meed

English

Pronunciation

• (UK, US) IPA: /miːd/
• Homophone: mead

Etymology 1

From Middle English mede, from Old English mēd (“meed, reward, pay, price, compensation, bribe”), from Proto-Germanic *meidō, *mizdō (“meed”), from Proto-Indo-European *mizdʰ- (“to pay”). Cognate with obsolete Dutch miede (“wages”), German Miete (“rent”), and Old Church Slavonic мьзда (mьzda, “reward”).

Noun

meed (plural meeds)

1. (now literary, archaic) A payment or recompense made for services rendered or in recognition of some achievement; reward, deserts; award.
   • 1596, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, IV.i:

     For well she wist, as true it was indeed, / That her liues Lord and patrone of her health / Right well deserued as his duefull meed, / Her loue, her seruice, and her vtmost wealth.

2. A gift; bribe.
3. (obsolete) Merit or desert; worth.

Quotations

• For examples of the usage of this term see the citations page.

Derived terms

• meedful

Etymology 2

From Middle English meden, from Old English *mēdian (“to reward, bribe”), from Proto-Germanic *mizdōnan (“to meed”), from Proto-Indo-European *mizdʰ- (“to pay”). Cognate with Middle Low German mēden (“to reward”), German mieten (“to reward”).

Verb

meed (third-person singular simple present meeds, present participle meeding, simple past and past participle meeded)

1. (transitive) To reward; bribe.
2. (transitive) To deserve; merit.

Anagrams

• deem
• deme
• Mede

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Dutch

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -eːt

Verb

meed

1. singular past indicative of mijden.

Anagrams

• mede