mass

noun

1. (countable, physical, uncountable)Matter, material.

   “And 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 ; […].”

   “[…] and because a deep mass of continual sea is slower stirred to rage.”

2. (countable, obsolete, physical, uncountable)Matter, material.

   “Right in the midst the Goddesse selfe did stand / Upon an altar of some costly masse […].”

3. (countable, physical, uncountable)Matter, material.
4. (countable, physical, uncountable)Matter, material.

   “blue mass”

5. (countable, physical, uncountable)Matter, material.
6. (countable, physical, uncountable)Matter, material.

   “After all, muscle maniacs go "ga ga" over mass no matter how it's presented.”

7. (countable, uncountable)A large quantity; a sum.

   “[…]he hath discovered to me the way to five or six of the richest mines which the Spaniard hath, and whence all the mass of gold that comes into Spain in effect is drawn.”

   “For though he had spent a huge mass of treasure in transporting his army, […].”

8. (countable, uncountable)A large quantity; a sum.

   “Witness this army of such mass and charge / Led by a delicate and tender prince,”

9. (countable, uncountable)A large quantity; a sum.

   “Night closed upon the pursuit, and aided the mass of the fugitives in their escape.”

10. (countable, uncountable)A large quantity; a sum.

    “The mass of spectators didn't see the infraction on the field.”

    “A mass of ships converged on the beaches of Dunkirk.”

    “Generals gathered in their masses / Just like witches at black masses”

11. (countable, in-plural, uncountable)A large quantity; a sum.

    “The masses are revolting.”

12. The Eucharist, now especially in Roman Catholicism.
13. Celebration of the Eucharist.
14. (broadly)The main kind of church service, in some denominations.

    “She went to mass every Sunday for many years, and when she retired, she took to going on some weekdays, too.”

15. (usually)The sacrament of the Eucharist.
16. A musical setting of parts of the mass.
17. (countable, uncountable)The principal liturgical service of the Church, encompassing both a scripture service (Liturgy of the Word) and a eucharistic service (Liturgy of the Eucharist), which includes the consecration and oblation (offering) of the host and wine.
18. (countable, uncountable)A similar ceremony offered by a number of Christian churches.
19. (countable, uncountable)A musical composition set to portions, or all, of the Mass.

verb

1. (ergative)To form or collect into a mass; to form into a collective body; to assemble.

   “They would unavoidably mix up the whole of these declarations, and mass them together, although the Judge might direct the Jury not to do so.”

   “Every bend on the hill had acted like a funnel to mass them together in this peculiar way.”

   “Where there is too great a repetition of forms, light and shade will break them up or mass them together.”

2. (intransitive, obsolete)To celebrate mass.

   “massing priests”

adj

1. (not-comparable, usually)Involving a mass of things; concerning a large quantity or number.

   “There is evidence of mass extinctions in the distant past.”

   “The national liberation movement had not yet developed to a sufficiently mass scale.”

   “With perhaps unprecedented magnitude and clarity, Auschwitz brings theologians and philosophers face to face with the facts of suffering on an incredibly mass scale, with issues poignantly raised concerning the absence of divine intervention or the inadequacies of divine power or benevolence; […].”

   “The air arms did more than provide the warring nations with individual heroes, for their individual exploits occurred within the context of an increasingly mass aerial effort in a war of the masses.”

2. (not-comparable, usually)Involving a mass of people; of, for, or by the masses.

   “Mass unemployment resulted from the financial collapse.”

   “Every agency is sold on use of mass media today — or at least, it thinks it is — and what can be "masser" than television?”

   “While agreeing with Bell on the unlikelihood that any fully mass — in the sense of atomized and alienated — society has ever existed,⁵ I believe that at any point in time, in any social system, some elements may be characterized as "masses."”

   “Undoubtedly this is the case; at least it is "masser" than in Pinchot's time.”

   “But it also highlights the changes that have taken place in gay and AIDS activism, and the way that a formerly mass movement has been recast.”

name

1. (abbreviation, alt-of)Abbreviation of Massachusetts.

   “the Mass Pike”

2. (alt-of, alternative)Alternative form of Mas.