Meek

English

Adjective

Meek (comparative Meeker, superlative Meekest)

1. Humble, modest, meager, or self-effacing.
   • 1848: Charles Dickens, Dombey and Son

     Mrs. Wickam was a meek woman...who was always ready to pity herself, or to be pitied, or to pity anybody else...

   • "Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth" (Matthew 5:5)
2. Submissive, despirited, or of broken will.
   • 1920: Sinclair Lewis, Main Street [1]

     What if they were wolves instead of lambs? They'd eat her all the sooner if she was meek to them. Fight or be eaten.

Synonyms

• See also Thesaurus:humble

Verb

Meek (third-person singular simple present Meeks, present participle Meeking, simple past and past participle Meeked)

1. (US) (of horses) To tame; to break.

Adverbs for Meek

gently; quietly; submissively; modestly; humbly; supplicatingly; serenely; disgustingly; obsequiously; unnecessarily; provok-ingly; stupidly; miserably; wretchedly; tragically; passively; tranquilly; patiently; placidly; philosophically; gracefully; sedately; demurely; contentedly.

Thesaurus

abject, accommodating, acquiescent, adapting, adaptive, adjusting, amenable, bland, broken, chastened, compliant, deferential, docile, domesticated, dovelike, forbearing, gentle, housebroken, humble, humble-minded, humble-spirited, humblehearted, lamblike, lenient, long-suffering, lowly, manageable, meek-minded, meek-spirited, meekhearted, mild, modest, obedient, pacific, passive, patient, peaceable, poor in spirit, quiet, reconciled, repressed, resigned, retiring, shy, spiritless, subdued, submissive, suppressed, tame, tamed, timid, tolerant, tractable, unambitious, unaspiring, unassuming, unboastful, uncomplaining, unimposing, unobtrusive, unostentatious, unpresuming, unpresumptuous, unpretending, unpretentious, unresisting, weak, yielding

Etymology

From Middle English meek, meke, meoc, from Old Norse mjúkr 'soft' (compare Swedish mjuk 'soft', and Danish myg 'supple'), from Proto-Germanic *mūkaz (compare Dutch muik 'soft, overripe', German dialect mauch 'dry and decayed, rotten', Mauche 'malanders'), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)meug, *meuk- 'slick, slippery; to slip' (compare Old English smūgan 'to slide, slip', Welsh mwyth 'soft, weak', Latin emungere 'to blow one's nose', Tocharian A muk 'to let go, give up', Lithuanian mùkti 'to slip away from', Old Church Slavonic mŭčati 'to chase', Ancient Greek myssesthai 'to blow the nose', Sanskrit muñcati 'he releases, lets loose').

Pronunciation

• General American IPA/SAMPA /mik/

  Rhymes: -iːk

Translations

Adjective

humble, modest, or self-effacing

Bulgarian: мек (bg) Finnish: nöyrä (fi) French: humble (fr), modeste (fr) German: sanftmütig (de) Hungarian: szerény (hu)

Indonesian: rendah hati (id) Norwegian: blyg (no) Russian: кроткий (ru) (krótkij) Spanish: modesto (es) m. Swedish: ödmjuk (sv)

submissive, despirited, or of broken will

German: unterwürfig (de) Hungarian: alázatos (hu), beletörődő (hu)

Spanish: humilde, resignado, sumiso, manso, m.