Word Confusion: Meat vs Meet vs Mete

Posted March 5, 2018 by Kathy Davie in Author Resources, Self-Editing, Word Confusions, Writing

Revised as of
19 Jan 2023

When shall we three meat again? For it is meet that we mete.

Er, that just doesn’t sound right, does it? Maybe we could mete instead. Then again, sounds like we’re making a judgment, deciding what’s fitting or proper.

Perhaps we should meet to decide what is mete. Then we could have a lovely meat sandwich, as we contemplate this trio of heterographs.

Word Confusions . . .

. . . started as my way of dealing with a professional frustration with properly spelled words that were out of context in manuscripts I was editing as well as books I was reviewing. It evolved into a sharing of information with y’all. I’m hoping you’ll share with us words that have been a bête noire for you from either end.

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Meat Meet Mete

A refrigerator case full of meat cuts

Meat Products at a Grocery Store by US Department of Agriculture is in the public domain, via Flickr.

These cuts of meat are making me hungry.


Outside a house, politicians stand in a semi-circle clasping hands

President Jacob Zuma Meets with Finance Team, 10 Apr 2017, by Government ZA is under the CC BY-ND 2.0 license, via Flickr.


A line drawing of a judge with a gavel

Gavel by Pearson Scott Foresman is in the public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

I disagree with this judge’s metes and bounds.

Part of Grammar:
Noun

Plural: meats

Adjective 1; Noun 2;
Verb 2, intransitive & transitive

Plural for the noun: meets
Gerund: meeting

Third person present verb: meets
Past tense or past participle: met
Present participle: meeting

Noun 1;
Verb, transitive 2

Plural for the noun: metes
Gerund: meting

Third person present verb: metes
Past tense or past participle: meted
Present participle: meting

The flesh of an animal (especially a mammal) as food

  • The flesh of a person’s body
  • [North American] The edible part of fruits or nuts
  • [the meat of] The essence or chief part of something

[Archaic] Food of any kind

Adjective:
[Archaic] Suitable 1

  • Fitting
  • Proper

Noun:
An organized event at which a number of races, hunts, or other sporting contests are held 2

Those assembled

The place of such an assembling

[Mathematics] Intersection, i.e., the set of elements that two or more sets have in common

  • [Mathematics] Product

Verb, intransitive:
Come into the presence or company of (someone) by chance or arrangement 2

  • Make the acquaintance of someone for the first time
  • [Of a group of people] Assemble for a particular purpose
  • [meet with] Have a meeting with someone
  • Play or oppose in a contest
  • Encounter or be faced with (a particular fate, situation, attitude, or reaction)
  • [meet with] Receive (a particular reaction)

Touch

  • Join

Verb, transitive:
Come into the presence or company of (someone) by chance or arrangement 2

  • Make the acquaintance of someone for the first time
  • Go to a place and wait there for (a person or their means of transport) to arrive
  • Play or oppose in a contest
  • Encounter or be faced with (a particular fate, situation, attitude, or reaction)
  • [meet something with] Have (a particular reaction) to

Touch

  • Join

Fulfill or satisfy (a need, requirement, or condition)

  • Pay (a financial claim or obligation)
Noun:
[Historical; usually metes and bounds] A boundary or boundary stone 1

A limiting mark

Verb, transitive:
[mete something out] Dispense or allot justice, a punishment, or harsh treatment 2

  • [In biblical use] Measure out
Examples:
The idiots sat there like pieces of meat.

Always place meat and poultry in the refrigerator immediately.

I do like the meat sandwiches at that deli in Florida.

We should order assorted meats for the party.

This’ll put meat on your bones!

We’ll need nut meats for the cake.

He did the meat of the climb on the first day.

We sit down to meat!

This life is meat and drink to me.

He’s a meat-and-potatoes kind of guy.

You know what they say, one man’s meat is another man’s poison.

Adjective:
It is a theater meet for great events.

It is meet that you greet me.

It is only meet that she should be seated first.

Noun:
Mom, don’t forget I have my swim meet this coming Thursday.

Are you going to the track meet tomorrow?

We’re set up for a meet-and-greet this afternoon.

Verb, intransitive:
I can meet you for lunch at 12:15.

We can meet at the office party.

The committee meets once a week.

He will meet with the president on September 16.

The Twins and Mariners will not meet again until September.

