mate
[meɪt] noun, verb, proper noun
- noun A fellow, comrade, colleague, partner or someone with whom something is shared, e.g. shipmate, classmate.
- noun (especially of a non-human animal) A breeding partner.
- noun (colloquial, UK, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, South Africa, sometimes elsewhere in the Commonwealth) A friend, usually of the same sex. “I'm going to the pub with a few mates.”
- noun (colloquial, UK, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, South Africa, sometimes elsewhere in the Commonwealth) Friendly term of address to a stranger, usually male, of similar age. “Excuse me, mate, have you got the time?”
- noun (nautical) In naval ranks, a non-commissioned officer or his subordinate (e.g. Boatswain's Mate, Gunner's Mate, Sailmaker's Mate, etc).
- noun (nautical) A ship's officer, subordinate to the master on a commercial ship.
- noun (nautical) A first mate.
- noun A technical assistant in certain trades (e.g. gasfitter's mate, plumber's mate); sometimes an apprentice.
- verb (intransitive) To match, fit together without space between. “The pieces of the puzzle mate perfectly.”
- verb (intransitive) To copulate.
- verb (intransitive) To pair in order to raise offspring.
- verb (transitive) To arrange in matched pairs.
- verb (transitive) To introduce (animals) together for the purpose of breeding.
- verb (transitive, of an animal) To copulate with.
- verb (transitive) To marry; to match (a person).
- verb (transitive, obsolete) To match oneself against; to oppose as equal; to compete with.
- verb (obsolete) To confuse; to confound.
- noun The abovementioned plant; the leaves and shoots used for the tea
- noun (countable) An evergreen tree, Ilex paraguariensis, native to South America, cultivated for its leaves.
- noun (uncountable) A beverage, resembling tea, made from the dried leaves of this plant. “We spent a month in Buenos Aires drinking nothing but maté and Fernet with soda.”
Synonyms
fellow fere friend buddy babber billy bredrin bruv bud buddo butty chaver china chuck chum cock cocker cobber compadre comrade first mate teammate spouse partner married person better half match Paraguay tea Ilex paraguariensis checkmate
Antonyms
Etymology
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 (-nik)).
From Middle English maten (“to overpower”), from Old French mater (“to kill”), from Vulgar Latin *mattō, of unclear origin.
See maté.
Borrowed from Spanish mate, from Quechua mati.
Here, as well as in the matë variant, the unetymologically accented e serves the purpose in English of marking that vowel as pronounced, as in latte, rather than silent as in mate.
Webster’s 1913
- noun The Paraguay tea, being the dried leaf of the Brazilian holly (Ilex Paraguensis). The infusion has a pleasant odor, with an agreeable bitter taste, and is much used for tea in South America.
- noun Same as Checkmate.
- adjective See 2d Mat. [Obs.] Chaucer.
- verb To confuse; to confound. [Obs.] Shak.
Etymology [Sp.]
Etymology [F. mat, abbrev. fr. échec et mat. See Checkmate.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “mate”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details