mean

To intend.

To convey (a meaning).

(transitive)To have conviction in (something said or expressed); to be sincere in (what one says).

Does she really mean what she said to him last night?

Say what you mean and mean what you say.

(transitive)To cause or produce (a given result); to bring about (a given result).

One faltering step means certain death.

This breakthrough will mean that we spend less on electricity bills.

Đồng nghĩa: bring about, cause, lead to, result in

(usually)(usually with to) To be of some level of importance.

That little dog meant everything to me.

Formality and titles mean nothing in their circle.

(Ireland, UK, regional)(Ireland, UK regional) To lament.

Đồng nghĩa: grieve, mourn, afterthink, becry, begrieve, bemoan, bemourn, bewail, beweep, condole, deplore, elegize, grieve, grieven, keen, lament, mean, mourn, pine, repent, sigh, sorrow, wail, wayment

(obsolete)Common; general.

(archaic)(now rare) Of a common or low origin, grade, or quality; common; humble.

a man of mean parentage

a mean abode

Low in quality or degree; inferior; poor; shabby.

a mean appearance

a mean dress

Đồng nghĩa: cheap, grotty, ass, bad, base, below par, bottom-shelf, BTEC, bum, cheap, cheap and nasty, cheapshit, cheesy, chintzy, coffee-and, crap, crappo, crappy, craptastic, crapperific, craptabulous, craptacular, cruddy, crummy, dogwater, drecky, flimsy, fourth-rate, gash, garbage, god-awful, inferior, lousy, low, low-grade, low-quality, low-rent, made in China, mid, naughty, one-star, poor, poor man's, pound-shop, punk, rinky-dink, ropy, rubbish, sad, schlocky, scrubby, second-rate, shoddy, slazy, slight, slim, subpar, shit, shite, shitty, substandard, ticky-tacky, tenth-rate, third-rate, tin-pot, trash, trashy, under par, woeful, wretched

Without dignity of mind; destitute of honour; low-minded; spiritless; base.

a mean motive

It was mean of you to steal that little girl's piggy bank.

Đồng nghĩa: base, ignoble, selfish, unkind, vile

Of little value or worth; worthy of little or no regard; contemptible; despicable.

(UK)(chiefly UK) Ungenerous; stingy; tight-fisted.

He's so mean. I've never seen him spend so much as five pounds on presents for his children.

Đồng nghĩa: as tight as Dick's hatband, cheap, cheeseparing, chintzy, close, close as wax, close-fisted, illiberal, mean, miserable, miserly, narrow-fisted, niggardly, nipcheese, parsimonious, peddling, penny-wise, penny-pinching, penurious, scrooge-like, scrubby, shabby, still got one's communion money, stingy, swear, tight, tight-fisted, tight as a tick, tighter than Dick's hatband, ungenerous, ungiving

Disobliging; pettily offensive or unaccommodating.

Intending to cause harm, successfully or otherwise; bearing ill will towards another.

Watch out for her: she's mean. I said good morning to her, and she punched me in the nose.

Đồng nghĩa: cruel, malicious, nasty, wicked

Powerful; fierce; strong.

It must have been a mean typhoon that levelled this town.

Đồng nghĩa: harsh, damaging, fierce

(colloquial)Hearty; spicy.

(colloquial)Accomplished with great skill; deft; hard to compete with.

Your mother can roll a mean cigarette.

He hits a mean backhand.

Đồng nghĩa: deft, skillful, top-notch

(childish, informal, often)(informal, often childish) Difficult, tricky.

This problem is mean!

(also)(now chiefly in the plural form means, also in a singular sense) A method or course of action used to achieve some result.

(obsolete, singular)(obsolete, in the singular) An intermediate step or intermediate steps.

Verily in this treatise this hath been mine only purpose; and the mean to bring the same to effect hath been such as whereby I studied to profit wholesomely, not to please delicately.

a. 1623, John Webster, The Duchess of Malfi Apply desperate physic: / We must not now use balsamum, but fire, / The smarting cupping-glass, for that's the mean / To purge infected blood, such blood as hers.

Something which is intermediate or in the middle; an intermediate value or range of values; a medium.

1875, William Smith and Samuel Cheetham, editors, A Dictionary of Christian Antiquities, Little, Brown and Company, volume 1, page 10, s.v. Accentus Ecclesiasticus, It presents a sort of mean between speech and song, continually inclining towards the latter, never altogether leaving its hold on the former; it is speech, though always attuned speech, in passages of average interest and importance; it is song, though always distinct and articulate song, in passages demanding more fervid utterance.

(historical)(music, now historical) The middle part of three-part polyphonic music; now specifically, the alto part in polyphonic music; an alto instrument.

(mathematics) Any function of multiple variables that satisfies certain properties and yields a number representative of its arguments; or, the number so yielded; a measure of central tendency.

Note that (1.41) is simply the probability-weighted mean without any explicit allowance for the stratification; each observation is weighted by its inflation factor and the total divided by the total of the inflation factors for the survey.

(mathematics) Either of the two numbers in the middle of a conventionally presented proportion, as 2 and 3 in 1:2=3:6.

Đồng nghĩa: geometric mean, mean proportional