mete
/miːt/ verb, noun
Also a form of meet
Forms metes meting meted
- verb (transitive, usually with “out”) To dispense, measure in order to dispense, allot (especially punishment, reward etc.).
- noun A boundary or other limit; a boundary-marker; mere.
Synonyms
Etymology
From Middle English meten, from Old English metan (“to measure, mete out, mark off, compare, estimate; pass over, traverse”), from Proto-West Germanic *metan, from Proto-Germanic *metaną (“to measure”), from Proto-Indo-European *med- (“to measure, consider”).
Cognate with Scots mete (“to measure”), Saterland Frisian meete (“to measure”), West Frisian mjitte (“to measure”), Dutch meten (“to measure”), German messen (“to measure”), Swedish mäta (“to measure”), Latin modus (“limit, measure, target”), Ancient Greek μεδίμνος (medímnos, “measure, bushel”), Ancient Greek μέδεσθαι (médesthai, “care for”), Old Armenian միտ (mit, “mind”).
From Middle English mete, from Old French mete (“boundary, boundary marker”), from Latin mēta (“post, goal, marker”). Cognate with the second element in Old English wullmod (“distaff”).
From Middle English mete, imete, from Old English mǣte, ġemǣte (“moderate, suitable”). More at meet.
Webster’s 1913
- noun Meat. [Obs.] Chaucer.
- verb To meet. [Obs.] Chaucer.
- verb To dream; also impersonally; as, me mette, I dreamed. [Obs.] "I mette of him all night." Chaucer.
- verb To find the quantity, dimensions, or capacity of, by any rule or standard; to measure.
Etymology [AS. m.]
Etymology [AS. metan; akin to D. meten, G. messen, OHG. mezzan, Icel. meta, Sw. mäta, Goth. mitan, L. modus measure, moderation, modius a corn measure, Gr. measure, L. metiri to measure; cf. Skr. ma to measure. sq. root99. Cf. Measure, Meet, a., Mode.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “mete”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details