DictionaryAI

meek

SayMEEKUS/mik/UK/miːk/

Formsmeeker, meekest

4 meanings of meek

Practice

  1. 1
    adjective
    Quiet, gentle, and humble in manner, tending to accept what others say or do without protest or resistance.

    He was too meek to complain when the waiter brought him the wrong meal, so he quietly ate it.

    Months in the camp had left the prisoners meek, shuffling forward whenever a guard barked an order.

    UsageOften too meek to do something. In this sense it is usually a criticism, not praise.

    Similartimid, submissive, docile, mild, humble

    Oppositeassertive, bold, defiant, forceful

    Note

    Here the softness at the word's root turns into a failing. Meek may come from Old Norse mjúkr, "soft; meek," and this sense describes someone too soft to push back. Sinclair Lewis's Main Street (1920) puts it bluntly: if they are wolves, they will eat her all the sooner for being meek.

Less common meanings

  1. 2
    proper noun
    A family name.
  2. 3
    verbUS
    To tame an animal, or to break a horse, training it to accept a saddle and rider.
  3. 4
    proper noun
    A small settlement without its own town government in Holt County, Nebraska.

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Origin

From Middle English meek (also meke, meoc), of unknown origin. It is likely related to Old English smēag ("subtle, stealthy") and smūgan, and possibly borrowed from Old Norse mjúkr ("soft; meek"), which goes back through Proto-Germanic *meukaz ("soft; supple") to Proto-Indo-European *mewg- ("slick, slippery; to slip"). Related words include Swedish mjuk ("soft"), Danish myg ("supple"), and Dutch muik ("soft, overripe").