MERE • E-FREE TRANSLATION.COM • Definition of Mere

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adjective

Mere adj. (superl. merest. the comparative is rarely or never used)

Unmixed; pure; entire; absolute; unqualified. "Then entered they the mere, main sea." "The sorrows of this world would be mere and unmixed."

Only this, and nothing else; such, and no more; simple; bare; as, a mere boy; a mere form. "From mere success nothing can be concluded in favor of any nation."

noun

Mere n. A pool or lake.

Mere n. A boundary.

Mere n. A mare. (Obs.)

verb

Mere v. t. To divide, limit, or bound. (Obs.) "Which meared her rule with Africa."

suffix

-mere suff. A combining form meaning part, portion; as, blastomere, epimere.

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Etymology of 'Mere'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Mere" Quotes from Famous Books

... has been the condition of ancient history. Once yielding a mere barren crop of facts and dates, slowly it has been kindling of late years into life and deep interest under superior treatment. And hitherto, as the light has advanced, pari passu have the masses of darkness strengthened. Every question solved has been the parent of three new questions unmasked. ...

— Memorials and Other Papers • Thomas de Quincey

... that any damage was done. As to their gnawing power, it is almost beyond description. I gave them a strong wooden box as a nursery for the young gerbilles, but before long they had eaten out the back and sides, and a mere skeleton of a box remained. There was a piece of zinc, which formed a partition, but they ate a hole right through the zinc in no time, and when a wire cage, with a sliding door, was placed in the ...

— Wild Nature Won By Kindness • Elizabeth Brightwen

... The electric light burns in the novelist's study at three a.m.,—the novelist is still endeavouring to convey by means of words the extraordinary fascination that his heroine could exercise over mankind by the mere act of walking into a room; and he never has really succeeded and never will. The dramatist writes curtly, "Enter Millicent." All are anxious to do the dramatist's job for him. Is the play being read ...

— The Author's Craft • Arnold Bennett

... of a continent such as South America, confined to the limits of a single volume of moderate size, must of necessity contain some elements of mere survey. Nevertheless, since in no other but a condensed form could the respective strides achieved by the various nations of this continent be satisfactorily judged and compared, the author is encouraged to hope that this small work may fill in one of the most obvious of the many gaps in the ...

— South America • W. H. Koebel

... name, stranger,' I continued 'is Commissioner Solomon Smooth—at home they call me General Smooth. Now, seeing that I am sent by our patriotic President (a very small man by the way, but immeasurably large when dealing in the mere language of war) whose determination that talent of a truly American character shall shine abroad has been fully appreciated by the nations honored with his promising plenipotentiaries, Mr. Pierce has deputed me to square the world in general, and manifest destiny in particular.' The savage ...

— The Adventures of My Cousin Smooth • Timothy Templeton

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