meet
1 Americanverb (used with object)
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meets,
present (3rd person singular)
-
met,
past participle, past
-
meeting
present participle
-
to come upon; come into the presence of; encounter.
I would meet him on the street at unexpected moments.
-
to become acquainted with; be introduced to.
I've never met your cousin.
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to join at an agreed or designated place or time.
Meet me in St. Louis.
-
to be present at the arrival of.
to meet a train.
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to come to or before (one's notice, or a means of noticing, as the eyes or ears).
A peculiar sight met my eyes.
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to come into the company of (a person, group, etc.) in dealings, conference, etc.
-
to face, eye, etc., directly or without avoidance.
- Synonyms:
- confront
-
to come into physical contact, juxtaposition, or collision with.
The two cars met each other head-on at high speed.
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to encounter in opposition, conflict, or contest.
Harvard meets Yale next week in football.
-
to oppose.
to meet charges with countercharges.
-
to cope or deal effectively with (an objection, difficulty, etc.).
-
to comply with; fulfill; answer.
to meet a deadline;
to meet a demand.
-
to pay in full.
How will you meet expenses?
-
to come into conformity with (wishes, expectations, views, etc.).
-
to encounter in experience.
to meet hostility.
verb (used without object)
-
meets,
present (3rd person singular)
-
met,
past participle, past
-
meeting
present participle
-
to come together, face to face, or into company.
We met on the street.
-
to assemble for action, conference, or other common purpose, as a committee, legislature, or class.
The board of directors will meet on Tuesday.
- Synonyms:
- collect
-
to become personally acquainted.
-
to come into contact or form a junction, as lines, planes, or areas.
The two lines meet to form an angle.
- Antonyms:
- diverge
-
to be conjoined or united.
-
to concur or agree.
-
to come together in opposition or conflict, as adversaries or hostile forces.
noun
-
meets
plural
-
an assembly, as of persons and hounds for a hunt or swimmers or runners for a race or series of races.
a track meet.
- Synonyms:
- competition, contest
-
those assembled.
-
the place of such an assembling.
-
Mathematics. intersection.
verb phrase
idioms
-
meet halfway,
-
to concede in part, as to the demands of an opposing faction; make concessions, as to another person; compromise.
Despite their differences, the union and the company finally agreed to meet halfway and settle their dispute.
-
to anticipate another's actions and conduct oneself accordingly.
-
-
well met, welcome.
-
meet cute, cute.
adjective
verb
-
to come together (with), either by design or by accident; encounter
I met him unexpectedly
we met at the station
-
to come into or be in conjunction or contact with (something or each other)
the roads meet in the town
the sea meets the sky
-
(tr) to come to or be at the place of arrival of
to meet a train
-
to make the acquaintance of or be introduced to (someone or each other)
have you two met?
-
to gather in the company of (someone or each other)
the board of directors meets on Tuesday
-
to come into the presence of (someone or each other) as opponents
Joe meets Fred in the boxing match
-
(tr) to cope with effectively; satisfy
to meet someone's demands
-
(tr) to be apparent to (esp in the phrase meet the eye )
-
(tr) to return or counter
to meet a blow with another
-
to agree with (someone or each other)
we met him on the price he suggested
-
to experience; suffer
he met his death in a road accident
-
to occur together
courage and kindliness met in him
-
(tr) to find (a person, situation, etc) in a specified condition
I met the door open
-
(of a celebrity, politician, etc) to have a session of being introduced to and questioned by members of the public or journalists
noun
-
the assembly of hounds, huntsmen, etc, prior to a hunt
-
a meeting, esp a sports meeting
-
the place where the paths of two railway trains meet or cross
-
a session where a celebrity, etc, is introduced to or questioned by members of the public or journalists
adjective
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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meetsimple
-
meetssimple
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have metperfect
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has metperfect
-
am meetingprogressive
-
are meetingprogressive
-
is meetingprogressive
-
have been meetingperfect progressive
-
has been meetingperfect progressive
Past
-
metsimple
-
had metperfect
-
was meetingprogressive
-
were meetingprogressive
-
had been meetingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of meet1
First recorded before 900; Middle English mete(n), miete(n), Old English (ge)mētan; cognate with Old Norse mœta, Old Saxon mōtian; see moot
Origin of meet2
First recorded before 1000; Middle English mete, meete, mette, from Old English gemǣte “suitable,” cognate with German gemäss “suitable, appropriate”
Explanation
Meet means to interact in some way. You can meet someone at a party, you can meet another team in a game. There are many ways to meet. You can meet with tragedy, which means to have something awful happen to you. You can meet the needs of others, which means you give them what they need. You can meet expectations on the state exam, which means you do as well as you need to pass. You can meet your friends at the mall. When you see the word meet, there’s usually a connection being made.
