How can I change Terminal so that I don't have to press ESC every time I want to type a meta-modified key?
Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be a way to get ESC-f to repeat and it has something to do with ESC. Here's one solution that will work:

Currently, Terminal.app is using ESC as META. You can change this to ⌥ (option) like this. 


Visit Terminal -> Preferences ( ⌘-, ).
Select the Keyboard Tab on the right
Check the "Use option as meta key" box at the bottom of the Keyboard pane


Now enjoy repeating commands that involve meta by using the option key instead of ESC.