▪ I. † meld, v.1 Obs.
Also 4 meild.
[OE. meldian, meldan = OS. meldon (Du. melden), OHG. meldôn, meldên (MHG., mod.G. melden):—WGer. *melþōjan, -ējan, f. *melþā n. fem. (OHG. melda, OE. meld), information, announcement. Cf. OE. melda informer, betrayer.]
trans. To speak of, show forth, make known. Also, to inform (a person) of.
| a 1000 Riddles xxix. 12 (Gr.) Þonne æfter deaþe deman onginneð, meldan mislice. c 1000 Ags. Ps. (Th.) cxxxiv. 16 Þa muð habbeð, and ne meldiað wiht. a 1300 Cursor M. 27830 O couaitise..cums..strenth, þat lauerding agh to meild, þat o þair men tas wrangwis yeild. c 1325 Old Age 3 in E.E.P. (1862) 148 Eld nul meld no murþes of mai. c 1325 Metr. Hom. 42 My consciens gan me meld. Ibid. 166 Dede war me leuer to be, Than thou of my dede melded me. |
▪ II. meld, v.2 and n. Cards.
(mɛld)
[app. ad. G. melden: see prec.]
trans. In the game of pinocle and other card games, esp. canasta and rummy: Equivalent to declare v. in bezique. Also as v. intr. Hence meld n., a group of cards to be melded; ˈmelding vbl. n.
| 1897 Foster's Compl. Hoyle 361 The various combinations which are declared during the play of the hand are called melds. Ibid. 363 A player has melded and scored four kings, and on winning another trick he melds binocle. 1952 Times Rev. Year 1 Jan. p. v/2 Canasta has begun to influence the language, if slightly. It has spread the use of natural..as a noun, and figurative jobs have been found for meld, a combination of three or more cards of the same rank. 1958 ‘J. Welcome’ Run for Cover iv. 83 He melded several more times—small melds which did not look dangerous from a canasta point of view. 1964 A. Wykes Gambling vii. 163 In most card games, players aim either to make specific card combinations (or ‘melds’) as in rummy, or to take tricks, as in whist. Ibid. 164 Games in which ‘melding’ (making specific combinations of cards) is a basic principle. These are the rummy games, which include all forms of poker. |
▪ III. meld, v.3 orig. and chiefly U.S.
(mɛld)
[perh. a blend of melt v.1 and weld v.; but cf. E.D.D. melder entanglement, mental confusion; meldered, mixed, entangled.]
trans. and intr. To merge, blend; to combine, incorporate. Hence as n. and ˈmelding vbl. n.
| 1939 New Yorker 23 Sept. 31 (Advt.), Schenley's exclusive process—melding—which ‘marries’ the whiskey blend so perfectly that it retains its rich flavor. 1952 N.Y. Times 18 Jan. 4/6 (citing W. S. Churchill's Address to U.S. Congress) What matters most is not the form of fusion, or melding—a word I learned over here. 1952 Time 29 Dec. 37/1 Taylor hopes to remodel the entire museum... He has plans to meld his eleven departments into five. 1959 M. Steen Tower i. iii. 50 Our small..existence couldn't meld with his design for living. 1960 S. Plath Colossus (1967) 14 Then I was seeing A melding of shapes in a hot rain. 1971 Nat. Geographic Oct. 560/2 Then clouds and gray sea melded and a steady rain slanted across the dry sides of the island. 1973 Times Lit. Suppl. 3 Aug. 911/5 The craft..of melding brisk jollity with real death. 1974 Spartanburg (S. Carolina) Herald 21 Apr. A6 (Advt.), A lovely cushioned group that offers a compatible meld of Ivy Leaves and light scrollwork. 1975 New Yorker 19 May 12/3 Jones' meld of traditional techniques with radical conceptions is in itself a radical conception, and gives the photographs their special, quiet interestingness. |