Emily Dickinson Lexicon

MAS'TI-CA-TO-RY, n.

A substance to be chewed to increase the saliva. Coxe.

MAS'TI-COT, n. [See MASSICOT.]

MAS'TIF, n. [plur. Mastifs. Mastives is irregular. Sp. mastin; It. mastino; Fr. matin, for mastin; Arm. mastin; Low L. mastivus.]

A large species of dog, remarkable for strength and courage. Strabo informs us that the mastifs of Britain were trained for war, and used by the Gauls in battle. Encyc.

MAST'LESS, a.

1. Having no mast; as a vessel.
2. Bearing no mast; as, a mastless oak or beech. Dryden.

MAST'LIN, n. [See MESLIN.]

MAS'TO-DON, n. [Gr. μαστος, mamilla, and οδους, a tooth.]

A genus of mammiferous and pachydermatous animals resembling the elephant, now extinct, and known only by their fossil remains.

MAS'TOID, a. [Gr. μαστος, the nipple or breast, and ειοδς, form.]

Resembling the nipple or breast; as, the mastoid process.

MAS-TOL'O-GY, n. [Gr. μαστος, the breast, and λογος, discourse.]

The history of animals which suckle their young.

MAS'TRESS, n.

for Mistress, is not used. Chaucer.

MAS-TUR-BA'TION, n. [L. manus and stuprum.]

Onanism.

MAST'Y, a. [See Mast.]

Full of mast; abounding with acorns, &c.

MAT, n. [W. mat; Sax. meatta; D. mat; G. matte; L. matta; Sp. mata; Ir. matta; Russ. mat; W. math, that is spread. The sense is probably a lay or spread, from falling, throwing, or stretching. Class Md, No. 6, 8, 9.]

1. A texture of sedge, rushes, flags, husks, straw, or other material, to be laid on a floor for cleaning the boots and shoes of those who enter a house, and for other purposes. Carew.
2. A web of rope-yarn, used in ships to secure the standing rigging from the friction of the yards, &c.

MAT, v.t.

1. To cover or lay with mats. Evelyn.
2. To twist together; to interweave like a mat; to entangle. And o'er his eyebrows hung his matted hair. Dryden.
3. To press together; to lay flat; as, matted grass.

MAT'A-CHIN, n. [Sp. a buffoon, a grotesque dance.]

An old dance. Sidney.

MAT'A-DORE, n. [Sp. matador, a murderer, and a card, from matar, to kill.]

1. One of the three principal cards in the game of omber and quadrille, which are always two black aces and the deuce in spades and clubs, and the seven in hearts and diamonds. Johnson. Pope.
2. A murderer; the killer; the man appointed to kill the bull in bull-fights.

MATCH, n.¹ [Fr. meche; It. miccia; Sp. and Port. mecha; Arm. mechenn, mech.]

1. Some very combustible substance used for catching fire from a spark, as hemp, flax, cotton, tow dipped in sulphur, or a species of dry wood, called vulgarly touchwood.
2. A rope or cord made of hempen tow, composed of three strands slightly twisted, and again covered with tow and boiled in the lees of old wine. This when lighted at one end, retains fire and burns slowly till consumed. It is used in firing artillery, &c. Encyc.

MATCH, n.² [Sax. maca, and gemaca, an equal, fellow, companion, D. makker, Dan. maga, Sw. make.]

1. A person who is equal to another in strength or other quality; one able to cope with another. Government-makes an innocent man of the lowest ranks a match for the mightiest of his fellow subjects. Addison.
2. One that suits or tallies with another; or any thing that equals another.
3. Union by marriage. Love doth seldom suffer itself to be confined by other matches than those of its own making. Boyle. In popular language, it is applied to the engagement of lovers before marriage.
4. One to be married. She inherited a fair fortune of her own-and was looked upon as the richest match in the West. Clarendon.

MATCH, n.³ [Gr. μαχη, a battle, a fight; but probably of the same family as the preceding.]

A contest; competition for victory; or a union of parties for contest; as in games or sports. A solemn match was made; he lost the prize. Dryden.

MATCH, v.t.¹

1. To equal. No settled senses of the world can match / The pleasure of that madness. Shak.
2. To show an equal. No history or antiquity can match his policies and his conduct. South.
3. To oppose as equal; to set against as equal in contest. Eternal might / To match with their inventions they presumed / So easy, and of his thunder made a scorn. Milton.
4. To suit; to make equal; to proportion. Let poets match their subject to their strength. Roscommon. To match patterns and colors. Swift.
5. To marry; to give in marriage. A senator of Rome, while Rome survived, / Would not have match'd his daughter with a king. Addison.
6. To purify vessels by burning a match in them.

MATCH, v.t.²

1. To be united in marriage. I hold it a sin to match in my kindred. Shak. Let tigers match with hinds, and wolves with sheep. Dryden.
2. To suit; to correspond; to be of equal size, figure or quality; to tally. We say of a piece of cloth, it does not match with another.

MATCH'A-BLE, a.

1. Equal; suitable; fit to be joined. Spencer.
2. Correspondent. [Little used.] Woodward.

MATCH'ED, pp.

Equaled; suited; placed in opposition; married.

MATCH'ING, ppr.

Equaling; suiting; setting in opposition; uniting in marriage.

MATCH'LESS, a.

Having no equal; as, matchless impudence; a matchless queen; matchless love or charms.

MATCH'LESS-LY, adv.

In a manner or degree not to equaled.