From Middle Englishmeten, from Old Englishmētan(“to meet, find, find out, fall in with, encounter, obtain”), from Proto-West Germanic*mōtijan(“to meet”), from Proto-Germanic*mōtijaną(“to meet”), from Proto-Indo-European*meh₂d-(“to come, meet”).
Verb
meet (third-person singular simple presentmeets, present participlemeeting, simple past and past participlemet)
To make contact (with) while in proximity.
To come face to face with by accident; to encounter.
To come face to face with someone by arrangement.
To get acquainted with someone.
Captain Edward Carlisle[…]felt a curious sensation of helplessness seize upon him as he met her steady gaze,[…]; he could not tell what this prisoner might do. He cursed the fate which had assigned such a duty, cursed especially that fate which forced a gallant soldier to meet so superb a woman as this under handicap so hard.
(Of groups)To come together.
To gather for a formal or social discussion; to hold a meeting.
At half-past nine on this Saturday evening, the parlour of the Salutation Inn, High Holborn, contained most of its customary visitors.[…]In former days every tavern of repute kept such a room for its own select circle, a club, or society, of habitués, who met every evening, for a pipe and a cheerful glass.
To come together in conflict.
1485, Sir Thomas Malory, chapter lv, in Le Morte Darthur, book X:
Sir said Epynegrys is þt the rule of yow arraunt knyghtes for to make a knyght to Iuste will he or nyll As for that sayd Dynadan make the redy for here is for me And there with al they spored theyr horses & mett to gyders soo hard that Epynegrys smote doune sir Dynadan
(sports) To play a match.
To make physical or perceptual contact.
To converge and finally touch or intersect.
Captain Edward Carlisle, soldier as he was, martinet as he was, felt a curious sensation of helplessness seize upon him as he met her steady gaze, her alluring smile; he could not tell what this prisoner might do.
To touch or hit something while moving.
To adjoin, be physically touching.
(transitive) To respond to (an argument etc.) with something equally convincing; to refute.
He met every objection to the trip with another reason I should go.
To satisfy; to comply with.
(intransitive) To balance or come out correct.
1967, Northern Ireland. Parliament. House of Commons, Parliamentary Debates (Hansard) House of Commons Official Report
In this instance he has chosen an accountant. I suppose that it will be possible for an accountant to make the figures meet.
To perceive; to come to a knowledge of; to have personal acquaintance with; to experience; to suffer.
To be mixed with, to be combined with aspects of.
1991, Stephen Fry, The Liar, p. 28:
‘I'm planning a sort of fabliau comparing this place with a fascist state,’ said Sampson, ‘sort of Animal FarmmeetsArturo Ui...’
Usage notes
In the sense "come face to face with someone by arrangement", meet is sometimes used with the preposition with. Nonetheless, some state that as a transitive verb in the context "to come together by chance or arrangement", meet (as in meet (someone)) does not require a preposition between verb and object; the phrase meet with (someone) is deemed incorrect. See also meet with.
Derived terms
Translations
Noun
meet (pluralmeets)
(sports) A sports competition, especially for track and field or swimming.
(hunting) A gathering of riders, horses and hounds for foxhunting; a field meet for hunting.
(rail transport) A meeting of two trains in opposite directions on a single track, when one is put into a siding to let the other cross.
Antonym:pass
(informal) A meeting.
(algebra) The greatest lower bound, an operation between pairs of elements in a lattice, denoted by the symbol ∧.
Antonym:join
Derived terms
Etymology 2
From Middle Englishmete, imete, from Old Englishġemǣte(“suitable, having the same measurements”), from the Proto-Germanic*gamētijaz, *mētiz(“reasonable; estimable”) (cognate with Dutchmeten(“measure”), Germangemäß(“suitable”) etc.), itself from collective prefix *ga- + Proto-Indo-European*med-(“to measure”).
Alternative forms
mete (obsolete)
Adjective
meet (comparativemeeter, superlativemeetest)
(archaic) Suitable; right; proper.
Derived terms
meetly
meetness
unmeet
helpmeet
Translations
References
“meet” in Douglas Harper, Online Etymology Dictionary, 2001–2021. [3]
meet at OneLook Dictionary Search
Anagrams
Teme, etem, mete, teem, teme
Dutch
Pronunciation
IPA(key): /meːt/
Hyphenation: meet
Rhymes: -eːt
Etymology 1
From Latinmēta.
Noun
meetf (pluralmeten, diminutivemeetjen)
The finish line in a competition
Etymology 2
Verb
meet
first-, second- and third-person singular present indicative of meten
imperative of meten
Anagrams
mete
Latin
Verb
meet
third-person singular present active subjunctive of meō