Definitions
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- To mix; blend.
- To mix; mingle.
- To meddle; intermeddle or interfere.
- To busy one's self: used reflexively.
- To contend in fight.
- To copulate.
- n. Honey.
- n. A mallet; hence, derisively, the head.
- To pound or bruise with or as with a mell or mallet; crush; maul.
- n. An obsolete or dialectal variant of mill.
- n. A stain in linen.
- n. A warming-pan.
Wiktionary
GNU Webster's 1913
- v. obsolete To mix; to meddle.
- n. obsolete Honey.
- n. obsolete A mill.
Etymologies
- From Old French meller. Compare mêlée, meddle. (Wiktionary)
Examples
“The "mell" is the last sheaf of corn left in the field when the harvest is gathered in.”
“And as the harvest was last concluded with several preparations of meal, or brought to be ready for the "mell," this term became, in a translated signification, to mean the last of other things; as, when a horse comes last in the race, they often say in the North, "He has got the mell.”
“She had become my good friend also and I had counseled her as to her pell mell, willy-nilly race toward being in love versus being in love with Fred.”
The Huffington Post: Matthew Anderson: Repairing The Black-Jewish Rift
“She offered nothing that Sophia had been brought up to consider as love-worthy or estimable, for what good qualities she had must be accepted with their opposites, in an inconsequential pell-mell of wheat and tares.”
“Anyway, the BIG story here is that one honest woman was able to do what pack of university trustees and fellows and so on couldn't or wouldn't do: stop ND's pell-mell pursuit of cozy relations with the politically correct even when it means honoring abortionism's standard bearer.”
Former Laetare Medalist to deliver address at Notre Dame's commencement
“Interesting “mell” as a rare term seems to go back as far as Middle English, but died out except for in a few dialects.”
“Etymonline suggests it comes from an obscure English verb “to mell” which is attested more in Middle than Modern English, and derives probably from a Middle French verb meaning “to mingle.””
“Yet we know that China, which President Obama identified in his inaugural address as already the "renewable energy superpower", is on a pell-mell course to capture way more than its share of these jobs.”
The Huffington Post: Leo Hindery, Jr.: Is "going green" enough of an answer for our economy?
“Perhaps this stream of consciousness could indeed result in exactly the sort of savings that will allow the BBC to live within its means, absorb the World Service, and run pell mell into the future with news apps that work on television other than the "internet-connected" kind made by Samsung.”
The Guardian: BBC savings can be made without closing a channel
“All it takes is one or two experiences with a parent who lets their kid (s) run pell mell through a store screaming to make anyone shake in their boots whenever they see short people coming.”
Last Time I Checked, Babies Were People Too - Her Bad Mother
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘mell’.
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Words of the day
The list of Wordnik words of the day.
panurgic, chapfallen, billingsgate, latration, witticaster, slitheroo, rux, crotchet, mirliton, arenose, ruelle, jane-of-apes and 76 more...
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Just 'cause I like 'em, M
metamerism, malady, margin, marauder, maverick, mercury, mirth, mandible, macerate, meteor, manumission, mica and 292 more...
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Hedgepiglet
Words for things both tangible and nonanthropic
rorqual, vellus, wrasse, rainbow bee-eater, tinkershire, lemonquat, boomslang, tufted vetch, cubeb, nipplefruit, madapple, wad and 447 more...
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Wordnik Notebooks
All the words from the cover of the Wordnik notebook.
A few words appear twice: frass, cruet, luna, thalweg, and possibly some more.
Careful: Contains spoilers!spilth, frass, fomite, rux, worricow, alizarin, mundungus, parthenocarpy, jib, whinyard, weisure, nimiety and 217 more...
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Desserts of Random Palavery
Another of my Random Palavery lists, still an eclectic listing of terms that catch my eye and ear. It can't be helped. I am, (as a former partner phrased it) a word-bird.
chablis, ervy, keek, armiger, argand lamp, arblast, milch-cow, cow-calf units, durrus, tom noddy, low-bell, cargo cult and 139 more...
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SwanySwan's Words
funner, squircle, synchronicity, micawber, forb, mell, psilanthropy, digerati, looby, nabob, noob, xerosis and 17 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for mell.

grant_barrett This word was chosen as Wordnik word of the day. Nov 11, 2009
hernesheir Yorkshire dialect for "sand dunes" from Old Norse melr "gravel bank" or "sand bank". Aug 6, 2009
reesetee I was going to say....But a good place for that is your profile page, SwanySwan. :-) Oct 25, 2007
yarb Yes, great word! And your comments look much better when they're not advertising your website. Oct 25, 2007
swanyswan i thought this would have been used more... basically means, honey Oct 25, 2007