Mace definition
A ceremonial staff borne or displayed as the symbol of authority of a legislative body.
noun
A macebearer.
noun
A heavy medieval war club with a spiked or flanged metal head, used to crush armor.
noun
A common name for some types of tear gas and pepper spray.
noun
Advertisement
A thin fleshy red covering that surrounds the kernel of the nutmeg, dried and used as a spice.
noun
A trademark for an aerosol used to immobilize an attacker temporarily. This trademark often occurs in print as a verb and noun.
A chemical compound, an aerosol that has the combined effect of a tear gas and a nerve gas, temporarily stunning its victims.
proper name
To spray with Mace.
verb
Advertisement
To spray in defense or attack with mace (pepper spray, or, formerly, tear gas) using a hand-held device.
verb
(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.
verb
To hit someone or something with a mace.
Get over here! I'll mace you good!
verb
A brand of tear gas.
pronoun
Such a compound, or a container of it.
noun
Advertisement
Origin of mace
- 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
- 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
-
From Wiktionary
- Sense of tear gas, from the trade name Mace.
From Wiktionary