▪ I. meeting, vbl. n.
(ˈmiːtɪŋ)
[f. meet v. + -ing1. OE. had ᵹeméting, glossing L. conventio, conventus, concilium, synagoga.]
1. a. The action of coming together from opposite or different directions into one place or into the presence of each other, of assembling for the transaction of business, etc. Now somewhat rare exc. in gerundial use; formerly in phr. in meeting, at (next, etc.) meeting, till meeting.
| a 1300 Cursor M. 5846 His broþer aaron he mett, Þat drihtin self has meting set. c 1320 Sir Tristr. 181 Swiche meting nas neuer made Wiþ sorwe on ich aside. c 1400 Mandeville (1839) xv. 166 There ben also sum Cristene men, that seyn, that summe Bestes han gode meetynge, that is to seye, for to meete with hem first at morwe. c 1440 Lovelich Merlin 4580 The kyng, that aȝens Merlyne went in metyng. 1485 in Jupp Acc. Carpenters' Comp. (1887) 35 Reseyvyd in the Barge at the metyng of the Kyng on the Water vijs vij{supd}. 1559 Bp. Scot in Strype Ann. Ref. (1709) I. App. vii. 14 At Peter's firste metinge with our Savyour Christe. 1639 Hamilton Papers (Camden) 95 Muche more of this kynd that past betwixt one of ther number and me this day..at meating. 1771 Smollett Humph. Cl. 2 Apr., I desire you will lock up all my drawers, and keep the keys till meeting. 1844 Ld. Brougham Brit. Const. ix. (1862) 119 The people's right of Meeting in large bodies. 1903 Edin. Rev. Apr. 314 These old makers..do not dwell on meetings in heaven. |
b. to give (a person) (the or a) meeting [after F.
donner rendez-vous]: to appoint a time and place for meeting with him. ?
Obs.| 1632 J. Hayward tr. Biondi's Eromena 25 A friend..whom they were to procure to come disguised, and give them the meeting. 1638 Mayne Lucian (1664) 161 At length, with much intreaty, he gave her a meeting. a 1648 Ld. Herbert Hen. VIII (1683) 35 Promising that he would not only give him meeting, but take pay under him. 1771 Smollett Humph. Cl. 30 Sept., That..he would come to Bath in the winter, where I promised to give him the meeting. 1833 Macaulay Ess., War Succession (ed. Montague) I. 509 The King resolved to give her the meeting in Catalonia. 1840 Dickens Barn. Rudge xii, You ask me to give you a meeting. |
† 2. a. An encounter in arms; a fight, battle.
Obs.| 13.. K. Alis. 2696 Com, and geve us on justyng, And thow schalt have hard metyng. c 1330 R. Brunne Chron. Wace (Rolls) 1011 At þat metyng..Taken was sire Antygon. 1596 Dalrymple tr. Leslie's Hist. Scot. ii. 148 Vncertane victorie at bathe the meitings. |
b. Used euphemistically for: A duel. (After F.
rencontre:
cf. rencounter n. 1 b.)
| 1812 Chron. in Ann. Reg. 31 A meeting took place..between Mr. O. Joynt and Mr. P. M{supc}Kim..when, on the first fire, the latter was struck in the forehead. 1838 Macaulay in Trevelyan Life II. 6, I had..no notion that a meeting could be avoided. |
3. a. A gathering or assembly of a number of people for purposes of intercourse, entertainment, discussion, legislation, and the like. Now chiefly restricted to gatherings of a public character, and assemblies of some organized society; formerly used to include private gatherings or parties, as in
card-meeting.
| 1513 More in Grafton Chron. (1568) II. 766 They assembled by and by together, to common of thys matter at London: At which meeting, the Archebishop of Yorke..secretly sent for the great Seale agayne. 1611 Bible Isa. i. 13 The calling of assemblies I cannot away with; it is iniquitie, euen the solemne meeting. 1693 Humours Town 59 To Ogle the Nymphs in the Boxes or Musick-Meetings. 1712 Swift Prop. Correct. Eng. Tongue 29 Since they [sc. ladies] have been left out of all Meetings, except Parties at Play. 1849 Macaulay Hist. Eng. vi. II. 95 He was no longer summoned to any meeting of the board. 1886 Stevenson Dr. Jekyll 1 At friendly meetings, and when the wine was to his taste. |
b. An assembly of people for purposes of worship: in England from the 17th c. applied almost exclusively to gatherings of nonconformists, and now
rare exc. with reference to Quakers. (Sometimes used, after
prep., without article,
esp. in
to go to meeting.) Hence, a nonconformist congregation; also,
† a nonconformist place of worship, a dissenting chapel or meeting-house (
obs.).
