Meanings
plural merses
- Alluvial, often marshy land by the side of a river, estuary or sea.
1 more example
Owing probably to the channel lying obliquely to those mud flats, the flood rushes up the river with a bore, the front wave of which may be several feet high. As a result, the loose mud is churned up by every tide and the water that inundates the merse always contains much mud in suspension. Consequently the merse must be continually increasing in height. That the siltings may be rapid in favourable circumstances is shown near Kirkconnell where mooring bollards are seen […]
1926, The Journal of Ecology, volumes 14-15, page 312
Origin
- Middle Englishmerse
- Englishmerse
Middle English merse, variant form of mersh, whence also marsh (see that entry for more).
More words from Middle English
Full word history & related roots →Rhymes & wordplay
Anagrams
Cite this entry
merse. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/merse
“merse.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/merse. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “merse,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/merse.
Source: merse on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.