How to Use mete out in a Sentence

mete out

phrasal verb
Definition of mete outnext
  • This leads to some verbal blows that are just as fierce as any meted out in the ring.
    — Chris Snellgrove, EW.com, 23 Dec. 2023
  • Danford asked the judge to mete out the maximum sentence.
    — Andrea Marks, Rolling Stone, 23 July 2023
  • For years, the head driver would mete out punishment with a leather strap known as Black Annie.
    — Hanif Abdurraqib, The New Yorker, 2 Oct. 2023
  • But the department didn’t make the footage public or mete out punishment.
    — Eric Umansky, ProPublica, 14 Dec. 2023
  • These are films about the grave comedy of being alive, and about submitting to the seasons by which a life is meted out.
    — Anthony Lane, The New Yorker, 5 Feb. 2024
  • Often, the reprisals would be meted out on prisoners of war, who were near at hand and could easily be killed.
    — Oona A. Hathaway, Foreign Affairs, 23 Apr. 2024
  • And the punishment had already been meted out, Cramer Bornemann adds.
    — Steve Nadis, Discover Magazine, 26 Nov. 2023
  • It could be used to mete out jail sentences of six to 10 years to gay rights activists, their lawyers or others involved in any kind of public effort.
    — Neil MacFarquhar, New York Times, 30 Nov. 2023
  • The judgment that the lawmakers may mete out at the Capitol is political.
    — Philip Jankowski, Dallas News, 5 Sep. 2023
  • The sentence was also meted out Tuesday, according to the corps.
    — Bill Feather, NBC News, 11 Apr. 2024
  • Oldfield and Rothman wouldn’t be able to mete out the assignments until the report itself dropped, at which point the clock would already have started.
    — Alexis Gunderson, Los Angeles Times, 13 June 2023
  • Too often the violence is itself the punchline, and the baroque ways in which it’s meted out the prime evidence that anyone put any thought into this show at all.
    — Time, 27 July 2023
  • Indeed, Hans does have secrets that are meted out throughout the book, though the most consequential is kept until the epilogue.
    — Cory Oldweiler, BostonGlobe.com, 15 June 2023
  • Such arguments can seem beside the point in light of the daily brutality meted out by Russian forces in Ukraine.
    — David Miliband, Foreign Affairs, 18 Apr. 2023
  • And perhaps this was the point: to paint the justice meted out by the American prison system as no less violent or gratuitous than the crime itself.
    — Michael Andor Brodeur, Washington Post, 27 Sep. 2023
  • Beatings are meted out if the smugglers are repeat offenders, Gaud said.
    — Pranshu Verma, Washington Post, 27 Sep. 2023
  • By league rules, the arbitrator alone is empowered to decide the case and mete out any potential penalties.
    — Tariq Panja, New York Times, 26 May 2023
  • The verdict comes amid a raft of unusually harsh punishments being meted out for even the mildest dissent against Russia’s war in Ukraine.
    — Robyn Dixon, Washington Post, 16 Nov. 2023
  • If they were all being punished, at least punishment was meted out equally.
    — Matthew Gavin Frank, Harper's Magazine, 6 June 2023
  • Treating his captives not as commandos but as regular troops, Kolb shielded them from the SS and the harsh treatment that hard-line Nazis would likely have meted out.
    — Katie Sanders, Smithsonian Magazine, 19 Apr. 2023
  • Even if Israel metes out to Hamas its just deserts, the fighting could lead to a tremendous loss of life and push a peaceful settlement to the 75-year-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict even further out of reach.
    — Kenneth M. Pollack, Foreign Affairs, 12 Oct. 2023
  • Baseball games update by the pitch, politicians make statements on social media, and attention, which used to be meted out by the media, is now under the watch of algorithms.
    — Jay Caspian Kang, The New Yorker, 12 July 2024
  • Instead, the public executions were meted out with unchecked viciousness as the men were beaten, hanged, shot, paraded through town and, in one instance, set on fire.
    — Joe Heim, Washington Post, 11 Mar. 2024
  • Some experts disagreed with that decision, saying that the punishment Israel meted out in the 2019 case was not adequate.
    — Brett Murphy, ProPublica, 8 May 2024
  • Its members often carry machetes instead of guns, and are known for brutally meting out retribution on the streets.
    — Abdi Latif Dahir, New York Times, 5 Sep. 2023
  • Fueling anger The central government appears to have been shocked by the surge in penalties meted out by local authorities.
    — Laura He, CNN, 20 Sep. 2023
  • While investors were first promised their full allocation prior to launch, it would now be meted out in increments every Monday over a period of eight weeks.
    — Joel Khalili, WIRED, 15 Apr. 2024
  • There has been little consistency at universities over how punishments are meted out and how long that process takes.
    — Jeremy W. Peters, New York Times, 4 June 2024
  • The authority of teachers like me is routinely challenged by pupils and their parents, who are all too willing to contest punishments meted out to their children, knowing the cards are stacked in their favour.
    — The Week Uk, theweek, 5 May 2024
  • Her avidity added some dimension to Gold’s vision of a world in which justice is meted out to those who speak most eloquently and power redounds to those who are already powerful.
    — Daniel D'addario, Variety, 19 Mar. 2024

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'mete out.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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