mate1
/meɪt
/noun
1The sexual partner of a bird or other animal: a male bird sings to court a mate...
- He then told them that he would take all steps necessary so that the zoo gets new species of animals and mates for those animals that are single now.
- Both admitted intentionally killing a wild bird, injuring its mate and having a loaded air rifle without lawful authority.
- Andean condor Homer and his mate Marge are love birds again - after vets gave him a blunter beak to save her from the sharp side of his temper.
1.1 informal A person’s husband, wife, or other sexual partner: he couldn’t satisfy his frisky young mate...
- She said if we treated our husbands / mates like we treated our pet dogs, our marriages would be happier.
- I mean, that's terrible to lose a life partner and a mate at any age, but certainly at a young age like that.
- From this perspective, the problem of your missus or your mate takes on added significance.
1.2 informal One of a matched pair: a sock without its mate...
- Have you ever wondered as to the whereabouts of the mate to those odd socks you find in the dryer or your sock drawer?
2 [in combination] A fellow member or joint occupant of a specified thing: his table-mates
Synonyms
partner, husband, wife, spouse, lover, live-in lover, amour, significant other, inamorato, inamorata, companion, helpmate, helpmeet, consort
informal POSSLQ (person of the opposite sex sharing living quarters), other half, better half, hubby, missus, missis, old man, old lady, old woman
British informal dutch, trouble and strife
3British informal A friend or companion: my best mate Steve...
- I am now retired, time-rich and have a wealth of good friends and drinking mates.
- We were pals, chums, mates and the bosomiest of bosom buddies.
- It's all about meeting up with old mates, making new friends and being part of a massive crowd with one thing in common.
Synonyms
friend, companion, boon companion, comrade, intimate, familiar, confidant, alter ego, second self;
playmate, classmate, schoolmate, workmate, team-mate, flatmate, room-mate
informal pal, chum, buddy, bosom pal, sidekick, cully, spar, crony, main man
British informal china, mucker, butty, oppo
North American informal amigo, compadre, paisan, cohort, bro
South African informal gabba, homeboy
Scottish & Northern English informal marrow, marrer
archaic compeer
rare fidus Achates
3.1Used as a friendly form of address between men or boys: ‘See you then, mate.’...
- Better get that down you then, mate, keep the cold at bay.
- You want a slap in the face, mate?
- This one's for you, mate, and I promise never to call your wheels a ‘second division footballer's car’ again.
Synonyms
man, my friend
informal pal, chum
British informal cock, squire, matey
British informal, dated old fellow, old bean, old boy, old chap, old fruit
Welsh & Irish informal boyo
North American informal bud, buster, amigo, Mac, bro, bubba, bo, jack, partner
Australian/New Zealand informal cobber, digger
Indian informal bhai, yaar
South African informal jong, okie
4chiefly British An assistant or deputy in certain trades: a plumber’s mate...
- We had no lifting training and were not provided with driver's mates to assist with the lifting involved.
- She's now an aviation electrician's mate and soon will start in the shop for electricians.
Synonyms
assistant, helper, apprentice, subordinate;
collaborator, accomplice, aider and abetter
informal sidekick
4.1An officer on a merchant ship subordinate to the master. See also first mate.The same applied to the sailing master, his mate, and the carpenter when they also arrived....
- The ship's mates would be here at any minute, and I would lose my charter to Antwerp if I was caught.
- When a sailor ‘belonged’ to a ship his main loyalty was to his ship and his mates.
verb
1 [no object] (Of animals or birds) come together for breeding; copulate: successful males may mate with many females (as noun mating) ovulation occurs only if mating has taken place...
- Two other fly species mated and formed a hybrid, a combined form that cannot mate with its fellow hybrids.
- Many animals and birds mate for life and this seems to work quite well for them.
- Researchers have found that the female monkeys and rats mate with multiple males to purposely confuse paternity.
Synonyms
breed, couple
formal copulate
copulation, copulating, coupling, sexual intercourse, intercourse, sex, procreation;
pairing, breeding, union
formal coitus, coition
sexually active, breeding
1.1 [with object] Bring (animals) together for breeding: a male is mated to several females...
- At different intervals, rabbits were mated with males of proven fertility.
- Treated mice were mated with untreated female T-stock mice.
- Owners pay about £60,000 a time to mate their mares with him.
Synonyms
couple, pair, join, bring together
2Connect or be connected mechanically: [with object]: the four-cylinder engine is mated to a five-speed gearbox...
- It is a 16 valve, four-cylinder 2.0-litre turbo charged engine mated to a six-speed gear box.
- While being basically hand-built, they were done on an assembly line, with the mechanicals being mated to the body shell around half way down the line.
- Backplanes permit drives to be snapped in and mated to a connector blindly.
Phrases
mates' rates
Derivatives
mateless
- Never fear, secluded mateless types: through some meticulous research I have developed some foolproof methods of wooing.
- Single women who find themselves mateless during their usual ‘prime’ years will now have time to build a better life to support themselves and their children (later, and with or without partners).
- Elsewhere Dylan looks to celebrate freedom for the ‘mistreated mateless mother, the mistitled prostitute’, the ‘gentle and the kind’, and for all those who he sees to be on the outside of a harsh and unkind society.
Origin
Late Middle English: from Middle Low German māt(e) 'comrade', of West Germanic origin; related to meat (the underlying concept being that of eating together).
meat from Old English:
Meat is related to mete (Old English), an old word meaning ‘to measure’, and mate (Late Middle English) through the idea of a mate being someone you share food with. It goes back to an ancient root shared with meditate (late 16th century). The earliest sense of meat was simply ‘food’. This survives in the proverb one man's meat is another man's poison, which is recorded in English from the late 16th century but has a parallel in the work of the Roman poet and philosopher Lucretius of the 1st century bc. Other early meanings include ‘an item of food’, now found only in sweetmeat (Late Middle English). See also flesh
Rhymes
mate2
/meɪt/noun & verb Chess
short for checkmate.He carelessly walked into a mate in five, which he thought was simply drawing....
- This book starts with mates in one and, around page one million, moves on to mate in twos.
- He wasn't paying attention since he saw that a forced mate resulted from the line he actually played.
Phrases
fool's mate
scholar's mate
Origin
Middle English: the noun from Anglo-Norman French mat (from the phrase eschec mat 'checkmate'); the verb from Anglo-Norman French mater 'to checkmate'.
maté3
/ˈmateɪ/noun [mass noun]
1 (also maté tea) A bitter infusion of the leaves of a South American shrub, which is high in caffeine: maté has an agreeable slightly aromatic odor...
- We drink it through a bombilla, the little metal suckable strainer they also use in Argentina to drink maté, an exuberantly undrinkable local tea brewed from some violent green shrub.
- A popular social pastime is the drinking of maté, a tea made from the leaves of a plant related to holly.
- Other dried plant substances used to make infused drinks are chicory (dried root), cocoa (dried powdered seeds), guarana (dried powdered seeds, made into smoked cakes), cola ‘nut’ (dried powdered seeds), and maté (dried leaves).
1.1The leaves of the maté shrub.
2 (also yerba maté) The South American shrub of the holly family which produces maté leaves.
- Ilex paraguariensis, family Aquifoliaceae.
Origin
Early 18th century: from Spanish mate, from Quechua mati.