the objective case of I, used as a direct or indirect object: They asked me to the party. Give me your hand.
2.
Informal. (used instead of the pronoun I in the predicate after the verb to be): It's me.
3.
Informal. (used instead of the pronoun my before a gerund): Did you hear about me getting promoted?
–adjective
4.
of or involving an obsessive interest in one's own satisfaction: the me decade.
[Origin: bef. 900; ME me, OE mé (dat. and acc. sing.); c. D mij, OHG mir]
—Usage note 2. A traditional rule governing the case of personal pronouns after forms of the verb to be is that the nominative or subjective form (I; she; he; we; they) must be chosen. Some 400 years ago, owing to the feeling that the postverb position in a sentence is object rather than subject territory, me and other objective pronouns (him; her; us; them) began to replace the subjective forms after be, so that It is I became It is me. Today such constructions—It's me. That's him. It must be them.—are almost universal in speech, the context in which they usually occur. In formal speech or edited writing, the subjective forms are used: It was I who first noticed the problem. My brother was the one who called our attention to the problem, but it wasn't he who solved it. It had been she at the window, not her husband. Me and other objective forms have also replaced the subjective forms in speech in constructions like Me neither; Not us; Who, them? and in comparisons after as or than: She's no faster than him at getting the answers. When the pronoun is the subject of a verb that is expressed, the nominative forms are used: Neither did I. She's no faster than he is at getting the answers. See also than. 3. When a verb form ending in -ing functions as a noun, it is traditionally called a gerund: Walking is good exercise. She enjoys reading biographies. Usage guides have long insisted that gerunds, being nouns, must be preceded by the possessive form of the pronouns or nouns (my; your; her; his; its; our; their; child's; author's) rather than by the objective forms (me; you; him; her; it; us; them): The landlord objected to my (not me) having guests late at night. Several readers were delighted at the author's (not author) taking a stand on the issue. In standard practice, however, both objective and possessive forms appear before gerunds. Possessives are more common in formal edited writing, but the occurrence of objective forms is increasing; in informal writing and speech objective forms are more common: Many objections have been raised to the government (or government's) allowing lumbering in national parks. “Does anyone object to me (or my) reading this report aloud?” the moderator asked.
also (měn) A historical region and former province of northwest France south of Normandy. United with Anjou in 1126, it passed to England when Henry Plantagenet became king in 1154. Maine reverted to the French crown in 1481.
A state of the northeast United States. It was admitted as the 23rd state in 1820. First explored by Europeans in 1602, the region was annexed by Massachusetts in 1652. Maine's northern boundary with New Brunswick was settled by a treaty with Great Britain in 1842. Augusta is the capital and Portland the largest city. Population: 1,320,000.
Used as the direct object of a verb: He assisted me.
Used as the indirect object of a verb: They offered me a ride.
Used as the object of a preposition: This letter is addressed to me.
Informal Used as a predicate nominative: It's me. See Usage Notes at be, but, I1.
Nonstandard Used reflexively as the indirect object of a verb: I bought me a new car.
[Middle English, from Old English mē; see me-1 in Indo-European roots.]
Our Living Language: Speakers of vernacular varieties of English, especially in the South, will commonly utter sentences like I bought me some new clothes or She got her a good job, in which the objective form of the pronoun (me, her) rather than the reflexive pronoun (myself, herself) is used to refer back to the subject of the sentence (I, her). However, the reflexive pronoun of Standard English cannot always be replaced by the vernacular objective pronoun. For example, Jane baked her and John some cookies doesn't mean "Jane baked herself and John some cookies." In this sentence, her must refer to someone other than Jane, just as it does in Standard English. In addition, forms like me and her cannot be used in place of myself or herself unless the noun in the phrase following the pronoun is preceded by a modifier such as some, a, or a bunch of. Thus, sentences such as I cooked me some dinner and We bought us a bunch of candy are commonplace; sentences such as I cooked me dinner and We bought us candy do not occur at all. Sometimes objective pronouns can occur where reflexive pronouns cannot. For example, some Southerners might say I'm gonna write me a letter to the President; nobody, no matter what variety he or she speaks, would say I'm gonna write myself a letter to the President.
O.E. me (dat.), me, mec (acc.; oblique cases of I), from P.Gmc. *meke (acc.), *mes (dat.), cf. O.N., Goth. mik, O.H.G. mih, Ger. mich; from PIE base *me-, *eme-, the bare stem of the pronoun (cf. Skt., Avestan mam, Gk. eme, L. me, O.Ir. me, Welsh mi "me"). Erroneous or vulgar use for nom. (e.g. it is me) attested from c.1500. Dative preserved in obsolete meseems, methinks.
(used as the object of a verb or preposition and sometimes instead of I) the word used by a speaker or writer when referring to himself Example: He hit me; Give that to me; It's me; He can go with John and me.
I\ ([imac]), pron. [poss. My (m[imac]) or Mine (m[imac]n); object. Me (m[=e]). pl. nom. We (w[=e]); poss. Our (our) or Ours (ourz); object. Us ([u^]s).] [OE. i, ich, ic, AS. ic; akin to OS. & D. ik, OHG. ih, G. ich, Icel. ek, Dan. jeg, Sw. jag, Goth. ik, OSlav. az', Russ. ia, W. i, L. ego, Gr. 'egw`, 'egw`n, Skr. aham. [root]179. Cf. Egoism.] The nominative case of the pronoun of the first person; the word with which a speaker or writer denotes himself.