meek adj

1 humble in spirit or manner; suggesting retiring mildness or even cowed submissiveness; "meek and self-effacing" [syn: mild, modest]

2 very docile; "tame obedience"; "meek as a mouse"- Langston Hughes [syn: tame]

3 evidencing little spirit or courage; overly submissive or compliant; "compliant and anxious to suit his opinions of those of others"; "a fine fiery blast against meek conformity"- Orville Prescott; "she looked meek but had the heart of a lion"; "was submissive and subservient" [syn: compliant, spiritless]

English

Etymology

Middle English meek, meke, borrowed from a Scandinavian source such as Old Norse mjúkr, "soft".

Pronunciation

• General American IPA/SAMPA /mik/

  Rhymes: -iːk

Adjective

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 chapter 5, verse 5)
2. Submissive, despirited, or of broken will.
   • 1920: Sinclair Lewis, Main Street http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/etcbin/ot2www-pubeng?specfile=/texts/english/modeng/publicsearch/modengpub.o2w&act=surround&offset=432765822&tag=Lewis,+Sinclair:+Main+Street,+1920&query=+meek&id=LewMain

     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.

Translations

Meek means to be humble. It may refer to:

• Albert Stewart Meek (1871–1943), British bird collector and naturalist
• Alexander Beaufort Meek (1814-1865), an American politician, lawyer, writer and poet
• Barbara Meek (b. 1934), American actress
• Bill Meek (1922-1998), American football coach

• Carrie P. Meek (b. 1926), American politician from Florida
• Donald Meek (1878-1946), Scottish character actor
• Fielding Bradford Meek (1817-1876), American geologist and paleontologist
• James Meek, minister
• James Meek (author)
• Janice Meek ocean rower
• Jeffrey Meek actor
• Jerry Meek politician
• Joe Meek (1929-1967), British record producer and composer
• Joseph Meek (1810-1875), American explorer, soldier and politician
• Kendrick Meek (b. 1966), American politician from Florida
• Larissa Meek, American model
• Meek (street artist), a street artist based in Melbourne, Australia
• Ronald L. Meek economist
• S. P. Meek (1894-1972), US military chemist, early science fiction author, and children's author
• Seth Eugene Meek (1859-1914), American ichthyologist
• Stephen Meek (guide) (1805-1889), fur trapper and guide in the American west
• Theophile Meek, Canadian archaeologist
• Tom Meek journalist

See also

• Meeks

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