mesh

Pluralmeshes

Formsmeshes, meshing, meshed

1. 1
   nettingnouncountable or uncountable

   Material made of strands of metal, fiber, or another bendable substance joined together, leaving evenly spaced holes.

   Workers laid steel mesh across the site before pouring the concrete slab.

   Running shoes with mesh uppers let air circulate around the feet.

   Similarnetting, net, lattice, web

   Note

   The sense nearest the word's origin: Old English masc meant "net", from a root meaning "to knit, twist, plait". Shakespeare's golden mesh "to entrap the hearts of men", in The Merchant of Venice, is still a net for catching. In current use the word usually names the material itself, often without an article (workers laid steel mesh) or before another noun (mesh uppers).

2. 2
   be compatibleverbfigurativelyintransitive

   To fit in or come together harmoniously with someone or something else.

   The new hires meshed quickly with the rest of the team.

   Their schedules never seem to mesh, so the two friends rarely see each other.

   Similargel, harmonize, dovetail, coincide, blend

   Oppositeclash, conflict

   Note

   Here the gear meaning turns social: plans, people and styles mesh when they fit like interlocking teeth. It takes no object, and the partner follows with: Joe Levy, writing in The New York Times in 2012, wondered how the sound of alt rock would mesh with "blue skies and umbrella drinks". The adverb well often joins it when the fit is good, as when music meshes well with a film's visuals.

3. 3
   join like gearsverbtransitive or intransitive

   To connect, or become connected, by interlocking, as the teeth of gears do.

   Engineers redesigned the gearbox so drivers could mesh the gears without grinding them.

   As the zipper closes, its small metal teeth mesh in a neat row.

   Similarengage, interlock, connect

   Oppositedisengage

   Note

   A verb that works both ways. With an object, someone does the interlocking: a driver meshes the gears. Without one, the parts do it themselves: the teeth of a closing zipper mesh. Either way the result is what the noun for engaged teeth names, which is why gears that have meshed are said to be in mesh.

4. 4
   hole in a netnouncountable

   A single opening enclosed by the threads of a net from knot to knot, or the threads that form its edges.

   Each mesh of the trawl net is wide enough to let young fish escape.

   The diver cut through three meshes to free the trapped turtle.

   Note

   Unlike the material, this sense counts, and its plural comes easily: a net is made of meshes. The word can name either the hole or the threads that frame it, and context decides which. Counting openings like these across an inch is what gives the sieve-size measure its numbers.

5. 5
   linked devicesnouncountable

   A network topology in which each device connects to several other devices rather than to a central switch, so the redundant links avoid single points of failure.

   The farm's soil sensors form a wireless mesh, relaying readings from one unit to the next until they reach the barn.

   Because the routers are linked in a full mesh, the failure of any one still leaves traffic with other routes to take.

   Note

   A topology that comes in two strengths. In a full mesh every node links directly to every other; in a partial mesh only some do. The full version gives the most redundancy, but its links multiply quickly as nodes are added, so large networks often settle for a partial one. Before another noun the word works as a modifier, as in mesh network.

6. 6
   3D graphicsnouncountable

   A collection of connected polygons, defined by their vertices and edges, that models the surface of a three-dimensional object in computer graphics.

   The character's mesh was reduced to a few thousand triangles so it would render quickly on phones.

   After scanning the statue, the team patched holes in the mesh before printing a replica.

   Note

   A model's surface becomes a net laid over its shape: the faces are the openings, the shared edges the strands, the vertices the knots. The faces are usually triangles or quadrilaterals. A model is called high-poly or low-poly by how many faces it has, and closed or watertight when it has no holes, the condition 3D printing generally requires.

7. 7
   gear contactnouncountable or uncountable

   The engagement of the teeth of two gearwheels, or of a gearwheel with a toothed rack.

   The pinion stays in constant mesh with the rack, so every turn of the steering wheel shifts the rack sideways.

   Worn teeth gave the gears a poor mesh, and the machine began to chatter.

   Similarengagement

8. 8
   catch in a netverbtransitive

   To catch something in a net or similar mesh.

   Gill nets are set across the river to mesh salmon by the gills as they swim upstream.

   A careless sweep of the net meshed a turtle along with the shrimp.

   Similarnet, entangle, catch, trap, snare

   Note

   The trapping verb, and an old one: Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, writing before 1547, spells it meash and pairs it with take: "How smal a net may take and meash a hart of gentle kinde." His net is set for a heart, just as Shakespeare's golden mesh is half a century later.

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