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Just, only; no more than, pure and simple, neither more nor better than might be expected.
The mere thought of pineapple on pizza makes me want to throw up.
1733, I[saac] W[atts], “Essay I. A Fair Enquiry and Debate Concerning Space. Sect XII. Space Nothing Real, but a Meer Abstract Idea.”, in Philosophical Essays on Various Subjects,, London: Richard Ford, and Richard Hett, →OCLC, page 44:
And ſo vve may have an ever-grovving Idea of infinite Number as vvell as infinite Space or Emptineſs, yet it is a meer Idea, and hath no real Exiſtence vvithout us.
Thus the red damask curtains which now shut out the fog-laden, drizzling atmosphere of the Marylebone Road, had cost a mere song, and yet they might have been warranted to last another thirty years. A great bargain also had been the excellent Axminster carpet which covered the floor;[…].
More than a mere source of Promethean sustenance to thwart the cold and cook one's meat, wood was quite simply mankind's first industrial and manufacturing fuel.
Drawings and pictures are more than mere ornaments in scientific discourse. Blackboard sketches, geological maps, diagrams of molecular structure, astronomical photographs, MRI images, the many varieties of statistical charts and graphs: These pictorial devices are indispensable tools for presenting evidence, for explaining a theory, for telling a story.
2019, Con Man Games, SmashGames, quoting Margaret, Kindergarten 2, SmashGames:
Ah...my sister wishes to see you. A mere child. She never wants to have lunch with her dear sister, but I guess that's not your problem.
1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy:, 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Printed by John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC, partition II, section 3, member 7:
If every man might have what he would[…]we should have another chaos in an instant, a meer confusion.
The Troian Brute did first that Citie found, / And Hygate made the meare thereof by West, / And Ouert gate by North: that is the bound / Toward the land; two riuers bound the rest.
(cartography) To decide upon the position of a boundary; to position it on a map.
2016 April, David EM Andrews, “Merely a question of boundaries.”, in Sheetlines, The Charles Close Society, →ISSN:
What chance is there of revising this example of case law to include an exception to the generally cited rule when an administrative boundary has been mered in the past to coincide with a private property boundary?
(dialectal or literary) A body of standing water, such as a lake or a pond. More specifically, it can refer to a lake that is broad in relation to its depth. Also included in place names such as Windermere.
When making for the Brooke, the Falkoner doth espie On River, Plash, or Mere, where store of Fowle doth lye:
1791, Oliver Goldsmith, An History of the Earth, and Animated Nature., new edition, volumes (please specify |volume=I to VIII), London: F Wingrave, successor to Mr. Nourse,, →OCLC:
From the nominative of Latinmaior(“greater, elder”), via intermediate forms like *maire, *meire. For final /-or/ > /-re/, cf. Sardinian sorre, from Latin soror(“sister”).