Library / English Dictionary

MATE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

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

Synonyms:

checkmate; mate

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

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)

Sense 2

Meaning:

An exact duplicate

Example:

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

Synonyms:

match; mate

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

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 3

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 4

Meaning:

The officer below the master on a commercial ship

Synonyms:

first mate; mate

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

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

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

Sense 5

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 6

Meaning:

The partner of an animal (especially a sexual partner)

Example:

camels hate leaving their mates

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

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 7

Meaning:

A person's partner in marriage

Synonyms:

better half; married person; mate; partner; spouse

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

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 8

Meaning:

A fellow member of a team

Example:

it was his first start against his former teammates

Synonyms:

mate; teammate

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

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

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

Sense 9

Meaning:

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

Synonyms:

Ilex paraguariensis; mate; Paraguay tea

Classified under:

Nouns denoting plants

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 10

Meaning:

One of a pair

Example:

one eye was blue but its fellow was brown

Synonyms:

fellow; mate

Classified under:

Nouns denoting quantities and units of measure

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)

 II. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

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

Example:

Kasparov checkmated his opponent after only a few moves

Synonyms:

checkmate; mate

Classified under:

Verbs of fighting, athletic activities

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)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Bring two objects, ideas, or people together

Example:

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

Synonyms:

couple; match; mate; pair; twin

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

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"):

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

mismate (provide with an unsuitable mate)

Sentence frames:

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

Derivation:

mate (an exact duplicate)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Engage in sexual intercourse

Example:

Birds mate in the Spring

Synonyms:

copulate; couple; mate; pair

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

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)

Credits

 Context examples: 

If you are married, then your mate may have delighted you with a surprise that you found touching.

(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)

The second study investigated how factors including mate preference act to prevent genetic mixing between the same two species of butterfly.

(Butterflies are genetically wired to choose a mate that looks just like them, University of Cambridge)

Any strain of mouse that is the product of a mating between close relatives.

(Inbred Mouse Strains, NCI Thesaurus)

Deviation from this ratio indicates that some force is acting on the population (e.g., selection, mutation, migration, genetic drift, non-random mating).

(Hardy-Weinberg Distribution, NCI Thesaurus)

This led to problems with mate choice, researchers said.

(Genetic ‘Mutational Meltdown’ Doomed Woolly Mammoths, VOA)

There was a new note in his mate's warning snarl.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

"I wish you could translate it into English for me," I said, pathetically, to my help-mate.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Don't make plans, Jo, but let time and their own hearts mate your friends.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

He and the two mates, are as I learn, the only native-born Americans in the ship. The others are Finns and Germans.

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

A zebrafish line derived from the mating of two lines, A and B, obtained in Albany, Oregon.

(AB Zebrafish, NCI Thesaurus)