meed

English

Pronunciation

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

Etymology 1

From Middle English meede, mede, from Old English mēd, meord, meard, meorþ (“meed, reward, pay, price, compensation, bribe”), from Proto-Germanic *mēzdō, *mizdō (“meed”), from Proto-Indo-European *mizdʰ- (“to pay”). Cognate with obsolete Dutch miede (“wages”), Low German mede (“payment, wages, reward”), German Miete (“rent”), Gothic  (mizdo, “meed, reward, payment, recompense”), 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.
   • Shakespeare

     My meed hath got me fame.

Quotations

• For usage examples 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