MERIT • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Merit

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/mˈɛrət/ Listen

noun

Merit n.

The quality or state of deserving well or ill; desert. "Here may men see how sin hath his merit." "Be it known, that we, the greatest, are misthought For things that others do; and when we fall, We answer other's merits in our name."

Esp. in a good sense: The quality or state of deserving well; worth; excellence. "Reputation is... oft got without merit, and lost without deserving." "To him the wit of Greece and Rome was known, And every author's merit, but his own."

Reward deserved; any mark or token of excellence or approbation; as, his teacher gave him ten merits. "Those laurel groves, the merits of thy youth."

verb

Merit v. t. (past & past part. merited; pres. part. meriting)

To earn by service or performance; to have a right to claim as reward; to deserve; sometimes, to deserve in a bad sense; as, to merit punishment. "This kindness merits thanks."

To reward. (R. & Obs.)

Merit v. i. To acquire desert; to gain value; to receive benefit; to profit. (Obs.)

See images of 'Merit'

Etymology of 'Merit'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Merit" Quotes from Famous Books

... of Bombay is said to be superior in point of salubrity to that of Bengal; what is termed the cold season, however, can scarcely merit the name, there being nothing like the bracing weather experienced at the same period of the year in the neighbouring presidency. One peculiarity of Bombay consists in the wind blowing hot and cold at the same time, so that persons who are liable to rheumatic pains are ...

— Notes of an Overland Journey Through France and Egypt to Bombay • Miss Emma Roberts

... statement of facts, with many of which no other person could have been so well acquainted, is now concluded,—with the natural anguish of a father for the loss of a son of whom he was justly proud, and who fell a victim to incapacity and negligence not his own. Still, I have no desire to claim merit for him to which he is not entitled, or to abstract an iota from what is justly due to others. The Report of the Royal Commission is to be found at full in the Appendix; unaccompanied necessarily by ...

— Successful Exploration Through the Interior of Australia • William John Wills

... as the maid, had been flattered and pleased By the passion of Roger; his wild wooing teased That inquisitive sense, half a fault, half a merit, Which the daughters of Eve, to a woman, inherit. His love fanned her love for herself to a glow; She was stirred by the thought she could stir a man so. That was all. She had nothing to give in return. One can't light a fire ...

— Three Women • Ella Wheeler Wilcox

... example—so will I, benevolent, if not middle-aged, put before the eyes of my sisters a certain experience of mine. I expect my little act of self-abasement for the instruction of my sex to have this merit: the picture I will show you is not dim with age, and not cut and cramped to fit the frame of a special case. The colours are hardly dry, and both picture and tale are ...

— Under the Southern Cross • Elizabeth Robins

... tears of his disciples at Clairvaux, and the regrets of all the nation, followed him to the grave. About twenty years after his death a decree of canonization awarded him the title of Saint, which, considering how it has been disgraced by unholy bearers, will not seem so fitly to recognize his merit as that name which the reverence of the Church has further bestowed on him—the last ...

— Great Men and Famous Women. Vol. 5 of 8 • Various

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