SYNONYMS | EXAMPLES | WORD ORIGIN
verb (used with object), met·ed, met·ing. to distribute or apportion by measure; allot; dole (usually followed by out ): to mete out punishment.
Archaic to measure.
Origin of mete 1 before 900; Middle English; Old English metan; cognate with Dutch meten, Old Norse meta, Gothic mitan, German messen to measure, Greek mḗdesthai to ponder
Related forms un·met·ed , adjective Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019
Related Words for meting parcel ,
deal ,
give ,
ration ,
share ,
dole ,
portion ,
lot ,
measure ,
divide ,
allocate ,
allot ,
allow ,
apportion ,
assign ,
dispense ,
admeasure Examples from the Web for meting Contemporary Examples of meting “In meting out this punishment we did not take into account his past behavior,” Silver said.
Charges were filed against him, and now the institution is meting out the punishment for his actions.
In private, he fantasized about meting out violent punishment to his enemies.
We are all flawed human beings, and this is not about meting out judgment.
Historical Examples of meting Your thoughts have nothing to do with the meting out of human justice.
Thus endowed, will she be capable of meting out the future's larva's portion?
It is believed that we have lived to see the meting out of some divine awards.
It is my duty to use this power first of all in meting out justice.
Then my wrongs should have received full vengeance, and none would have blamed me for meting it out to these two villains.
British Dictionary definitions for meting verb (tr) (usually foll by out) formal to distribute or allot (something, often unpleasant)
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verb , noun poetic , dialect (to) measure
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Word Origin for mete Old English metan; compare Old Saxon metan, Old Norse meta, German messen to measure
noun rare a mark, limit, or boundary (esp in the phrase metes and bounds )
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Word Origin for mete C15: from Old French, from Latin mēta goal, turning post (in race)
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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Word Origin and History for meting v. "to allot," Old English metan "to measure, mete out; compare, estimate" (class V strong verb; past tense mæt , past participle meten ), from Proto-Germanic *metanan (cf. Old Saxon metan , Old Frisian, Old Norse meta , Dutch meten , Old High German mezzan , German messen , Gothic mitan "to measure"), from PIE *med- "to take appropriate measures" (see medical ). Used now only with out . Related: Meted ; meting .
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n. "boundary," now only in phrase metes and bounds , late 15c., from Old French mete "limit, bounds, frontier," from Latin meta "goal, boundary, post, pillar."
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
