MERIT • E-FREE TRANSLATION.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

... five of these authorities use the word in the same sense would go very far to establish the usage. On the other hand, the fact that any number of newspaper reporters agree in usage does not make the usage reputable. The style of newspaper reporters is not without merit; it is very rarely unreadable; but for all its virtue it is rarely ...

— Practical Exercises in English • Huber Gray Buehler

... earth's slow, swinging wobble. For the earth, be it understood, like a great top spinning through space, holds its position with relative but not quite absolute fixity. It must not be supposed, however, that the experiment in question was quite new with Eratosthenes. His merit consists rather in the accuracy with which he made his observation than in the novelty of the conception; for it is recorded that Eudoxus, a full century earlier, had remarked the obliquity of the ecliptic. That observer had said that the obliquity corresponded to ...

— A History of Science, Volume 1(of 5) • Henry Smith Williams

... a string can give an impression fundamentally correct, and to be apprehended at a glance. So far from tending to lucidity, accumulation of detail in pursuit of minute accuracy rather obscures. Nelson himself indicated his intentions sufficiently by straight lines. One merit my June 1st plan may possibly possess; the perplexing optical effect may convey better than words the intricacy of a ...

— From Sail to Steam, Recollections of Naval Life • Captain A. T. Mahan

... doth Sir Pinel think to gain from those false tales of her?' said Sir Brastias one day, as he and Sir Gareth came from the hawking together. 'For none ever reckoned him as a knight of any merit, and all good men will now ...

— King Arthur's Knights - The Tales Re-told for Boys & Girls • Henry Gilbert

... help adding, after what I have heard to-night, that I have read in the journals a statement from an English source, that Sir Frederic Bruce attributed to Mr. Burlingame the merit of the happy reform in the relations of foreign governments to China. I am quite sure that I heard from Mr. Burlingame in New York, in his last visit to America, that the whole merit of it belonged to Sir Frederic Bruce. It appears that the ambassadors were emulous in ...

— Modern Eloquence: Vol II, After-Dinner Speeches E-O • Various

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