Memento Me·men"to noun ; plural Mementos . [ Latin , remember, be mindful, imper. of meminisse to remember. See Mention .] A hint, suggestion, token, or memorial, to awaken memory; that which reminds or recalls to memory; a souvenir.

Seasonable mementos may be useful.

Bacon.

Memento mori Me·men"to mo"ri [ Latin ] Lit., remember to die, i.e., that you must die; a warning to be prepared for death; an object, as a death's-head or a personal ornament, usually emblematic, used as a reminder of death.

Meminna Me·min"na noun (Zoology) A small deerlet, or chevrotain, of India.

Memnon Mem"non noun [ Latin , from Greek ..., lit., the Steadfast, Resolute, the son of Tithonus and Aurora, and king of the Ethiopians, killed by Achilles.] (Antiq.) A celebrated Egyptian statue near Thebes, said to have the property of emitting a harplike sound at sunrise.

Memoir Mem"oir or plural Mem"oirs noun [ French mémoire , m., memorandum, from mémoire , f., memory, Latin memoria . See Memory .] 1. A memorial account; a history composed from personal experience and memory; an account of transactions or events (usually written in familiar style) as they are remembered by the writer. See History , 2. 2. A memorial of any individual; a biography; often, a biography written without special regard to method and completeness. 3. An account of something deemed noteworthy; an essay; a record of investigations of any subject; the journals and proceedings of a society.

Memoirist Mem"oir·ist noun A writer of memoirs.

Memorabilia Mem`o·ra·bil"i·a noun plural [ Latin , from memorabilis memorable. See Memorable .] Things remarkable and worthy of remembrance or record; also, the record of them.

Memorability Mem`o·ra·bil"i·ty noun The quality or state of being memorable.

Memorable Mem"o·ra·ble adjective [ Latin memorabilis , from memorare to bring to remembrance, from memor mindful, remembering. See Memory , and confer Memorabilia .] Worthy to be remembered; very important or remarkable. -- Mem"o*ra*ble*ness , noun -- Mem"o*ra*bly , adverb

Surviving fame to gain,
Buy tombs, by books, by memorable deeds.

Sir J. Davies.

Memorandum Mem`o·ran"dum noun ; plural English Memorandums , Latin Memoranda . [ Latin , something to be remembered, neut. of memorandus , fut. pass. p. of memorare . See Memorable .] 1. A record of something which it is desired to remember; a note to help the memory.

I . . . entered a memorandum in my pocketbook.

Guardian.

I wish you would, as opportunity offers, make memorandums of the regulations of the academies.

Sir J. Reynolds. 2. (Law) A brief or informal note in writing of some transaction, or an outline of an intended instrument; an instrument drawn up in a brief and compendious form. Memorandum check , a check given as an acknowledgment of indebtedness, but with the understanding that it will not be presented at bank unless the maker fails to take it up on the day the debt becomes due. It usually has Mem. written on its face.

Memorate Mem"o·rate transitive verb [ Latin memoratus , past participle of memorare . See Memorable .] To commemorate. [ Obsolete]

Memorative Mem"o·ra·tive adjective [ Confer French mémoratif .] Commemorative. [ Obsolete] Hammond.

Memoria Me·mo"ri·a noun [ Latin ] Memory. Memoria technica , technical memory; a contrivance for aiding the memory.

Memorial Me·mo"ri·al adjective [ French mémorial , Latin memorialis , from memoria . See Memory .] 1. Serving to preserve remembrance; commemorative; as, a memorial building.

There high in air, memorial of my name,
Fix the smooth oar, and bid me live to fame.

Pope. 2. Contained in memory; as, a memorial possession. 3. Mnemonic; assisting the memory.

This succession of Aspirate, Soft, and Hard, may be expressed by the memorial word ASH.

Skeat. Memorial Day . Same as Decoration Day . [ U.S.]

