meet definition

English meet definition

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) enPR: mēt, IPA^(key): /miːt/

• Audio (RP)

  (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /mit/

• Audio (GA)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -iːt
• Homophones: meat, mete

Etymology 1

From Middle English meten, from Old English mētan (“to meet, find, find out, fall in with, encounter, obtain”), from Proto-West Germanic *mōtijan (“to meet”), from Proto-Germanic *mōtijaną (“to meet”), from Proto-Indo-European *meh₂d- (“to come, meet”).

Verb

meet (third-person singular simple present meets, present participle meeting, simple past and past participle met)

1. To make contact (with) while in proximity.
   2. To come face to face with by accident; to encounter.

      Fancy meeting you here! Guess who I met at the supermarket today?

      • 1899, Hughes Mearns, Antigonish:

        Yesterday, upon the stair
        I met a man who wasn’t there
        He wasn’t there again today
        I wish, I wish he’d go away […]

   3. To come face to face with someone by arrangement.

      Let's meet at the station at 9 o'clock.

      • 1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 10, in The China Governess‎^[1]:

        With a little manœuvring they contrived to meet on the doorstep which was […] in a boiling stream of passers-by, hurrying business people speeding past in a flurry of fumes and dust in the bright haze.

   4. To get acquainted with someone.

      I'm pleased to meet you! I'd like you to meet a colleague of mine.

      I met my husband through a mutual friend at a party. It wasn't love at first sight; in fact, we couldn't stand each other at first!

      • 1910, Emerson Hough, chapter I, in The Purchase Price: Or The Cause of Compromise, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, OCLC 639762314:

        Captain Edward Carlisle […] felt a curious sensation of helplessness seize upon him as he met her steady gaze, […]; he could not tell what this prisoner might do. He cursed the fate which had assigned such a duty, cursed especially that fate which forced a gallant soldier to meet so superb a woman as this under handicap so hard.

2. (Of groups) To come together.
   1. To gather for a formal or social discussion; to hold a meeting.

      I met with them several times. The government ministers met today to start the negotiations.

      • 1892, Walter Besant, chapter III, in The Ivory Gate […], New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], OCLC 16832619:

        At half-past nine on this Saturday evening, the parlour of the Salutation Inn, High Holborn, contained most of its customary visitors. […] In former days every tavern of repute kept such a room for its own select circle, a club, or society, of habitués, who met every evening, for a pipe and a cheerful glass.

   2. To come together in conflict.
      • 1485, Sir Thomas Malory, chapter LV, in Le Morte Darthur, book X:

        Sir said Epynegrys is þ^t the rule of yow arraunt knyghtes for to make a knyght to Iuste will he or nyll
        As for that sayd Dynadan make the redy
        for here is for me
        And there with al they spored theyr horses & mett to gyders soo hard that Epynegrys smote doune sir Dynadan

        (please add an English translation of this quote)

      • 1667, John Milton, “Book VI”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], […], OCLC 228722708; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, OCLC 230729554:

        Weapons more violent, when next we meet,
        May serve to better us and worse our foes.

      • 2013 June 7, Gary Younge, “Hypocrisy lies at heart of Manning prosecution”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 188, number 26, page 18:

        The dispatches […] also exposed the blatant discrepancy between the west's professed values and actual foreign policies. Having lectured the Arab world about democracy for years, its collusion in suppressing freedom was undeniable as protesters were met by weaponry and tear gas made in the west, employed by a military trained by westerners.

   3. (sports) To play a match.

      England and Holland will meet in the final.

3. To make physical or perceptual contact.
   1. To converge and finally touch or intersect.

      The two streets meet at a crossroad half a mile away.

      • 1910, Emerson Hough, chapter I, in The Purchase Price: Or The Cause of Compromise, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, OCLC 639762314:

        Captain Edward Carlisle, soldier as he was, martinet as he was, felt a curious sensation of helplessness seize upon him as he met her steady gaze, her alluring smile; he could not tell what this prisoner might do.

   2. To touch or hit something while moving.

      The right wing of the car met the column in the garage, leaving a dent.

   3. To adjoin, be physically touching.

      The carpet meets the wall at this side of the room. The forest meets the sea along this part of the coast.

   4. (transitive) To respond to (an argument etc.) with something equally convincing; to refute.

      He met every objection to the trip with another reason I should go.

4. To satisfy; to comply with.

   This proposal meets my requirements. The company agrees to meet the cost of any repairs.

   • 2013 June 22, “Engineers of a different kind”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8841, page 70:

     Private-equity nabobs bristle at being dubbed mere financiers. […] Much of their pleading is public-relations bluster. Clever financial ploys are what have made billionaires of the industry’s veterans. “Operational improvement” in a portfolio company has often meant little more than promising colossal bonuses to sitting chief executives if they meet ambitious growth targets. That model is still prevalent today.

5. (intransitive) To balance or come out correct.
   • 1967, Northern Ireland. Parliament. House of Commons, Parliamentary Debates (Hansard) House of Commons Official Report

     In this instance he has chosen an accountant. I suppose that it will be possible for an accountant to make the figures meet.

