Definify.com
Webster 1913 Edition
Meed
Meed
(mēd)
, Noun.
[OE.
mede
, AS. mēd
, meord
; akin to OS. mēda
, OHG. miata
, mieta
, G. miethe
hire, Goth. mizdō
reward, Bohem. & Russ. mzda
, Gr. μισθός
, Skr. mīdha
. √276.] 1.
That which is bestowed or rendered in consideration of merit; reward; recompense.
A rosy garland was the victor’s
meed
. Spenser.
2.
Merit or desert; worth.
My
meed
hath got me fame. Shakespeare
3.
A gift; also, a bride.
[Obs.]
Chaucer.
Meed
,Verb.
T.
1.
To reward; to repay.
[Obs.]
Waytt.
2.
To deserve; to merit.
[Obs.]
Heywood.
Webster 1828 Edition
Meed
MEED
, n.1.
Reward; recompense; that which is bestowed or rendered in consideration of merit. Thanks to men
Of noble minds is honorable meed.
2.
A gift or present. [Not used.]Definition 2025
Meed
meed
meed
See also: Meed
English
Noun
meed (plural meeds)
- (now literary, archaic) A payment or recompense made for services rendered or in recognition of some achievement; reward, deserts; award.
- 1596, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, IV.i:
- For well she wist, as true it was indeed, / That her liues Lord and patrone of her health / Right well deserued as his duefull meed, / Her loue, her seruice, and her vtmost wealth.
- 1829, Andrew Jackson, First Annual Message to Congress:
- Public gratitude, therefore, stamps her seal upon it, and the meed should not be withheld which may here after operate as a stimulus to our gallant tars.
- 1880, translation by Richard Francis Burton of Os Lusiadas, Canto IX, stanza 93 by Luís de Camões
- Better to merit and the meed to miss,
than, lacking merit, every meed possess.
- Better to merit and the meed to miss,
- 1596, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, IV.i:
- A gift; bribe.
- (dated) Merit or desert; worth.
- c 1591, William Shakespeare, King Henry VI, Part 3, Act 4, Scene VIII
- My meed hath got me fame.
- 1934, Abdullah Yusuf Ali, Commentary on The Holy Qur'an, note 3687 on 33:16:
- In any case, his life would be in ignominy and would be brief, and he would have lost irretrievably the meed of valour.
- c 1591, William Shakespeare, King Henry VI, Part 3, Act 4, Scene VIII
Quotations
- For usage examples of this term, see Citations:meed.
Derived terms
Etymology 2
From Middle English meden, from Old English *mēdian (“to reward, bribe”), from Proto-Germanic *mizdōną (“to meed”), from Proto-Indo-European *mizdʰ- (“to pay”). Cognate with Middle Low German mēden (“to reward”), German mieten (“to reward”).
Verb
meed (third-person singular simple present meeds, present participle meeding, simple past and past participle meeded)