mead

plural meads · alternative meath · alternative meathe · alternative meeth

1. uncountableusuallyalcoholic beveragesAn alcoholic drink fermented from honey and water.

   No one, then or now, wanted to drink the mead that came out of Odin's arse.

   2017, Neil Gaiman, Norse Mythology, Bloomsbury Publishing, page 131

   1 more example

   "Just come in," said Mrs. Churchill, "and take one glass of my mead." / "No—not even such a golden promise tempts me. I am afraid that Lord Marchmont will be at home before me—and he is not yet accustomed to be kept waiting."

   1837, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter IV, in Ethel Churchill: Or, The Two Brides. […], volume I, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, page 47

2. USuncountableusuallyA drink composed of syrup of sarsaparilla or other flavouring extract, and water, and sometimes charged with carbon dioxide.

plural meads

1. poeticA meadow.

   Farewel ye crystal streams, that pass Thro’ fragrant meads of verdant grass:

   a. 1722, Matthew Prior, “Dorinda”, in H. Bunker Wright, Monroe K. Spears, editors, The Literary Works of Matthew Prior, Second edition, volume I, Oxford: Clarendon Press, published 1971, page 693

   5 more examples

   And then in haste her bow'r she leaves, With Thestylis to bind the sheaves; Or if the earlier season lead To the tann'd haycock in the mead.

   1645, John Milton, L'Allegro

   Hither, hither, love — ‘Tis a shady mead — Hither, hither, love! Let us feed and feed!

   c. 1817, John Keats, Hither, hither, love -

   But any man that walks the mead, In bud, or blade, or bloom, may find, According as his humours lead, A meaning suited to his mind.

   1842, Alfred Tennyson, “The Day-Dream. Moral.”, in Poems. […], volume II, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, page 160

   Four voices of four hamlets round, From far and near, on mead and moor, Swell out and fail, as if a door Were shut between me and the sound […]

   1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], “Canto XXVIII”, in In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, page 45

   Another Fairy, Argea, entertains (c. xxxiii.) a king, queen, knight and ladies, in a stately palace. At night they retire to magnificent chambers, and in the morning they find themselves lying in a mead, some under trees, others on the sides of a stream, with more of the beauties of the ladies displayed than they could have desired.

   1850, Thomas Keightley, The Fairy Mythology, London: H.G. Bohn, page 541

plural Meads · alternative Meade · alternative Meades

1. countableuncountableA surname from Old English.
2. A place name:
   1. countableuncountableA rural community in Cochrane District, north-eastern Ontario, Canada.
   2. countableuncountableA locality in the Shire of Gannawarra, northern Victoria, Australia
   3. countableuncountableA statutory town in Weld County, Colorado.
   4. countableuncountableA township in Merrick County, Nebraska.
   5. countableuncountableA village in Saunders County, Nebraska.
   6. countableuncountableA township in Belmont County, Ohio.
   7. countableuncountableA town in Bryan County, Oklahoma.
   8. countableuncountableA township in Warren County, Pennsylvania.
   9. countableuncountableA census-designated place in Spokane County, Washington, named after George Meade.
   10. countableuncountableAn unincorporated community in Raleigh County, West Virginia.
   11. countableuncountableA town in Clark County, Wisconsin.