<B>mum</B> (1), adjective, interjection.<DL COMPACT><DD><I>adj. </I> saying nothing; silent. <BR> <I>Ex. Keep mum about this; tell no one. The company being otherwise rather mum and silent, my uncle told ... anecdotes (Thackeray).</I> (SYN) mute, speechless, dumb. <DD><I>interj. </I> be silent! say nothing! hush! <BR><I>expr. <B>mum's the word,</B> </I>be silent; say nothing. <BR> <I>Ex. Don't forget! Mum's the word on plans for the surprise party.</I> </DL>
<A NAME="mum">
<B>mum</B> (2), intransitive verb, <B>mummed,</B> <B>mumming.</B><DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>to go about as a mummer, as at Christmastime. <DD><B> 2. </B><B>=masquerade.</B> <DD><B> 3. </B>(Archaic.) to act in dumb show. Also, <B>mumm.</B> </DL>
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<B>mum</B> (3), noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> (Informal.) a chrysanthemum. </DL>
<B>mum</B> (5), noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> a strong ale or beer, popular in England in the 1600's and 1700's. </DL>
<A NAME="mumble">
<B>mumble, </B>verb, <B>-bled,</B> <B>-bling,</B> noun.<DL COMPACT><DD><I>v.i. </I> <B>1. </B>to speak indistinctly, as a person does when his lips are partly closed; speak in low tones; mutter. <BR> <I>Ex. She appeared as if she wanted to say something, and kept making signs ... and mumbling (Charlotte Bronte).</I> <DD><B> 2. </B>to chew as a person does who has no teeth. <BR> <I>Ex. The old dog mumbled on a crust.</I> <DD><I>v.t. </I> <B>1. </B>to say indistinctly, as a person does when his lips are partly closed. <BR> <I>Ex. to mumble one's words. He affirmed that we mumbled our speech with our lips and teeth, and ran the words together without pause or distinction (Tobias Smollett).</I> <DD><B> 2. </B>to chew as a person does who has no teeth. <BR> <I>Ex. The old dog mumbled the crust.</I> <DD><I>noun </I> the act or fact of mumbling; indistinct speech. <BR> <I>Ex. There was a mumble of protest from the team against the umpire's decision.</I> noun <B>mumbler.</B> adv. <B>mumblingly.</B> </DL>
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<B>mumblety-peg, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> a game in which the players in turn flip a knife from various positions, trying to make it stick in the ground; the loser originally having to pull a peg out of the ground with his teeth. </DL>
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<B>Mumbo Jumbo,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> the guardian genius of a native African village in western Sudan, represented by a masked medicine man who fends off evil and keeps the women in subjection. <BR> <I>Ex. Mumbo Jumbo, God of the Congo ... will hoo-doo you (Vachel Lindsay).</I> </DL>
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<B>mumbo jumbo,</B><DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>foolish or meaningless incantation; ritualistic or ceremonial nonsense. <BR> <I>Ex. You are lost if you preoccupy yourself with the old mumbo jumbo ... of an era that is done (Harper's).</I> <DD><B> 2. </B>an object foolishly worshiped or feared; bugaboo; bogy. (SYN) fetish. </DL>
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<B>mumchance, </B>adjective, adverb.<DL COMPACT><DD> (Especially British.) in silence; speechless; tongue-tied; mum. <BR> <I>Ex. The gunman ... had left with £7,500 while the smirking staff stood mumchance (Punch).</I> </DL>
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<B>mume, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> a small Japanese tree or shrub with fragrant, light-pink flowers and greenish inedible fruit, used in bonsai. It belongs to the rose family. </DL>
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<B>mu-meson, </B>noun, or <B>mu meson,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> a meson having a mass about 207 times that of the electron; muon. Mu-mesons are formed by the decay of pimesons and in turn decay to form high-energy electrons. </DL>
<B>mummer, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>a person who wears a mask, fancy costume, or disguise for fun. <BR> <I>Ex. Six mummers acted in the play at Christmas.</I> <DD><B> 2. </B>an actor. <DD><B> 3. </B>an actor in one of the rural plays traditionally performed in England and elsewhere at Christmas. <BR> <I>Ex. The play was hastily rehearsed, whereupon the other mummers were delighted with the new knight (Thomas Hardy).</I> </DL>
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<B>mummery, </B>noun, pl. <B>-meries.</B><DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>a performance of mummers. <DD><B> 2. </B>any useless or silly show or ceremony. <BR> <I>Ex. Archbishop Grindal long hesitated about accepting a mitre from dislike of what he regarded as the mummery of consecration (Macaulay).</I> </DL>
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<B>mummichog, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> (U.S.) a killifish. </DL>
<A NAME="mummification">
<B>mummification, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>the act or process of mummifying. <BR> <I>Ex. The thighbone of a dead African king, preserved for ritual uses, represents ... a diffusion of Egyptian mummification (Melville J. Herskovitz).</I> <DD><B> 2. </B>the state of being mummified. </DL>
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<B>mummify, </B>verb, <B>-fied,</B> <B>-fying.</B><DL COMPACT><DD><I>v.t. </I> <B>1. </B>to make (a dead body) into a mummy by embalming and drying. <DD><B> 2. </B>(Figurative.) to make like a mummy; preserve. <DD><I>v.i. </I> to shrivel up; dry up. </DL>
