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.

• (RP) IPA: /miːk/
• (America) IPA: /mik/

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]

• See also Thesaurus:humble

• French: humble, modeste
• German: sanftmütig, bescheiden, zaghaft, zurückhaltend, fromm, demütig, sanft, hold, lammfromm, moderat
• Italian: modesto, timido, introverso, schivo, pavido
• Portuguese: modesto
• Russian: кро́ткий
• Spanish: modesto

• French: soumis, faible
• German: unterwürfig, kleinlaut, widerstandslos, duldsam, ergeben, gottergeben
• Italian: rassegnato, remissivo, sommesso
• Portuguese: submisso, manso
• Russian: безро́потный
• Spanish: humilde, resignado, sumiso, manso

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

1. (US) (of horses) To tame; to break.

• German: zähmen
• Russian: укрощать

1. Surname.
2. An unincorporated community in Holt County, Nebraska.