▪ I. mese, n.1 Obs. exc. s.w. dial.
(miːz)
Also 7–9 meese, 9 meesh, mews, etc.
[OE. méos = Flem. mies (cited Kilian as obsolete), OHG, mios (MHG., mod.G. dial. mies), ON. m{yacu}r-r (see mire n.):—OTeut. types *ˈmeuso-z, *meuˈzo-z, related by ablaut to *moson-, ON. mose moss n.]
Moss.
| a 900 tr. Bæda's Hist. iii. ii. §2 Þa brohte him sumne dæl ealdes meoses, þe on þam halᵹan treo aweaxen wæs. 13.. Sir Orfeo 246 (Zielke 1880) 98 Þis king mote make his bed in mese. 14.. Treat. Gardening in Archæologia LIV. i. 161 Upon the clay thu schalt mese layne. c 1639 Berkeley MS. in Glouc. Gloss. (E.D.S.), Meese, meesy, i.e. mosse, mossy. 1886 Elworthy W. Somerset Word-bk., Mews (m{uacu}e·z), moss. 1886 Dorset Gloss., Meesh, moss. 1893 Wiltsh. Gloss., Mesh (e long), moss or lichen on an old apple-tree. |
▪ II. † mese, n.2 Obs.
Forms: 4–7 mees, 5–6 mes, 5–7 messe, mese, 5–8 mease, meese, 6 meas, meis(s)e, myse, 7–8 mise.
[a OF, mes masc., mese fem.:—late L. mansum (-us), mansa: see manse.]
= messuage.
| [1321–2 Rolls of Parlt. I. 405/1 Un mees de iiijxx acres de terre.] 1402 Hoccleve Let. Cupid 334 Ne men bereve hir landes ne hir Mees. 1467 Godstow Reg. 347 A dwellyng place (or a mese) with a plough-lond. 1527 in Visit. Southwell (Camden) 132 My capitall meas in Ragenhill. 1546 Yorks. Chantry Surv. (Surtees) I. 150, j myse buylded lying in Wodhouse. a 1604 Hanmer Chron. Irel. (1633) 194 The eldest can demand no more than her sisters; but the chiefe mease by reason of her auncienty. 1720 Strype Stow's Surv. (1754) II. vi. iii. 634/1 In the Palace yard were anciently pales within which were two Messes, the one called Paradise and the other called the Constabulary. 1729 MS. Indenture estate at Crich, co. Derby, A messuage..closes thereto belonging, called the meese, furlongs [etc.]. |
| fig. 1591 Sylvester Du Bartas i. iv. 239 Thou [Aries]..Doest hold the First house of Heav'n's spacious Meese [Fr. possedant du Ciel la premiere maison]. |
▪ III. ‖ mese, n.3
(ˈmɛsiː)
[Gr. µέση (sc. χορδή string), fem. of µέσος middle.]
In ancient Greek music, the middle string of the seven-stringed lyre, and its note; subsequently, the key-note of any of the scales in use.
| 1603 Holland Plutarch's Mor. 796 The three termes or bounds which make the intervals in an octave or eight, of musicke harmonicall, to wit, Nete, Mese, and Hypate, that is to say, the Treble, the Meane, and the Base. Ibid. 1252 Thus may a man soone perceive..who plaieth upon a pipe after the old maner: For by his good will, the Hemitone in the Mese, will be incompounded. 1760 Phil. Trans. LI. 700 The antients agree in their accounts of the relative pitch of the meses. 1905 Athenæum 22 July 122/3 The direct descendant of the mese in the old Greek music. |
▪ IV. mese, v. Sc. and north. dial.
(miːz)
Forms: 4–5 mes, 4–9 mease, 5 meese, 5, 9 mees, (6 maiss, meiss, meys, miess, mise), 6–7 meis(e, 4– mese.
[Aphetic f. amese v.]
1. trans. To mitigate, assuage, appease, calm (a person's anger, sorrow, etc.); to settle (disputes).
| 13.. E. E. Allit. P. B. 764 Wylt þou mese þy mode & menddyng abyde? c 1440 York Myst. xliii. 238 Nowe might þer Jewes þare malise meese. c 1450 St. Cuthbert (Surtees) 1051 Þe childe with mylde wordes he meesyd. 1456 Sir G. Haye Law Arms (S.T.S.) 21 To mes all thir debatis, it was ordanyt that Rome suld be..soverane kirk. 1535 Stewart Cron. Scot. II. 104 The nobillis..With fair wordis misit the multitude. c 1560 A. Scott Poems (S.T.S.) iv. 60 Sum luvis dance vp and doun, To meiss thair malancoly. 1629 Sir W. Mure True Crucifixe 596 Yet did not mease the causeless spight. 1721 Kelly Scot. Prov. 138 He should be sindle angry, that has few to mease him. 1862 A. Hislop Prov. Scot. 107 If you be angry, sit laigh and mease you. |
2. To calm (wind, tempest, etc.), quench (fire).
| c 1375 Sc. Leg. Saints iii. (St. Andreas) 62 Swyth þe gret fyre can he mes. 1513 Douglas æneis iii. ii. 2 The blastis mesit, and the fluidis stabill. 1533 Bellenden Livy ii. xxiii. (S.T.S.) 227 Þe noyes..was sum parte mesit. |
▪ V. mese
see mass n.1, mease, mess.
▪ VI. mese
var. meze.