<B>Mendel's laws,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> the laws or principles governing the inheritance of certain characteristics by plants and animals, formulated by Gregor Johann Mendel (1822-1884), an Austrian monk and botanist, in experiments with peas. They state that each characteristic is inherited independently, that characteristics show dominant and recessive forms, and that successive generations of crossbred offspring exhibit inherited characteristics in different combinations, each combination in a specific proportion of individuals. <BR> <I>Ex. Ideas of dominance, and of independent units, together with a third, usually referred to as segregation, have come to be called Mendel's Laws (Fred W. Emerson).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="mendicancy">
<B>mendicancy, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>the act of begging. <BR> <I>Ex. Mendicancy in the East is regarded as no disgrace.</I> <DD><B> 2. </B>the state of being a beggar. <BR> <I>Ex. After a riotous youth, ill health and bad habits reduced him to mendicancy.</I> </DL>
<A NAME="mendicant">
<B>mendicant, </B>adjective, noun.<DL COMPACT><DD><I>adj. </I> begging. <BR> <I>Ex. Mendicant friars ask alms for charity. And with that dejected air and mendicant voice (Samuel Richardson).</I> <DD><I>noun </I> <B>1. </B>a beggar. <BR> <I>Ex. We were surrounded by mendicants asking for money.</I> <DD><B> 2. </B>a member of a mendicant religious order. </DL>
<A NAME="mendicity">
<B>mendicity, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> beggary; mendicancy. <BR> <I>Ex. Among the poor, and in times of great strife among all that are displaced, mendicity becomes a way of life.</I> </DL>
<A NAME="menehune">
<B>menehune, </B>noun, pl. <B>-ne</B> or <B>-nes.</B><DL COMPACT><DD> a legendary Polynesian dwarf or elf who worked only at night, building ponds, roads, and similar projects. </DL>
<A NAME="menelaus">
<B>Menelaus, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> (Greek Legend.) a king of Sparta, husband of Helen of Troy, and brother of Agamemnon. He was the son of Atreus. </DL>
<A NAME="menfolk">
<B>menfolk, </B>noun pl.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>men. <DD><B> 2. </B>the male members of a family or other group. <BR> <I>Ex. ... a nation of 2.5 million whose menfolk often work abroad (Economist).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="menfolks">
<B>menfolks, </B>noun pl. <B>=menfolk.</B></DL>
<A NAME="mengods">
<B>men-gods, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> plural of <B>man-god.</B> </DL>
<A NAME="mengovirus">
<B>mengovirus, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> a virus that causes encephalomyocarditis. It belongs to the picornavirus group. </DL>
<A NAME="menhaden">
<B>menhaden, </B>noun, pl. <B>-den.</B><DL COMPACT><DD> a sea fish common along the eastern coast of the United States, used for making oil, meal, and fertilizer; pogy; mossbunker. The menhaden belongs to the same family as the herring and has the appearance of a shad but with a more compressed body. </DL>
<A NAME="menhir">
<B>menhir, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> (Archaeology.) an upright monumental stone (megalith) standing either alone or with others, typical of the monuments of the megalithic culture of western Europe. </DL>
<A NAME="menial">
<B>menial, </B>adjective, noun.<DL COMPACT><DD><I>adj. </I> belonging to or suited to a servant; low; mean. <BR> <I>Ex. Cinderella had to do menial tasks. Her ladyship was of humble, I have even heard menial, station originally (Thackeray).</I> (SYN) servile, slavish. <DD><I>noun </I> <B>1. </B>a servant who does the humblest and most unpleasant tasks. <BR> <I>Ex. I worked for a menial's hire, Only to learn, dismayed, That any wage I had asked for Life, Life would have paid (Jessie B. Rittenhouse).</I> <DD><B> 2. </B>a low, mean, or servile person. adv. <B>menially.</B> </DL>
<A NAME="menieres">
<B>Meniere's</B> or <B>Menier's disease</B> or <B>syndrome,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> a disease of the inner ear which causes dizziness and may lead to deafness. </DL>
<A NAME="meningeal">
<B>meningeal, </B>adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD> of or having to do with the meninges. </DL>
<A NAME="meninges">
<B>meninges, </B>noun, pl. of <B>meninx.</B><DL COMPACT><DD> the three protective membranes that surround the brain and spinal cord. They are the pia mater, arachnoid membrane, and dura mater. </DL>
<A NAME="meningioma">
<B>meningioma, </B>noun, pl. <B>-mas,</B> <B>-mata.</B><DL COMPACT><DD> a tumor situated in the meninges that grows by expansion, causing damage to the brain. <BR> <I>Ex. Meningioma ... can often be cured by surgery (Sunday Times).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="meningitic">
<B>meningitic, </B>adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD> relating to, having to do with, or affected by meningitis. </DL>
<A NAME="meningitis">
<B>meningitis, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> a very serious infectious disease in which the membranes surrounding the brain or spinal cord are inflamed. Meningitis is usually caused by a bacterium or virus and results in acute, sometimes fatal, illness. <BR> <I>Ex. In meningitis, several or all of the following symptoms may appear: headache, vomiting, dizziness, stiff neck, sore throat (Sidonie M. Gruenberg).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="meningococcal">
