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.
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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.
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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.
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to oppose.
to meet charges with countercharges.
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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?
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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
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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
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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
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(tr) to cope with effectively; satisfy
to meet someone's demands
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(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
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to experience; suffer
he met his death in a road accident
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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
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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:
They regularly meet up in Waters’s hometown of Baltimore and at Mosswood Meltdown, a music festival he’s hosted in Oakland, Calif. Six-time camper Kiichiro Yanashita has even welcomed friends to his home in Tokyo.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 20, 2026
The world number one will meet former Premier League champion Jonny Clayton in the quarter-finals on Sunday.
From BBC ● Sep. 19, 2026
She lives at Pilgrim Place — a senior community with a focus on justice, peace and environment — where residents meet regularly to study, discuss and advocate for sustainability, biodiversity and environmental causes.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 19, 2026
This should help Tetra meet its goal of roughly doubling revenue in the next four years compared with September 2025.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 19, 2026
If only Fin-Kedinn and Saeunn would return to the clan meet, he might be able to cut himself free.
From "Wolf Brother" by Michelle Paver
Any deal would likely be hammered out ahead of time by US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who meets his Chinese counterpart He Lifeng this weekend to prepare the ground.
From Barron's ● Sep. 17, 2026
Tesla said its design meets all applicable rules for vehicles operating on public roads.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 15, 2026
The atmosphere was Monte Carlo meets frat party — helicopters in and out, a beachside DJ set, beer pong tournaments.
From Salon ● Sep. 14, 2026
That sentiment is part of what Villegas is aiming to target as he meets voters.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 13, 2026
Dad and I sat near the front of the church, beside the Station of the Cross, Jesus meets his mother.
From "The Line Tender" by Kate Allen
Inside, over the course of my three days at the convention, I met no bears within the predominantly male crowd.
From Slate ● Sep. 20, 2026
I have been writing about him for most of that time, but although we have spoken frequently and exchanged hundreds of emails we have never met.
From BBC ● Sep. 19, 2026
“Maybe we never met, but we’ve all talked on the radio and know the names.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 19, 2026
I met a guy two months ago and I really like him.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 19, 2026
“Sorry I took so long. I . . . met some people.”
From "Legendary Frybread Drive-In" by Cynthia Leitich Smith
A party official from London came to explain the process to MSs, and Dan Thomas was also at that meeting.
From BBC ● Sep. 20, 2026
During the heated meeting last week, the board approved a resolution to immediately close the Kennedy Center’s main building for repairs.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 20, 2026
When that was not going anywhere, and where the staff were meeting roadblock after roadblock after roadblock, you better be sure that I jumped in.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 20, 2026
Merz, 70, has scheduled a crisis meeting of his centre-right CDU party leadership to discuss first results as they come in from the regional polls in Berlin and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania.
From Barron's
So that Friday morning, instead of taking the bus here, he drove with his aunt downtown to the social worker’s office for his first meeting.
From "Not Nothing" by Gayle Forman
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.
