m. I. a narrator, an informer, announcer :-- Ðæs ðe ic ǽfre on ealdre ǽngum ne wolde monna ofer moldan melda weorþan what I would never relate to any man upon earth, Exon. 50 b; Th. 176, 3; Gú. 1203: 73 b; Th. 275, 28 ; Jul. 557. Sió æsc biþ melda, nalles þeóf the axe is an informer, not a thief (i. e. the noise made by hewing with an axe would attract the attention, which a thief would certainly shun, I turned informer (cf. Th. 259, 28 sqq., 270, 10 for the narrative forced from the devil by Juliana: cf. also Jul. pp. 39 sqq.), Exon. 74 b; Th. 279, 30; Jul. 621. Ðæt wé ðæs morþres meldan ne weorþen that we be not informers of the crime, Elen. Kmbl. 856; El. 428. II. a betrayer :-- Gé sind meldan and manslagan (betrayers and murderers, Acts vii. 52), Homl. Th. i. 46, 24. [Cf. O. L. Ger. meldari sponsor: O. H. Ger. meldari delator, proditor.] melda