mate
A fellow, comrade, colleague, partner or someone with whom something is shared, e.g. shipmate, classmate.
Noun
- A fellow, comrade, colleague, partner or someone with whom something is shared, e.g. shipmate, classmate.
- A "mate" was a "mate" - share and share alike, no matter how bad might be the times, or how long a spell of ill luck had attended them. - 1887, Harriet W. Daly, Digging, Squatting, and Pioneering Life in the Northern...
- A breeding partner.
- Such overt displays of avowed sexual prowess – or at least, desperate availability – are not limited to the countryside. Even in the city, birds and animals and stockbrokers and nurses find ways of signalling their...
- A friend, usually of the same sex.
- I'm going to the pub with a few mates.
- He's my best mate.
Synonyms: friend buddy babber billy bredrin bruv bud buddo butty chaver china chuck chum cock cocker cobber compadre comrade companion cove crony dawg dude duck
- Friendly term of address to a stranger, usually male, of similar age.
- Excuse me, mate, have you got the time?
Synonyms: buddy
- In naval ranks, a non-commissioned officer or his subordinate (e.g. Boatswain's Mate, Gunner's Mate, Sailmaker's Mate, etc).
- A ship's officer, subordinate to the master on a commercial ship.
- A first mate.
- A technical assistant in certain trades (e.g. gasfitter's mate, plumber's mate); sometimes an apprentice.
- The other member of a matched pair of objects.
- I found one of the socks I wanted to wear, but I couldn't find its mate.
- A suitable companion; a match; an equal.
- Ye knew me once no mate / For you; there sitting where you durst not soar. - 1667, John Milton, “Book IV”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert...
Origin
From Middle English mate, a borrowing from Middle Low German mate (“messmate”) (replacing Middle English mett, mette (“table companion, mate, partner”), from Old English ġemetta (“sharer of food, table-guest”)), from Old Saxon gimato, derived from Proto-Germanic *gamatjô, itself from *ga- (“together”) (related to German and Dutch ge-) + *matjô (from *matiz (“food”)), related to Old English mete (“food”)). From the same Middle Low German source stems German Low German Maat (“journeyman, companion”), German Maat (“naval non-commissioned officer”). Cognates include Saterland Frisian Moat (“friend, buddy, comrade, mate”), Dutch maat (“mate, partner, colleague, friend”). More at Old English ġe-, English co-, English meat. Doublet of maat. Compare typologically Latin compāniō (whence companion) (< con- + panis + -ō), Russian однока́шник (odnokášnik) (< одно- (odno-) + ка́ша (káša) + -ник...
Forms
Hyponyms
aerographer's mate bandmate batchmate battery mate bedmate birthmate blockmate boat mate boatswain's mate bookmate boothmate brinkmate bunkermate bunkmate cagemate campmate carmate cavemate cellmate chairmate chambermate chatmate checkmate chief mate
Derived
amate Billy no mates breakfast-mate checkmate farm-mate inmate intermate Johnny no mates mateable matehood mateless mateship matess matey Nigel no mates nonmate Norman no mates outmate plane-mate remate train-mate undermate unmate
Noun alt of, alternative
- Alternative spelling of maté, an aromatic tea-like drink prepared from the holly yerba maté (Ilex paraguariensis).
- The abovementioned plant; the leaves and shoots used for the tea
Origin
See maté.
Forms
Noun board games, chess
- Clipping of checkmate.
Origin
From Middle English verb maten, from Middle French mater, from Old French noun mat (“checkmate”), from Persian شاه مات (šâh mât).
Forms
Derived
Arabian mate back-rank mate Blind Swine Mate Boden's mate check and mate Cozio's mate David and Goliath mate epaulet mate epaulette mate fool's mate ladder mate scholar's mate school mate smothered mate smother mate soul mate suffocation mate
Verb Entry 4
- To match, fit together without space between.
- The pieces of the puzzle mate perfectly.
- To copulate.
- “In fact, the apes live with us, and have for many ages. We call them the first men—we speak their language quite as much as we do our own; only in the rituals of the temple do we make any attempt to retain our mother...
Synonyms: couple approach cohabit common company copulate engage in sex exchange flesh have intimate relations have marital relations have sex have sexual relations intercourse know know someone in the biblical sense make love mate share a bed sleep together strain bang bauf beat bone
- To pair in order to raise offspring.
- To arrange in matched pairs.
- To introduce (animals) together for the purpose of breeding.
- To copulate with.
- To marry; to match (a person).
- If she be mated with an equal husband. - 1611 April (first recorded performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Cymbeline”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London:...
- To match oneself against; to oppose as equal; to compete with.
- There is no passion in the mind of man so weak but it mates and masters the fear of death. - 1625, Francis [Bacon], “Of Death”, in The Essayes […], 3rd edition, London: […] Iohn Haviland for Hanna Barret, →OCLC:
- I, […] in the way of loyalty and truth, […] / Dare mate a sounder man than Surrey can be. - 1613 (date written), William Shakespeare, [John Fletcher], “The Famous History of the Life of King Henry the Eight”, in Mr....
- To fit (objects) together without space between.
- To come together as companions, comrades, partners, etc.
- Indeed, some cases of devotion that were met with were quite touching; and very often to all appearances the pairs were not always mated from the same class of society. - 1887, Harriet W. Daly, Digging, Squatting, and...
- To move (a space shuttle orbiter) onto the back of an aircraft that can carry it.
Antonyms: demate
Forms
Derived
Verb board games, chess
- Clipping of checkmate.
Forms
Verb obsolete
- To confuse; to confound.
- I think you are all mated, or stark mad. - c. 1594 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Comedie of Errors”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard,...
Origin
From Middle English maten (“to overpower”), from Old French mater (“to kill”), from Vulgar Latin *mattō, of unclear origin.