mense
verbEtymology From earlier mensk, from Middle English menske (“courtesy, honour”), from Old English mennisċu (“the human condition, humanity”) and/or Old Norse menska (“humanity”). More at mennish, mensch.
1
To adorn, bring honour to; grace.
mense
noun/mɛns/
Etymology From earlier mensk, from Middle English menske (“courtesy, honour”), from Old English mennisċu (“the human condition, humanity”) and/or Old Norse menska (“humanity”). More at mennish, mensch.
1
Property, owndom; possessions.
- ... 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:
- Little mense to the cheeks to bite aff the nose[…]1842, William Chambers, Robert Chambers, Chambers's Information for the People, page 796:
3 more examples
- 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:
- There is not a mense of snow in "smoky Leeds,"1841, Richard Winter Hamilton, Nugae Literariae: Prose and Verse, page 356:
- 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: