Wiktionary

meed

See also: Meed

English

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Pronunciation

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Etymology 1

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From Middle English meede, mede, from Old English mēd, meord, meard, meorþ (“meed, reward, pay, price, compensation, bribe”), from Proto-West Germanic *miʀdu, from Proto-Germanic *mizdō (“meed”), from Proto-Indo-European *misdʰéh₂, from Proto-Indo-European *mey- (“to exchange”).

Cognate with obsolete Dutch miede (“wages”), Low German mede (“payment, wages, reward”), German Miete (“rent”), Gothic 𐌼𐌹𐌶𐌳𐍉 (mizdō, “meed, reward, payment, recompense”), Ancient Greek μισθός (misthós, “wage”), Old Church Slavonic мьзда (mĭzda, “reward”), Sanskrit मीळ्ह (mīḷhá), Sanskrit मीढ (mīḍhá), Avestan 𐬨𐬍𐬲𐬛𐬀 (mīžda).

Noun

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meed (plural meeds)

  1. (now literary, archaic) A payment or recompense made for services rendered or in recognition of some achievement; reward, deserts; award.
    • 1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book IIII, Canto I”, in The Faerie Queene. […], part II (books IV–VI), London: […] [Richard Field] for William Ponsonby, →OCLC, stanza 6, page 6:
      For well ſhe wiſt,​as true it was indeed / That her liues Lord and patrone of her health / Right well deſerued as his duefull meed, / Her loue,​her ſeruice,​and her vtmoſt wealth.
    • 1801, Robert Southey, “(please specify the page)”, in Thalaba the Destroyer, volumes (please specify |volume=I or II), London: […] [F]or T[homas] N[orton] Longman and O[wen] Rees, […], by Biggs and Cottle, […], →OCLC:
      Brought up in darkness, and the child of sin,
      Yet, as the meed of spotless innocence,
      Just Heaven permitted her by one good deed
      To work her own redemption, after death.
    • 1829, Andrew Jackson, First Annual Message to Congress:
      Public gratitude, therefore, stamps her seal upon it, and the meed should not be withheld which may here after operate as a stimulus to our gallant tars.
    • 1880, translation by Richard Francis Burton of Os Lusiadas, Canto IX, stanza 93 by Luís de Camões
      Better to merit and the meed to miss,
      than, lacking merit, every meed possess.
    • 1904, Stanley J. Weyman, “V. The Captain of Vlaye”, in The Abbess of Vlaye:
      Nor, save for a circumstance presently to be named, could even the Abbess's sullen curiosity have withheld a meed of admiration as the panorama unfolded itself before her.
    • 1936, Agatha Christie, The A.B.C. Murders:
      [Poirot continued,] "And here a full meed of praise is due to Hastings, who made a simple and obvious remark to which no attention was paid."
  2. A gift; bribe.
  3. (dated) Merit or desert; worth.
Quotations
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Derived terms
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Etymology 2

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From Middle English meden, from Old English *mēdian (“to reward, bribe”), from Proto-West Germanic *miʀdōn, from Proto-Germanic *mizdōną (“to reward”), from Proto-Indo-European *misdʰ- (“to pay”). Cognate with German Low German meden (“to hire, lease, rent”), German mieten (“to rent”).

Verb

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meed (third-person singular simple present meeds, present participle meeding, simple past and past participle meeded)

  1. (transitive) To reward; bribe.
  2. (transitive) To deserve; merit.

See also

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Anagrams

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Central Franconian

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Adjective

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meed

  1. Alternative spelling of med

Dutch

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Pronunciation

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Verb

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meed

  1. singular past indicative of mijden

Anagrams

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Estonian

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Noun

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meed

  1. nominative plural of mesi

Middle English

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Etymology 1

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Noun

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meed

  1. Alternative form of mede (“mead (beverage)”)

Etymology 2

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Noun

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meed

  1. Alternative form of mede (“meadow”)

Etymology 3

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Noun

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meed

  1. Alternative form of mede (“reward”)

Plautdietsch

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Etymology

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From Middle Low German möde, from Old Saxon mōthi, from Proto-West Germanic *mōþī.

Adjective

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meed

  1. tired, weary, fatigued, fagged
    hee wia sea meed
    he was very tired

Antonyms

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Derived terms

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See also

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Further reading

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