Meting

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. The process of measuring or distributing something, often in a precise or allocated manner
2. An act involving the assessment or apportioning of quantities or amounts
3. The procedure of assigning or calculating portions or dimensions for a particular purpose

Etymology: Meting belongs to a verb whose root meaning is simply "to measure," and that sense has stayed remarkably intact for well over a thousand years. Old English "metan" meant to measure, but it also meant to mete out, mark off, compare and estimate, and it could even mean to pass over or traverse a distance. Those senses branch out from a shared ancestor that also gave German "messen" and Latin "modus," meaning limit or measure. The verb has a second, unrelated source. Middle English "mete" also came from Old French "mete," meaning boundary or boundary marker, which in turn came from Latin "mēta," a post or turning point marking a goal. Many people now assume the two words are the same, but the boundary sense is a separate line of descent that happened to merge with the measuring verb in English.

Synonyms: distributing, allocating, assigning

Antonyms: withholding, keeping, retaining