1
[ verb ] be worthy or deserving

Synonyms

deserve

Examples

"You deserve a promotion after all the hard work you have done"

2
[ verb ] be worthy of or have a certain rating

Synonyms

deserve rate

Examples

"This bond rates highly"

Used in print

(The Sun, [Baltimore],...)

Hartman , purchased by the A 's from the Milwaukee_Braves last fall , allowed no hits in his scoreless three inning appearance , and merited the triumph .

(LeRoy Fothergill, "Biological Warfare", in Peter...)

The question of epidemic disease merits some discussion .

(Guy Endore, Voltaire! Voltaire!...)

But then , after the little operetta had been given its feeble amateur rendering , everyone insisted that it was too good to be lost forever , and that the Royal_Academy_of_Music must now have the manuscript in_order to give it the really first-rate performance it merited .

Related terms

be rating

3
[ noun ] any admirable quality or attribute

Synonyms

virtue

Examples

"work of great merit"

Used in print

(Edward Austin Walton, "On Education for the Interior...)

Without comparing the relative merits of the two courses - architecture versus interior_design - let us examine the educational needs of the interior_designer .

(J. H. Hexter, "Thomas More: On the Margins...)

Whatever the merits of its intent , Utopian communism is far too naive , far too crude , to suit any modern socialist or communist .

(Guy Endore, Voltaire! Voltaire!...)

His operatic music had little merit .

Related terms

demerit worth

4
[ noun ] the quality of being deserving (e.g., deserving assistance)

Examples

"there were many children whose deservingness he recognized and rewarded"

Used in print

(Rocky Mountains News, [Denver, Colorado],...)

Willie 's big day revived the running argument about the relative merits of Mays and Mickey_Mantle .

(S. J. Perelman, The Rising Gorge. New York:...)

In it was a stone Tibetan Buddha I had picked_up in Bombay , and occasionally , to make merit , my wife and I garlanded it with flowers or laid a_few pennies in its lap .

Related terms

worthiness deserve

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