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meed

Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A merited reward or recompense.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun That which is bestowed or rendered in consideration of desert, good or bad (but usually the former); reward; recompense; award.
  • noun A gift; also, a bribe.
  • noun Merit or desert.
  • To reward; bribe.
  • To deserve or merit.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun That which is bestowed or rendered in consideration of merit; reward; recompense.
  • noun Merit or desert; worth.
  • noun obsolete A gift; also, a bride.
  • transitive verb obsolete To reward; to repay.
  • transitive verb obsolete To deserve; to merit.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun now literary, archaic A payment or recompense made for services rendered or in recognition of some achievement; reward, deserts; award.
  • noun A gift; bribe.
  • noun obsolete Merit or desert; worth.
  • verb transitive To reward; bribe.
  • verb transitive To deserve; merit.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a fitting reward

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English mede, from Old English mēd; see mizdho- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English meede, mede, from Old English mēd, meord, meard, meorþ ("meed, reward, pay, price, compensation, bribe"), from Proto-Germanic *mēzdō, *mizdō (“meed”), from Proto-Indo-European *mizdʰ- (“to pay”). Cognate with obsolete Dutch miede ("wages"), Low German mede ("payment, wages, reward"), German Miete ("rent"), Gothic  (mizdo, "meed, reward, payment, recompense"), Old Church Slavonic мьзда (mьzda, "reward").

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English meden, from Old English *mēdian ("to reward, bribe"), from Proto-Germanic *mizdōnan (“to meed”), from Proto-Indo-European *mizdʰ- (“to pay”). Cognate with Middle Low German mēden ("to reward"), German mieten ("to reward").

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Examples

  • In the first place, honours and titles meed not be hereditary; in the second, they need not be conferred by the political administration; and, in the third, they are not only — as the French Legion of Honour shows — entirely compatible with, but they are a necessary complement to the

    Mankind in the Making Herbert George 1903

  • Do you really meed me to gather together all the various times centrist Dems have said that they view a vote for cloture as equivalent to a vote for the bill?

    Matthew Yglesias » Who Hates the Public Option? 2010

  • The group stated that if Fiji does not meed the deadline, the country would be suspended from all Forum events and cease receiving any new financial and technical assistance.

    Global Voices in English » Fiji faces suspension from Pacific Islands Forum 2009

  • I have land, money, power, recognition from the world, a consciousness that I do my meed of good in serving others, a mate whom I love, children that are of my own fond flesh.

    Chapter 36 2010

  • "I assure you I can appreciate your side of it; and though, looking at it theoretically, it was the highest conduct, demanding the fullest meed of praise, still, in all frankness, there is much to -- to --"

    CHAPTER 10 2010

  • March 27, 2010 at 2: 03 am its true we all meed to struggle so that we can make good money for this huh ….

    Persistence Pays – But Not Enough to Cover the Rent | Write to Done 2010

  • She was willing to go into the black grave and remain in its blackness forever, to go into the salt vats and let the young men cut her dead flesh to sausage-meat, if -- if only she could get her small meed of happiness first.

    CHAPTER XV 2010

  • I feel like I meed all the help I can get. on 11 May 2009 at 9: 57 am Lindsey

    Writer Unboxed » Blog Archive » Win Ray Rhamey’s new book! 2009

  • He could have endured poverty; and while this distress had been the meed of his virtue, he gloried in it: but the ingratitude of the Turk, and the loss of his beloved Safie, were misfortunes more bitter and irreparable.

    Chapter 14 2010

  • “Feezi meed!” he roared, throwing the meat down and grabbing his lance.

    The Search For WondLa Tony DiTerlizzi 2010

Comments

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  • bilby commented on the word meed

    Why did I laugh? I know this Being's lease,

    My fancy to its utmost blisses spreads;

    Yet would I on this very midnight cease,

    And the world's gaudy ensigns see in shreds;

    Verse, Fame, and Beauty are intense indeed,

    But Death intenser -Death is Life's high meed.

    - John Keats, 'Why Did I Laugh Tonight?'

    July 29, 2009

  • utarcher commented on the word meed

    "I bestow on thee this chaplet, Sir Knight, as the meed of valour assigned to this day's victor." Here she paused a moment, and then firmly added, "And upon brows more worthy could a wreath of chivalry never be placed!"

    --Ivanhoe, Chapter XII, by Sir Walter Scott

    January 10, 2011

  • yarb commented on the word meed

    "Alas, but why have I not pretended at least that I had read them, accepted some meed of retraction in the fact that they were sent?"

    - Lowry, Under the Volcano

    June 25, 2011

  • knitandpurl commented on the word meed

    "The helpful inmate had departed, without one backward glance to gather up the meed of gratitude, if any were in the hearts of those whom she had served so zealously."

    Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter

    March 20, 2023