mete out

phrasal verb

meted out; meting out; metes out

: to give (something) to the people who one decides should get it : to give out or distribute (something)

We're trying to be fair in meting out rewards and punishments.

—usually used to refer to something unpleasant (such as punishment)

Huge fines were meted out as punishment.

The king meted out justice as he saw fit.

Examples of mete out in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

To mete out those funds, the agency pores over at least tens of thousands of grant applications every year, subjecting them to reviews from multiple panels of experts; only about 20 percent are funded, or sometimes far less. —Katherine J. Wu, The Atlantic, 6 Aug. 2025

The award, dedicated to a personality who has made a particularly original contribution to the contemporary film industry, has recently been meted out to Claude Lelouch and Wes Anderson. —Melanie Goodfellow, Deadline, 30 July 2025

Only the Mariners ever meted out any such punishment in the intervening years. —Gabrielle Starr, Boston Herald, 27 June 2025

Joe Don Baker, the actor who as the real-life Sheriff Buford Pusser in the 1973 vigilante film Walking Tall carried a big stick to mete out his own Tennessee brand of justice, died May 7, his family has announced. —Greg Evans, Deadline, 15 May 2025

Rhymes for mete out

• roundabout
• runabout
• sauerkraut
• thereabout
• turnabout
• about
• bailout
• blackout
• blowout
• breakout
• burnout
• buyout