mere Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun a small pond of standing water
  2. adjective satellite being nothing more than specified
    • a mere child
  3. adjective satellite apart from anything else; without additions or modifications
    simple; bare.
    • only the bare facts
    • shocked by the mere idea
    • the simple passage of time was enough
    • the simple truth

WordNet

Mere noun
Etymology
Written also mar.
OE. mere, AS. mere mere, sea; akin to D. meer lake, OS. meri sea, OHG. meri, mari, G. meer, Icel. marr, Goth. marei, Russ. more, W. mor, Ir. & Gael. muir, L. mare, and perh. to L. mori to die, and meaning originally, that which is dead, a waste. Cf. Mortal, Marine, Marsh, Mermaid, Moor.
Definitions
  1. A pool or lake. Drayton. Tennyson.
Mere noun
Etymology
Written also meer and mear.
AS. gem&aemac;re.
Definitions
  1. A boundary. Bacon.
Mere transitive verb
Definitions
  1. To divide, limit, or bound. Obs.
    Which meared her rule with Africa. Spenser.
Mere noun
Definitions
  1. A mare. Obs. Chaucer.
Mere adjective
Etymology
L. merus.
Wordforms
superlative Merest The comparative is rarely or never used
Definitions
  1. Unmixed; pure; entire; absolute; unqualified.
    Then entered they the mere, main sea. Chapman.
    The sorrows of this world would be mere and unmixed. Jer. Taylor.
  2. Only this, and nothing else; such, and no more; simple; bare; as, a mere boy; a mere form.
    From mere success nothing can be concluded in favor of any nation. Atterbury.

Webster 1913