5 definitions found From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]: Merit \Mer"it\, noun [F. m['e]rite, L. meritum, fr. merere, mereri, to deserve, merit; prob. originally, to get a share; akin to Gr. ? part, ? fate, doom, ? to receive as one's portion. Cf. {Market}, {Merchant}, {Mercer}, {Mercy}.] 1. The quality or state of deserving well or ill; desert. Here may men see how sin hath his merit. --Chaucer. 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. --Shak. 2. Esp. in a good sense: The quality or state of deserving well; worth; excellence. Reputation is . . . oft got without merit, and lost without deserving. --Shak. To him the wit of Greece and Rome was known, And every author's merit, but his own. --Pope. 3. 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. --Prior. From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]: Merit \Mer"it\, verb (used with an object) [imp. & p. p. {Merited}; p. pr. & vb. n. {Meriting}.] [F. m['e]riter, L. meritare, v. intens. fr. merere. See {Merit}, noun] 1. 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.'' --Shak. 2. To reward. [R. & Obs.] --Chapman. From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]: Merit \Mer"it\, verb (used without an object) To acquire desert; to gain value; to receive benefit; to profit. [Obs.] --Beau. & Fl. From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]: merit noun 1: any admirable quality or attribute; "work of great merit" [syn: {virtue}] [ant: {demerit}] 2: the quality of being deserving (e.g., deserving assistance); "there were many children whose deservingness he recognized and rewarded" [syn: {deservingness}, {meritoriousness}] verb: be worthy or deserving; "You deserve a promotion after all the hard work you have done" [syn: {deserve}] From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]: 96 Moby Thesaurus words for "merit": accent, advantage, advantageousness, agreeableness, arete, assets, auspiciousness, award, be deserving, be entitled to, be worthy of, beneficialness, benevolence, benignity, caliber, class, cogency, comeuppance, concern, concernment, consequence, consequentiality, consideration, desert, deserts, deserve, deserving, due, due reward, dues, earn, emphasis, entitle, excellence, excellency, expedience, fairness, favorableness, fineness, first-rateness, good, goodliness, goodness, grace, healthiness, helpfulness, high order, high rank, import, importance, interest, just deserts, justify, kindness, mark, materiality, merits, moment, niceness, note, paramountcy, perfection, pleasantness, precedence, preeminence, primacy, priority, profitableness, quality, rate, recompense, repay, requite, reward, rewardingness, rights, self-importance, significance, skillfulness, soundness, stature, stress, strong point, superiority, supremacy, usefulness, validity, value, virtue, virtuousness, warrant, weight, wholeness, winnings, worth, worthiness

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