<B>meningococcal, </B>adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD> having to do with or caused by meningococci. </DL>
<B>meningococcus, </B>noun, pl. <B>-ci.</B><DL COMPACT><DD> a bacterium or coccus that causes cerebrospinal meningitis. </DL>
<A NAME="meninx">
<B>meninx, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> singular of <B>meninges.</B> </DL>
<A NAME="meniscoid">
<B>meniscoid, </B>adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD> like a meniscus; cresent-shaped: concavo-convex. </DL>
<A NAME="meniscus">
<B>meniscus, </B>noun, pl. <B>-niscuses,</B> <B>-nisci.</B><DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>(Physics.) the curved upper surface of a column of liquid, caused by capillarity. It is concave when the walls of the container are moistened, convex when they are dry. <BR> <I>Ex. Most liquids wet glass, and therefore have a concave meniscus (W. N. Jones).</I> <DD><B> 2. </B>a lens, convex on one side and concave on the other. A meniscus is thicker in the center so that it has a crescent-shaped section. <DD><B> 3. </B>a crescent or crescent-shaped body. </DL>
<A NAME="menispermaceous">
<B>menispermaceous, </B>adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD> belonging to a family of dicotyledonous, chiefly tropical, woody, climbing plants, having small, usually three-parted flowers, and possessing narcotic properties, typified by the moonseed. </DL>
<A NAME="mennonist">
<B>Mennonist, </B>noun. <B>=Mennonite.</B></DL>
<A NAME="mennonite">
<B>Mennonite, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> a member of a Christian church opposed to infant baptism, taking oaths, holding public office that requires use of force, and military service. The Mennonites often wear very plain clothes and live simply. They are descended from an Anabaptist church that originated in the 1530's in Friesland and Holland. </DL>
<A NAME="meno">
<B>meno, </B>adverb.<DL COMPACT><DD> (Music.) less (used as a direction, always with another word). </DL>
<A NAME="menobranch">
<B>menobranch, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> any salamander of a group characterized by persistent gills forming external tufts, and by four limbs, each having four well-developed digits. </DL>
<A NAME="menofwar">
<B>men-of-war, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> plural of <B>man-of-war.</B> </DL>
<A NAME="menology">
<B>menology, </B>noun, pl. <B>-gies.</B><DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>an annotated calendar of the months. <DD><B> 2. </B>the calendar of the Greek Church with lives of the saints in the order of their festivals. <DD><B> 3. </B>a series of saints' biographies arranged according to the calendar. </DL>
<A NAME="menominee">
<B>Menominee, </B>noun, pl. <B>-nees</B> or <B>-nee.</B><DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>a member of a tribe of Indians living in Wisconsin, northern Michigan, and northern Illinois, of Algonkian stock. <DD><B> 2. </B>the Algonkian language of this tribe. </DL>
<A NAME="menomineewhitefish">
<B>Menominee whitefish,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> a commercially valuable whitefish found in the lakes of New England and the Adirondacks, in the Great Lakes, and in Alaskan waters. </DL>
<A NAME="menomosso">
<B>meno mosso,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> (Music.) not so fast; slower (used as a direction). </DL>
<B>menopause, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> the final cessation of the menses, occurring normally between the ages of 45 and 50; change of life; climacteric. <BR> <I>Ex. Menstrual periods ... continue from the onset of puberty until the menopause (Harbaugh and Goodrich).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="menopausic">
<B>menopausic, </B>adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD> having symptoms of the menopause. </DL>
<A NAME="menopome">
<B>menopome, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> any one of the amphibians, such as the hellbender, with persistent branchial apertures. </DL>
<A NAME="menorah">
<B>menorah, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>Also, <B>Menorah.</B> a candlestick with eight branches, used during the Jewish festival of Hanukkah. Many menorahs have a ninth branch for the shames, or extra candle, used to light the others. Each night an additional candle is lit until finally all are lit on the last night. <DD><B> 2. </B><B>Menorah,</B> a candlestick having seven branches, in the ancient Temple at Jerusalem, whose flame was fed by consecrated oil. According to the Apocrypha, when the Temple was rededicated after Judas Maccabaeus and his brothers overthrew the Syrians (about 165 B.C.) the Menorah burned for eight days with only a single day's supply of oil. </DL>
<B>Mensa</B> (1), noun, genitive <B>Mensae.</B><DL COMPACT><DD> a southern constellation. </DL>
<A NAME="mensa">
<B>Mensa</B> (2), noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> an international club for people of superior intelligence who must take a series of intelligence tests before being accepted as members. </DL>
<A NAME="mensae">
<B>Mensae, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> genitive of <B>Mensa</B> (1). </DL>
<B>mensal</B> (2), adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD> of, having to do with, or used at the table. </DL>
<A NAME="mensch">
<B>mensch, </B>noun, pl. <B>menschen.</B><DL COMPACT><DD> (U.S. Slang.) a respected person; decent human being. <BR> <I>Ex. The seedy Dallas strip-joint owner ... yearned to be a mensch, a pillar of the community (Time).</I> </DL>
