to mete out
5
7.9
- phrasal verb
- /miːt aʊt/
:
imponer
- The judge will mete out the sentence according to the severity of the crime.
- mete out punishment
- mete out justice
Interesting information is dangerous, so it needs to be concealed or or at least meted out in doses.
- Interesting information is dangerous, so it needs to be concealed or or at least meted out in doses.
- And now we're going to mete out punishments way worse than any court of law would ever have contemplated for what the allegations are.
Examples
-
We shall mete out justice that is swift and retribution that is final.
-
Why does our criminal justice system mete out so much less punishment than what the public wants?
Academic text (1997) -
What would happen if this great crime were exposed and justice meted out to the many involved?
Blog text (6) -
Of course, corporal punishment as a means of meting out justice is no longer available.
Academic text (2008) -
Why mete out punishment to a man who has proven himself a useful citizen?
-
The court must mete out more drastic punishment!
-
It's impossible to mete out justice if one does not understand and acknowledge injustice.
Blog text (24) -
His responsibilities have nothing to do with balancing moral scales and meting out justice.
Blog text (30) -
Our forefathers and the God of Kirinyaga see all the wrongs done by each one, and they mete out a fitting punishment for us all.
Fiction book (1991) -
Finally, even if the criminal law did not mete out more punishment when an offender's actions bring about a statutory harm, such harms often render offenders liable for civil damages.
Academic text (2017)
Synonyms
821
1.0
Make someone suffer for doing something wrong
199
1.5
To give out cards or other things to people
130
4.8
Give something like medicine or a test, often in a formal way
87
2.0
Give things to several people or places
34
4.0
To give small amounts of something to several people over time
33
3.7
To give a part of something to someone for a specific use
28
3.4
To give out things to several people, often food or advice
19
3.7
To give medicine or other things to people at a pharmacy
4
8.1
To give something in set amounts, for example punishments or praise
3
3.2
To give things to several people, often one by one, like cards
3
4.8
To divide something into parts and give each part to different people
Antonyms
How Severe
- Formal
294
6.1
5
7.9
- Specialized
321
6.3
- US
60
5.5
- Formal
33
6.1
∞
1.0
Surface Forms
Morphology
mete + out
If a learner knows 'mete' as 'to allocate or dole out' and 'out' as a particle indicating distribution or completion, the meaning 'to give or administer in a measured way' follows directly from the parts. The phrasing is somewhat formal/archaic but compositionally transparent and similar distributional patterns exist cross-linguistically, so a B1 learner who knows the constituents should understand it.
Etymology
Mete out may come from Old English where mete meant 'to measure' and people would measure food or goods and give them out in fixed amounts. So, mete out came to mean 'to give' something, often 'punishment', in a measured way.