Vocabulary lists containing meet
"Of Plymouth Plantation," Vocabulary from the historical account
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"The Tragedy of Macbeth," Vocabulary from Act 5
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"The Tragedy of Hamlet," Vocabulary from Act 3
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
In a statement on its website, Stena Line said the change would meet UK Border Force requirements "in relation to the accuracy and integrity of passenger data before boarding".
From BBC ● Sep. 28, 2026
The memory-chip maker is one of three major suppliers of high-bandwidth memory, a product that it co-designs with customers to meet their specific AI needs.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 28, 2026
And baseball’s best rivalry will be on October display only if the Dodgers and San Diego Padres meet in the NL Championship Series.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 28, 2026
Entain expects to meet its 2026 earnings guidance despite the ban, though it expects results to be at the lower end of its guided ranges.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 28, 2026
‘Your Fa’s mad!’ the children had taunted Torak five summers before, when he and Fa had journeyed to the sea-shore for the clan meet.
From "Wolf Brother" by Michelle Paver
In the process, Wilson meets other eccentric characters that share his passion of filmmaking but have their own interests, like clearing gum from a sidewalk, immortalizing a person’s tattoo after they’re dead, and music.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 25, 2026
Jenny Rowan, head of retail, meets me at Dove House's large store in Hessle Road.
From BBC ● Sep. 24, 2026
“Hidden behind towering privacy hedges in Encino’s famed “Rancho Estates,” this multi-structure tennis court compound delivers the ultimate sanctuary where high-end luxury seamlessly meets practical family livability,” the listing describes.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 23, 2026
The team considers the impact origin essentially confirmed, although a Meteoritical Society committee is expected to provide formal recognition when it next meets.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 22, 2026
I was doing fairly well in most of my meets, but until I began competing at levels nine and ten, no one paid much attention to individual wins.
From "Courage to Soar" by Simone Biles
When prolific filmmaker Werner Herzog first met the Chaplin twins, Freda and Greta, the internet as we know it did not exist.
From Salon ● Sep. 28, 2026
In March, the OBR calculated that the first rule would be met with a gap - or headroom - of £23.6bn.
From BBC ● Sep. 28, 2026
The two leaders have met twice already this year, with Trump having traveled to Beijing in May.
From Barron's ● Sep. 28, 2026
Rajaniemi first met Sam Altman in 2016, when the OpenAI chief was still working with the startup incubator Y Combinator and the two discussed pandemics.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 28, 2026
Our eyes met across the table once more, not that I was keeping count.
From "Legendary Frybread Drive-In" by Cynthia Leitich Smith
Goalkeeper Gavin Bazunu withdrew from the squad following a long meeting held in the hotel, when the match appeared to be in jeopardy as training and the pre-match news conference were repeatedly delayed.
From BBC ● Sep. 28, 2026
On Sunday, he said his government would work tirelessly to present new housing measures as early as Tuesday, following a cabinet meeting.
From Barron's ● Sep. 28, 2026
Nvidia’s new platform release comes after Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said at the United Nations meeting in New York that an OpenAI agent had infiltrated a government-services website in Australia this summer.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 28, 2026
In Laredo, City Council member Tyler King cast doubt on the permanence of the funding block in Monday’s meeting.
From Salon ● Sep. 28, 2026
No more Astor Street means no more walking to Skye’s apartment or meeting at the deli for lunch.
From "South of Somewhere" by Kalena Miller
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
