Mace Definition

mās
maced, macing
noun
Such a compound, or a container of it.
Webster's New World
A ceremonial staff borne or displayed as the symbol of authority of a legislative body.
American Heritage
A macebearer.
American Heritage
A heavy medieval war club with a spiked or flanged metal head, used to crush armor.
American Heritage
A thin fleshy red covering that surrounds the kernel of the nutmeg, dried and used as a spice.
American Heritage
Synonyms:
pronoun
A brand of tear gas.
Wiktionary
verb
To spray with Mace.
Webster's New World
(informal) To spray a similar noxious chemical in defense or attack using an available hand-held device such as an aerosol spray can.
1989 Hiaasen, Carl, Skin Tight, Ballantine Books, New York, ch.22.
Wiktionary

Other Word Forms of Mace

Noun

Singular:
mace
Plural:
maces

Origin of Mace

  • Middle English, from Anglo-Norman mace, mache, from Late Latin mattia or *mattea (compare Italian mazza, Spanish maza), from Proto-Indo-European *mat (“hoe, plow") (compare Latin mateola (“hoe"), Old High German medela (“plow"), Russian мотыга (motýga, “hoe, mattock"), Persian آماج (āmāǰ) "˜plow', Sanskrit मत्य (matyá, “harrow")).

    From Wiktionary

  • Middle English from Old French from Medieval Latin macis alteration of Latin macir fragrant ailanthus resin from Greek makir

    From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition

  • Middle English from Old French masse from Vulgar Latin mattea

    From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition

  • Borrowing from Javanese and Malay, meaning "a bean".

    From Wiktionary

  • Sense of tear gas, from the trade name Mace.

    From Wiktionary

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