MATE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does mate mean? 

• MATE (noun)
  The noun MATE has 10 senses:

1. the officer below the master on a commercial ship

2. a fellow member of a team

3. the partner of an animal (especially a sexual partner)

4. a person's partner in marriage

5. an exact duplicate

6. one of a pair

7. South American holly; leaves used in making a drink like tea

8. informal term for a friend of the same sex

9. South American tea-like drink made from leaves of a South American holly called mate

10. a chess move constituting an inescapable and indefensible attack on the opponent's king

  Familiarity information: MATE used as a noun is familiar.

• MATE (verb)
  The verb MATE has 3 senses:

1. engage in sexual intercourse

2. bring two objects, ideas, or people together

3. place an opponent's king under an attack from which it cannot escape and thus ending the game

  Familiarity information: MATE used as a verb is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• MATE (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

The officer below the master on a commercial ship

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

first mate; mate

Hypernyms ("mate" is a kind of...):

officer; ship's officer (a person authorized to serve in a position of authority on a vessel)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A fellow member of a team

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

mate; teammate

Context example:

it was his first start against his former teammates

Hypernyms ("mate" is a kind of...):

associate (a person who joins with others in some activity or endeavor)

Sense 3

Meaning:

The partner of an animal (especially a sexual partner)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Context example:

camels hate leaving their mates

Hypernyms ("mate" is a kind of...):

animal; animate being; beast; brute; creature; fauna (a living organism characterized by voluntary movement)

Derivation:

mate (engage in sexual intercourse)

Sense 4

Meaning:

A person's partner in marriage

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

better half; married person; mate; partner; spouse

Hypernyms ("mate" is a kind of...):

domestic partner; significant other; spousal equivalent; spouse equivalent (a person (not necessarily a spouse) with whom you cohabit and share a long-term sexual relationship)

relation; relative (a person related by blood or marriage)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "mate"):

bigamist (someone who marries one person while already legally married to another)

consort (the husband or wife of a reigning monarch)

helpmate; helpmeet (a helpful partner)

hubby; husband; married man (a married man; a woman's partner in marriage)

monogamist; monogynist (someone who practices monogamy (one spouse at a time))

honeymooner; newlywed (someone recently married)

polygamist (someone who is married to two or more people at the same time)

married woman; wife (a married woman; a man's partner in marriage)

Holonyms ("mate" is a member of...):

man and wife; marriage; married couple (two people who are married to each other)

Derivation:

mate (engage in sexual intercourse)

Sense 5

Meaning:

An exact duplicate

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Synonyms:

match; mate

Context example:

when a match is found an entry is made in the notebook

Hypernyms ("mate" is a kind of...):

duplicate; duplication (a copy that corresponds to an original exactly)

Derivation:

mate (bring two objects, ideas, or people together)

Sense 6

Meaning:

One of a pair

Classified under:

Nouns denoting quantities and units of measure

Synonyms:

fellow; mate

Context example:

one eye was blue but its fellow was brown

Hypernyms ("mate" is a kind of...):

singleton (a single object (as distinguished from a pair))

Holonyms ("mate" is a part of...):

brace; couple; couplet; distich; duad; duet; duo; dyad; pair; span; twain; twosome; yoke (two items of the same kind)

Sense 7

Meaning:

South American holly; leaves used in making a drink like tea

Classified under:

Nouns denoting plants

Synonyms:

Ilex paraguariensis; mate; Paraguay tea

Hypernyms ("mate" is a kind of...):

holly (any tree or shrub of the genus Ilex having red berries and shiny evergreen leaves with prickly edges)

Sense 8

Meaning:

Informal term for a friend of the same sex

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Hypernyms ("mate" is a kind of...):

friend (a person you know well and regard with affection and trust)

Domain region:

Australia; Commonwealth of Australia (a nation occupying the whole of the Australian continent; Aboriginal tribes are thought to have migrated from southeastern Asia 20,000 years ago; first Europeans were British convicts sent there as a penal colony)