| 1593 [see conventicle 4 b]. 1677 W. Hubbard Narrative ii. 51 September the twenty fourth, being Lords day, as he was going home from the Meeting. 1679 Establ. Test 23 A..Jesuit takes a Lodging at a Quakers,..goes to the Silent meeting with his Landlord. 1688 S. Penton Guard. Instruct. (1897) 33, I went to a notorious Meeting, upon the fame of an extraordinary gifted Preacher. 1710 Palmer Proverbs 375 The pharisees cry was, The temple! the temple! and the modern hypocrites is, The church! and The meeting! 1750 Nova Scotia Archives (1869) 618 A Meeting for Dissenters, a Court House and Prison. 1774 J. Adams in Fam. Lett. (1876) 10 We went to meeting at Wells. 1781 Hutton Hist. B'ham. 117 Another was erected in the reign of King William, now denominated The Old Meeting. 1815 W. F[ield] Warw. & Leamington 140 Wesleian Methodist Meeting. This is situated in Gerard Lane, small in extent, and humble in appearance. 1834 Tracts for Times No. 29. 3 There is something so fine in the prayers without book, as they are offered at meeting. Ibid. 5 [The Church] had been in the country many, many years, whereas all the meetings about are (so to say) of yesterday. 1855 Ogilvie, Suppl., Meeting. In England, a conventicle; an assembly of Dissenters.—In the United States, an assembly for public worship generally. 1889 M. Howitt Autobiog. I. 4, I use here the phraseology of Friends, ‘meeting’ in this sense being equivalent to church or religious body. |
c. = race-meeting (
race n.1 11).
| 1764 App. to Chron. in Ann. Reg. 128/1 Westminster Races{ddd}Spring Meeting. 1859 Ann. Reg. 73 Magnificent weather and excellent sport made the great people's meeting [the Derby] pass off with great éclat. |
4. a. Of inanimate objects: Joining, junction; confluence (of rivers).
| 1530 Palsgr. 527/1, I drawe nere, as a shyppe dothe lande, or any other thynges whan they come to the metyng. 1606 G. W[oodcocke] Hist. Ivstine iv. 21 The meetings of the waters. c 1639 Suckling Brennoralt iii. (1648) 32 Her face is like the milky way i' th' sky, A meeting of gentle lights without name. 1807 Moore Irish Melodies, (title) The Meeting of the Waters. |
b. A joint in carpentry or masonry.
| 1656 H. Phillips Purch. Patt. (1676) B viij b, In the square meeting of the Table. 1663 Gerbier Counsel 7 Which will hinder the Rain..to peirce..through the meeting of the Brickwork and Stone. c 1860 H. Stuart Seaman's Catech. 70 What are the ‘end boards’? They are boards which cover and form the ends of the meetings. |
c. Mining. The passing of ascending and descending cars; hence, the place at which they
pass.| 1830 T. Wilson Pitman's Pay (1843) 26 We'd pass'd the meetin's aw've ne doubt. 1860 Eng. & For. Min. Gloss., Newc. Terms, Meetings, the middle of a pit or inclined plane. 1875 R. F. Martin tr. Havrez' Winding Mach. 36 If these moments be equal at meetings and at the landing of the cage. |
† 5. ? An average value.
Obs.| 1711 W. Sutherland Shipbuild. Assist. 14 The Method of buying a quantity of Timber is to add the Contents together of the several Pieces; the Quotient thereof is call'd the Meeting of that Timber, and accordingly thereto the Value of the whole Quantity is sold. |
6. = meeting-place.
poet.| 1596 Shakes. 1 Hen. IV, iii. ii. 174 On Thursday, wee our selues will march. Our meeting is Bridgenorth. 1801 Southey Thalaba iii. i, The Domdaniel caverns,..Their impious meeting. |
7. attrib., as
meeting acquaintance,
meeting bonnet,
meeting clothes,
meeting coat,
meeting-day,
meeting gown,
meeting hat,
meeting-point,
meeting-room,
meeting-stead (
arch.),
meeting-time;
meeting-folks, dissenters;
meeting seed (see
quot. 1851). Also
meeting-house, -place.
