Chapter Mayeux to Measure for Measure of M by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

Mazer A cup; so called from the British masarn (maple); Dutch, maeser. Like our copus-cups in Cambridge, and the loving-cup of the London Corporation.

“A mazer wrought of the maple ware.” Spenser: Calendar (August).

“ `Bring hither,' he said, `the mazers four
My noble fathers loved of yore.' ”
Sir Walter Scott: Lord of the Isles.

Mazikeen or Shedeem. A species of beings in Jewish mythology exactly resembling the Arabian Jinn or genii, and said to be the agents of magic and enchantment. When Adam fell, says the Talmud, he was excommunicated for 130 years, during which time he begat demons and spectres; for, it is written, “Adam lived 130 years and (i.e. before he) begat children in his own image” (Genesis v. 3). (Rabbi Jeremiah ben Eliezar.)

“And the Mazikeen shall not come nigh thy tents.”- Psalm xci. 5 (Chaldee version).

   Swells out like the Mazikeen ass. The allusion is to a Jewish tradition that a servant, whose duty it was to rouse the neighbourhood to midnight prayer, found one night an ass in the street, which he mounted. As he rode along the ass grew bigger and bigger, till at last it towered as high as the tallest edifice, where it left the man, and where next morning he was found.

Mazzini-ism The political system of Giuseppe Mazzini, who filled almost every sovereign and government in Europe with a panic-terror. His plan was to establish secret societies all over Europe, and organise the several governments into federated republics. He was the founder of what is called “Young Italy,” whose watchwords were “Liberty, Equality, and Humanity,” whose motto was “God and the People,” and whose banner was a tricolour of white, red, and green. (Born at Genoa, 1808.)

Meal or Malt (In). In meal or in malt. Directly or indirectly; some sort of subsidy. If much money passes through the hand, some profit will be sure to accrue either “in meal or in malt.”

“When other interests in the country (as the cotton trade, the iron trade, and the coal trade) had been depressed, the Government had not been called upon for assistance in meal and malt.”- Sir William Harcourt: On Agricultural Depression, 13th April, 1894.

   He must pay either in meal or malt. In one way or another. A certain percentage of meal or malt is the miller's perquisite.

“If they [the Tories] wish to get the working-class vote, they have got to pay for it either in meal or in malt.”- Nineteenth Century, August. 1892, p. 344.

Meal-tub Plot A plot by Dangerfield against James, Duke of York, in 1679; so called because the scheme was kept in a meal-tub in the house of Mrs. Cellier. Dangerfield subsequently confessed the whole affair was a forgery, and was both whipped and condemned to stand in the pillory.

Meals In the fourteenth century breakfast hour was five; dinner, nine; supper, four. (Chaucer's Works.)
   In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries the breakfast hour was seven; dinner, eleven; supper, six. (Wright: Domestic Manners.)
   Towards the close of the sixteenth century dinner advanced to noon.
   In Ireland the gentry dined at between two or three in the early part of the eighteenth century. (Swift: Country Life.)

Mealy-mouthed is the Greek melimuthos (honey-speech), and means velvet-tongued, afraid of giving offence.

Meander (3 syl.). To wind; so called from the Meander, a winding river of Phrygia. The “Greek pattern” in embroidery is so called.

Measure Out of all measure. “Outre mesure.” Beyond all reasonable degree, `Præter (or supra) modum.”

“Thus out of measure sad.”- Shakespeare: Much Ado About Nothing, i. 3.

   To take the measure of one's foot. To ascertain how far a person will venture; to make a shrewd guess of another's character. The allusion is to “Ex pede Herculem.”