Word.ws English Dictionary

mell

/mɛl/

mell verb: to say (something); to speak, to tell.

Verb (1)

mell (third-person singular simple present mells, present participle melling, simple past and past participle melled)

  1. (UK, dialectal, transitive) To say (something); to speak, to tell.

Noun (1)

mell

  1. (UK, dialectal) Discourse; conversation.

Verb (2)

mell (third-person singular simple present mells, present participle melling, simple past and past participle melled)

  1. (dialectal, intransitive, obsolete) To deal, concern oneself; to interfere or meddle.
    • For wher so we dwell / Deth wyll us qwell / And with us mell.c. 1495, John Skelton, Vppon a deedman's hed
    • Here is a great deale of good matter, / loſt for lacke of telling, / Now ſicker I see, thou doeſt but clatter: / harme may come of melling.1579, Immeritô [pseudonym; Edmund Spenser], “Iulye. Ægloga Septima.”, in The Shepheardes Calender: […], London: […] Hugh Singleton, […], →OCLC, folio 29, recto

Noun (2)

mell (uncountable)

  1. (obsolete) Honey.
    • Her ſmyles were ſober, and her lookes were chearfull vnto all: / And ſuch as neither wanton ſeeme, noꝛ waward, mell, noꝛ gall.1586, William Warner, “The Fourth Booke. Chapter XX.”, in Albions England. Or Historicall Map of the Same Island: […], London: […] George Robinson [and R. Ward] for Thomas Cadman, […], →OCLC, page 86

Noun (3)

mell (uncountable)

  1. The last grain cut at harvest; kern

Noun (4)

mell (plural mells)

  1. (dialectal) A heavy hammer or beetle of metal or wood.
  2. (obsolete) A mace or club.
  3. (obsolete) A chairman's hammer.

Proper noun capitalized: Mell

Mell (plural Mells)

  1. A surname.

Examples of mell in a sentence

  • And ſay a ſouldier (Dian) told thee this: / Men are to mell with, boyes are not to kis.c. 1604–1605 (date written), William Shakespeare, “All’s Well, that Ends Well”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, &...
  • “By Saint Thomas of Kent,” said he, “an I buckle to my gear, I will teach thee to mell with thine own matters, maugre thine iron case there.”1819 December 20 (indicated as 1820), Walter Scott, chapter II, in Ivanhoe; a Romance. […], volume III, Edinburgh: […] Archibald Constable...

Forms of mell

Verb
third-person singular presentmells
present participlemelling
past participlemelled
pastmelled
alternative formmele
Noun
pluralmells
Proper noun
pluralMells

Origin of mell

From Middle English melen, mælen, from Old English mǣlan (“to speak, talk”), from mǣl (“speech, talk, conversation; dispute, contest, battle”) and māl (“suit, case, action, terms, agreement, covenanted pay”), both from Proto-Germanic *mahlą (“meeting, congress, speech”), alteration of *maþlą (“meeting, congress, speech”), perhaps from Proto-Indo-European *meh₂d- (“to meet, encounter”). Cognate with Scots mele (“to speak, converse, tell”), Danish mæle (“to speak, utter”), Icelandic mæla (“to speak, say”), Old High German mahalōn (“to charge, accuse, proscecute”), German vermählen (“to wed, marry”). More at blackmail.

From Middle English mellen, medlen, from Old French meller, mesler (“to mix, mingle”). Doublet of meddle.

From Middle English mel, mell, melle, from Latin mell-, mel. Doublet of mel.

Phrases with mell

Words that rhyme with mell

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about mell

What does mell mean?
Mell means to say (something); to speak, to tell.
How do you use mell in a sentence?
And ſay a ſouldier (Dian) told thee this: / Men are to mell with, boyes are not to kis.
What part of speech is mell?
Mell can be a verb, a noun or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce mell?
Mell is pronounced /mɛl/.
What is the past tense of mell?
The past tense of mell is melled.

Words near mell in the dictionary

  1. melkovite
  2. Melksham
  3. Melksham Without
  4. melktert
  5. melkterts
  6. mell
  7. mell of a hess
  8. Mella
  9. Mellado
  10. Mellados
  11. mellaginous

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: mell (page history and authors); Mell (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-mell.wav.

Cite this entry: “mell.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/mell. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.