mint
mint1 / mint/ • n. 1. an aromatic plant (genus Mentha) native to temperate regions of the Old World, several kinds of which are used as culinary herbs, including the widely cultivated spearmint (M. spicata) and peppermint (M. × piperita). Members of the mint family (Labiatae, or Lamiaceae), including such herbs as lavender, rosemary, sage, and thyme, have distinctive two-lobed flowers and square stems. 2. a mint-flavored candy.DERIVATIVES: mint·y adj. (mint·i·er , mint·i·est ) .mint2 • n. a place where money is coined, esp. under state authority. ∎ (a mint) inf. a vast sum of money: the car doesn't cost a mint.• adj. (of an object) in pristine condition; as new: a pair of speakers including stands, mint, $160.• v. [tr.] (often be minted) make (a coin) by stamping metal. ∎ [usu. as adj.] (minted) produce for the first time: an example of newly minted technology.PHRASES: in mint condition (of an object) new or as if new.DERIVATIVES: mint·er n.
mint
The Mint was a name given to a place of privilege formerly existing near the King's or Queen's Bench Prison in Southwark abolished by statute in 1723; to send someone to the Mint was to ruin them. The place took its name from a house which had been a ‘mint of coynage’ for Henry VIII, and so subject to royal privilege. Because it acted as a shelter for debtors it attracted a large number of poor and destitute people, and in mid-18th century poetry it was put on a similar level with Bedlam and Newgate.
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Hence mint vb. coin XVI; not continuous with OE. mynetian. mintage XVI.
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a vast sum of money or something of equal value.
Examples: mint of bravery, 1869; of money, 1655; of phrases; of questions, 1598; of reasons.