meek
see also: Meek
Etymology

From Middle English meek, meke, meoc, unknown origin, likely related to Old English smēag and smūgan and possibly a borrowing from Old Norse mjúkr, from Proto-Germanic *meukaz, *mūkaz, from Proto-Indo-European *mewg-, *mewk-.

Cognate with Swedish - and Norwegian Nynorsk mjuk, Norwegian Bokmål myk, and Danish myg, Dutch muik, dialectal German mauch, Mauche. Compare as well Welsh mwyth, Latin ēmungō, Tocharian A muk-, Lithuanian mùkti, Church Slavic мъчати, Ancient Greek μύσσομαι, Sanskrit मुञ्चति.

Pronunciation Adjective

meek (comparative meeker, superlative meekest)

  1. Humble, non-boastful, modest, meager, or self-effacing.
    • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC ↗, Matthew 5:5 ↗:
      Blessed are the meeke: for they shall inherit the earth.
    • 1846 October 1 – 1848 April 1, Charles Dickens, “Chapter 8”, in Dombey and Son, London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1848, →OCLC ↗:
      Mrs. Wickam was a meek woman...who was always ready to pity herself, or to be pitied, or to pity anybody else...
  2. Submissive, dispirited.
    • 1920, Sinclair Lewis, Main Street: The Story of Carol Kennicott, New York, N.Y.: Harcourt, Brace and Howe, →OCLC ↗:
      What if they were wolves instead of lambs? They'd eat her all the sooner if she was meek to them. Fight or be eaten.
      [https://web.archive.org/web/20141009081751/http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/etcbin/ot2www-pubeng?specfile=%2Ftexts%2Fenglish%2Fmodeng%2Fpublicsearch%2Fmodengpub.o2w read here]
Synonyms Translations Translations Verb

meek (meeks, present participle meeking; simple past and past participle meeked)

  1. (US) (of horses) To tame; to break.
Translations
Meek
Proper noun
  1. Surname.
  2. An unincorporated community in Holt County, Nebraska.



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