meed
English
Pronunciation
Etymology 1
From Middle English meede, mede, from Old English mēd, meord, meard, meorþ (“meed, reward, pay, price, compensation, bribe”), from Proto-Germanic *mēzdō, *mizdō (“meed”), from Proto-Indo-European *misdʰ- (“to pay”). Cognate with obsolete Dutch miede (“wages”), Low German mede (“payment, wages, reward”), German Miete (“rent”), Gothic 𐌼𐌹𐌶𐌳𐍉 (mizdō, “meed, reward, payment, recompense”), Greek μισθός (misthós, “wage”), Old Church Slavonic мьзда (mьzda, “reward”).
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 quotations of use 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)
Anagrams
Dutch
Pronunciation
-
Audio (file) - Rhymes: -eːt
Verb
meed
Anagrams
Plautdietsch
Adjective
meed
Antonyms
- munta (brisk, lively)
Derived terms
- äwameed (overtired)
- huntmeed (dog-tired)
See also
- schleeprich (sleepy)
- hoojoonen (to sigh, to yawn)
- enoolent (tired of, sick of)
- kjnirr (weary)