mease

== English == === Etymology 1 === The English Dialect Dictionary suggests Old Norse meiss (“wooden box, as would be used for counting fish”) as a source; The Century Dictionary suggests that the term comes via Old French from a Latin word *mesa (“barrel”). One can also compare German Mass (“measure”) and indeed measure itself. ==== Noun ==== mease (plural meases) (UK, dialect, dated) A measure of varying quantity, often five or six (long or short) hundred, used especially when counting herring. a mease of herrings === Etymology 2 === Variant of mess / mese. ==== Noun ==== mease (plural meases) (obsolete) A mess, a mese: a meal. === Etymology 3 === Presumably related to messuage. ==== Noun ==== mease (plural meases) (obsolete) A dwelling or messuage. c. 1541, William Ranshaw versus John Hayward and Others re Title to Goods and Chattels at Hulme, reported in the Pleadings and Depositions in the Duchy Court of Lancaster, time of Henry VIII (1897), volume 35, page 134: William Raynshaw, of Hulme, in the county of Lancaster, complains that whereas Hamnett Bent was seised in his demesne as of fee of certain meases of land, meadow, and pasture with appurtenances in Hulme […] === Etymology 4 === From mesh? ==== Noun ==== mease (plural meases) Obsolete spelling of mesh (of a fishing net). 1972, Cyril Noall, Cornish Seines and Seiners: A History of the Pilchard Fishing Industry, page 70, quoting an older work: In the records of the series of trials which began soon afterwards, the following interesting description of a Mount's Bay seine in the seventeenth century is given: "Saynes are very long and deep nets, of a close or narrow mease, and lengthened at each end by sleeves of a larger mease, and are used in this anner, viz.: […] ==== Verb ==== mease (third-person singular simple present meases, present participle measing, simple past and past participle meased) To catch or enmesh (fish) by the head in a seine. 1798, Hutton Wood, Great Britain. Court of Exchequer, A Collection of Decrees by the Court of Exchequer in Tithe-causes: From the Usurpation to the Present Time. [1650-1798], page 285: ( […] and except also fish meased in the sleeves of certain nets, called seynes), of which no tithes are demanded; […] === References === “mease”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC. The English Dialect Dictionary (Joseph Wright) The Open Court (1911), volume 25, page 416: The Glasgow Herald of Sept. 13, 1886, says: A mease [of herring] ... is five hundreds of 120 each. === Anagrams === Amees, Aseem, Eames, Emesa, Maese, Samee, amese, eames == Scots == === Etymology === From Old French ameiser. === Pronunciation === IPA(key): /miːz/ === Verb === mease (third-person singular simple present meases, present participle measin, simple past and past participle meased) to mitigate, alleviate, assuage to soothe, pacify == Spanish == === Verb === mease first/third-person singular imperfect subjunctive of mear