mere1
- being nothing more nor better than: a mere pittance; He is still a mere child.
- Obsolete.
- pure and unmixed, as wine, a people, or a language.
- fully as much as what is specified; completely fulfilled or developed; absolute.
Origin of mere1
Synonym study
Examples from the Web for merest
Historical Examples
Aggie sniffed, as if such an outcome were the merest bagatelle.
Within the LawMarvin Dana
On another, it might have appeared perhaps the merest trifle garish.
Within the LawMarvin Dana
He tells lies like a woman, for the pleasure of it, for the merest trifle.
His MasterpieceEmile Zola
It was the merest chance in the world that Porter went up at all.
The Stark Munro LettersJ. Stark Munro
It seemed that he saw the merest ghost of a flicker in Murray's left eye.
The Martian CabalRoman Frederick Starzl
mere1
- being nothing more than something specifiedshe is a mere child
Word Origin
mere2
- archaic, or dialect a lake or marsh
- obsolete the sea or an inlet of it
Word Origin
mere3
- archaic a boundary or boundary marker
Word Origin
mere4
- NZ a short flat striking weapon
Word Origin
Word Origin and History for merest
mere
adj.
c.1400, "unmixed, pure," from Old French mier "pure" (of gold), "entire, total, complete," and directly from Latin merus "unmixed" (of wine), "pure; bare, naked;" figuratively "true, real, genuine," probably originally "clear, bright," from PIE *mer- "to gleam, glimmer, sparkle" (cf. Old English amerian "to purify," Old Irish emer "not clear," Sanskrit maricih "ray, beam," Greek marmarein "to gleam, glimmer"). Original sense of "nothing less than, absolute" (mid-15c., now only in vestiges such as mere folly) existed for centuries alongside opposite sense of "nothing more than" (1580s, e.g. a mere dream).
mere
n.
Old English mere "sea, ocean; lake, pool, pond, cistern," from Proto-Germanic *mari (cf. Old Norse marr, Old Saxon meri "sea," Middle Dutch maer, Dutch meer "lake, sea, pool," Old High German mari, German Meer "sea," Gothic marei "sea," mari-saiws "lake"), from PIE *mori- "sea" (cf. Latin mare, Old Church Slavonic morje, Russian more, Lithuanian mares, Old Irish muir, Welsh mor "sea," Gaulish Are-morici "people living near the sea").