meet

/miːt//mit/

meet verb: to come face to face with by accident; to encounter.

Verb

meet (third-person singular simple present meets, present participle meeting, simple past and past participle met)

To come face to face with by accident; to encounter.
- Fancy meeting you here! Guess who I met at the supermarket today?
- Yesterday, upon the stair
  I met a man who wasn’t there
  He wasn’t there again today
  I wish, I wish he’d go away[…]1899, Hughes Mearns, Antigonish
To come face to face with someone by arrangement.
- Let's meet at the station at 9 o'clock.
- With a little manœuvring they contrived to meet on the doorstep which was […] in a boiling stream of passers-by, hurrying business people speeding past in a flurry of fumes and dust in the bright haze.1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 10, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC
To get acquainted with someone.
- I'm pleased to meet you! I'd like you to meet a colleague of mine.
- I met my husband through a mutual friend at a party. It wasn't love at first sight; in fact, we couldn't stand each other at first!
To gather for a formal or social discussion; to hold a meeting.
- I met with them several times. The government ministers met today to start the negotiations.
- 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...1892, Walter Besant, chapter III, in The Ivory Gate […], New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], →OCLC
To come together in conflict.
- 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 Dynadan1485, Sir Thomas Malory, chapter LV, in Le Morte Darthur, book X
- Weapons more violent, when next we meet,
  May serve to better us and worse our foes.1667, John Milton, “Book VI”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished...
To play a match.
- England and Holland will meet in the final.
To converge and finally touch or intersect.
- The two streets meet at a crossroad half a mile away.
- 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 do1910, Emerson Hough, chapter I, in The Purchase Price: Or The Cause of Compromise, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC
To touch or hit something while moving.
- The right wing of the car met the column in the garage, leaving a dent.
To adjoin, be physically touching.
- The carpet meets the wall at this side of the room. The forest meets the sea along this part of the coast.
(transitive) To respond to (an argument etc.) with something equally convincing; to refute.
- Carrados knew quite enough of flint implements—as indeed he seemed to know enough of any subject beneath the sun—to be able to talk on level terms with an expert, and he was quite equal to meeting a reference to Evans or to Nadaillac with another.1927, Ernest Bramah [pseudonym; Ernest Brammah Smith], Max Carrados Mysteries
- He met every objection to the trip with another reason I should go.
To satisfy; to comply with.
- This proposal meets my requirements. The company agrees to meet the cost of any repairs.
- Private-equity nabobs bristle at being dubbed mere financiers.[…]Much of their pleading is public-relations bluster. Clever financial ploys are what have made billionaires of the industry’s veterans. “Operational improvement” in a portfolio company has often meant little more than promising...2013 June 22, “Engineers of a different kind”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8841, page 70
(intransitive) To balance or come out correct.
- In this instance he has chosen an accountant. I suppose that it will be possible for an accountant to make the figures meet.1967, Northern Ireland. Parliament. House of Commons, Parliamentary Debates (Hansard) House of Commons Official Report
To perceive; to come to a knowledge of; to have personal acquaintance with; to experience; to suffer.
- The eye met a horrid sight. He met his fate.
- Of vice or virtue, whether blest or curst,
  Which meets contempt, or which compassion first.1733, [Alexander Pope], An Essay on Man. […], (please specify |epistle=I to IV), London: […] J[ohn] Wilford, […], →OCLC
To be mixed with, to be combined with aspects of.
- ‘I’m planning a sort of fabliau comparing this place with a fascist state,’ said Sampson, ‘sort of Animal Farm meets Arturo Ui . . .’1991 September, Stephen Fry, chapter 1, in The Liar, London: Heinemann, →ISBN, section I, page 19

Noun

meet (plural meets)

A sports competition, especially for track and field or swimming.
- track meet
- swim meet
A gathering of riders, horses and hounds for foxhunting; a field meet for hunting.
A meeting of two trains in opposite directions on a single track, when one is put into a siding to let the other cross.

Antonyms:

pass
(informal) A meeting.
- OK, let's arrange a meet with Tyler and ask him.
- You feel me? You use these phones to set up a meet, go to that meet… and talk face to face, period.2002, George Pelecanos, “Cleaning Up”, in The Wire, season 1, episode 12 (television production)
The greatest lower bound, an operation between pairs of elements in a lattice, denoted by the symbol ∧.

