Definitions

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

  • adjective Deserving reward or praise; having merit.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • That earns money; hireling.
  • Deserving of reward; worthy of praise or honor; possessing merit.

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

  • adjective Possessing merit; deserving of reward or honor; worthy of recompense; valuable.

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

  • adjective deserving of merit or commendation; deserving reward

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

  • adjective deserving reward or praise

Etymologies

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

[Middle English, from Latin meritōrius, earning money, from meritus, past participle of merēre, to earn; see merit.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English, borrowed between 1375 and 1425 from Latin meritōrius ("earning money"), from meritus, past participle of mereō ("to earn")

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Examples

Comments

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  • WIZARD

    Well, you can't. As for you, my fine

    friend -- you're a victim of disorganized

    thinking. You are under the unfortunate

    delusion that simply because you run away

    from danger, you have no courage. You're

    confusing courage with wisdom. Back where

    I come from, we have men who are called

    heroes. Once a year, they take their

    fortitude out of mothballs and parade it

    down the main street of the city. And they

    have no more courage than you have. But!

    They have one thing that you haven't got!

    A medal! Therefore -- for meritorious....

    conduct, extraordinary valor, conspicuous

    bravery against wicked witches, I award you

    the Triple Cross.

    June 10, 2010