Merton

Also found in: Thesaurus, Legal, Encyclopedia, Wikipedia.

Related to Merton: Robert Merton, Thomas Merton

Mer·ton

(mûr′tn), Robert King 1910-2003.

American sociologist who proposed that deviant behavior results when a society offers no acceptable means of achieving acceptable goals.

Merton

, Thomas 1915-1968.

American Trappist monk and writer of works on contemporary spiritual and secular life, including The Seven Storey Mountain (1948) and No Man Is an Island (1955).

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Merton

(ˈmɜːtən)

(Placename) a borough in SW Greater London. Pop: 191 400 (2003 est). Area: 38 sq km (15 sq miles)

Merton

(ˈmɜːtən)

(Biography) Thomas (Feverel). 1915–68, US writer, monk, and mystic; noted esp for his autobiography The Seven Storey Mountain (1948)

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

Mer•ton

(ˈmɜr tn)

n.

1. Thomas, 1915–68, U.S. poet and religious writer, born in France.

2. a borough of Greater London, England. 164,500.

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Switch to new thesaurus

Noun	1.	Merton - United States religious and writer (1915-1968) Thomas Merton
	2.	Merton - United States sociologist (1910-2003) Robert King Merton, Robert Merton

Mentioned in ?

References in classic literature ?

Hence, while the young detective (whose name was Merton) led the little priest across the fields to the railway, their talk was more confidential than could be expected between two total strangers.

Merton candidly, "there is no sense to be made of it at all.

View in context

Merton did; and I was thinking perhaps papa had got one down there, and it kind of frightened me."

Merton's was a bad, disgraceful failure, and I don't wonder he had a fit.

View in context

As he thought of Hetty Merton, he began to wonder if the portrait in the locked room had changed.

He was thinking of Hetty Merton. For it was an unjust mirror, this mirror of his soul that he was looking at.

View in context

There was a boy at our school, we used to call him Sandford and Merton. His real name was Stivvings.

View in context

Educated at Harrow and Merton College, Cambridge, M.A., LL.D., and winner of the Rudlock History Prize.

View in context

But then Ophelia had probably known Hamlet a long while; and Brenda Troil--she had known Mordaunt Merton ever since they were children; but then he seems to have been an estimable young man; and Minna was still more deeply in love with Cleveland, who was a stranger.

View in context

Paul's Churchyard, and there purchased the Parents' Assistant and the Sandford and Merton Georgy longed for, and got into the coach there with her parcel, and went home exulting.

View in context

From this point the track sweeps downward to Bartons Crossing, Helmdale, and the purely agricultural county of Merton. It was a single track railroad; but at every siding--and they were numerous--long lines of trucks piled with coal and iron ore told of the hidden wealth which had brought a rude population and a bustling life to this most desolate corner of the United States of America.

View in context

Supposing, for instance, that - that any public man, my father, or Lord Merton, or Robert, say, had, years ago, written some foolish letter to some one .