mete
verb
Early Modern English
Meaning
To measure out, or to give out as a reward or punishment. tree →
Then and now
Today "mete" survives mainly in "mete out", meaning to give out a punishment or reward. The first sentence uses the old sense of measuring.
Examples
- And when they did mete it with an omer, he that gathered much had nothing over, and he that gathered little had no lack; they gathered every man according to his eating. (Torah EXO.16.18, JPS 1917) tree →
- Wrap yourself in this skin, leave the palace, and walk so long as you can find ground to carry you: when one sacrifices everything to virtue the gods know how to mete out reward. (The Fairy Tales of Charles Perrault) tree →
- In the sad and beautiful story of Niobe, daughter of Tantalus, and wife of Amphion, king of Thebes, we have another instance of the severe punishments meted out by Apollo to those who in any way incurred his displeasure. (Myths and Legends of Ancient Greece and Rome) tree →
Note
Today: measure; give out.
On Mova
- Trees and pragmatics of «mete» in the Early Modern English dictionary: every meaning and example parsed by Mova, with its dependency tree and frames.
- «mete» in the Early Modern English dictionary on Mova free.
This page in Markdown → https://md.dictionary.elamur.ai/free/en/english/mete/