mense

plural menses

1. countableuncountableProperty, owndom; possessions.
2. UKcountabledialectaluncountableDecency; propriety; civility.

   Little mense to the cheeks to bite aff the nose[…]

   1842, William Chambers, Robert Chambers, Chambers's Information for the People, page 796

   4 more examples

   ... But never a soul had the mense to come near them,[…]

   1812, John Bell, Rhymes of Northern Bards: Being a Curious Collection of Old and New Songs and Poems, Peculiar to the Counties of Newcastle Upon Tyne, Northumberland, and Durham, page 185

   For she had baked a crumpie cake And butter scones, for mense's sake, To entertain her lodger.

   1871, Henry Scott Riddell, The Poetical Works of Henry Scott Riddell, page 141

   Be seen with men of mense, but turn aside From swicks and sweeps, the silly and the low […]

   1895, William Dunbar, Dunbar: Being a Selection from the Poems of an Old Makar, page 31

   ... ye'll hae the sense and the mense to keep a calm sough,[…]

   1904, Samuel Rutherford Crockett, The Men of the Moss-hags: Being a History of Adventure Taken from the Papers of William Gordon of Earlstoun in Galloway, page 126

3. UKcountabledialectaluncountableA large amount.

   He has a mense o' pure nonsense,

   1857, James Stewart, Sketches of Scottish Character, and Other Poems. The Late James Steward. With a Memoir of the Author, page 22

   1 more example

   There is not a mense of snow in "smoky Leeds,"

   1841, Richard Winter Hamilton, Nugae Literariae: Prose and Verse, page 356

present singular third person menses · participle present mensing · participle past mensed · past mensed

1. To adorn, bring honour to; grace.