meed
Americannoun
noun
Etymology
Origin of meed
before 900; Middle English mede, Old English mēd; cognate with German Miete hire; akin to Old English meord, Gothic mizdō, Greek misthós reward
Explanation
A meed is a well-deserved compensation or reward. At a birthday party, every guest hopes to gather his or her meed of candy from the piñata they've worked so hard to smash open. The noun meed is a very old fashioned way to talk about a payment or share of something. You're most likely to come across it in older books, but you might want to use it to describe the way your grandmother manages to give each of her twelve grandchildren a meed of her attention and love. Meed comes from the Old English root mēd, which has a Proto-Indo-European root in common with the Greek misthos, or "reward."
Vocabulary lists containing meed
Frankenstein
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Jane Eyre
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As You Like It
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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.
During the nine-day period between the King's death and his burial, most Britons had had their meed of public grief.
From Time Magazine Archive
Whoever wins or loses, the donor gets his meed of personal advertising and public acclaim.
From Time Magazine Archive
"I would deny no meed of praise or thanks."
From Time Magazine Archive
Nancy made a flat cake of white flour with a sprinkling of sugar on top, and Jenny pulled tender radishes and onions from her garden to give the taste of spring to their meed.
From "Across Five Aprils" by Irene Hunt
Let no one pay to me the meed of tears, nor weep at my funeral.
From The Roman Poets of the Republic by Sellar, W. Y.
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.
