| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000. |
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| mix |
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| PRONUNCIATION: |  m ks |
| VERB: | Inflected forms: mixed, mix·ing, mix·es
| | TRANSITIVE VERB: | 1a. To combine or blend into one mass or mixture. b. To create or form by combining ingredients: mix a drink; mix cement. c. To add (an ingredient or element) to another: mix an egg into batter. 2. To combine or join: mix joy with sorrow. 3. To bring into social contact: mix boys and girls in the classroom. 4. To produce (an organism) by crossbreeding. 5. Electronics a. To combine (two or more audio tracks or channels) to produce a composite audio recording. b. To produce (a soundtrack or recording) in this manner. | | INTRANSITIVE VERB: | 1a. To become mixed or blended together. b. To be capable of being blended together: Oil does not mix with water. 2. To associate socially or get along with others: He does not mix well at parties. 3. To mate so as to produce a hybrid; crossbreed. 4. To become involved: In the case of a family argument, a friend should not mix in. | | NOUN: | 1. An act of mixing. 2a. A mixture, especially of ingredients packaged and sold commercially: a cake mix. b. A blend of diverse elements; an amalgamation: “a mix of mean streets and the grandest boulevards—no other place in Paris is as eclectic and eccentric . . . as the 17th” (Jean Rafferty). 3. Electronics A recording that is produced by combining and adjusting two or more audio tracks or channels. | | PHRASAL VERBS: | mix down Electronics To combine all of the audio components of a recording into a final soundtrack or mix. mix up 1. To confuse; confound: His explanation just mixed me up more. I always mix up the twins. 2. To involve or implicate: He got himself mixed up with the wrong people. | | IDIOM: | mix it up Slang To fight. | | ETYMOLOGY: | Back-formation from Middle English mixt, mixed, mixed, from Anglo-Norman mixte, from Latin mixtus, past participle of misc re, to mix. See meik- in Appendix I. | | OTHER FORMS: | mix a·ble —ADJECTIVE
| | SYNONYMS: | mix, blend, mingle, merge, amalgamate, coalesce, fuse2 These verbs mean to put into or come together in one mass so that constituent parts or elements are diffused or commingled. Mix is the least specific: The cook mixed eggs, flour, and sugar. Greed and charity don't mix. To blend is to mix intimately and harmoniously so that the components lose their original definition: The clerk blended mocha and java coffee beans. Snow-covered mountains blended into the clouds. Mingle implies combination without loss of individual characteristics: “Respect was mingled with surprise” (Sir Walter Scott). “His companions mingled freely and joyously with the natives” (Washington Irving). Merge and amalgamate imply resultant homogeneity: Tradition and innovation are merged in this new composition. Twilight merged into night. “The four sentences of the original are amalgamated into two” (William Minto). Coalesce implies a slow merging: Indigenous peoples and conquerors coalesced into the present-day population. Fuse emphasizes an enduring union, as that formed by heating metals: “He diffuses a tone and spirit of unity, that blends, and (as it were) fuses, each into each” (Samuel Taylor Coleridge).
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| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by the Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. |
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