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maimed

"Films in which characters are maimed or destroyed seem to be most popular with today's youngsters." Harold Owen, Jr., "The Motion Picture"

maladjusted

"The natural assumption is that the teenage killers at Columbine H.S. were maladjusted youngsters but some neighbors denied that." Letters to the Editor, Washington Post, 7/14/99

malady

"Homesickness can be a disease as trivial as a slight cold or it can be a deadly malady." Z. Libin, "A Sign of Summer"

malevolent

"Our military action against the malevolent head of the Serbian government has finally ended." Newsweek, 4/8/99

malign

"His chosen weapon is the verbal hand grenade by which he can outrage and malign." Kenneth Tynan, "On Don Rickles," New Yorker, 2/20/78

malignant

"The wailing chorus turned into a malignant clamor that swirled into my ears like an icy breeze." Kenneth Roberts,

Oliver Wiswell

malleable

"Is the mayor able to change from an apparently rigid personality to one more malleable to differences?" Alec Kuczynski, "The Mayor's Makeover," New York Times Magazine, 8/1/99

malnutrition

"The children of the Albanian refugees are suffering from malnutrition, and they need our help." Red Cross Appeal for Funds

mammoth

"She began to repair the ravages made by generosity added to lovea tremendous task, dear friendsa mammoth task." O. Henry, "The Gift of the Magi"

mandate

"With a federal mandate to convert to digital broadcasting by 2003, public TV stations are facing large capital expenditures," Ellis Bromberg, "Federal Money Vital to Progress of PBS," The News Gazette, Champaign-Urbana, 10/21/99

manifest

"English is one of the great borrowing languages, more manifest in the origin of so many of our words." Bill Bryson,

Mother Tongue

manifold

"China's Xinhua News Agency treated manifold claims of procedural error with disbelief." "Trying to Build Bridges in China," TIME, 6/28/99

martinet

"The prospect of having to talk to Sheila's principal, a real martinet, made him nervous, but he steeled himself to do it." John Yount, "The Trapper's Last Shot"

masticate

"Trying to masticate a huge hamburger with an open mouth is a no-no." Advice from Ms. Manners, syndicated columnist, 6/4/98

mastiffs

"That island of England breeds very valiant creatures; their mastiffs are of unmatchable courage." William Shakespeare, Henry V

materialism

"Democracy always makes for materialism, because the only kind of equality that you can guarantee to a whole people is physical." Katherine F. Gerould, Modes and Morals

matrons

"For ladies they had the family of the American consul and a nice bevy of English girls and matrons, perhaps Lady Hamilton herself." Edward Everett Hale, The Man Without a Country

maudlin

"Uncle Billy passed rapidly into a state of stupor, the Duchess became maudlin, and Mother Shipton snored." Bret Harte, "The Outcasts of Poker Flat"

megalomania

"Charlie desperately wanted Armaxco to lease space in what so far was the worst mistake of his career, the soaring monster that his megalomania led him to

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call Croker Concourse." Tom Wolfe, A Man in Full

mendacious

"Hillary joined in efforts to dismiss as mendacious tarts all the women who claimed to have been involved with her husband." Maureen Dowd, "The Boy Can't Help It," New York Times, 8/4/99

menial

"It is difficult to visualize the numbers of menial laborers required to build the famous Egyptian pyramids." E. A. Wallis Budge, The Mummy

mentor

"To break into the political life of South Africa, one needed a highly placed mentor." Nadine Gordimer, Face to Face

mercenary

"We all like money . . . but Dickens surpassed most in a mercenary approach to his writings." G. K. Chesterton,

Charles Dickens

metamorphosis

"For nearly a year, the dauber, undergoing metamorphosis, inhabits its silken dung-stoppered cocoon inside the mud cell." Alan Devoe, "The Mad Dauber"

meticulous

"Even later, in 1992, Barnstead's meticulous records allowed researchers to put names on six previously unidentified Titanic survivors." "Titanic and Halifax," The Nova Scotia Museum

mien

"He had the mien of a man who has been everywhere and through everything." Arnold Bennett, The Old Wives Tale

milieu

"In the milieu of a heated baseball championship contest, tickets are being sold at highly inflated prices." New York Post, 10/10/99

modified

"Some schools claimed that the standard test was a lot harder than a modified version." Ching-Cheng Ni, "Fewer Rumbles on Earth Test," Newsday, 6/23/99

mollify

"The mayor attempted to mollify his critics by pointing to the increased safety in the city." New York Daily News, 8/15/99

monolithic

"Gertrude Stein was a stolid, heavy presence, monolithic, unladylike." Liz Smith, "When Love Was the Adventure," TIME, 6/14/99

moribund

"After being moribund for years, interest in electric automobiles has revived." Car and Driver, 6/97

mortality

"Socrates loves talk of fundamental things, of justice and virtue and wisdom and love and mortality." Hermann Hagedorn, SocratesHis Life

mortify

"The comparisons between her sister's beauty and her own no longer would mortify her." Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice

motivate

"The loss of our star quarterback seemed to motivate the team to play even harder." Bill Parcells quoted in Sports Illustrated, 9/12/98

mundane

"Why bother with mundane musings when you can sit on the lawn and build cities out of grass clippings?" Enid Nemy, "The World is Her Cloister," New York Times, 6/20/99

munificent

"His munificent gift will enable us to place computers in all the elementary schools." Newsday, 6/20/98

murky

"Mud dumping from the bottom of Long Island has created a murky picture." "Fishermen's Woes," Newsday, 6/22/99

myriad

"Genius is not born with sight, but blind: it is influenced by a myriad of stimulating exterior circumstances." Mark Twain, "Saint Joan of Arc"

N

nadir

"He knew he had reached the nadir of his baseball career when they sent him to a

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