meek

From Middle English meek, meke, meoc, a borrowing from Old Norse mjúkr (“soft; meek”), from Proto-Germanic *meukaz, *mūkaz (“soft; supple”), from Proto-Indo-European *mewg-, *mewk- (“slick, slippery; to slip”). Cognate with Swedish and Norwegian Nynorsk mjuk (“soft”), and Danish myg (“supple”), Dutch muik (“soft, overripe”), dialectal German mauch (“dry and decayed, rotten”), Mauche (“malanders”). Compare also Old English smūgan (“to slide, slip”), Welsh mwyth (“soft, weak”), Latin ēmungō (“to blow one's nose”), Tocharian A muk- (“to let go, give up”), Lithuanian mùkti (“to slip away from”), Old Church Slavonic мъчати (mŭčati, “to chase”), Ancient Greek μύσσομαι (mússomai, “to blow the nose”), Sanskrit मुञ्चति (muñcati, “to release, let loose”).

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /miːk/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /mik/
• Rhymes: -iːk

meek (comparative meeker, superlative meekest)

1. Humble, non-boastful, modest, meager, or self-effacing.
   • 1848: Charles Dickens, Dombey and Son

     Mrs. Wickam was a meek woman...who was always ready to pity herself, or to be pitied, or to pity anybody else...

   • "Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth" (Matthew 5:5)
2. Submissive, dispirited.
   • 1920: Sinclair Lewis, Main Street

     What if they were wolves instead of lambs? They'd eat her all the sooner if she was meek to them. Fight or be eaten.

• See also Thesaurus:humble

meek (third-person singular simple present meeks, present participle meeking, simple past and past participle meeked)

1. (US) (of horses) To tame; to break.