mete out
to distribute
TRANSLATION
mete out = austeilen, verteilen, zuteilen (woerterbuch.de, DH) --- GOOGLE INDEX mete out: approximately 370,000 hits
STATISTICS
IN THE PRESS
It has also recommended the establishment of an independent police complaints and misconduct commission, which would have the power to initiate investigations into any wrongdoings in the force and to METE OUT punishment.
(Asian Political News)
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Let them live or die as luck will have it, and let Jove METE OUT his judgements upon the Trojans and Danaans according to his own pleasure.
- The Iliad by Homer
(Asian Political News)
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Let them live or die as luck will have it, and let Jove METE OUT his judgements upon the Trojans and Danaans according to his own pleasure.
- The Iliad by Homer
Did you
know?
mete out
verb
- To distribute by or as if by measure; allot: mete out justice or punishment
(adapted from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition)
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WORD ORIGIN
Mete comes from the Old English metan, meaning to measure. The noun form was used to describe a goal or boundary. Mete is normally used together with out, as in mete out, and is rarely used as a stand-alone word. Metre is thought to derive from mete.
The verb mete out is usually applied in reference to handing out punishment or justice. And for those of us living in Europe, punishment and justice as meted out in other countries or cultures may seem foreign so to speak.
All of us have read or heard about the custom in some Arab countries to cut off the hands of the thief. Several years ago a young American in Singapore spent four months in jail and was given four strokes with a cane for vandalising two motorcars (Britain actually introduced caning as a form of corporal punishment when it controlled Singapore during its colonial empire days). And just recently, a German tourist was released after spending 16 months in an Iranian jail for allegedly crossing into Iranian territorial waters while on a deep-sea fishing excursion.
Some courts have taken to meting out innovative and less harsh punishment. Mr. Brett Haines from Cincinnati, Ohio was charged with disorderly conduct for threatening an African American taxi driver and using racial insults during the outburst. As he was brought into the courtroom to respond to the charges, he discovered he was facing Judge William Mallory Jr., an African American. Judge Mallory was quoted as saying "It seems readily apparent to me that you don't like black people. That's OK with me. But you have to understand that you are at the authority of a black judge."
Judge Mallory then offered church as an alternative sentence, an option he said might broaden Haines' cultural awareness. "If you want to get out of jail, you're going to have to raise your black consciousness," added the judge. Not surprisingly, Haines chose the option of attending Sunday services at a predominately black church for six consecutive weeks instead of 30 days in jail. He later told the judge that the experience had changed his attitude.
(sources: The Online Etymology Dictionary, The Cincinnati Enquirer)
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SYNONYMS
administer, allot, apportion, assign, deal, deal out, dispense, distribute, dole out, give, hand out, impose, parcel, shell out
(Roget's New Millennium™ Thesaurus)
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IMPRESS YOUR FRIENDS TODAY
say something like:
"Jim does not believe in meting out punishment whenever a rule is broken, he prefers to discuss the reasons and to make it a learning experience."
verb
- To distribute by or as if by measure; allot: mete out justice or punishment
(adapted from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition)
---
WORD ORIGIN
Mete comes from the Old English metan, meaning to measure. The noun form was used to describe a goal or boundary. Mete is normally used together with out, as in mete out, and is rarely used as a stand-alone word. Metre is thought to derive from mete.
The verb mete out is usually applied in reference to handing out punishment or justice. And for those of us living in Europe, punishment and justice as meted out in other countries or cultures may seem foreign so to speak.
All of us have read or heard about the custom in some Arab countries to cut off the hands of the thief. Several years ago a young American in Singapore spent four months in jail and was given four strokes with a cane for vandalising two motorcars (Britain actually introduced caning as a form of corporal punishment when it controlled Singapore during its colonial empire days). And just recently, a German tourist was released after spending 16 months in an Iranian jail for allegedly crossing into Iranian territorial waters while on a deep-sea fishing excursion.
Some courts have taken to meting out innovative and less harsh punishment. Mr. Brett Haines from Cincinnati, Ohio was charged with disorderly conduct for threatening an African American taxi driver and using racial insults during the outburst. As he was brought into the courtroom to respond to the charges, he discovered he was facing Judge William Mallory Jr., an African American. Judge Mallory was quoted as saying "It seems readily apparent to me that you don't like black people. That's OK with me. But you have to understand that you are at the authority of a black judge."
Judge Mallory then offered church as an alternative sentence, an option he said might broaden Haines' cultural awareness. "If you want to get out of jail, you're going to have to raise your black consciousness," added the judge. Not surprisingly, Haines chose the option of attending Sunday services at a predominately black church for six consecutive weeks instead of 30 days in jail. He later told the judge that the experience had changed his attitude.
(sources: The Online Etymology Dictionary, The Cincinnati Enquirer)
---
SYNONYMS
administer, allot, apportion, assign, deal, deal out, dispense, distribute, dole out, give, hand out, impose, parcel, shell out
(Roget's New Millennium™ Thesaurus)
---
IMPRESS YOUR FRIENDS TODAY
say something like:
"Jim does not believe in meting out punishment whenever a rule is broken, he prefers to discuss the reasons and to make it a learning experience."
