mean – English adjective declension

English adjective forms of mean

Adjective: mean

Comparison Forms

Synthetic

Comparativemeaner
Superlativemeanest

Perifrastic

Sample Sentences

  • a man of mean parentage
  • a mean abode
  • Thinke you I weigh this treaſure more than you?
  • Not all the Gold in Indias welthy armes,
  • Shall buy the meaneſt ſouldier in my traine. [c. 1587–1588 (date written), [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire; London: Scolar Press, 1973, →ISBN, Act I, scene ii:]
  • After every qualification of property had been laid aside, the armies of the Roman emperors were still commanded, for the most part, by officers of liberal birth and education; but the common soldiers, like the mercenary troops of modern Europe, were drawn from the meanest, and very frequently from the most profligate, of mankind. [1776, Edward Gibbon, chapter 1, in The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, volume I, London: […] W[illiam] Strahan; and T[homas] Cadell, […], →OCLC:]
  • Why lies He in such mean estate,
  • Where ox and ass are feeding? [1865, “What Child Is This?”, William Chatterton Dix (lyrics):]
  • a mean appearance
  • a mean dress
  • You hurt her feelings - that was a mean thing to do.
  • It was mean of you to steal that little girl's piggy bank.
  • Can you imagine I ſo mean could prove, / To ſave my Life by changing of my Love? [1665 (first performance), John Dryden, The Indian Emperour, or, The Conquest of Mexico by the Spaniards. […], London: […] J[ohn] M[acock] for H[enry] Herringman […], published 1667, →OCLC, Act IV, scene iv, page 50:]
  • Prince John: Your foe has bloodied you, sir knight. Will you concede defeat? You fight too well to die so mean a death. Will you not throw in your lot with me instead?
  • Ivanhoe: That would be an even meaner death, Your Grace. [1952, Ivanhoe:]
  • The story struck the depressingly familiar note with which true stories ring in the tried ears of experienced policemen. No one queried it. It was in the classic pattern of human weakness, mean and embarrassing and sad. [1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 20, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC:]
  • The Roman legions and great Caesar found / Our fathers no mean foes. [1708, [John Philips], “(please specify the page)”, in Cyder. […], London: […] J[acob] Tonson, […], →OCLC:]
  • He's so mean. I've never seen him spend so much as five pounds on presents for his children.
  • Watch out for her: she's mean. I said good morning to her, and she punched me in the nose.
  • It must have been a mean typhoon that levelled this town.
  • […]in the context of ships available at the time, they were aircraft carrier - fleet carriers. Now, granted, they may not have been the biggest and largest and meanest fleet carriers around, but they certainly were fleet carriers. [2020 February 23, Drachinifel, 8:48 from the start, in The Drydock - Episode 082, archived from the original on 08 Aug 2022:]
  • We were sitting in Poetta’s candlelit kitchen waiting for some of her gut-burning chili to get done. Everybody that knows Poetta knows that she makes a mean chili that if you eat it by lunchtime, it can clean out your entire system by the end of the day. [2003 July 26, Debra Phillips, The High Price of a Good Man: A Novel, New York City: St. Martin's, page 29:]
  • She wasn’t the most accomplished cook in the world but she cold make a mean stew, she knew how to roast a chicken, and she could whip up eggs at least three different ways. [2021 July 26, Margaret Loudon, A Fatal Footnote, New York City: Berkley, →ISBN, page 109:]
  • Your mother can roll a mean cigarette.
  • He hits a mean backhand.
  • A Robot Makes a Mean Caesar Salad, but Will It Cost Jobs? [title] [2017 October 6, Claire Martin, “A Robot Makes a Mean Caesar Salad, but Will It Cost Jobs?”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:]
  • This problem is mean!

Adjectives inflected like mean

sallow, smooth, slight, sleigh, sordid, somber, shweet, shrill, shrewd, yellow, yaller, hard knock, DRY, Greek, cut short, unquiet, unclean, indiscreet, chipper, straicht, etc. (List truncated at 20 adjectives)

Etymology

1. From Middle English mene, imene, from Old English mǣne, ġemǣne (“common, public, general, universal”), from Proto-West Germanic *gamainī, from Proto-Germanic *gamainiz (“common”), from Proto-Indo-European *mey- (“to change, exchange, share”). Doublet of common.
2. Cognate with West Frisian mien (“general, universal”), Dutch gemeen (“common, mean”), German gemein (“common, mean, nasty”), Danish gemen, Gothic 𐌲𐌰𐌼𐌰𐌹𐌽𐍃 (gamains, “common, unclean”), Latin commūnis (“shared, common, general”) (Old Latin comoinem). For a similar change in definition, see vulgar. See: Dutch Adjectives 'gemeen', German Adjectives 'gemein', Gothic Adjectives '𐌲𐌰𐌼𐌰𐌹𐌽𐍃', Latin Adjectives 'commūnis'.

Verbs referencing "mean"

German Adjectives gemein, Swedish Adjectives gemen, Gothic Adjectives 𐌲𐌰𐌼𐌰𐌹𐌽𐍃.