Brewer's: Mark

God bless the mark! An ejaculation of contempt or scorn. (See Save The Mark.)

“To be ruled by my conscience, I should stay with the Jew my master, who, God bless the mark! is a kind of devil.” —Shakespeare: Merchant of Venice, ii. 2.

To make one's mark. To distinguish oneself. He has written his name (or made his mark) on the page of history.

Up to the mark.

Generally used in the negative; as, “Not quite up to the mark,” not good enough, not up to the standard fixed by the Assay office for gold and silver articles; not quite well.

Mark

(St.), in Christian art, is represented as being in the prime of life; sometimes habited as a bishop, and, as the historian of the resurrection, accompanied by a winged lion (q.v.). He holds in his right hand a pen, and in his left the Gospel. (See Luke.)

Mark

(Sir). A mythical king of Cornwall, Sir Tristram's uncle. He lived at Tintagel Castle, and married Isolde the Fair, who was passionately enamoured of his nephew, Sir Tristram. The illicit loves of Isolde and Tristram were proverbial in the Middle Ages.

Source: Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, E. Cobham Brewer, 1894

Mark Banco

Marjoram