Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Worthy, as of reward, praise, or aid.
  • noun Merit; worthiness.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The act of meriting; desert; merit or demerit.
  • Worthy of reward or praise; meritorious; possessed of good qualities that entitle to approbation: as, a deserving officer.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun Desert; merit.
  • adjective Meritorious; worthy.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective worthy of reward or praise; meritorious
  • adjective meriting, worthy (reward, punishment etc.)
  • noun desert, merit or demerit
  • verb Present participle of deserve.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective worthy of being treated in a particular way

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