Definitions

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

  • intransitive verb To come into the presence of by chance or arrangement.
  • intransitive verb To come into the company of.
  • intransitive verb To be introduced to; make the acquaintance of.
  • intransitive verb To come together or confront in opposition.
  • intransitive verb To be present at the arrival of.
  • intransitive verb To come into conjunction with; join or touch.
  • intransitive verb To come into conformity with the views, wishes, or opinions of.
  • intransitive verb To come to the notice of (the senses).
  • intransitive verb To experience or undergo.
  • intransitive verb To be sufficient for (a need, for example); fulfill: synonym: satisfy.
  • intransitive verb To deal or contend with effectively.
  • intransitive verb To pay; settle.
  • intransitive verb To come together.
  • intransitive verb To come into conjunction; be joined.
  • intransitive verb To come together as opponents; contend.
  • intransitive verb To become introduced.
  • intransitive verb To assemble.
  • intransitive verb To occur together, especially in one person or entity.
  • noun A meeting or contest, especially an athletic competition.
  • idiom (meet (one's) Maker) To die.
  • idiom (meet (someone) halfway) To make a compromise with.
  • adjective Fitting; proper.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A meeting of huntsmen for fox-hunting or coursing, or of bicyclists for a ride; also, the company so met.
  • noun The place appointed for such a meeting; the rendezvous.
  • noun In geometry: The straight line common to two planes.
  • noun A point which is on each of two straights: also called their cross.
  • To come into the same place with (another person or thing); come into the presence of; of persons, come face to face with.
  • To come up to from a different direction; join by going toward; come to by approaching from the opposite direction, as distinguished from overtake: as, to meet a person in the road.
  • To come into physical contact with; join by touching or uniting with; be or become contiguous to.
  • To come upon; encounter; attain to; reach the perception, possession, or experience of: as, to meet one's fate calmly; his conduct meets the approbation of the public; you will meet your reward.
  • To come into collision with; encounter with force or opposition; come or move against: as, to meet the enemy in battle.
  • To come into conformity to; be or act in agreement with: as, conduct that meets one's expectations.
  • To discharge; satisfy: as, to meet a note at maturity.
  • To answer; refute: as, to meet an opponent's objections.
  • Synonyms To light or happen upon.
  • To comply with, fulfil.
  • To come together; come face to face; join company, assemble, or congregate.
  • To come together in opposition or in contention, as in fight, competition, or play.
  • To come into contact; form a junction; unite; be contiguous or coalesce.
  • To combine.
  • To come together exactly; agree; square or balance, as accounts.
  • To light on; find; come to: often said of an unexpected event.
  • We met with many things worthy of observation.
  • To suffer; be exposed to; experience.
  • To obviate. [A Latinism.]
  • To counteract; oppose.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English meten, from Old English mētan.]

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English mete, from Old English gemǣte; see med- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

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

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English meten, from Old English mētan ("to meet, find, find out, fall in with, encounter, obtain"), from Proto-Germanic *mōtijanan (“to meet”), from Proto-Indo-European *mōd-, *mad- (“to come, meet”). Cognate with Scots met, mete, meit ("to meet"), North Frisian mete ("to meet"), West Frisian moetsje ("to meet"), Dutch ontmoeten ("to meet"), Low German moten, möten ("to meet"), Danish møde ("to meet"), Swedish möta ("to meet"), Icelandic mæta ("to meet"). Related to moot.

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Examples

  • In 2009, NASA took advantage of these features and began to host "Tweetups" a play on the phrase 'meet up' for dedicated followers of the space program.

    The Full Feed from HuffingtonPost.com Michael Yarbrough 2011

  • That's nice, but how about first focusing on actually making sure that what products carry the label meet the specifications at all.

    TreeHugger 2009

  • In response to complaints, the USDA inspector general's office has widened an investigation of whether products carrying the label meet national standards.

    legitgov 2009

  • Henson said the showing didn't do the team any favors, as far as getting to the title meet is concerned.

    Arizona Daily Wildcat 2008

  • England, and she kept Susan Talbot and her children in what she called their meet place, in which that good lady thoroughly acquiesced, having her hands much too full of household affairs to run after queens.

    Unknown to History: a story of the captivity of Mary of Scotland Charlotte Mary Yonge 1862

  • The Vermont Yankee, Vermont's aging nuclear reactor that sits roughly where the borders of Vermont, New Hampshire and Massachusetts meet, is beset with problems -- including multiple leaks of radioactivity.

    John Odum: For Good or Ill, Vermont's Election Will Impact Millions of Other New Englanders John Odum 2010

  • Â The rebooted Invisible Kid was last seen with his teammates, drifting off into space, unbound from time, but still together … Â Immediately afterwards, we are introduced to a new iteration of the 30th century, and the first character that we meet is young Lyle Norg, whose parents are very unhappy that he seems to share a predilection with many kids his age: hero worship of the “youth group” known as the Legion.

    Hero History: Invisible Kid | Major Spoilers - Comic Book Reviews and News 2009

  • One of the questions i always like to ask the free marketeer/libertarians I meet is how far they live from their sewage treatment plant.

    Matthew Yglesias » Centrally Planned Suburbia 2010

  • Of course where the perceived value and actual value meet is a different story entirely.

    Ernest Gallo, behavioral economist | Dr Vino's wine blog 2009

  • For Jerry had learned partings, and beyond all peradventure this was a parting, though little he dreamed that he would again meet Michael across the years and across the world, in a fabled valley of far California, where they would live out their days in the hearts and arms of the beloved gods.

    CHAPTER XXIV 2010

Comments

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  • Teem in reverse.

    July 22, 2007

  • "...I thought it meet to ease my conscience entirely before I lay'd down..." ---Tristram Shandy

    March 16, 2013