mete¹

[meet] /mit/

verb (used with object), meted, meting.

to distribute or apportion by measure; allot; dole (usually followed by out):

to mete out punishment.

Archaic. to measure.

Origin

before 900; Middle English; Old English metan; cognate with Dutch meten, Old Norse meta, Gothic mitan, German messen to measure, Greek mḗdesthai to ponder

Related forms

unmeted, adjective

Synonyms

1. deal, measure, parcel.

mete²

[meet] /mit/

noun

a limiting mark.

a limit or boundary.

Origin

1275-1325; Middle English < Middle French < Latin mēta goal, turning post

Synonyms

2. bound.

Met.E.

metallurgical engineer.

Examples from the web for mete

Carter's moral code of family loyalty propels him to mete out brutal and exacting revenge.
Commanding officers have become increasingly reluctant to hold courts martial, or to mete out stiff penalties when they do.
Some mechanism must be put in place to mete out a national punishment for those horrible atrocities.
It would be far better to conduct investigations and mete out punishments at the national level.
For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.
With what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.
Jeans-clad alchemists mete out grains and hops while kettles boil.
Based on news reports, if true, he deserves the harsh penalty the law will mete out to him.
Next month the judge will mete out a sentence that could mean a lifetime in prison.
These fellows are irritated because they can't discover who opposes them and mete out appropriate punishment.

British Dictionary definitions for mete

mete¹

/miːt/

verb (transitive)

(usually foll by out) (formal) to distribute or allot (something, often unpleasant)

verb, noun

(poetic, dialect) (to) measure

Word Origin

Old English metan; compare Old Saxon metan, Old Norse meta, German messen to measure

mete²

/miːt/

noun

(rare) a mark, limit, or boundary (esp in the phrase metes and bounds)

Word Origin

C15: from Old French, from Latin mēta goal, turning post (in race)

Word Origin and History for mete

"to allot," Old English metan "to measure, mete out; compare, estimate" (class V strong verb; past tense mæt, past participle meten), from Proto-Germanic *metanan (cf. Old Saxon metan, Old Frisian, Old Norse meta, Dutch meten, Old High German mezzan, German messen, Gothic mitan "to measure"), from PIE *med- "to take appropriate measures" (see medical). Used now only with out. Related: Meted; meting.

"boundary," now only in phrase metes and bounds, late 15c., from Old French mete "limit, bounds, frontier," from Latin meta "goal, boundary, post, pillar."