catflap.org Online Dictionary Query

  Mean \Mean\, n.
     1. That which is mean, or intermediate, between two extremes
        of place, time, or number; the middle point or place;
        middle rate or degree; mediocrity; medium; absence of
        extremes or excess; moderation; measure.
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              But to speak in a mean, the virtue of prosperity is
              temperance; the virtue of adversity is fortitude.
                                                    --Bacon.
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              There is a mean in all things.        --Dryden.
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              The extremes we have mentioned, between which the
              wellinstracted Christian holds the mean, are
              correlatives.                         --I. Taylor.
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     2. (Math.) A quantity having an intermediate value between
        several others, from which it is derived, and of which it
        expresses the resultant value; usually, unless otherwise
        specified, it is the simple average, formed by adding the
        quantities together and dividing by their number, which is
        called an arithmetical mean. A geometrical mean is the
        nth root of the product of the n quantities being
        averaged.
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     3. That through which, or by the help of which, an end is
        attained; something tending to an object desired;
        intermediate agency or measure; necessary condition or
        coagent; instrument.
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              Their virtuous conversation was a mean to work the
              conversion of the heathen to Christ.  --Hooker.
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              You may be able, by this mean, to review your own
              scientific acquirements.              --Coleridge.
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              Philosophical doubt is not an end, but a mean. --Sir
                                                    W. Hamilton.
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     Note: In this sense the word is usually employed in the
           plural form means, and often with a singular attribute
           or predicate, as if a singular noun.
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                 By this means he had them more at vantage.
                                                    --Bacon.
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                 What other means is left unto us.  --Shak.
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     4. pl. Hence: Resources; property, revenue, or the like,
        considered as the condition of easy livelihood, or an
        instrumentality at command for effecting any purpose;
        disposable force or substance.
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              Your means are very slender, and your waste is
              great.                                --Shak.
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     5. (Mus.) A part, whether alto or tenor, intermediate between
        the soprano and base; a middle part. [Obs.]
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              The mean is drowned with your unruly base. --Shak.
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     6. Meantime; meanwhile. [Obs.] --Spenser.
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     7. A mediator; a go-between. [Obs.] --Piers Plowman.
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              He wooeth her by means and by brokage. --Chaucer.
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     By all means, certainly; without fail; as, go, by all
        means.
  
     By any means, in any way; possibly; at all.
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              If by any means I might attain to the resurrection
              of the dead.                          --Phil. iii.
                                                    ll.
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     By no means, or By no manner of means, not at all;
        certainly not; not in any degree.
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              The wine on this side of the lake is by no means so
              good as that on the other.            --Addison.
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