Mettre les armes à la main de quelqu’un, Fr. To teach a person the first rudiments of war, or lead him for the first time into action. C’est lui qui m’a mis les armes à la main. He first taught me how to fight, or I fought the first campaign under his orders.
Mettre aux arrêts, Fr. To put under arrest.
Mettre sur pied, Fr. To arm, to equip, to put troops upon an established footing.
MEURTRIERES, Fr. Small loop holes, sufficiently large to admit the barrel of a rifle gun or musquet, through which soldiers may fire, under cover, against an enemy. They likewise mean the cavities that are made in the walls of a fortified town or place. See [Murdresses].
MICHE. See [Malingerer].
MICROMETER, (Micromêtre, Fr.) an instrument contrived to measure small spaces, as in the divisions of the worm of a screw.
MIDI, Fr. the South.
MILE, in geography, a long measure, whereby the English, &c. express the distance between places: it is of different extent in different countries. The geometrical mile contains 1000 geometrical paces, or mille passus, from whence miles are denominated.
We shall here give a table of the miles in use among the principal nations of Europe, in geometrical paces, 60,000 of which, according to the English Military Dictionary, make a degree of the equator.
| Geometrical paces. | ||
|---|---|---|
| Mile of | Russia | 750 |
| Italy | 1000 | |
| England | 1200 | |
| Scotland and Ireland | 1500 | |
| The old league of France | 1500 | |
| The small ditto | 2000 | |
| The great ditto | 3000 | |
| Mile of | Poland | 3000 |
| Spain and Portugal | 3428 | |
| Germany | 4000 | |
| Sweden | 5000 | |
| Denmark | 5010 | |
| Hungary | 6000 | |
| Holland | 3500 | |