We do expect to meet with a slight setback.

I’m sorry if it doesn’t meet with your approval.

The curtains failed to meet in the middle.

Verb, transitive:
She took Paul to meet her parents.

I offered to meet their train.

In the final match, the U.S. will meet Brazil.

The Oracle had prophesied that he will meet his death.

The announcement will meet with widespread protests.

This policy is doing nothing to meet the needs of women.

They failed to meet the noon deadline.

You will have to meet all your household expenses.

Noun:
“In my opinion any part of a building which is defined by metes and bounds is premises in respect of which a licence can be granted, provided it is in the justices’ opinion structurally adapted for the sale of liquor.”

“I would gladly be moral and keep due metes and bounds, which I dearly love, and allow the most to the will of man; but I have set my heart on honesty in this chapter, and I can see nothing at last, in success or failure, than more or less of vital force supplied from the Eternal” (Emerson).

“The master’s domain was wide and complex, yet it had its metes and bounds” (London).

Verb, transitive:
Punishments will be mete out to soldiers who violated army regulations.

With what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.

“Let them live or die as luck will have it, and let Jove mete out his judgements upon the Trojans and Danaans according to his own pleasure” (Homer).

“So I ask your advice how to act in this matter, and what fate I should mete out to these captives” (Baum).

“But this crude outlaw was not satisfied with merely rescuing the girl, he must needs mete out justice to her noble abductor and collect in full the toll of blood which alone can atone for the insult and violence done her” (Burroughs).

Derivatives:
Adjective: meat-eating, meatier, meatiest, meatless, meaty
Adverb: meatily
Noun: meathead, meathook, meatiness, meatloaf, meatspace, meatball
Adverb: meetly
Noun: meet-and-greet, meet-cute, meeter, meeting, meetinghouse, meetness, meetup
Verb: met-cute
Adjective: unmeted
History of the Word:
Old English mete meaning food or article of food (as in sweetmeat) is of Germanic origin.
  1. Middle English in the sense of made to fit as a shortening of Old English gemǣte, which is of Germanic origin; related to mete in terms of dispensing or allotting justice.
  2. Old English mētan meaning come upon is of Germanic origin and related to the Dutch moeten, also to moot.
  1. Old English metan meaning measure, which is of Germanic origin and related to the Dutch meten and the German messen also meaning to measure, from an Indo-European root shared by the Latin meditari meaning meditate and the Greek medesthai meaning care for; related to meet in the sense of suitable, fit, or proper.
  2. Late Middle English from the Old French, which is from the Latin meta meaning boundary, goal.

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C’mon, get it out of your system, bitch, whine, moan . . . which words are your pet peeves? Also, please note that I try to be as accurate as I can, but mistakes happen or I miss something. Email me if you find errors, so I can fix them . . . and we’ll all benefit!

Satisfy your curiosity about other Word Confusions on its homepage or more generally explore the index of self-editing posts. You may also want to explore Book Layout & Formatting Ideas, Formatting Tips, Grammar Explanations, Linguistics, Publishing Tips, the Properly Punctuated, Writing Ideas and Resources, and Working Your Website.

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Resources for Meat vs Meet vs Mete

Some of these links may be affiliate links, and I will earn a small percentage, if you should buy it. It does not affect the price you pay.

Apple Dictionary.com

Baum, L Frank. The Emerald City of Oz. Digireads.com Publishing, 2020. EBook. <https://amzn.to/3xDt9aW7gt;.

Burroughs, Edgar Rice. The Outlaw of Torn. 2012. Ebook. <https://amzn.to/3R0TNBg>.

Dictionary.com: meet and mete

Emerson, Ralph Waldo. “Experience.” Essays — Second Series. 2011. <https://amzn.to/3S1iWNB>.

The Free Dictionary: mete

Homer. The Iliad. Penguin Classics, 1998. Print. ISBN-13:‎ 978-0140275360. <https://amzn.to/3y0ZZTx>.

London, Jack. White Fang. SeaWolf Press, 2020. Print. ISBN-13 : ‎ 978-1953649546. <https://amzn.to/3drQJRd>.

Oxford Dictionary. mete

Vocabulary.com: meet

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Pinterest Photo Credits:

Meet Shop is Masum-al-hasan’s own work under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license, via Wikimedia Commons.

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