The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Mere \Mere\ (m[=e]r), v. t.
   To divide, limit, or bound. [Obs.]
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         Which meared her rule with Africa.       --Spenser.
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The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Mere \Mere\, n.
   A mare. [Obs.] --Chaucer.
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The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Mere \Mere\ (m[=e]r), a. [Superl. Merest. The comparative is
   rarely or never used.] [L. merus.]
   1. Unmixed; pure; entire; absolute; unqualified.
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            Then entered they the mere, main sea. --Chapman.
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            The sorrows of this world would be mere and unmixed.
                                                  --Jer. Taylor.
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   2. Only this, and nothing else; such, and no more; simple;
      bare; as, a mere boy; a mere form.
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            From mere success nothing can be concluded in favor
            of any nation.                        --Atterbury.
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The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

-mere \-mere\ [Gr. ? part.]
   A combining form meaning part, portion; as, blastomere,
   epimere.
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The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Mere \Mere\ (m[=e]r), 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.
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The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Mere \Mere\, n. [Written also meer and mear.] [AS. gem[=ae]re.
   [root]269.]
   A boundary. --Bacon.
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WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):

mere
    adj 1: being nothing more than specified; "a mere child"
    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(a), mere(a), simple(a)]
    n 1: a small pond of standing water

Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0:

39 Moby Thesaurus words for "mere":
   absolute, austere, bare, basic, chaste, elementary, essential,
   fundamental, homely, homespun, homogeneous, indivisible,
   irreducible, just, monolithic, of a piece, only, plain, primal,
   primary, pure, pure and simple, scant, severe, sheer, simon-pure,
   simple, single, spare, stark, unadorned, uncluttered,
   undifferenced, undifferentiated, undiluted, unenhanced, uniform,
   unmitigated, unmixed



Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856):

MERE. This is the French word for mother. It is frequently used as, in
ventre sa mere, which signifies; a child unborn, or in the womb.