Chapter Melanosperm to Meloe of M by Webster's Dictionary (1913 Edition)

Melliphagan
(Mel*liph"a*gan) n. See Meliphagan.

Melliphagous
(Mel*liph"a*gous) a. See Meliphagous.

Mellitate
(Mel"li*tate) n. [Cf. F. mellitate. See Mellitic.] (Chem.) A salt of mellitic acid.

Mellite
(Mel"lite) n. [L. mel, mellis, honey: cf. F. mellite.] (Min.) A mineral of a honey color, found in brown coal, and partly the result of vegetable decomposition; honeystone. It is a mellitate of alumina.

Mellitic
(Mel*lit"ic) a. [Cf. F. mellitique. See Mellite.] (Chem.) (a) Containing saccharine matter; marked by saccharine secretions; as, mellitic diabetes. (b) Pertaining to, or derived from, the mineral mellite.

Mellitic acid (Chem.), a white, crystalline, organic substance, C₆(CO₂H)₆, occurring naturally in combination with aluminium in the mineral mellite, and produced artificially by the oxidation of coal, graphite, etc., and hence called also graphitic acid.

Mellone
(Mel"lone) n. (Chem.) A yellow powder, C₆H₃N₉, obtained from certain sulphocyanates. It has acid properties and forms compounds called mellonides.

Mellonide
(Mel"lon*ide) n. See Mellone.

Mellow
(Mel"low) a. [Compar. Mellower ; superl. Mellowest.] [OE. melwe; cf. AS. mearu soft, D. murw, Prov. G. mollig soft, D. malsch, and E. meal flour.]

1. Soft or tender by reason of ripeness; having a tender pulp; as, a mellow apple.

2. Hence: (a) Easily worked or penetrated; not hard or rigid; as, a mellow soil. "Mellow glebe." Drayton (b) Not coarse, rough, or harsh; subdued; soft; rich; delicate; — said of sound, color, flavor, style, etc. "The mellow horn." Wordsworth. "The mellow-tasted Burgundy." Thomson.

The tender flush whose mellow stain imbues
Heaven with all freaks of light.

Percival.

3. Well matured; softened by years; genial; jovial.

May health return to mellow age.

Wordsworth.

As merry and mellow an old bachelor as ever followed a hound.

W. Irving.

4. Warmed by liquor; slightly intoxicated. Addison.

Mellow
(Mel"low), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Mellowed ; p. pr. & vb. n. Mellowing.] To make mellow. Shak.

If the Weather prove frosty to mellow it [the ground], they do not plow it again till April.

Mortimer.

The fervor of early feeling is tempered and mellowed by the ripeness of age.

J. C. Shairp.

Mellow
(Mel"low), v. i. To become mellow; as, ripe fruit soon mellows. "Prosperity begins to mellow." Shak.

Mellowly
(Mel"low*ly), adv. In a mellow manner.

Mellowness
(Mel"low*ness), n. Quality or state of being mellow.

Mellowy
(Mel"low*y) a. Soft; unctuous. Drayton.

Melluco
(||Mel*lu"co) n. (Bot.) A climbing plant (Ullucus officinalis) of the Andes, having tuberous roots which are used as a substitute for potatoes.