Chapter Milesian Story to Mind your Eye of M by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

Mince the Matter Not to mince the matter. To speak outright; not to palliate or gloss over the matter. Terence has “Rem profer palam” (Heauttimoroumenos, v. 2, 41). The French say, “Je ne le lui ai point mâche.” About the same is the phrase “Not to put too fine a point on the matter.”

Mincemeat To make mincemeat of. Utterly to demolish; to shatter to pieces. Mincemeat is meat cut up very fine.

Minch-house (A). A nunnery. (Anglo-Saxon, minicem, a nun.) Sometimes it means an ale or road- house.

Mincing Lane (London). A corruption of Mynchen Lane; so called from the tenements held there by the mynchens or nuns of St. Helen's, in Bishopsgate Street. (Minicen, Anglo-Saxon for a nun; minchery, a nunnery.)

Mincio or Mintio. The birthplace of Virgil. The Clitumnus, a river of Umbria, was the residence of Propertius; the Anio is where Horace had a villa; the river Meles, in Ionia, is the supposed birthplace of Homer. Littleton refers to all these in his Monody on Miss Fortescue.

Mind your Eye Be careful or vigilant; keep a sharp look out; keep your eyes open to guard against mischief. School-boy wit, Mens tuus ego.

“ `Perhaps it may be so' (says I); `but mind your eye, and take care you don't put your foot in it.' ”- Haliburton.

“ `You must mind your eye, George; a good many tents are robbed every week.' ”- C. Reade.