Memorial Me·mo"ri·al noun [ Confer French mémorial .] 1. Anything intended to preserve the memory of a person or event; something which serves to keep something else in remembrance; a monument. Macaulay.

Churches have names; some as memorials of peace, some of wisdom, some in memory of the Trinity itself.

Hooker. 2. A memorandum; a record. [ Obsolete or R.] Hayward. 3. A written representation of facts, addressed to the government, or to some branch of it, or to a society, etc., -- often accompanied with a petition. 4. Memory; remembrance. [ Obsolete]

Precious is the memorial of the just.

Evelyn. 5. (Diplomacy) A species of informal state paper, much used in negotiation.

Memorial Day Me·mo"ri·al Day A day, May 30, appointed for commemorating, by decorating their graves with flowers, by patriotic exercises, etc., the dead soldiers and sailors who served the Civil War (1861-65) in the United States; Decoration Day. It is a legal holiday in most of the States. In the Southern States, the Confederate Memorial Day is: May 30 in Virginia; April 26 in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, and Mississippi; May 10 in North Carolina and South Carolina; the second Friday in May in Tennessee; June 3 in Louisiana. [ U. S.]

Memorial rose Memorial rose A Japanese evergreen rose ( Rosa wichuraiana ) with creeping branches, shining leaves, and single white flowers. It is often planted in cemeteries.

Memorialist Me·mo"ri·al·ist noun [ Confer French mémorialiste .] One who writes or signs a memorial.

Memorialize Me·mo"ri·al·ize transitive verb [ imperfect & past participle Memorialized ; present participle & verbal noun Memorializing .] To address or petition by a memorial; to present a memorial to; as, to memorialize the legislature. T. Hook.

Memorializer Me·mo"ri·al·i`zer noun One who petitions by a memorial. T. Hook.

Memorist Mem"o·rist noun [ See Memorize .] One who, or that which, causes to be remembered. [ Obsolete]

Memoriter Me·mor"i·ter adverb [ Latin , from memor mindful. See Memorable .] By, or from, memory.

Memorize Mem"o·rize transitive verb [ imperfect & past participle Memorized ; present participle & verbal noun Memorizing .] [ See Memory .] 1. To cause to be remembered ; hence, to record. [ Obsolete]

They neglect to memorize their conquest.

Spenser.

They meant to . . . memorize another Golgotha.

Shak. 2. To commit to memory; to learn by heart.

Memory Mem"o·ry noun ; plural Memories . [ Middle English memorie , Old French memoire , memorie , French mémoire , Latin memoria , from memor mindful; confer mora delay. Confer Demur , Martyr , Memoir , Remember .] 1. The faculty of the mind by which it retains the knowledge of previous thoughts, impressions, or events.

Memory is the purveyor of reason.

Rambler. 2. The reach and positiveness with which a person can remember; the strength and trustworthiness of one's power to reach and represent or to recall the past; as, his memory was never wrong. 3. The actual and distinct retention and recognition of past ideas in the mind; remembrance; as, in memory of youth; memories of foreign lands. 4. The time within which past events can be or are remembered; as, within the memory of man.

And what, before thy memory , was done
From the begining.

Milton. 5. Something, or an aggregate of things, remembered; hence, character, conduct, etc., as preserved in remembrance, history, or tradition; posthumous fame; as, the war became only a memory .

The memory of the just is blessed.

Prov. x. 7.

That ever-living man of memory , Henry the Fifth.

Shak.

The Nonconformists . . . have, as a body, always venerated her [ Elizabeth's] memory .

Macaulay. 6. A memorial. [ Obsolete]

These weeds are memories of those worser hours.

