meet
1 Americanverb (used with object)
-
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.
-
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.
-
to come to or before (one's notice, or a means of noticing, as the eyes or ears).
A peculiar sight met my eyes.
-
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.
-
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
-
meetsimple
-
meetssimple
-
have metperfect
-
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
Looking to grow your vocabulary? Check out this interactive, curated word list from our team of English language specialists at Vocabulary.com – one of over 17,000 lists we've built to help learners worldwide!
"The Tragedy of Macbeth," Vocabulary from Act 5
Interested in learning more words like this one? Our team at Vocabulary.com has got you covered! You can review flashcards, quiz yourself, practice spelling, and more – and it's all completely free to use!
"The Tragedy of Hamlet," Vocabulary from Act 3
Want to remember this word for good? Start your learning journey today with our library of interactive, themed word lists built by the experts at Vocabulary.com – we'll help you make the most of your study time!
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:
Hastily built to meet skyrocketing demand for computing power required by the global artificial intelligence race, these data centers are facing opposition across the United States.
From Barron's ● Aug. 11, 2026
He tells clients in a note that ResMed will likely raise prices after its fiscal first quarter, to meet its guidance for incremental gross margin expansion.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 10, 2026
The two sides meet at Hill Dickinson Stadium on Saturday, 22 August, on the opening weekend of the Premier League campaign.
From BBC ● Aug. 10, 2026
“But even at that amount, we will still not have enough capacity to meet all the demand we have in 2026, and I believe this dynamic will also be true in 2027 too,” Jassy said.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 10, 2026
I need to ask her a very important question, and to do that, I’ll have to make eye contact with Aunt J. So I chance lifting my head to meet her gaze.
From "Split the Sky" by Marie Arnold
Solar now meets about 10% of the nation’s power needs, up from 3% at the beginning of last year, the government said.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 9, 2026
Measure B funds, he said, should be “distributed in a way that best meets the needs of the community” instead of going to “hospitals who don’t really need it.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 3, 2026
Owners gathered at Manukau Stadium, Auckland, for one of the final meets in June.
From BBC ● Jul. 31, 2026
The Fed's open-market committee currently meets eight times a year, and reducing this frequency would be a significant change.
From Barron's ● Jul. 31, 2026
Another pile of garbage bags sits in front of the sink, doing nothing to hide the yellowed linoleum flooring that’s cracked and peeling where it meets the worn brown carpeting of the living room.
From "Red Flags and Butterflies" by Sheryl Azzam
U.S. intelligence agencies say he is alive but severely injured, and top Iranian cabinet members say they have never met him since he took office.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 11, 2026
A Los Angeles Superior Court judge denied a request for a Los Angeles influencer charged with stealing luxury items from wealthy older men she met on dating apps to be diverted into mental health treatment.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 11, 2026
He set his heart on the eighth woman he met.
From BBC ● Aug. 10, 2026
She met Abbott when they worked together on the 2020 psychological thriller “Black Bear.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 10, 2026
Fin-Kedinn met the old woman’s eyes, and for a moment there seemed to be a battle of wills between them.
From "Wolf Brother" by Michelle Paver
"We'll have to find new suggestions and new ideas" that both "Russia and Ukraine can agree to," Rubio said after that meeting.
From Barron's ● Aug. 11, 2026
Anthropic is meeting with potential investors to shore up confidence ahead of a planned IPO that could launch in September or early October.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 11, 2026
School performance ranged from no pupils leaving Year 6 able to swim 25m to others meeting the target at 100%.
From BBC ● Aug. 11, 2026
NHS England says that since 2015, more than 100,000 people have been diagnosed and treated for hepatitis C, meaning the country is already meeting that target.
From BBC ● Aug. 10, 2026
I wondered if the prayer meeting had ended, if Willem and Nollie and Peter had gotten away.
From "The Hiding Place" by Corrie ten Boom
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.
