Meed

Pronunciation

• UK IPA: /miːd/
• Homophones: mead

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 *mizdʰ- ("to pay"). Cognate with obsolete Dutch miede ("wages"), Low German mede ("payment, wages, reward"), German Miete ("rent"), Gothic (mizdo, "meed, reward, payment, recompense"), Greek μισθός (misthós, "wage"), Old Church Slavonic мьзда (mьzda, "reward").

Full definition of meed

Noun

1. (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.
2. A gift; bribe.
3. (obsolete) Merit or desert; worth.
• ShakespeareMy meed hath got me fame.

Derived terms

• meedful

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

1. (transitive) To reward; bribe.
2. (transitive) To deserve; merit.

Anagrams

• deem
• deme
• Mede