match
/mæt͡ʃ/ noun, verb
Forms matches matching matched
- noun Any contest or trial of strength or skill, or to determine superiority.
- noun (sports) A competitive sporting event such as a boxing meet, a baseball game, or a cricket match. “My local team are playing in a match against their arch-rivals today.”
- noun Equality of conditions in contest or competition.
- noun A pair of items or entities with mutually suitable characteristics. “The carpet and curtains are a match.”
- noun Someone with a measure of an attribute equaling or exceeding the object of comparison. “He knew he had met his match.”
- noun Equivalence; a state of correspondence; a counterpart.
- noun An agreement or compact.
- noun A marriage.
- verb (intransitive) To agree; to be equal; to correspond. “Their interests didn't match, so it took a long time to agree what to do together.”
- verb (transitive) To agree with; to be equal to; to correspond to. “His interests didn't match her interests.”
- verb (transitive) To equal or exceed in achievement. “She matched him at every turn: anything he could do, she could do as well or better.”
- verb (transitive) To make a successful match or pairing. “They found out about his color-blindness when he couldn't match socks properly.”
- verb (obsolete) To unite in marriage, to mate.
- verb To fit together, or make suitable for fitting together; specifically, to furnish with a tongue and groove at the edges. “to match boards”
- verb (transitive, programming) To be an example of a rule or regex. “The behavior matched one or more rules and was rejected by an edit filter.”
- noun A small wooden stick specially treated with chemicals to produce flame upon contact with another chemical, from the frictional heat produced by striking it against a surface, or both; other similar items made from chemically-treated paper, cardboard, etc. “He struck a match and lit his pipe.”
- noun (obsolete) Synonym of taper, a thin stick used to transfer flame, as from tender to a candle.
- noun (obsolete) Synonym of fuse, a long wick used to transfer flame to an explosive device.
Synonyms
competition contest trial bout event game matchup meet set tournament tourney comport light lucifer spunk taper fuse friction match mate catch peer equal compeer couple mates fit correspond check jibe gibe
Antonyms
Etymology
From Middle English macche, mecche, from Old English mæċċa, ġemæċċa (“companion, mate, wife, one suited to another”), from Proto-West Germanic *makkjō, *gamakkjō (“partner, equal”), from Proto-Germanic *makô, from Proto-Indo-European *mag- (“to knead, work”). Compare Danish mage (“mate”), Icelandic maki (“spouse”).
From Middle English macchen (“to marry; be paired with”), from the noun (see above).
From Middle English macche, mecche (“wick (of a candle)”), from Old French mesche, meische, from Vulgar Latin micca (compare Catalan metxa, Spanish mecha, Italian miccia), which in turn is probably from Latin myxa (“nozzle, curved part of a lamp”), from Ancient Greek μύξα (múxa, “lamp wick”).
Webster’s 1913
- noun Anything used for catching and retaining or communicating fire, made of some substance which takes fire readily, or remains burning some time; esp., a small strip or splint of wood dipped at one end in a substance which can be easily ignited by friction, as a preparation of phosphorus or chlorate of potassium. Match box, a box for holding matches.
- noun A person or thing equal or similar to another; one able to mate or cope with another; an equal; a mate.
- noun A bringing together of two parties suited to one another, as for a union, a trial of skill or force, a contest, or the like; as, specifically: (a) A contest to try strength or skill, or to determine superiority; an emulous struggle. "Many a warlike match." Drayton.
- verb To be a mate or match for; to be able to complete with; to rival successfully; to equal.
Etymology [OE. macche, F. mèche, F. mèche, fr. L. myxa a lamp nozzle, Gr. Mucus.]
Etymology [OE. macche, AS. gemæcca; akin to gemaca, and to OS. gimako, OHG. gimah fitting, suitable, convenient, Icel. mark suitable, maki mate, Sw. make, Dan. mage; all from the root of E. make, v. See Make mate, and Make, v., and cf. Mate an associate.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “match”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details