23 Ways to Use the Verb “Meet”

In order to learn the language properly, you need to know expressions such as collocations, phrasal verbs, idiomatic expressions, not only the words. Here is your chance to improve and enrich your vocabulary by learning how to use the verb “meet”. I present to you 23 ways to use the verb “meet”.

Basically, to meet someone means to come together with them.

For example:

• Susan is meeting Fren on Saturday to discuss their project.
• The board of directors meets every Monday.

Collocations using the verb “meet”

Meet someone for the first time

You can meet someone you know or perhaps don’t know, so you can say that you meet them for the first time.

For example:

• I first met my husband at the airport when we were going on holiday.
• Frank and I first met when we were children. We’ve been good friends ever since.

Meet someone accidentally (by chance)

The verb meet builds many expressions, so you can say that you met someone by chance or that you met them accidentally.

For example:

• I hadn’t seen Laura for three years and then we met accidentally at the airport.
• They met Fran by chance in town and decided to have lunch together.

Arrange to meet someone

You can also arrange to meet someone, which means that you scheduled an appointment.

For example:

• I arranged to meet my client at noon.
• We have arranged to meet in that restaurant on Saturday because one of our colleagues is retiring.

Meet a deadline 

When you finish work at the previously agreed time, it means that you meet a deadline.

For example:

• All department was under stress, but we managed to meet a deadline.
• Our boss hired another man to help us meet a deadline.

Meet the needs

If you meet the needs, then you provide what is necessary.

For example:

• Sometimes we work overtime to meet the needs of our customers.
• The Committee is pleased that the proposal meets the need which has often been neglected in the past.

Meet someone’s expectations 

The meaning of this collocation is to be as good as people think someone or something should be.

For example:

• The cooperation provided by the government continued to fully meet the United Nation’s expectations.
• The computers we bought from that company didn’t meet our expectations.

Nice to meet you/please to meet you/look forward to meeting someone

It is quite common in English to say “Nice to meet you“, or “Pleased to meet you” after we meet someone for the first time. We can also say that we’re “looking forward to meeting someone”, usually in a formal way.

For example:

• ‘Jill, this is Greg, Greg, this is Jill’ ‘Nice to meet you Jill’, Nice to meet you, Greg.’
• I am very pleased to meet you again, Mr Johnson.
• Tim and I are looking forward to meeting you on Saturday.

You can also wait for someone at a place and say: “I’ll meet you at the railway station at 7”,

or experience something and say: “I’ve never met that sort of problem before.”

You don’t have to meet people only. You can meet a requirement, condition, challenge, etc.

For example:

• The hotel we stayed in didn’t meet our requirements.
• The skimmed milk powder may only be stored in stores meeting conditions to be fixed.
• Training at home will enable your children to meet challenges at school. 

And finally, you can meet someone’s eyes, as well.

• When he turned, Alan met Dorothy’s eyes.

Phrasal verbs with “meet”

Meet up

You can use the phrasal verb meet up instead of meet. Their meaning is the same.

For example: 

• Why don’t we meet up after work for a coffee?
• My family used to meet up for lunch on Sundays.

Meet up with

Meet up with is similar. It usually means to meet someone after making an arrangement.

For example:

• She met up with her sister last night because they needed to discuss some legal issues.
• Tonight, we are meeting up with  Maria. I can’t wait to tell her the news.

Idioms and expressions with “meet”

Meet someone halfway 

This expression is mostly used in business and it means to make a compromise.

For example:

• Their competitor is ready to meet them halfway by splitting the difference.
• Since George was willing to compromise, they met halfway on that.

Meet someone’s end

You already suppose that when someone meets their end, they die.

For example:

• Don’t drive so fast! I don’t want to meet my end!
• The king met his end on that plain over there back in the 15th century.

Make ends meet 

People who make their ends meet have only enough money for their basic needs.

For example:

• Ever since my wife lost her job we’ve been struggling to make ends meet.
• Many people today struggle to make ends meet, and some people don’t even have life’s necessities.

There is more to it than meets the eye 

This expression means that things are more complicated than they seemed at first.

For example:

• My job is so complicated. There is much more to it than meets the eye.
• The scientist wanted to take more precautions before investigating it, so I figured out there’s more to it than meets the eye.

I hope you are more familiar with these expressions after reading this post and you will easily incorporate them into your English. 🙂

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