Emily Dickinson Lexicon

MATCH'LESS-NESS, n.

The state or quality of being without an equal.

MATCH'LOCK, n.

Formerly, the lock of a musket which was fired by a match.

MATCH'MAK-ER, n.

1. One who makes matches for burning.
2. One who contrives or effects a union by marriage.

MATE, n.¹ [D. maat; Ar. مَطَا matau, to associate. Class Md, No. 11.]

1. A companion; an associate; one who customarily associates with another. Young persons nearly of an age, and frequently associating, are called mates or playmates.
2. A husband or wife.
3. The male or female of animals which associate for propagation and the care of their young. Milton.
4. One that eats at the same table.
5. One that attends the same school; a school-mate.
6. An officer in a merchant ship or ship of war, whose duty is to assist the master or commander. In a merchant ship, the mate, in the absence of the master, takes command of the ship. Large ships have a first, second and third mate. In general, mate, in compound words, denotes an assistant, and ranks next in subordination to the principal; as master's mate; surgeon's mate, &c.

MATE, n.² [Sp. and Port. mate; Fr. mat; from Sp. matar, to kill.]

In chess, the state of the king so situated that he can not escape.

MATE, v.t.¹

1. To match; to marry. Spenser. Shak.
2. To equal; to be equal to. For thus the mastful chestnut mates the skies. Dryden.
3. To oppose; to equal. I i' th' way of loyalty and truth, / Dare mate a sounder man than Surrey can be. Shak.

MATE, v.t.² [Fr. mater, to mate in chess; Sw. matta, to weaken, to enervate; Sp. matar, to kill.]

To enervate; to subdue; to crush. Audacity doth almost bind and mate the weaker sort of minds. [Not used.] Bacon.

MATE-LESS, a.

Having no mate or companion. Peacham.

MAT'E-LOTE, n. [Fr.]

A dish of food composed of many kinds of fish.

MA-TE-OL'O-GY, n. [Gr. ματαιος, vain, and λογος, discourse.]

A vain discourse of inquiry.

MA-TE-O-TECH'NY, n. [Gr. ματαιος, vain, and τεχνη, art.]

Any unprofitable science.

MA'TER, n.

In anatomy, the two membranes that cover the cerebrum, cerebellum, medulla-oblongata, and spinal cord, distinguished from each other by the epithets dura and pia.

MA-TE'RI-AL, a. [It. materiale; Fr. materiel; Sp. material; from L. materia, matter.]

1. Consisting of matter; not spiritual; as, material substance; material bodies.
2. Important; momentous; more or less necessary; having influence or effect. Hold them for Catholics or heretics, it is not a thing very material in this question. Hooker. In the account of simple ideas, I shall set down only such as are most material to our present purpose. Locke. So we say, a material point; a material fault or error; a material fact or consideration.
3. Not formal; substantial.
4. Furnishing materials; as, material men. Wheaton, Rep.

MA-TE'RI-AL, n.

The substance or matter of which anything is made; as, wool is the material of cloth; rags are the material of paper.

MA-TE'RI-AL-ISM, n.

1. The doctrine of materialists; the opinion of those who maintain that the soul of man is not a spiritual substance distinct from matter, but that it is the result or effect of the organization of matter in the body. The irregular fears of a future state had been supplanted by the materialism of Epicurus. Buckminster.
2. Matter; material substances in the aggregate. [Unusual.] Chalmers.

MA-TE'RI-AL-IST, n.

One who denies the existence of spiritual substances, and maintains that the soul of man is the result of a particular organization of matter in the body.

MA-TE-RI-AL'I-TY, n.

1. Material existence; corporeity; not spirituality. Digby.
2. Importance; as, the materiality of facts. Judge Chase.

MA-TE'RI-AL-IZE, v.t.

To reduce to a state of matter; also, to regard as matter. Reid.

MA-TE'RI-AL-IZ-ED, pp.

Reduced to a state of matter.

MA-TE'RI-AL-IZ-ING, ppr.

Reducing to a state of matter.

MA-TE'RI-AL-LY, adv.

1. In the state of matter. Boyle.
2. Not formally; substantially. An ill intention may spoil an act materially good. South.
3. In an important manner or degree; essentially. It materially concerns us to know the real motives of our actions.

MA-TE'RI-AL-NESS, n.

The state of being material; importance.

MA-TE'RI-A-MED'I-CA, n. [MA-TE'RI-A MED'I-CA.]

1. These terms include all articles employed in curing diseases. Materia Medica, a general name for every substance used in medicine. Encyc.
2. An auxiliary branch of the science of medicine, which treats of the nature and properties of all the substances that are employed for the cure of diseases. Ed. Encyc.

MA-TE'RI-ATE, or MA-TE'RI-A-TED, a. [L. materiatus.]

Consisting of matter. [Little used.] Bacon.

MA-TE-RI-A'TION, n.

The act of forming matter. [Not used.] Brown.