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mingle - Wiktionary, the free dictionary

  • ️Mon Sep 26 2011

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for “mingle”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.)

From earlier mingil, mengle, from Middle English menglen, equivalent to ming +‎ -le. Cognate with Dutch mengen (“to mingle, mix”), German mengen (“to mingle, mix”). More at ming.

mingle (third-person singular simple present mingles, present participle mingling, simple past and past participle mingled)

  1. (transitive) To intermix; to combine or join, as an individual or part, with other parts, but commonly so as to be distinguishable in the product.[1]
    Synonyms: confuse, confound

    • 1530 January 27 (Gregorian calendar), W[illiam] T[yndale], transl., [The Pentateuch] (Tyndale Bible), Malborow [Marburg], Hesse: […] Hans Luft [actually Antwerp: Johan Hoochstraten], →OCLC, Exodus ix:[24], folio XV, verso:

      [T]here was hayle ãd fyre mẽgled with the hayle, […]

    • 1838, Martin Farquhar Tupper, “Of Searching for Pride”, in Proverbial Philosophy: A Book of Thoughts and Arguments, Originally Treated, London: Joseph Rickerby, […], →OCLC, page 69:

      Be aware of the smiling enemy, that openly sheatheth his weapon, / But mingleth poison in secret with the sacred salt of hospitality.

  2. (transitive) To associate or unite in a figurative way, or by ties of relationship.
  3. To cause or allow to intermarry.
  4. To intermarry.

    • 1535 October 14 (Gregorian calendar), Myles Coverdale, transl., Biblia: The Byble, […] (Coverdale Bible), [Cologne or Marburg]: [Eucharius Cervicornus and Johannes Soter?], →OCLC, III. Essdras [1 Esdras] viij:[87], folio vij, verso, column 2:

      [W]e haue bꝛokẽ thy ſtatutes ⁊ cõmaundementes agayne, ⁊ mengled oꝛ ſelues wt the vnclẽnes of the outlandiſh heithen.

      [W]e have broken thy statutes and commandments again, and mingled ourselves with the uncleanness of the foreign heathen.
  5. (transitive) To deprive of purity by mixture; to contaminate.[1]

    • a. 1729, John Rogers, The Necessity of Universal Obedience:

      a mingled, imperfect virtue

  6. (transitive) To make or prepare by mixing the ingredients of.[1]
  7. (transitive, obsolete) To put together; to join.[1]
  8. (intransitive) To become mixed or blended.
  9. (intransitive) To socialize with different people at a social event.

    • 2009, Jane Buckingham, The Modern Girl's Guide to Life:

      And allow a bit of a cocktail hour before the meal so that when your guests arrive, you have time to mingle before you step into the kitchen.

To mix; to intermix; to combine or join

To associate; to cause or allow to intermarry

Obsolete: to put together, to join

To become mixed or blended

mingle (plural mingles)

  1. (obsolete) A mixture.
  2. The act of informally meeting numerous people in a group

    • 2019, Sally Lou Oaks Loveman, Speak: Love Your Story, Your Audience Is Waiting:

      When speakers engage their audiences before they speak with a quick mingle and keep the engagement going throughout the speech, the access point for fear is cut off because there is no silence.