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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.

Deserving of reward. [R.]

By merit; deservedly.

Same as Internode.

One who depends on merit for salvation. [Obs.] Milner.

Possessing merit; deserving of reward or honor; worthy of recompense; valuable. And meritorious shall that hand be called, Canonized, and worshiped as a saint. Shak. -- Mer`i*to"ri*ous*ly, adv. -- Mer`i*to"ri*ous*ness, n.

Meritorious. [Obs.]

A play of children, in swinging on ropes, or the like, till they are dizzy.

An old Scotch silver coin; a mark or marc. [Scot.]

Murky. [Obs.] Piers Plowman.

Originally, a wig; afterwards, a mop for cleaning cannon.

The European blackbird. See Blackbird. Drayton.

A small European falcon (Falco lithofalco, or F. æsalon).

The European whiting.

One of the solid parts of a battlemented parapet; a battlement. See Illust. of Battlement.

The European hake; -- called also herring hake and sea pike.

A fabled marine creature, typically represented as having the upper part like that of a woman, and the lower like a fish; a sea nymph, sea woman, or woman fish.

The male corresponding to mermaid; a sea man, or man fish.

lus guaza), the red grouper (E. morio), the black grouper (E. nigritas), distinguished as Me"ro de lo al"to, and a species called also rock hind, distinguished as Me"ro ca*brol"la.

An ovum, as that of a mammal, only partially composed of germinal matter, that is, consisting of both a germinal portion and an albuminous or nutritive one; -- opposed to holoblast.