Word of the Day: Mean

mean / mēn

verb

to intend

Speak not of my debts unless you mean to pay them.
English Proverb

to destine to a specific future or purpose

If you don’t receive love from the ones who are meant to love you, you will never stop looking for it.

From ‘The End of the World as We Know it: Scenes from a Life’ by Robert Goolrick, 1948-

to signify or indicate

If my ship sails from sight, it doesn’t mean my journey ends, it simply means the river bends.

Enoch Powell, 1912-1998

to have importance to a high degree

To say that a person feels listened to means a lot more than just their ideas get heard.

Deborah Tannen, 1945-

to direct towards someone

How can we know for certain, that trapped inside a foreign language and thumping in a foreign heart there isn’t a love that is meant for us[?]

Daniel Kitson, 1977-

adjective sense 1

unkind

My father had taught me to be nice first, because you can always be mean later, but once you’ve been mean to someone, they won’t believe the nice anymore.

Laurell K. Hamilton, 1963-

humble

But there is nothing mean or lowly in standing in the valley below and awaiting the sun to rise over Kinchinjunga.

Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, 1910-1995

worthy of little regard; having inferior status

If the master gets drunk it is an honorable drunkenness; if the servant does it is evidence of his mean disposition.

Tibetan Proverb

excellent

But I ain’t seen nothin’ like him

In any amusement hall

That deaf, dumb, and blind kid

Sure plays a mean pinball.

From ‘Pinball Wizard’ by The Who

adjective sense 2

in the intermediary position; in between extremes

I consider the concept of a global mean temperature to be somewhat dubious.

Craig F. Bohren, 1940-

noun

a midpoint between extremes

Simplicity is the mean between ostentation and rusticity.

Alexander Pope, 1688-1744

plural, something useful to achieving a desired outcome

The first sign of corruption in a society that is still alive is that the end justifies the means.

Georges Bernanos, 1888-1948

plural, disposable resources

When I was young I had no means or time, and now I have the means and time, I have no youth.

Bess Streeter Aldrich, 1881-1954