Britain; Great Britain; U.K.; UK; United Kingdom; United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (a monarchy in northwestern Europe occupying most of the British Isles; divided into England and Scotland and Wales and Northern Ireland; 'Great Britain' is often used loosely to refer to the United Kingdom)

Derivation:

matey ((used colloquially) having the relationship of friends or pals)

Sense 9

Meaning:

South American tea-like drink made from leaves of a South American holly called mate

Classified under:

Nouns denoting foods and drinks

Hypernyms ("mate" is a kind of...):

beverage; drink; drinkable; potable (any liquid suitable for drinking)

Sense 10

Meaning:

A chess move constituting an inescapable and indefensible attack on the opponent's king

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Synonyms:

checkmate; mate

Hypernyms ("mate" is a kind of...):

chess move (the act of moving a chess piece)

Derivation:

mate (place an opponent's king under an attack from which it cannot escape and thus ending the game)

• MATE (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they mate    ... he / she / it mates   
Past simple: mated   
Past participle: mated   
-ing form: mating   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Engage in sexual intercourse

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Synonyms:

copulate; couple; mate; pair

Context example:

Birds mate in the Spring

Hypernyms (to "mate" is one way to...):

conjoin; join (make contact or come together)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "mate"):

nick (mate successfully; of livestock)

bang; be intimate; bed; bonk; do it; eff; fuck; get it on; get laid; have a go at it; have intercourse; have it away; have it off; have sex; hump; jazz; know; lie with; love; make love; make out; roll in the hay; screw; sleep together; sleep with (have sexual intercourse with)

tread; serve; service (mate with)

deflower; ruin (deprive of virginity)

mount; ride (copulate with)

breed; cover (copulate with a female, used especially of horses)

bugger; sodomise; sodomize (practice anal sex upon)

sodomise; sodomize (copulate with an animal)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s

Derivation:

mate (the partner of an animal (especially a sexual partner))

mate (a person's partner in marriage)

mating (the act of pairing a male and female for reproductive purposes)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Bring two objects, ideas, or people together

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Synonyms:

couple; match; mate; pair; twin

Context example:

The student was paired with a partner for collaboration on the project

Hypernyms (to "mate" is one way to...):

join (cause to become joined or linked)

Verb group:

match (give or join in marriage)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "mate"):

mismate (provide with an unsuitable mate)

mismatch (match badly; match two objects or people that do not go together)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s somebody

Derivation:

mate (an exact duplicate)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Place an opponent's king under an attack from which it cannot escape and thus ending the game

Classified under:

Verbs of fighting, athletic activities

Synonyms:

checkmate; mate

Context example:

Kasparov checkmated his opponent after only a few moves

Hypernyms (to "mate" is one way to...):

beat; beat out; crush; shell; trounce; vanquish (come out better in a competition, race, or conflict)

Domain category:

chess; chess game (a board game for two players who move their 16 pieces according to specific rules; the object is to checkmate the opponent's king)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s somebody

Derivation:

mate (a chess move constituting an inescapable and indefensible attack on the opponent's king)

 Context examples 

The mate was the first, but mark me words, there’ll be more dead men before the trip is done with.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

He saw a squat moose-hide sack, mate to his own, which had been torn by sharp teeth.

(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)

She seems waiting to be sought; but she will not wait too long: she herself selects a mate.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

Buck saw, and his mates saw, and they knew that this thing was very close to them.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)

On 16 July mate reported in the morning that one of crew, Petrofsky, was missing. Could not account for it.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

Very good, mate. We’ll see about that!

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

And now you see, mate, I'm pretty low, and deserted by all; and Jim, you'll bring me one noggin of rum, now, won't you, matey?

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

With such examples before them the wives of the English captains had become as warlike as their mates, and ordered their castles in their absence with the prudence and discipline of veteran seneschals.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Shall each man, cried he, find a wife for his bosom, and each beast have his mate, and I be alone?

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

That spur has been my bed-mate for months.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)