mesh
n. C / Un. a material made of many connected wires or threads with small holes between them. You often see it in fences, screens, or even in the fabric of sports shoes.
n. an interlaced structure of wire, fiber, or other strands characterized by evenly spaced openings. Often used in technical contexts to describe physical filters or the interconnected nodes of a network.
The window has a fine wire mesh to keep out insects.
The athlete wore a shirt made of breathable mesh to stay cool during the race.
Engineers designed a reinforced steel mesh to stabilize the concrete foundation against the shifting pressures of the surrounding soil.
From Middle English mesche, from Old English masc (“net”) (perhaps influenced in form by related Old English mæscre (“mesh, spot”)), from the related Proto-Germanic maskwǭ and maskrǭ respectively, from Proto-Indo-European *mezg- (“to knit, twist, plait”). Akin to Old High German māsca (“mesh”), Old Saxon maska (“net”), Old Norse mǫskvi, mǫskun (“mesh”).
Uncountable when referring to the material in general; countable when referring to a specific piece or a network structure.