Definition: mere

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Source: WordNet (r) 1.7 

mere
     adj 1: being nothing more than specified; "a mere child" [syn: mere]
     2: apart from anything else; without additions or
        modifications; "only the bare facts"; "shocked by the mere
        idea"; "the simple passage of time was enough"; "the
        simple truth" [syn: bare, mere, simple]
     n : (British) a small pond of standing water

Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) 

-mere \-mere\ [Gr. ? part.]
   A combining form meaning part, portion; as, blastomere,
   epimere.
Mere \Mere\, n. [Written also mar.] [OE. mere, AS. mere mere,
   sea; akin to D. meer lake, OS. meri sea, OHG. meri, mari, G.
   meer, Icel. marr, Goth. marei, Russ. more, W. mor, Ir. &
   Gael. muir, L. mare, and perh. to L. mori to die, and meaning
   originally, that which is dead, a waste. Cf. Mortal,
   Marine, Marsh, Mermaid, Moor.]
   A pool or lake. --Drayton. Tennyson.
Mere \Mere\, n. [Written also meer and mear.] [AS. gem[=ae]re.
   [root]269.]
   A boundary. --Bacon.
Mere \Mere\, v. t.
   To divide, limit, or bound. [Obs.]

         Which meared her rule with Africa.       --Spenser.
Mere \Mere\, n.
   A mare. [Obs.] --Chaucer.
Mere \Mere\, a. [Superl. Merest. The comparative is rarely or
   never used.] [L. merus.]
   1. Unmixed; pure; entire; absolute; unqualified.

            Then entered they the mere, main sea. --Chapman.

            The sorrows of this world would be mere and unmixed.
                                                  --Jer. Taylor.

   2. Only this, and nothing else; such, and no more; simple;
      bare; as, a mere boy; a mere form.

            From mere success nothing can be concluded in favor
            of any nation.                        --Atterbury.