Shak. Syn. -- Memory , Remembrance , Recollection , Reminiscence . Memory is the generic term, denoting the power by which we reproduce past impressions. Remembrance is an exercise of that power when things occur spontaneously to our thoughts. In recollection we make a distinct effort to collect again , or call back, what we know has been formerly in the mind. Reminiscence is intermediate between remembrance and recollection , being a conscious process of recalling past occurrences, but without that full and varied reference to particular things which characterizes recollection . "When an idea again recurs without the operation of the like object on the external sensory, it is remembrance ; if it be sought after by the mind, and with pain and endeavor found, and brought again into view, it is recollection ." Locke. To draw to memory , to put on record; to record. [ Obsolete] Chaucer. Gower.

Memphian Mem"phi·an adjective Of or pertaining to the ancient city of Memphis in Egypt; hence, Egyptian; as, Memphian darkness.

Men Men noun , plural of Man .

Men Men pron. [ Middle English me , men . "Not the plural of man , but a weakened form of the word man itself." Skeat .] A man; one; -- used with a verb in the singular, and corresponding to the present indefinite one or they . [ Obsolete] Piers Plowman.

Men moot give silver to the poure friars.

Chaucer.

A privy thief, men clepeth death.

Chaucer.

Men-pleaser Men"-pleas`er noun One whose motive is to please men or the world, rather than God. Eph. vi. 6.

Menaccanite Me·nac"can·ite noun [ From Menaccan , in Cornwall, where it was first found.] (Min.) An iron-black or steel-gray mineral, consisting chiefly of the oxides of iron and titanium. It is commonly massive, but occurs also in rhombohedral crystals. Called also titanic iron ore , and ilmenite .

Menace Men"ace (mĕn"as; 48) noun [ French, from Latin minaciae threats, menaces, from minax , - acis , projecting, threatening, minae projecting points or pinnacles, threats. Confer Amenable , Demean , Imminent , Minatory .] The show of an intention to inflict evil; a threat or threatening; indication of a probable evil or catastrophe to come.

His (the pope's) commands, his rebukes, his menaces .

Milman.

The dark menace of the distant war.

Dryden.

Menace Men"ace (mĕn"as; 48) transitive verb [ imperfect & past participle Menaced (āst); present participle & verbal noun Menacing .] [ Old French menacier , French menacer . See Menace , noun ] 1. To express or show an intention to inflict, or to hold out a prospect of inflicting, evil or injury upon; to threaten; -- usually followed by with before the harm threatened; as, to menace a country with war.

My master . . . did menace me with death.

Shak. 2. To threaten, as an evil to be inflicted.

By oath he menaced
Revenge upon the cardinal.

Shak.

Menace Men"ace intransitive verb To act in threatening manner; to wear a threatening aspect.

Who ever knew the heavens menace so?

Shak.

Menacer Men"a·cer noun One who menaces.

Menacingly Men"a·cing·ly adverb In a threatening manner.

Ménage Mé`nage" noun See Manage .

Ménage Mé`nage" noun [ See Menagerie .] A collection of animals; a menagerie. [ Obsolete] Addison.

Menagerie Men·ag"er·ie noun [ French ménagerie , from ménager to keep house, ménage household. See Menial , Mansion .] 1. A piace where animals are kept and trained. 2. A collection of wild or exotic animals, kept for exhibition.

Menagogue Men"a·gogue noun [ French ménagogue , from Greek mh`n month + ... leading.] (Medicine) Emmenagogue.

Menaion Me·na"ion noun ; plural Menaia (-yå). [ New Latin , from Greek ... monthly.] (Eccl.) A work of twelve volumes, each containing the offices in the Greek Church for a month; also, each volume of the same. Shipley.

Menald, Menild Men"ald, Men"ild adjective Covered with spots; speckled; variegated. [ Obsolete]

Mend Mend transitive verb [ imperfect & past participle Mended ; present participle & verbal noun Mending .] [ Abbrev. from amend . See Amend .] 1. To repair, as anything that is torn, broken, defaced, decayed, or the like; to restore from partial decay, injury, or defacement; to patch up; to put in shape or order again; to re-create; as, to mend a garment or a machine. 2. To alter for the better; to set right; to reform; hence, to quicken; as, to mend one's manners or pace.