6. To perceive; to come to a knowledge of; to have personal acquaintance with; to experience; to suffer.

   The eye met a horrid sight. He met his fate.

   • 1733, [Alexander Pope], An Essay on Man. […], (please specify |epistle=I to IV), London: Printed for J[ohn] Wilford, […], OCLC 960856019:

     Of vice or virtue, whether blest or curst,
     Which meets contempt, or which compassion first.

7. To be mixed with, to be combined with aspects of.
   • 1991, Stephen Fry, The Liar, p. 28:

     ‘I'm planning a sort of fabliau comparing this place with a fascist state,’ said Sampson, ‘sort of Animal Farm meets Arturo Ui...’

Usage notes

In the sense "come face to face with someone by arrangement", meet is sometimes used with the preposition with. Nonetheless, some state that as a transitive verb in the context "to come together by chance or arrangement", meet (as in meet (someone)) does not require a preposition between verb and object; the phrase meet with (someone) is deemed incorrect. See also meet with.

Derived terms

Translations

Noun

meet (plural meets)

1. (sports) A sports competition, especially for track and field or swimming.

   track meet

   swim meet

   • 2009, Alexandria Mangas; Janet Hommel Mangas, Oxygen for the Swimmer, Xulon Press, →ISBN, page 91:

     Everyone has to experience their first swim meet. They have to get through their first race, their first DQ (disqualification), and their first miss/scratch of an event. Like all swimmers, my first swim meet was nerve-wracking.

2. (hunting) A gathering of riders, horses and hounds for foxhunting; a field meet for hunting.
3. (rail transport) A meeting of two trains in opposite directions on a single track, when one is put into a siding to let the other cross.

   Antonym: pass

4. (informal) A meeting.

   OK, let's arrange a meet with Tyler and ask him.

   • 2002, George Pelecanos, “Cleaning Up”, in The Wire, season 1, episode 12:

     You feel me? You use these phones to set up a meet, go to that meet… and talk face to face, period.

   • 2004, Matthew Weiner, “Rat Pack”, in The Sopranos, season 5, episode 2:

     So what do you wanna do? I wanna be absolutely fucking sure. That's what I wanna do. We arrange a meet. I'll feel him out a little bit.

   • 2012 February 23, Joe Kloc, “The Case of the Missing Moon Rocks”, in Wired‎^[2], ISSN 1059-1028:

     Rosen assured Cregger that he had left no paper trail in bringing the rock into the States. Pretending to be reassured, Cregger agreed to a location for a meet: Tuna’s, a small restaurant and margarita bar off West Dixie highway in North Miami Beach.

5. (algebra) The greatest lower bound, an operation between pairs of elements in a lattice, denoted by the symbol ∧.

   Antonym: join

Derived terms

Etymology 2

From Middle English mete, imete, from Old English ġemǣte (“suitable, having the same measurements”), from the Proto-Germanic *gamētijaz, *mētiz (“reasonable; estimable”) (cognate with Dutch meten (“measure”), German gemäß (“suitable”) etc.), itself from collective prefix *ga- + Proto-Indo-European *med- (“to measure”).

Alternative forms

• mete (obsolete)

Adjective

meet (comparative meeter, superlative meetest)

1. (archaic) Suitable; right; proper.
   • c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Othello, the Moore of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act I, scene i], page 311:

     It ſeemes not meete, nor wholeſome to my place, / To be producted, (as, if I ſtay, I ſhall,) / Againſt the Moore. […]

   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], OCLC 964384981, Genesis 2:18:

     And the LORD God said, It is not good that the man should be alone: I will make him an helpe meet for him.

   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], OCLC 964384981, Exodus 8:26:

     And Moses said, It is not meet so to do; for we shall sacrifice the abomination of the Egyptians to the Lord our God: lo, shall we sacrifice the abomination of the Egyptians before their eyes, and will they not stone us?

   • 1851 November 14, Herman Melville, chapter XXVII, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, OCLC 57395299, page 131:

     […] it is therefore but meet, that in this place we set down who the Pequod's harpooneers were, and to what headsman each of them belonged.

   • 1958, T[erence] H[anbury] White, chapter VIII, in The Once and Future King, New York, N.Y.: G. P. Putnam's Sons, →ISBN, book I (The Sword in the Stone):

     The mountain birds are sweeter,
     But the valley birds are fatter,
     And so we deemed it meeter
     To carry off the latter.

Derived terms

• meetly
• meetness
• unmeet
• helpmeet

Translations

References

• Douglas Harper (2001–2022), “meet”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.
• meet at OneLook Dictionary Search.

Anagrams

• Teme, etem, mete, teem, teme

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Dutch meet definition

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /meːt/

• Audio

  (file)

• Hyphenation: meet
• Rhymes: -eːt

Etymology 1

From Latin mēta.

Noun

meet f (plural meten, diminutive meetje n)

1. The finish line in a competition

Etymology 2

Verb

meet

1. first-, second- and third-person singular present indicative of meten
2. imperative of meten

Anagrams

• mete

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Latin meet definition

Verb

meet

1. third-person singular present active subjunctive of meō

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Middle English meet definition

Noun

meet

1. Alternative form of mete (“food”)