esteem

Alternative forms

• æsteem (archaic)
• esteeme (obsolete)

Etymology

First at end of 16th century; from Middle French estimer, from Latin aestimare (“to value, rate, weigh, estimate”); see estimate, and aim, an older word, partly a doublet of esteem.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ɛsˈtiːm]

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -iːm

Noun

esteem (usually uncountable, plural esteems)

1. favourable regard

Verb

esteem (third-person singular simple present esteems, present participle esteeming, simple past and past participle esteemed)

1. To set a high value on; to regard with respect or reverence.
   • Bible, Job xxxvi. 19

     Will he esteem thy riches?

   • Tennyson

     You talk kindlier: we esteem you for it.

2. To regard something as valuable; to prize.
3. To look upon something in a particular way.

   Mary is an esteemed member of the community.

   • Bible, Deuteronomy xxxii. 15

     Then he forsook God, which made him, and lightly esteemed the Rock of his salvation.

   • Bishop Gardiner

     Thou shouldst (gentle reader) esteem his censure and authority to be of the more weighty credence.

   • Hawthorne

     Famous men, whose scientific attainments were esteemed hardly less than supernatural.

   • 1843, Thomas Carlyle, Past and Present, book 3, ch. V, The English

     And greatly do I respect the solid character, — a blockhead, thou wilt say; yes, but a well- conditioned blockhead, and the best-conditioned, — who esteems all ‘Customs once solemnly acknowledged’ to be ultimate, divine, and the rule for a man to walk by, nothing doubting, not inquiring farther.

4. (obsolete) To judge; to estimate; to appraise

   The Earth, which I esteem unable to reflect the rays of the Sun.

Further reading

• esteem in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
• esteem in The Century Dictionary, The Century Co., New York, 1911

Anagrams

• Mestee, mestee