mete
/miːt/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 2.41 in modern English
6
Scrabble Score
4
Letters
1
Syllables
3
Unique Chars
Meaning
verb
To dispense, measure in order to dispense, allot (especially punishment, reward etc.).
Transitive verb
Example Sentences
- "Match'd with an agèd wife, I mete and dole Unequal laws unto a savage race"
- "Every generation metes out substantially the same punishment to those who fall far below and those who rise high above its standards."
- "For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again."
- "the Power that fashions man Measured not out thy little span For thee to take the meting-rod In turn,"
- "I could not finde any man for whose name this booke was more agreable for hope [of] protection, more mete for submission to iudgement, nor more due for respect of worthynesse of your part and thankefulnesse of my husbandes and myne."
Etymology
From Middle English meten, from Old English metan (“to measure, mete out, mark off, compare, estimate; pass over, traverse”), from Proto-West Germanic *metan, from Proto-Germanic *metaną (“to measure”), from Proto-Indo-European *med- (“to measure, consider”). Cognate with Scots mete (“to measure”), Saterland Frisian meete (“to measure”), West Frisian mjitte (“to measure”), Dutch meten (“to measure”), German messen (“to measure”), Swedish mäta (“to measure”), Latin modus (“limit, measure, target”), Ancient Greek μεδίμνος (medímnos, “measure, bushel”), Ancient Greek μέδεσθαι (médesthai, “care for”), Old Armenian միտ (mit, “mind”).
Origin
Word Breakdown
Usage
Inflected Forms
metes (present, singular)
meting (participle, present)
meted (participle, past)
meted (past)
metes (plural)
more mete (comparative)
most mete (superlative)