English
mete
Pronunciation Verb

mete (metes, present participle meting; past and past participle meted)

  1. (transitive, archaic, poetic, dialectal) To measure.
    • 1611 — King James Version of the Bible, Matthew 7:2
      For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.
    • 1870s Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Soothsay, lines 80-83
      the Power that fashions man
      Measured not out thy little span
      For thee to take the meting-rod
      In turn,
  2. (transitive, usually with “out”) To dispense, measure (out), allot (especially punishment, reward etc.).
    • 1833 — Alfred Tennyson, Ulysses
      Match'd with an agèd wife, I mete and dole
      Unequal laws unto a savage race
    • 1929 — Kirby Page, Jesus Or Christianity A Study In Contrasts, p. 31. ↗
      Every generation metes out substantially the same punishment to those who fall far below and those who rise high above its standards.
Translations Translations Noun

mete (plural metes)

  1. A boundary or other limit; a boundary-marker; mere.
Adjective

mete

  1. Obsolete spelling of meet#English|meet (“suitable, fitting”)


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