| 1792 F. Burney Diary V. vii. 299 Mrs. Kennedy..with whom I renewed a *meeting acquaintance, but evaded a visiting one. |
| 1867 J. R. Lowell Biglow Papers 2nd Ser. p. lxxix, Her new *meetin'-bunnet Felt somehow thru' its crown a pair O' blue eyes sot upon it. |
| 1775 in O. E. Winslow Amer. Broadside Verse (1930) 141/2 He got him on his *meeting clothes. 1867 ‘T. Lackland’ Homespun i. 63 The ‘meetin clothes’ of the children are laid away for another week, and the old ones got out again. |
| 1887 M. E. Wilkins Humble Romance 139 An thar was Israel in his *meetin coat, an' me in my best gown. |
| 1644 Early Rec. Portsmouth, Rhode Island (1901) 32 It is..ordered that the businesse of such *metinge dayes shal be specified. 1686 S. Sewall Diary (1878) I. 146 Mr. Moodey exercises at our House being our meeting-day. 1776 T. Pennant Tour in Scotl. & Voy. Hebrides 1772 II. 364 After three market-days or meeting-days within the town of Halifax. |
| 1835 Gentl. Mag. Nov. 491 My father drank to Church and King, And the *Meeting-folks love no such thing. |
| 1856 M. J. Holmes 'Lena Rivers 30 Nobody'd think any better of them for being rigged out in their very best *meetin' gowns. |
| 1887 M. E. Wilkins Humble Romance 300 Hatty in her meeting-gown of light-brown delaine, and her white *meeting-hat..was not pretty. |
| 1818 Busby Gram. Mus. 152 Those notes of the passage immediately under the *meeting points of the sign [for diminuendo-crescendo]. 1872 Liddon Elem. Relig. ii. 75 Miracle is the meeting-point between intellect and the moral sense. |
| 1761 Fitzgerald in Phil. Trans. LII. 154, I..have placed the instruments for the inspection of the gentlemen of the Royal Society, in their *meeting-room. |
| 1851 Knickerbocker XXXVIII. 372 (Th.), Some people call it ‘caraway’ and ‘aniseseed’, but we call it ‘*meetin'-seed’, 'cause we cal'late it keeps us awake in meetin'. 1889 R. T. Cooke Steadfast xxxix. 414 Mothers of young families distributed fragrant bunches of dried ‘meetin' seed’ among their flocks. 1905 E. U. Valentine Hecla Sandwith 25 [He] sat contentedly munching ‘meeting seed’ which Molly Tucker..had given him. 1940 E. Early New England Sampler 319 In old New England gardens there grew three plants called Meetin' Seed—Fennel, Dill, and Caraway. |
| 1887 W. Morris Odyss. ii. 147 Zeus..sent him two ernes to fly Adown..that *Meeting-stead to find. |
| 1639 Rec. Colony & Plantation New Haven (1857) I. 26 On the Lords Day in the *meeting time. 1881 Mrs. Stowe Sam Lawson's Oldtime Fireside Stories 200 We were in disgrace, we boys; and the reason of it was this: we had laughed out in meeting-time! |
▪ II. ˈmeeting, ppl. a. [f. meet v. + -ing2.] 1. That meets.
| 1592 Shakes. Ven. & Ad. 820 The wilde waues..Whose ridges with the meeting cloudes contend. 1606 ― Tr. & Cr. i. iii. 7 As knots by the conflux of meeting sap, Infect the sound Pine. 1720 Gay Fan ii. 156 Where meeting beeches weave a grateful shade. a 1881 Rossetti House of Life xii, Still glades; and meeting faces scarcely fann'd. |
b. In
Joinery. Often hyphened with the
n.| 1825 J. Nicholson Operat. Mechanic 590 The staff stile, which imitates the meeting-stiles. Ibid. 625 The common rafters..must be so arranged that a rafter shall lie under every one of the meeting-joints. 1844 Stephens Bk. Farm II. 538 The three equal wheels..are set in the sheers—the first of the three being upon the carriage-axle, which is in halves as before, and the meeting-ends supported on the sheers. 1875 Knight Dict. Mech., Meeting-post..that stile of a canal-lock gate which meets the corresponding stile of the other gate at the mid-width of the bay. |
† 2. Coming forward in response or welcome; responsive.
Obs.| 1548 Udall, etc. Erasm. Par. 1 Tim. i. 15 The thing that they renounce, is withal studious endeuoure to be embraced (as they saye) with meting armes [L. obuiis, ut aiunt, ulnis amplectendum]. 1632 Milton L'Allegro 138 Married to immortal verse Such as the meeting soul may pierce. 1639 J. Saltmarsh Pract. Policy 122 Bee not too meeting, and seeme not too hasty in accepting graces and favours. 1664 South Serm. (1823) I. xiv. 385 He..offers himself to the visits of a friend with facility, and all the meeting readiness of appetite and desire. |