the property of a body that causes it to have weight in a gravitational field
<noun.attribute>
(often followed by `of') a large number or amount or extent
<noun.quantity> a batch of letters a deal of trouble a lot of money he made a mint on the stock market see the rest of the winners in our huge passel of photos it must have cost plenty a slew of journalists a wad of money
an ill-structured collection of similar things (objects or people)
<noun.group>
(Roman Catholic Church and Protestant Churches) the celebration of the Eucharist
<noun.act>
a body of matter without definite shape
<noun.object> a huge ice mass
the common people generally
<noun.group> separate the warriors from the mass power to the people
the property of something that is great in magnitude
<noun.attribute> it is cheaper to buy it in bulk he received a mass of correspondence the volume of exports
a musical setting for a Mass
<noun.communication> they played a Mass composed by Beethoven
a sequence of prayers constituting the Christian Eucharistic rite
<noun.communication> the priest said Mass [ verb ]
join together into a mass or collect or form a mass
<verb.motion> Crowds were massing outside the palace [ adj ]
formed of separate units gathered into a mass or whole
<adj.all> aggregate expenses include expenses of all divisions combined for the entire year the aggregated amount of indebtedness
Mass \Mass\, v. i. [imp. & p. p. {Massed}; p. pr. & vb. n. {Massing}.] To celebrate Mass. [Obs.] --Hooker.
Mass \Mass\, n. [OE. masse, F. masse, L. massa; akin to Gr. ? a barley cake, fr. ? to knead. Cf. {Macerate}.] 1. A quantity of matter cohering together so as to make one body, or an aggregation of particles or things which collectively make one body or quantity, usually of considerable size; as, a mass of ore, metal, sand, or water.
If it were not for these principles, the bodies of the earth, planets, comets, sun, and all things in them, would grow cold and freeze, and become inactive masses. --Sir I. Newton.
A deep mass of continual sea is slower stirred To rage. --Savile.
2. (Phar.) A medicinal substance made into a cohesive, homogeneous lump, of consistency suitable for making pills; as, blue mass.
3. A large quantity; a sum.
All the mass of gold that comes into Spain. --Sir W. Raleigh.
He had spent a huge mass of treasure. --Sir J. Davies.
4. Bulk; magnitude; body; size.
This army of such mass and charge. --Shak.
5. The principal part; the main body.
Night closed upon the pursuit, and aided the mass of the fugitives in their escape. --Jowett (Thucyd.).
6. (Physics) The quantity of matter which a body contains, irrespective of its bulk or volume.
Note: Mass and weight are often used, in a general way, as interchangeable terms, since the weight of a body is proportional to its mass (under the same or equal gravitative forces), and the mass is usually ascertained from the weight. Yet the two ideas, mass and weight, are quite distinct. Mass is the quantity of matter in a body; weight is the comparative force with which it tends towards the center of the earth. A mass of sugar and a mass of lead are assumed to be equal when they show an equal weight by balancing each other in the scales.
{Blue mass}. See under {Blue}.
{Mass center} (Geom.), the center of gravity of a triangle.
{Mass copper}, native copper in a large mass.
{Mass meeting}, a large or general assembly of people, usually a meeting having some relation to politics.
{The masses}, the great body of the people, as contrasted with the higher classes; the populace.
Mass \Mass\ (m[.a]s), n. [OE. masse, messe, AS. m[ae]sse. LL. missa, from L. mittere, missum, to send, dismiss: cf. F. messe. In the ancient churches, the public services at which the catechumens were permitted to be present were called missa catechumenorum, ending with the reading of the Gospel. Then they were dismissed with these words : ``Ite, missa est'' [sc. ecclesia], the congregation is dismissed. After that the sacrifice proper began. At its close the same words were said to those who remained. So the word gave the name of Mass to the sacrifice in the Catholic Church. See {Missile}, and cf. {Christmas}, {Lammas}, {Mess} a dish, {Missal}.] 1. (R. C. Ch.) The sacrifice in the sacrament of the Eucharist, or the consecration and oblation of the host.
2. (Mus.) The portions of the Mass usually set to music, considered as a musical composition; -- namely, the Kyrie, the Gloria, the Credo, the Sanctus, and the Agnus Dei, besides sometimes an Offertory and the Benedictus.
{Canon of the Mass}. See {Canon}.
{High Mass}, Mass with incense, music, the assistance of a deacon, subdeacon, etc.
