I need help with a word in some part of the book Born to Run by Christopher McDougall (Random House, 2018)

Hunting like that isn’t for the meek; Neanderthals were known to suffer the kind of injuries you find on the rodeo circuit, neck and head trauma from getting thrown by bucking beasts, but they could count on their band of brothers to care for their wounds and bury their bodies.

The author is talking about the way that Neanderthals haunt, and then he says "Hunting like that isn’t for the meek". I couldn't find out what does he mean by saying 'for the meek". I searched "meek" in dictionaries and read about it but it doesn't help me and since I am translating this book I need a clear understanding of the author's purpose.


If something is not for the meek, it is not for those people who are meek. We can use an adjective after 'the' to mean those people who have the attribute which the adjective signifies. An often used example is in the phrase 'not for the faint-hearted'. Also 'fortune favours the brave'. Hunting 'like that' (that is, of a kind mentioned immediately before) must have been dangerous, as the following text in your quote makes clear.

The structure the + adjective is used to talk about [...] groups of people. Examples are: the blind, the deaf, the unemployed, the rich, the poor, the young, the old, the dead etc.

Adjectives used without nouns


The dictionary definition of "meek" is quiet, gentle

The author is implying that the hunting methods of the Neanderthals are not for the faint of heart considering the great risk of injury