different between meek vs lenient

English

Etymology

From Middle English meek, meke, meoc, a borrowing from Old Norse mjúkr (“soft; meek”), from Proto-Germanic *meukaz, *m?kaz (“soft; supple”), from Proto-Indo-European *mewg-, *mewk- (“slick, slippery; to slip”).

Cognate with Swedish and Norwegian Nynorsk mjuk (“soft”), Norwegian Bokmål myk (“soft”), and Danish myg (“supple”), Dutch muik (“soft, overripe”), dialectal German mauch (“dry and decayed, rotten”), Mauche (“malanders”). Compare also Old English sm?gan (“to slide, slip”), Welsh mwyth (“soft, weak”), Latin ?mung? (“to blow one's nose”), Tocharian A muk- (“to let go, give up”), Lithuanian mùkti (“to slip away from”), Old Church Slavonic ?????? (m??ati, “to chase”), Ancient Greek ???????? (mússomai, “to blow the nose”), Sanskrit ??????? (muñcati, “to release, let loose”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /mi?k/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /mik/
• Rhymes: -i?k

Adjective

meek (comparative meeker, superlative meekest)

1. Humble, non-boastful, modest, meager, or self-effacing.
   • 1848, Charles Dickens, Dombey and Son:

     Mrs. Wickam was a meek woman...who was always ready to pity herself, or to be pitied, or to pity anybody else...

2. Submissive, dispirited.
   • 1920, Sinclair Lewis, Main Street:

     What if they were wolves instead of lambs? They'd eat her all the sooner if she was meek to them. Fight or be eaten.

Synonyms

• See also Thesaurus:humble

Derived terms

• meekly
• meekness

Translations

Verb

meek (third-person singular simple present meeks, present participle meeking, simple past and past participle meeked)

1. (US) (of horses) To tame; to break.

Translations

English

Etymology

From Middle French lénient, from Latin l?niens, present participle of l?n?re (“to soften, soothe”), from l?nis (“soft”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?li?ni.?nt/

Adjective

lenient (comparative more lenient, superlative most lenient)

1. Lax; not strict; tolerant of dissent or deviation

   The standard is fairly lenient, so use your discretion.

   • 1847, Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre, Chapter XVIII

     But in other points, as well as this, I was growing very lenient to my master; I was forgetting all his faults, for which I had once kept a sharp look-out. It had formerly been my endeavour to study all sides of his character; to take the bad with the good; and from the just weighing of both, to form an equitable judgment. Now I saw no bad.

Synonyms

• lax, permissive

Antonyms

• strict
• severe
• stringent
• unlenient

Related terms

• lenience
• leniency
• lenity

Derived terms

• leniently
• unlenient

Translations

Noun

lenient (plural lenients)

1. (medicine) A lenitive; an emollient.

Further reading

• lenient in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• lenient in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• lenient at OneLook Dictionary Search

Latin

Verb

l?nient

1. third-person plural future active indicative of l?ni?