{Low Mass}, Mass which is said by the priest throughout, without music.
{Mass bell}, the sanctus bell. See {Sanctus}.
{Mass book}, the missal or Roman Catholic service book.
Mass \Mass\, v. t. To form or collect into a mass; to form into a collective body; to bring together into masses; to assemble.
But mass them together and they are terrible indeed. --Coleridge.
Operators of the Seabrook nuclear power plant warmed the reactor for its first low-power testing, but opponents planned to turn up some heat of their own with a new round of mass protests.
Western relief sources, who confirmed the report, said the move would cause additional problems in international efforts to avert mass starvation.
Army radio reported a mass Israeli troop movement into the territories.
But, as usual, the news media are a faceless mass of shouting imbeciles blinding decent folk with flashbulbs and TV lights _ as they no doubt appeared to the McClures at the time.
The 18 manuscripts include religious works by Mozart and Michael Haydn transcribed by monks in the 18th century and s- an evening mass - and liturgical works by lesser-known composers, Roberts said.
On July 18, the eve of a planned mass opposition rally, the government tightened martial law and threatened offenders with death sentences.
But there comes a time when a new town ceases to be a new town and achieves a critical mass. 'You need government money to prime the pump at first, put the roads in and so on.
If the mass action campaign really bites, he believes that the market could well go lower.
Jakes, dumped from the ruling Politburo on Friday after the mass demonstrations gathered steam, was asked how he felt about the chants heard against him heard at the pro-democracy rallies.
In times of mass redundancies and company collapses, these are far from theoretical considerations. As interest rates fall it is becoming more expensive for wound-up schemes to buy insurance policies which will guarantee future pensions.
They are now a critical mass, exerting power and influence throughout corporate life and tending to hire even more MBAs. Noting the need and the interest, the nation's universities are doing their best to maintain a supply.
Israel radio said the army made mass roundups of Palestinians as soon as the territories were closed, arresting 600.
The Reagan administration said the lower court rulings could "significantly hamper" the government's handling off mass demonstrations in the nation's capital.
Police used whips and dogs to disperse hundreds of blacks, including Archbishop Desmond Tutu, during mass protests Saturday at two whites-only beaches.
A study of office workers near the Walnut Creek station of the Bay Area Rapid Transit system in northern California found that only a handful used mass transit.
A rending dispute over economic reforms has unsettled many people, who see no improvements in their life styles but hear increasingly about threatened inflation and mass unemployment.
The strike was the first mass labor agitation since strongman Ne Win seized power in 1962 and instituted a military-backed, one-party system which advocated socialism.
Belgrade radio described the impact as "tremendous." Special rescue teams were trying to extricate passengers from the tangled mass of metal, the reports said without giving a cause of the accident.
Poco had cited the merger as a chance to expand its operations and achieve a critical mass in some areas of its exploration and development activities.
They had to paddle 200 miles upstream on the Paraguay River in Brazil because high winds had blown water plants into a solid mass that blocked their path, and later spent 17 days without touching shore on the same river because of floods.
The arbitrage "was almost like some sort of mass psychosis," says Eric Stattin, a former Shearson Lehman partner and thrift executive.
Still, if the agency allows the Boeskys to sell, he allowed, "that will help increase minority ownership of the mass media, and help redress the wrong Boesky did."
'I want to stress, however, that I am not putting dangerous substances of any kind into my body, other than mass quantities of Norwegian beer, because I want to remain alert now that Tonya Harding is finally here.
Prosecutions will centre on torture, mass shootings and other 'inhuman' means used to suppress the 1956 revolution.
While most Soviet economists continue to recognize the necessity of price decontrol and movement toward a market economy, they report that these notions are not supported by the mass of Soviet people.
"Scientists studying mass extinction are like criminologists tracking a serial killer _ the clues that finally catch the killer usually come from the repeated pattern in the way the crimes were committed," Bakker said.
But if the government doesn't help, "mass bankruptcies," will ensue, Mr. Nechaev said at a news conference this week.
The Czech Republic has virtually completed the most ambitious mass privatisation programme in the former communist bloc and has embarked upon export-led economic growth.
The president also proposed to finance pay increases for other departments' personnel by deferring spending for mass transit projects, Forest Service land acquisition, railway safety grants to states and several other programs.
The Serbian leader's opponents suspect he is using the mass rallies to gain more national power for himself and for Serbia, the largest of Yugoslavia's six republics.