The best service they could do the state was to mend the lives of the persons who composed it.

Sir W. Temple. 3. To help, to advance, to further; to add to.

Though in some lands the grass is but short, yet it mends garden herbs and fruit.

Mortimer.

You mend the jewel by the wearing it.

Shak. Syn. -- To improve; help; better; emend; amend; correct; rectify; reform.

Mend Mend intransitive verb To grow better; to advance to a better state; to become improved. Shak.

Mendable Mend"a·ble adjective Capable of being mended.

Mendacious Men·da"cious adjective [ Latin mendax , -acis , lying, confer mentiri to lie.] 1. Given to deception or falsehood; lying; as, a mendacious person. 2. False; counterfeit; containing falsehood; as, a mendacious statement. -- Men*da"cious*ly , adverb -- Men*da"cious*ness , noun

Mendacity Men·dac"i·ty noun ; plural Mendacities . [ Latin mendacitas .] 1. The quality or state of being mendacious; a habit of lying. Macaulay. 2. A falsehood; a lie. Sir T. Browne. Syn. -- Lying; deceit; untruth; falsehood.

Mendel's law Men"del's law A principle governing the inheritance of many characters in animals and plants, discovered by Gregor J. Mendel (Austrian Augustinian abbot, 1822-84) in breeding experiments with peas. He showed that the height, color, and other characters depend on the presence of determinating factors behaving as units. In any given germ cell each of these is either present or absent. The following example (using letters as symbols of the determining factors and hence also of the individuals possessing them) shows the operation of the law: Tallness being due to a factor T , a tall plant, arising by the union in fertilization of two germ cells both bearing this factor, is TT ; a dwarf, being without T , is tt . Crossing these, crossbreeds, Tt , result (called generation F 1 ). In the formation of the germ cells of these crossbreeds a process of segregation occurs such that germ cells, whether male or female, are produced of two kinds, T and t , in equal numbers. The T cells bear the factor "tallness," the t cells are devoid of it. The offspring, generation F 2 , which arise from the chance union of these germ cells in pairs, according to the law of probability, are therefore on an average in the following proportions: 1 TT : 2 Tt : 1 tt ; and thus plants pure in tallness ( TT ) and dwarfness ( tt ), as well as crossbreeds ( Tt ), are formed by the interbreeding of crossbreeds. Frequently, as in this example, owning to what is called the dominance of a factor, the operation of Mendel's law may be complicated by the fact that when a dominant factor (as T ) occurs with its allelomorph (as t ), called recessive , in the crossbreed Tt , the individual Tt is itself indistinguishable from the pure form TT . Generation F 1 , containing only the Tt form, consists entirely of dominants (tall plants) and generation F 2 consists of three dominants (2 Tt , 1 TT ) to one dwarf ( tt ), which, displaying the feature suppressed in F 1 , is called recessive . Such qualitative and numerical regularity has been proved to exist in regard to very diverse qualities or characters which compose living things, both wild and domesticated, such as colors of flowers, of hair or eyes, patterns, structure, chemical composition, and power of resisting certain diseases. The diversity of forms produced in crossbreeding by horticulturists and fanciers generally results from a process of analytical variation or recombination of the factors composing the parental types. Purity of type consequently acquires a specific meaning. An individual is pure in respect of a given character when it results from the union of two sexual cells both bearing that character, or both without it.

Mendelian Men·de"li·an adjective [ See Mendel's law .] (Biol.) Pert. to Mendel, or to Mendel's law. -- Men*de"li*an*ism , Men*del"ism noun

Mendelian character Mendelian character (Biol.) A character which obeys Mendel's law in regard to its hereditary transmission.

Mender Mend"er noun One who mends or repairs.

Mendiant Men"di·ant noun See Mendinant . [ Obsolete]