meek

meek modest, *humble, lowly

Analogous words: gentle, mild (see SOFT): subdued, submissive, *tame: *compliant, acquiescent, resigned: *forbearing, tolerant, lenient: patient, long-suffering (see corresponding nouns at PATIENCE)

Antonyms: arrogant

Contrasted words: *proud, lordly, overbearing, haughty: *spirited, high-spirited, mettlesome, spunky: re-bellious, contumacious, *insubordinate meet vb 1 Meet, face, encounter, confront can all mean to come across or to run into someone or something face-to-face or as if face-to-face.

Meet fundamentally implies the action of two or more persons or things which from different directions come across each other by design or by accident; often it implies nothing more

{

the narrow strip of Syrian seaboard which they occupied when we first meet them in history— Clodd

}

{

where the Mohawk meets the Hudson river

}

{

the little girl ran to meet her father as he came up the hill

}

Beyond this, the word may suggest such actions or intentions as finding, experiencing, or dealing with successfully

{

I never met with such kindness before

}

{

it is perhaps only in England that such ideas can be expressed without meeting anger or ridicule— Sykes

}

{

Hobart . . . could talk; he could assert; produce opinions and information, but he couldn't meet or answer arguments— Rose Macaulayy

}

Face may imply nothing more than a standing or a meeting face-to-face (as of persons or things that merely present their faces or their fronts to each other)

{

they faced each other across the table

}

{

a very capacious couch faced a generous fireplace— Sidney Lovett

}

but it more often emphasizes the act or intention of one who with courage or resolution or confidence, or with effrontery, or with desperation, looks upon or meets another person or thing

{

the government faces a strong storm of protest over its decision— Current History

}

{

the artist must face life and defy it— Bambrick

}

{

she couldn't face a lifetime of misery

}

Encounter in its earliest and still not uncommon sense implies mutual hostility or active conflict

{

the armies are now ready to encounter each other

}

There has, however, been a progressive weakening of this implication, so that the word more frequently implies a running up against something that presents a difficulty, hardship, or obstacle

{

after half an hour's free indulgence of grief . . . Catherine felt equal to encountering her friends— Austen

}

{

the difficulties that had been encountered in attempting to perfect the machine— Anderson

}

{

the innumerable hardships and discomforts to be encountered in the provinces— Heiser

}

Often, even this notion of difficulty or hardship in turn is lost and the term means nothing more than meet, especially by chance or unexpectedly

{

groping about, his hand encountered something warm that started at his touch— Meredith

}

{

walked the whole of the six or seven miles . . . without encountering a soul— Mackenzie

}

Confront more clearly than the other terms stresses the unavoidable face-to-face nature of the meeting and often also carries a strong implication of a resolute intent or firm determination to clarify an issue or settle a difficulty through such meeting

{

he was confronted by several witnesses of the accident

}

{

the predicament with which our civilization now finds itself confronted—L. P. Smith

}

{

when he was confronted by accidental extinction, he had felt no will to resist— Cather

}

Analogous words: accost, greet, salute (see ADDRESS): collide, *bump, clash: *experience, undergo, sustain, suffer: *wrestle, grapple, tussle: forestall, anticipate (see PREVENT)

Antonyms: avoid

Contrasted words: evade, elude, shun, *escape

2 *satisfy, fulfill, answer

Analogous words: equal, approach, *match, touch: gratify, *please: content, *satisfy

Antonyms: disappoint