"Meet" a friend or "meet with" a friend?

Is there any difference in usage?

Meet a friend or meet with a friend.

I'm meeting my friend today.

I sometimes meet with my friends.

Solution 1:

Compare...

1: I sometimes meet my ex-wife in the park
2: I sometimes meet with my ex-wife in the park

The default meaning of #1 is that I encounter her (probably accidentally) when I go to the park, whereas for #2 it's that I meet up with her by arrangement from time to time.

This is because to meet on its own has a broad range of possible meanings. But if you include the preposition (to meet with), this puts more focus on the idea that you spent time with the other person, rather than briefly encountered them.

If you're talking about a future meeting, it's probably planned in advance anyway, and you'll be expecting to do more than simply nod to each other in passing. So in that context there's really not much to choose between the two.

Solution 2:

For me, meet with (apart from the metaphoric meet with approval/disaster) is a neologism that I encountered in American sources before I ever met it in Britain.

I would not talk about meeting with my friends whether the meeting was planned or not. If I spoke of meeting with someone I would imply a more or less formal meeting, in a context of work or something like it.