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<B>mummy</B> (1), noun, pl. <B>-mies,</B> verb, <B>-mied,</B> <B>-mying.</B><DL COMPACT><DD><I>noun </I> <B>1. </B>a dead body preserved from decay. Egyptian mummies have lasted more than 3,000 years. <BR> <I>Ex. (Figurative.) The old theological dogmas had become mere mummies (Leslie Stephen).</I> <DD><B> 2. </B>a dead human or animal body dried and preserved by nature. <DD><B> 3. </B>a withered or shrunken living being. <DD><B> 4a. </B>a rich brown bituminous pigment. <DD><B> b. </B>a rich brown color. <DD><B> 5. </B>(British Dialect.) a pulpy mass. <BR> <I>Ex. battering the warriors' faces into mummy by terrible yerks from their hinder hoofs (Jonathan Swift).</I> <DD><B> 6. </B>(Obsolete.) dead flesh; a corpse. <DD><B> 7. </B>(Obsolete.) bone or tissue matter from a mummy, formerly used as a medicine. <DD><I>v.t., v.i. </I> <B>=mummify.</B> </DL>
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<B>mummy</B> (2), noun, pl. <B>-mies.</B><DL COMPACT><DD> (Informal.) mother. </DL>
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<B>mummy case,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> a case of wood or other material in which a mummy, wrapped in cloth, was enclosed. The case was rectangular or shaped to conform to the body, and often carved and painted to represent the dead person. </DL>
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<B>mump,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> (Dialect.) <DD><I>v.i. </I> <B>1. </B>to mumble; mutter. <DD><B> 2. </B>to munch or chew. <DD><B> 3. </B>to mope; sulk. <BR> <I>Ex. It is better to enjoy a novel than to mump (Robert Louis Stevenson).</I> <DD><B> 4. </B>to grimace. <DD><B> 5. </B>to sponge; beg. <DD><I>v.t. </I> <B>1. </B>to mumble; mutter. <BR> <I>Ex. Old men who mump their passion (Oliver Goldsmith).</I> <DD><B> 2. </B>to munch or chew. <DD><B> 3. </B>to beg. <DD><B> 4. </B>to cheat. </DL>
<B>mumps, </B>noun pl.<DL COMPACT><DD> a contagious disease that causes swelling of the glands in the neck and face, difficulty in swallowing, and sometimes inflammation of the testes or ovaries. It is caused by a virus. </DL>
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<B>mumpsimus, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> an error obstinately clung to, regardless of right or reason. </DL>
<B>munch, </B>verb, noun.<DL COMPACT><DD><I>v.t., v.i. </I> to chew vigorously and steadily; chew noisily. <BR> <I>Ex. The horse munched its oats.</I> <DD><I>noun </I> the act or sound of munching. <BR> <I>Ex. ... as crisp as the munch of a Baldwin apple (New Yorker).</I> noun <B>muncher.</B> </DL>
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<B>munchable, </B>adjective, noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> (Informal.) <DD><I>adj. </I> suitable for eating as a snack. <BR> <I>Ex. Cheese Curls so munchable and yet so steadfastly unsatisfactory (Tom Shales).</I> <DD><I>noun </I> Usually, <B>munchables.</B> light food; snack. </DL>
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<B>Munchausen, </B>adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD> of or having to do with exaggerated and boastful tales, such as those attributed to Baron Munchausen, and typical of Munchausenism. </DL>
<A NAME="munchausenism">
<B>Munchausenism, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>the tendency to tell exaggerated stories. <DD><B> 2. </B>an exaggerated story or statement. </DL>
<A NAME="munchies">
<B>munchies, </B>noun pl.<DL COMPACT><DD> (U.S. Slang.) a desire for food. </DL>
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<B>Munda, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> an Austro-Asiatic group of languages spoken on the southern slopes of the Himalayas and in central India. </DL>
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<B>mundane, </B>adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>of this world, not of heaven; earthly. <BR> <I>Ex. mundane matters of business.</I> <DD><B> 2. </B>of the universe; of the world; cosmic. adv. <B>mundanely.</B> noun <B>mundaneness.</B> </DL>
<B>mundu, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> a long cloth worn as a skirt especially in southern India, usually made of thin cotton. <BR> <I>Ex. Small dark boys with their mundus tucked up high beckon you toward their strange primitive boats (Santha Rama Rau).</I> </DL>
<B>mung bean,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> a bean grown in areas of tropical Asia, Iran, and eastern Africa, used as food and as a forage and cover crop. </DL>
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<B>mungo, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> cloth of inferior quality, made of used wool. It is of better quality than shoddy. </DL>
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<B>mungoos</B> or <B>mungoose, </B>noun, pl. <B>-gooses.</B> <B>=mongoose.</B></DL>
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<B>Munich, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> an instance of appeasement which ultimately or immediately involves yielding to an aggressor at the expense of a principle or ally, and hence brings shame to the appeaser. </DL>
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<B>Munich Agreement</B> or <B>Pact,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> an agreement signed September 30, 1938, by Germany, France, Great Britain, and Italy, by which the Sudetenland, a part of Czechoslovakia, was given over to Germany. </DL>