in botany, nuts or fruits of trees and shrubs, such as beechnuts, acorns, and berries, that accumulate on the forest floor, providing forage for game animals and swine. Mast has also been used as human food and to fatten poultry. ...
tissue cell of the immune system of vertebrate animals. Mast cells mediate inflammatory responses such as hypersensitivity and allergic reactions. They are scattered throughout the connective tissues of the body, especially beneath the surface of the skin, near blood vessels ...
surgical removal of a breast, usually to remove a malignancy but also performed in the treatment of other conditions (e.g., cystic breast disease) and for other medical reasons. Mastectomy is most effective when the cancerous tumour is discovered at an ...
unidentified late Gothic German goldsmith and engraver who signed many of his engravings with the monogram E.S. and who was one of the outstanding early printmakers of Europe.
invitational golf competition held annually since 1934 at the Augusta National Golf Club in Augusta, Georgia, U.S., on a course designed by the former American amateur champion Bobby Jones and the Scottish golf-course architect Alister MacKenzie. Held during the first ...
town ("district"), Wellington local government region, southern North Island, New Zealand, on the Ruamahanga River (a tributary of the Wairarapa), 55 miles (89 km) northeast of Wellington. The town was established in 1854 and named after Joseph Masters, founder of ...
aromatic resin, obtained as a soft exudation from incisions in mastic trees. It is used chiefly to make pale varnishes for protecting metals and paintings. When dispersed in bodied (thickened by heating) linseed oil, mastic is known as megilp and ...
breed of large working dog used as a guard and fighting dog in England for more than 2,000 years. Dogs of this type are found in European and Asian records dating back to 3000 BC. Sometimes called the Molossian breeds ...
any of various species of free-tailed bats (family Molossidae) named for their doglike faces. The eight New World species of bats making up the genus Molossus are called mastiff bats. Several other genera also include species commonly ...
protozoan superclass whose members are characterized, at some time in the life cycle, by the possession of hairlike structures called flagella. See flagellate.
inflammation of the breast in women or of the udder in sheep, swine, and cattle. Acute mastitis in women is a sudden infectious inflammation caused usually by the bacterium Staphylococcus aureus, or sometimes by streptococcus organisms. It begins almost exclusively ...
any of several extinct elephantine mammals (family Mastodontidae, genus Mastodon [also called Mammut] that first appeared in the early Miocene and continued in various forms through the Pleistocene Epoch (from 1,600,000 to 10,000 years ago). In North America, mastodons probably ...
the smooth pyramidal or cone-shaped bone projection at the base of the skull on each side of the head just below and behind the ear in humans. The mastoid process is important to students of fossil humans because it occurs ...
inflammation of the mastoid process, a projection of the temporal bone just behind the ear. Mastoiditis, which primarily affects children, usually results from an infection of the middle ear (otitis media). Symptoms include pain and swelling behind the ear and ...
actor who became the preeminent leading man in Italian cinema during the 1960s. An attractive man whose acting style projected a mood of casual affability, he achieved international fame as the screen symbol of the modern European.
manipulation of the genital organs for pleasure, usually to orgasm. The term masturbation generally connotes self-manipulation, but it can also be used to describe manipulation of or by a sexual partner, exclusive of sexual intercourse. Once the object of extravagant ...
city, Shimane ken (prefecture), western Honshu, Japan. It lies in the basin of the Takatsu River, near the Sea of Japan. The commercial hub of the surrounding agricultural region, Masuda has a few rural industries such as tatami mat production, ...
historical epic about the Kamakura period (1192-1333) and one of the four best-known kagami (records) of Japanese history. The document, which is attributed to Nijo Yoshimoto, was written sometime between 1333 and 1376 and narrates the historical events occurring from ...
city, eastern Andhra Pradesh state, southern India. Masulipatam was the first British trading settlement (1611) on the Bay of Bengal. From 1686 to 1759 the city was held by the French and Dutch, until it was finally ceded to the ...
