Merit
['merɪt] or ['mɛrɪt]
Definition
(noun.) any admirable quality or attribute; 'work of great merit'.
Editor: William--From WordNet
Definition
(n.) The quality or state of deserving well or ill; desert.
(n.) Esp. in a good sense: The quality or state of deserving well; worth; excellence.
(n.) Reward deserved; any mark or token of excellence or approbation; as, his teacher gave him ten merits.
(n.) 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.
(n.) To reward.
(v. i.) To acquire desert; to gain value; to receive benefit; to profit.
Checker: Trent
Synonyms and Synonymous
n. [1]. Desert, worth, worthiness, excellence, credit.[2]. Claim, right.
v. a. Deserve, have a right to, be entitled to.
Checked by Felicia
Synonyms and Antonyms
SYN:Goodness, worth, worthiness, desert, excellence
ANT:Badness, demerit, unworthiness, worthlessness, weakness, imperfection, error,defect, fault, failing
Checker: Velma
Definition
n. excellence that deserves honour or reward: worth: value: that which one has earned.—v.t. to earn: to have a right to claim as a reward: to deserve: (pl. in law) the right or wrong of a case apart from questions of procedure.—adj. Meritō′rious possessing merit or desert: deserving of reward honour or praise.—adv. Meritō′riously.—n. Meritō′riousness.—Order for merit a Prussian order the military class founded by Frederick the Great in 1740—the civil class by Frederick William IV. in 1842 for eminence in science and art; Order of merit place in a class or list in which the best is placed first the next best second and so on.
Inputed by Annie
Examples
- General Canby was an officer of great merit. Ulysses S. Grant. Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant.
- Come forward, modest merit! Charlotte Bronte. Shirley.
- It cannot promote health nor ease pain; it makes no increase of merit in the person; it creates envy; it hastens misfortune. Benjamin Franklin. Memoirs of Benjamin Franklin.
- There's no great merit in that, sir, said Mrs. Clements simply. Wilkie Collins. The Woman in White.
- Nor, in my opinion, has any man less merit for having, in general, natural virtuous inclinations. Benjamin Franklin. Memoirs of Benjamin Franklin.
- There was no other merit in this, than my having sense enough to feel my deficiencies. Charles Dickens. Great Expectations.
- None of the direct affections seem to merit our particular attention, except hope and fear, which we shall here endeavour to account for. David Hume. A Treatise of Human Nature.
- His merits in this respect resemble those of Kepler in astronomy. Walter Libby. An Introduction to the History of Science.
- That was to be expected of a man of his merits. Charles Dickens. Our Mutual Friend.
- I hate to dwell long on any subject, unless indeed it were the merits of these my most interesting and valuable memoirs! Harriette Wilson. The Memoirs of Harriette Wilson.
- He had been to the Opera, and knew the merits of the principal actors, preferring Mr. Kean to Mr. Kemble. William Makepeace Thackeray. Vanity Fair.
- If it fails on its merits, he doesn't worry or fret about it, but, on the contrary, regards it as a useful fact learned; remains cheerful and tries something else. Frank Lewis Dyer. Edison, His Life and Inventions.
- The lawyers have twisted it into such a state of bedevilment that the original merits of the case have long disappeared from the face of the earth. Charles Dickens. Bleak House.
- Every Christmas Day, he retorted, as he now retorted, It's no more than your merits. Charles Dickens. Great Expectations.
- Then they stood on the bank shivering, and so chagrined and so grieved, that they merited holiest compassion. Mark Twain. The Innocents Abroad.
- Her honest ostentatious nature made the sharing of a merited dishonor as bitter as it could be to any mortal. George Eliot. Middlemarch.
- But he may have merited it. Charles Dickens. Our Mutual Friend.
- Excuse me, my Lady, Sir Leicester considerately interposes, but perhaps this may be doing an injury to the young woman which she has not merited. Charles Dickens. Bleak House.
- His complexion was white with agitation, and he looked as if fearful of his reception, and conscious that he merited no kind one. Jane Austen. Sense and Sensibility.
- Paul would not stand any prolonged experience of this sort of dialogue I knew; but he certainly merited a sample of the curt and arid. Charlotte Bronte. Villette.
- I should say she merited the distinction. Charlotte Bronte. Shirley.
Typed by Debora