Definition of "meed" in English

noun

1. (now literary, archaic) A payment or recompense made for services rendered or in recognition of some achievement; reward; award.

   • 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; worth.

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

verb

1. (transitive) To reward; bribe.

2. (transitive) To deserve; merit.