meed

• (UK, US) IPA^(key): /miːd/
• Homophone: mead
• Rhymes: -iːd

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 *misdʰéh₂, from Proto-Indo-European *mey- (“to exchange”). Cognate with obsolete Dutch miede (“wages”), Low German mede (“payment, wages, reward”), German Miete (“rent”), Gothic 𐌼𐌹𐌶𐌳𐍉 (mizdō, “meed, reward, payment, recompense”), Ancient Greek μισθός (misthós, “wage”), Old Church Slavonic мьзда (mьzda, “reward”), Sanskrit मीळ्ह (mīḷhá), Sanskrit मीढ (mīḍhá), Avestan 𐬨𐬍𐬲𐬛𐬀‎‎ (mīžda‎).

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.

   • 1829, Andrew Jackson, First Annual Message to Congress:

     Public gratitude, therefore, stamps her seal upon it, and the meed should not be withheld which may here after operate as a stimulus to our gallant tars.

   • 1880, translation by Richard Francis Burton of Os Lusiadas, Canto IX, stanza 93 by Luís de Camões

     Better to merit and the meed to miss,
     than, lacking merit, every meed possess.

2. A gift; bribe.
3. (dated) Merit or desert; worth.
   • c 1591, William Shakespeare, King Henry VI, Part 3, Act 4, Scene VIII

     My meed hath got me fame.

   • 1934, Abdullah Yusuf Ali, Commentary on The Holy Qur'an, note 3687 on 33:16:

     In any case, his life would be in ignominy and would be brief, and he would have lost irretrievably the meed of valour.

• For quotations of use of this term, see Citations:meed.

• meedful

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

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.

• Deem, Mede, deem, deme

• mied (southern Moselle Franconian)
• möd (Ripuarian)

From Old High German muodi, from Proto-Germanic *mōþijaz, West Germanic variant of *mōþaz.

meed

1. (northern Moselle Franconian) tired

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• Rhymes: -eːt

meed

1. singular past indicative of mijden

• mede

meed

1. tired, fagged

   hee wia sea meed

   he was very tired

• munta (brisk, lively)

• äwameed (overtired)
• huntmeed (dog-tired)

• schleeprich (sleepy)
• hoojoonen (to sigh, to yawn)
• enoolent (tired of, sick of)
• kjnirr (weary)

• Plautdietsch Lexicon of 17,000 words