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Match   /mætʃ/   Listen
noun
race, pot, match, Consolation game  n.  A game, match, etc., open only to losers in early stages of contests.


Match  n.  Anything used for catching and retaining or communicating fire, made of some substance which takes fire readily, or remains burning some time; esp., a small strip or splint of wood or cardboard dipped at one end in a substance which can be easily ignited by friction, as a preparation of phosphorus or chlorate of potassium.
Match tub, a tub with a perforated cover for holding slow matches for firing cannon, esp. on board ship. The tub contains a little water in the bottom, for extinguishing sparks from the lighted matches.
Quick match, threads of cotton or cotton wick soaked in a solution of gunpowder mixed with gum arabic and boiling water and afterwards strewed over with mealed powder. It burns at the rate of one yard in thirteen seconds, and is used as priming for heavy mortars, fireworks, etc.
Slow match, slightly twisted hempen rope soaked in a solution of limewater and saltpeter or washed in a lye of water and wood ashes. It burns at the rate of four or five inches an hour, and is used for firing cannon, fireworks, etc.


Match  n.  
1.
A person or thing equal or similar to another; one able to mate or cope with another; an equal; a mate. "Government... makes an innocent man, though of the lowest rank, a match for the mightiest of his fellow subjects."
2.
A bringing together of two parties suited to one another, as for a union, a trial of skill or force, a contest, or the like; specifically:
(a)
A contest to try strength or skill, or to determine superiority; a sporting contest; an emulous struggle. "Many a warlike match." "A solemn match was made; he lost the prize."
(b)
A matrimonial union; a marriage.
3.
An agreement, compact, etc. "Thy hand upon that match." "Love doth seldom suffer itself to be confined by other matches than those of its own making."
4.
A candidate for matrimony; one to be gained in marriage. "She... was looked upon as the richest match of the West."
5.
Equality of conditions in contest or competition, or one who provides equal competition to another in a contest; as, he had no match as a swordsman within the city. "It were no match, your nail against his horn."
6.
Suitable combination or bringing together; that which corresponds or harmonizes with something else; as, the carpet and curtains are a match.
7.
(Founding) A perforated board, block of plaster, hardened sand, etc., in which a pattern is partly imbedded when a mold is made, for giving shape to the surfaces of separation between the parts of the mold.
Match boarding (Carp.), boards fitted together with tongue and groove, or prepared to be so fitted; a surface composed of match boarding. See matchboard.
Match game, a game arranged as a test of superiority.
Match plane (Carp.), either of the two planes used to shape the edges of boards which are joined by grooving and tonguing.
Match plate (Founding), a board or plate on the opposite sides of which the halves of a pattern are fastened, to facilitate molding.
Match wheel (Mach.), a cogwheel of suitable pitch to work with another wheel; specifically, one of a pair of cogwheels of equal size.


verb
Match  v. t.  (past & past part. matched; pres. part. matching)  
1.
To be a mate or match for; to be able to complete with; to rival successfully; to equal. "No settled senses of the world can match The pleasure of that madness."
2.
To furnish with its match; to bring a match, or equal, against; to show an equal competitor to; to set something in competition with, or in opposition to, as equal. "No history or antiquity can matchis policies and his conduct."
3.
To oppose as equal; to contend successfully against. "Eternal might To match with their inventions they presumed So easy, and of his thunder made a scorn."
4.
To make or procure the equal of, or that which is exactly similar to, or corresponds with; as, to match a vase or a horse; to match cloth. "Matching of patterns and colors."
5.
To make equal, proportionate, or suitable; to adapt, fit, or suit (one thing to another). "Let poets match their subject to their strength."
6.
To marry; to give in marriage. "A senator of Rome survived, Would not have matched his daughter with a king."
7.
To fit together, or make suitable for fitting together; specifically, to furnish with a tongue and a groove, at the edges; as, to match boards.
Matching machine, a planing machine for forming a tongue or a groove on the edge of a board.


Match  v. i.  
1.
To be united in marriage; to mate. "I hold it a sin to match in my kindred." "Let tigers match with hinds, and wolves with sheep."
2.
To be of equal, or similar, size, figure, color, or quality; to tally; to suit; to correspond; as, these vases match.





Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48


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"Match" Quotes from Famous Books



... problem—that he must work it out himself. He did not sleep that night, and kept me awake most of the time with his twitchings and turnings. Once he was up, examining his face in the glass by the light of a match, but in the morning, after a doze of an hour or so, I found him outside, looking at the sunrise ...
— The Grain Ship • Morgan Robertson
... enemy picked up in that section of the woods was wearing an iron cross; the equivalent of the French Croix de Guerre or the American Distinguished Service Cross. It showed that they belonged to the flower of the Kaiser's forces. But they were no match for the "Black Devils," a favorite name of the Germans for all Negro troops, and applied by them with particular emphasis to these troops and others of ...
— History of the American Negro in the Great World War • W. Allison Sweeney
... was right. Hal and Chester had hardly composed themselves to sleep when the flap to the tent was lifted and Stubbs' head appeared. He struck a match and looked ...
— The Boy Allies At Verdun • Clair W. Hayes
... ceremony of hanging Judas takes place in front of the church. A figure of Judas, the size of life, is filled with squibs and crackers, and is frequently made to bear a resemblance to some obnoxious inhabitant of the place. After the match is applied to the combustible figure, the cholos dance around it, and exult in the blowing ...
— Travels in Peru, on the Coast, in the Sierra, Across the Cordilleras and the Andes, into the Primeval Forests • J. J. von Tschudi
... same, apply a vigorous drubbing by means of a stick or sticks. If no result, apply foot with yet more vigour. If this fails, gather an armful of good dry straw, fix it cunningly under the animal's belly, apply match, and fly for your life ...
— Desert Love • Joan Conquest


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