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third-person singular simple present metes, present participle meting, simple past and past participle meted
(transitive, archaic, poetic, dialectal) To measure. quotations
For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.
1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], Matthew 7:2
the Power that fashions man / Measured not out thy little span / For thee to take the meting-rod / In turn,
1870s Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Soothsay, lines 80-83
(transitive, usually with “out”) To dispense, measure (out), allot (especially punishment, reward etc.). quotations examples
Match'd with an agèd wife, I mete and doleUnequal laws unto a savage race
1833, Alfred Tennyson, Ulysses
Every generation metes out substantially the same punishment to those who fall far below and those who rise high above its standards.
1929, Kirby Page, Jesus Or Christianity A Study In Contrasts, page 31
plural metes
A boundary or other limit; a boundary-marker; mere. examples
comparative more mete, superlative most mete
Obsolete spelling of meet (“suitable, fitting”) quotations examples
I could not finde any man for whose name this booke was more agreable for hope [of] protection, more mete for submission to iudgement, nor more due for respect of worthynesse of your part and thankefulnesse of my husbandes and myne.
1570, Margaret Ascham, Roger Ascham, The Scholemaster, foreword