A merited success.    From Wordnet, Princeton University. 

His widow might continue to hold her pious faith in him, and refuse to believe that his name merited obloquy; his child knew better.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Whirlpool] Reference

At the start of the hearing, Dodd had said the idea merited consideration.    From Wordnik.com.  [InvestmentNews.com Latest Headlines] Reference

Certainly Clinton Surgeon General Joycelyn Elders paid a price for merely suggesting the idea merited study.    From Wordnik.com.  [Cannabis Culture Magazine] Reference

She ordered a preliminary probe into whether Gore's White House calls merited the appointment of a special prosecutor.    From Wordnik.com.  [You Can Call Him Caught] Reference

Satire against such as merited popular Reprehension, or Contempt; the.    From Wordnik.com.  [An Essay on the Antient and Modern State of Ireland] Reference

Heaven is always more than we could merit, just as being loved is never something "merited", but always a gift.    From Wordnik.com.  [Latest Articles] Reference

A word that is merited, positive, withering, at will.    From Wordnik.com.  [The French Immortals Series — Complete] Reference

Some of the changes at Justice were arguably merited.    From Wordnik.com.  [The GOP’s Civil-Rights Problem] Reference

This entry merited a first place for its architecture.    From Wordnik.com.  [Looking at the future of the energy-efficient home at the 2009 Solar Decathlon] Reference

Yes; he certainly merited it; yet I could not do that either.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Darrow Enigma] Reference

And there was plenty in their performance to suggest they merited it.    From Wordnik.com.  [Ire And Ice] Reference

The consequence of this refusal was a merited punishment, only too long delayed.    From Wordnik.com.  [Memoirs of the Union's Three Great Civil War Generals] Reference

Leonard's evocations of the jazz life merited that often over-used term "iconic".    From Wordnik.com.  [Herman Leonard obituary] Reference

It has a well-merited suspicion that vested interests based in London will do it down.    From Wordnik.com.  [The middle class will get you, Mr Cameron] Reference

But I don't think he would have minded had he believed their output merited their publicity.    From Wordnik.com.  [Jan Herman: The Beats Left Nelson Algren Cold, Jack Kerouac Especially] Reference

They say O.J. will likely file a separate action asking a judge to decide if coverage is merited.    From Wordnik.com.  [O.J. Insurer: 'We're Not Paying'] Reference

  The boy at the bar merited one call four days later, abrupt, conciliatory, but nevertheless final.    From Wordnik.com.  [Caitlin in the Y2K Museum] Reference

Worse, Pryor added, Congress may have been misled into spending far more on SDI than the program merited.    From Wordnik.com.  [Reagan's Cold War 'Sting'?] Reference

Deep concern over bad loans to unprofitable heavy industry held by the government is not merited, he said.    From Wordnik.com.  [Get Briefed: Burton Malkiel] Reference

If Mr Hague were advocating military action against Iran, "it would have at least merited an oral statement!".    From Wordnik.com.  [William Hague skirts the warpath] Reference

To the Lebanese troops in the area, the Israeli intrusion merited warning shots in the direction of Israelis.    From Wordnik.com.  [Hussain Abdul-Hussain: Lebanese-Israeli Clashes: What Really Happened] Reference

They wrote that Drew's role and use of minors in the scheme merited bumping her sentencing level up 10 notches.    From Wordnik.com.  [Wired Top Stories] Reference

It was impossible to lie with more apparent awkwardness, and if any one merited the scorn of Baron Hafner, it was he.    From Wordnik.com.  [The French Immortals Series — Complete] Reference

For a Labour government to set aside social democracy's well-merited suspicion of finance capital was truly criminal.    From Wordnik.com.  [The book that has the Tories running scared] Reference

Weigel's house and Town Creek even merited mentions in Tom Wolfe's 1979 book about the space program, "The Right Stuff.".    From Wordnik.com.  [Where We Live: Town Creek, in Maryland's St. Mary's County] Reference

Is it any wonder those allies prefer to maintain a safe distance whether or not they believe war against Iraq is merited?.    From Wordnik.com.  [Mail Call: Show Us The Proof] Reference

There were many other national and world news stories that merited coverage last Tuesday, the day of the Lohan spectacle.    From Wordnik.com.  [Larry Atkins: Why the Media Will Always Cover Celebrities] Reference

Scoring was so impressionistic, so undefined, that it was hard to prove that a performance merited a 5.9 rather than a 5.8.    From Wordnik.com.  [Scoring Without Scandal?] Reference

I'd grown up in a family where an A - on my report card merited a stern talking-to, and B's were simply out of the question.    From Wordnik.com.  [Eric Tipler: Getting rid of D's is great, if...] Reference

Aidan Quinn and Wynonna Judd were arrested in separate incidents for drunk driving last month and barely merited crawl lines.    From Wordnik.com.  [How 'Thriller' Lost Its Thrill] Reference

In addition, this GE has merited only good scores for energy efficiency, and it is hard to reach the on/off switch for the icemaker.    From Wordnik.com.  [GE Profile PGSS5PJX[SS] Refrigerator: First Look] Reference

• The Athena Institute, a nonprofit with offices in the United States and Canada, merited a first-place prize for its EcoCalculator.    From Wordnik.com.  [Building that goes beyond green] Reference