizing gunpowder.
Chiefly attrib.,
as in mealing trade; mealing stone, a stone used
for grinding meal ; mealing table, a slab for
mealing gunpowder upon.
14.. Vac. in Wr.-Wiilcker 582/19 Farracio, Melwynge.
1805 A. F.ULIN (title) On the Art of Bread-making, wherein
1828 J. M. SPEARMAN
the Mealing Trade.. is Examined
1866 Reader 22
Brit. Gunner (ed. 2) 78 Mealing Tables.
in which the corn
stone
with
a
hollow
A
mealing
Sept. 307
was bruised. 1880 DAWKINS Early Man 268 Two concave
stone grain-rubbers or mealing-stones .
2. The action of covering with meal.
a 1810 Robin Hoodt, Beggar Ixxix. in Child BaUads(iSBS)
III. 163/2 He thought, if he had done them wrong In meal
ing of their cloaths
[etc.J.
MEAL v.- +
[f.
(mrlirj ), vbl. so.
-ING .] The action of taking meals; f/.S. the action
of taking meals at a boarding-house.
1659 H. L EsTRANGE Alliance Div. Off. 188 The junket
ings, comessations, and mealing together were soon laid
;iside.
1887 A. A. HAYES Jesuit s King 55 She must draw
the line, .when the hauling cost more than the mealing.
Mealing, obs. form of MAILING.
Meall.e, obs. ff. MAUL sb. 1 MEAL sb*
3
Mealing
1
,
MealleSS
(nif l|les\ a.
MEAL st. z + -LESS.]
[f.
Without a meal.
1894 Season X. 57/2 Many men unnecessarily exhaust
themselves by going a whole day mealless.
Meally, obs. form of MEALY.
Mealman
One who
1552
(mflmscn).
MEAL
[f.
st.i
+ MAN.]
deals in meal.
HULOET, Mealeman
or meale seller, siiffarrancus.
1556 Chron, Or. Friars (Camden) 77 Alle save only the
mele-men. 1679 Land. Gaz. No. 1407/4 Mr. Acres Meal
man. 1778 Eng. Gazetteer (ed. 2) s. v. Henley, The inhabi
tants are generally maltsters, mealmen and bargemen 1802
in Spirit Pntl. Jrnls. (1803) VI. 89 All our meal-men and
millers are Esquires.
t Mea lniouth,
+ MOUTH.]
a. sb.
sb.
A
and a. Obs. [f. MEAL sb. 1
mealy mouthed person.
b. adj. Mealy-mouthed.
1546 J. HEYWOOD Prov. (1867) 19 When the meale mouth
hath woon the bottome Of your stomake, than will the pickthanke it tell. 1575 G. HARVEY Lctter-bk. (Camden) 92
[Written to a miller] Those same fine milltermcs wherewith
your mealemowthe letter and whitebred solicit ar . illu
minate, a 1700 B, E. Diet. Cant. Crew, Meal-month, a sly,
.
.
.
1823 Meeh. Mag. No. p. 138 Satisfied with having their
corn reduced to a mealable form. 1885 A. STEWART Twixt
Ben Nevis Glencoe xxv. 181 So much mealable grist.
Meale, variant of MELE v. Obs., to speak.
///. a.
Mealer
v. 1
+ -ED ] .]
sleepish
t
Dun, or
Sollicitor for
Money.
Mea l-mouthed, ///. a.
prec.
+ -ED
12
.]
Obs.
= MEALY-MOUTHED.
[Formed as
1576 FLEMING Panopl. Epist. 155 Saying, that you had
flatterers & meal-mouthed merchants in high estimation.
1686 WOOD Life 5 Nov. (O.H.S.) III. 199 Dr. Reynell..in
his sermon was meale-mouthed and timorous.
Mealt(e, obs. forms of MELT v.