Antonyms:

join

Adjective

meet (comparative meeter, superlative meetest)

(archaic) Suitable; right; proper.
- It ſeemes not meete, nor wholeſome to my place, / To be producted, (as, if I ſtay, I ſhall,) / Againſt the Moore. […]c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Othello, the Moore of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac...
- And the LORD God said, It is not good that the man should be alone: I will make him an helpe meet for him.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Genesis 2:18
(obsolete) Submissive; passive.

meet meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

meet in Hindi

to come face to face with by accident; to encounter: मिलना

meet in Tamil

to come face to face with by accident; to encounter: சந்தி canti
to come face to face with someone by arrangement: சந்தி canti
to gather for a formal or social discussion; to hold a meeting: கூடு kūṭu

meet in Urdu

to come face to face with by accident; to encounter: ... سے ملنا

More languagesFewer languages

meet in Bengali: মেলা mela, ভেটা bheṭa
meet in Telugu: కలుసుకొను kalusukonu, ఏర్పాటు ērpāṭu
meet in Malayalam: സന്ധിക്കുക, കണ്ടുമുട്ടുക
meet in Kannada: ಸಂಧಿಸು, ಭೇಟಿಯಾಗು, ಬರಮಾಡಿಕೊ, ಸ್ವಾಗತಿಸು
meet in Punjabi: ਮਿਲਣਾ milṇā, درشن darśan
meet in Gujarati: મળવું maḷvũ
meet in Odia: ଚୁମ୍ବିବା cumbibā, ଲାଗିବା lāgibā
meet in Sanskrit: आप्नोति āpnóti
meet in Nepali: भेट्नु bheṭnu, मिल्नु milnu
meet in Tagalog: magtagpô, magkita
meet in Arabic: لَاقَى lāqā, لَقِيَ laqiya, اِلْتَقَى iltaqā, تَقَابَلَ taqābala
meet in Malay: bertemu, terjumpa, berjumpa
meet in Indonesian: bertemu, menemui
meet in Persian: دیدار کردن didâr kardan
meet in Thai: หา hǎa, พบ póp, เจอ jəə, ประสบ bprà-sòp
meet in Vietnamese: gặp, làm quen
meet in Myanmar: တွေ့ twe.

Examples of meet in a sentence

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.1910, Emerson Hough, chapter I, in The Purchase Price: Or The Cause of Compromise, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:
“Operational improvement” in a portfolio company has often meant little more than promising colossal bonuses to sitting chief executives if they meet ambitious growth targets.2013 June 22, “Engineers of a different kind”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8841, page 70:
Everyone has to experience their first swim meet.2009, Alexandria Mangas, Janet Hommel Mangas, Oxygen for the Swimmer, Xulon Press, →ISBN, page 91:
Pretending to be reassured, Cregger agreed to a location for a meet: Tuna’s, a small restaurant and margarita bar off West Dixie highway in North Miami Beach.2012 February 23, Joe Kloc, “The Case of the Missing Moon Rocks”, in Wired, →ISSN:

All 40 example sentences with meet

Antonyms of meet

pass
join

Forms of meet

Verb
third-person singular present	meets
present participle	meeting
past participle	met
past	met
Noun
plural	meets
Adjective
comparative	meeter
superlative	meetest
alternative form (obsolete)	mete

Past tense of meet: met

Plural of meet: meets

Origin of meet

From Middle English meten, from Old English mētan (“to meet, find, encounter”), from Proto-West Germanic *mōtijan (“to meet”), from Proto-Germanic *mōtijaną (“to meet”), from Proto-Indo-European *meh₂d- (“to come, meet”). Cognates Cognate with Scots met, mete, meit (“to meet”), North Frisian meet, mätje, möt (“to meet”), West Frisian mette, moetsje (“to meet”), Dutch ontmoeten (“to meet”), Low German möten (“to meet”), Danish møde (“to meet”), Elfdalian my̨öt (“to meet”), Faroese møta (“to meet”), Icelandic mæta (“to meet”), Norwegian Bokmål møte (“to meet”), Norwegian Nynorsk møta, møte (“to meet”), Swedish möta (“to meet”). Related to moot.

From Middle English mete, imete, from Old English ġemǣte (“suitable, having the same measurements”), from the Proto-Germanic *gamētijaz, *mētiz (“reasonable; estimable”) (cognate with Dutch meten (“measure”), German gemäß (“suitable”) etc.), itself from collective prefix *ga- + Proto-Indo-European *med- (“to measure”).

Words formed from meet

Phrases with meet

5 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with meet

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about meet

What does meet mean?: Meet means to come face to face with by accident; to encounter.
What is meet in Hindi?: Meet in Hindi is मिलना. See Meet meaning in Hindi.
How do you use meet in a sentence?: 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.
What part of speech is meet?: Meet can be a verb, a noun or an adjective.
How do you pronounce meet?: Meet is pronounced /miːt/ (UK).
What is the past tense of meet?: The past tense of meet is met.

Words near meet in the dictionary

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-uk-to meet.ogg, en-us-meet.ogg.

Cite this entry: “meet.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/meet. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.