(Feb. 23, 1768), agreement by which the state of Hyderabad, India, submitted to British control. The First Mysore War began in 1767 and concerned the East India Company's attempts to check the expansionary policies of the ruler of Mysore, Hyder ...
lake district, northeastern Poland. It is a 20,000-square-mile (52,000-square-kilometre) area immediately to the south of the Baltic coastal plains and extends 180 miles (290 km) eastward from the lower Vistula River to the Poland-Belarus border. It includes the wojewodztwa (provinces) ...
town, south-central Zimbabwe. It was founded in 1890 near the Macheke and Mshangashe rivers and became a municipality in 1953. A fort was built there and named for Queen Victoria. Located on the road between Harare (formerly Salisbury) and Pretoria ...
dancer and courtesan whose name has become a synonym for the seductive female spy. She was shot by the French on charges of spying for Germany during World War I, although the nature and extent of her espionage activities remain ...
traditional region in southwestern Zimbabwe, inhabited mainly by the Bantu-speaking Ndebele people. It includes the southwestern portion of Zimbabwe's High and Middle velds, plateau country that ranges in elevation from 3,000 to 5,000 feet (900 to 1,500 m). The region ...
South American Indians of the Gran Chaco, who speak an independent language and live mostly between the Bermejo and Pilcomayo rivers in northeastern Argentina. Some live in Bolivia. The Mataco are the largest and most important group of the Chaco ...
port city, extreme western Congo (Kinshasa). It lies along the Congo River opposite the town of Vivi. Matadi is situated 93 miles (150 km) upstream from the Atlantic port of Banana and is the farthest point up the river reached ...
in bullfighting, the principal performer who works the capes and usually dispatches the bull with a sword thrust between the shoulder blades. Though most bullfighters have been men, women bullfighters have participated in the spectacle for centuries. (For greater detail ...
city, west-central Nicaragua, situated in a highland valley 2,237 feet (682 metres) above sea level. One of the older and more picturesque cities of the nation, it contains a colonial church. It is the leading commercial and manufacturing centre of ...
town, central Sri Lanka (Ceylon), 14 miles (23 km) north of Kandy. A Buddhist monastery and rock temple (Aluvihara) are near the town. Matale's intermediate elevation and moderate rainfall abet the cultivation of spices. It is a cattle centre, and ...
historical African kingdom of the Mbundu people, situated on the west bank of the Kwango River northeast of Luanda, Angola. In the early 16th century it was a well-established state, independent but paying occasional tribute to the Kongo kingdom to ...
city, southwestern Puebla state, south-central Mexico. Formerly known as Matamoros de Izucar, the city is situated at 4,350 feet (1,326 m) above sea level on the Nexapa River, which descends through the Sierra Nevada. Livestock raising and crop growing (mainly ...
city, northern Tamaulipas state, Mexico, on the southern bank of the Rio Grande (Rio Bravo del Norte), 28 miles (45 km) from the Gulf of Mexico and across from Brownsville, Texas. Matamoros, founded in 1824, was the scene of bitter ...
city, Bas-Saint-Laurent region, eastern Quebec province, Canada. It lies on the south bank of the St. Lawrence River, at the mouth of the Matane River.
city, west-central Cuba. Founded in 1693 on an excellent bay (on the Straits of Florida) known to the Spanish since 1508 and used by pirates, it was by 1860 the second city of Cuba, but its growth was slowed as ...
provincia, west-central Cuba, bounded on the north by the Straits of Florida, on the northeast by Villa Clara province, on the southeast by Cienfuegos province, on the southwest by the Caribbean Sea, and on the west by La Habana province. ...
most important valley in the Gaspe Peninsula, lying in Bas-Saint-Laurent region, eastern Quebec province, Canada. Extending in a northwest-southeast direction for some 60 miles (100 km), it forms a direct lowland route through the Notre Dame Mountains from the St. ...
port town, Barcelona provincia, in the comunidad autonoma (autonomous community) of Catalonia, northeastern Spain, on the Mediterranean coast. The town originated as the Roman Iluro and is divided into an older, Moorish sector on ...
town, southern Sri Lanka. It lies at the mouth of the Nilwala River on the island's southern coast. Its name, meaning Great Ford, arose from its location at a river crossing. The Portuguese held the town in the 17th century, ...
large kingdom in Java that lasted from the late 16th century to the 18th century, when the Dutch came to power in Indonesia. Mataram was originally a vassal of Pajang, but it became powerful under Senapati (later known as Adiwijoyo), ...
