mere
UK /mɪə̯/ · US /mɪɚ/ adjective, noun, verb, proper noun
Also a form of mayor
Forms merer merest meres mering mered meer meere mear meare mar
- adjective Just, only; no more than, pure and simple, neither more nor better than might be expected. “The mere thought of pineapple on pizza makes me want to throw up.”
- adjective (obsolete) Pure, unalloyed .
- adjective (obsolete) Nothing less than; complete, downright .
- noun Boundary, limit; a boundary-marker; boundary-line.
- verb (transitive, obsolete) To limit; bound; divide or cause division in.
- verb (intransitive, obsolete) To set divisions and bounds.
- verb (cartography) To decide upon the position of a boundary; to position it on a map.
- noun (obsolete) Synonym of sea, a large body of salt water.
- noun (obsolete) Synonym of inlet, an arm of the sea.
- noun (literary or UK dialectal) A body of standing water, inclusive of lakes, ponds, and pools, especially any broad and shallow one.
- noun (UK dialectal) Synonym of marsh.
- noun A Maori war-club.
- proper noun A village and civil parish in northern Cheshire East district, Cheshire, England (OS grid ref SJ7381).
- proper noun A small town and civil parish with a town council in south-west Wiltshire, England (OS grid ref ST8132).
- proper noun A sub-municipality in East Flanders, Belgium.
Synonyms
alone bare simple only very immaculate unadulterated pristine chaste cherry clean flawless halal ideal kosher natural perfect pure simon-pure unalloyed
Antonyms
Etymology
From Middle English mere, mer, from Anglo-Norman meer, from Old French mier, from Latin merus (“pure, unmixed, undiluted”), from Proto-Indo-European *mer- (“to sparkle, gleam”).
Cognate with Old English āmerian, āmyrian (“to purify, examine, revise”). The Middle English word was perhaps influenced by or conflated with sound-alike Middle English mere (“glorious, noble, splendid, fine, pure”), from Old English mǣre (“famous, great, excellent, sublime, splendid, pure, sterling”), from Proto-West Germanic *mārī, from Proto-Germanic *mērijaz.
From Middle English mere, from Old English mǣre, ġemǣre (“boundary; limit”), from Proto-Germanic *mairiją (“boundary”), from Proto-Indo-European *mey- (“to fence”). Cognate with Dutch meer (“a limit, boundary”), Icelandic mærr (“borderland”), Swedish landamäre (“border, borderline, boundary”).
From Middle English mere, from Old English mere (“lake, pool,” in compounds and poetry “sea”), from Proto-West Germanic *mari (“sea”), from Proto-Germanic *mari, from Proto-Indo-European *móri. Cognate with West Frisian mar, 'lake', Dutch meer, 'lake', Low German Meer, and German Meer, 'sea'. Non-Germanic cognates include Latin mare, Breton mor, and Russian мо́ре (móre). Doublet of maar and mare (“a large, dark plain; a lake on Titan”).
Borrowed from Māori mere (“more”).
Webster’s 1913
- noun A pool or lake. Drayton. Tennyson.
- noun A boundary. Bacon.
- verb To divide, limit, or bound. [Obs.]
- noun A mare. [Obs.] Chaucer.
Etymology [Written also mar.]
Etymology [Written also meer and mear.]
Sources: Wiktionary · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “mere”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details