match

• IPA^(key): /mæt͡ʃ/

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• Rhymes: -ætʃ

From Middle English matche, metche, macche, mecche, mache, meche, from Old English mæċċa, ġemæċċa, secondary forms of Old English maca, ġemaca (“companion, mate, wife, one suited to another”), from Proto-Germanic *makkô, *gamakkô, *makô, *gamakô (“an equal; comrade”), from Proto-Indo-European *mag- (“to knead, work”). Cognate with Danish mage (“mate”), Icelandic maki (“spouse”).

match (plural matches)

1. (sports) A competitive sporting event such as a boxing meet, a baseball game, or a cricket match.

   My local team are playing in a match against their arch-rivals today.

2. Any contest or trial of strength or skill, or to determine superiority.
   • (Can we date this quote?) Drayton

     many a warlike match

   • (Can we date this quote?) Dryden

     A solemn match was made; he lost the prize.

3. Someone with a measure of an attribute equaling or exceeding the object of comparison.

   He knew he had met his match.

   • (Can we date this quote?) Addison

     Government […] makes an innocent man, though of the lowest rank, a match for the mightiest of his fellow subjects.

4. A marriage.
5. A candidate for matrimony; one to be gained in marriage.
   • (Can we date this quote?) Clarendon

     She […] was looked upon as the richest match of the West.

6. Suitability.
7. Equivalence; a state of correspondence. (Can we add an example for this sense?)
8. Equality of conditions in contest or competition.
   • (Can we date this quote?) Shakespeare

     It were no match, your nail against his horn.

9. A pair of items or entities with mutually suitable characteristics.

   The carpet and curtains are a match.

10. An agreement or compact.
    • (Can we date this quote?) Shakespeare

      Thy hand upon that match.

    • (Can we date this quote?) Boyle

      Love doth seldom suffer itself to be confined by other matches than those of its own making.

11. (metalworking) A perforated board, block of plaster, hardened sand, etc., in which a pattern is partly embedded when a mould is made, for giving shape to the surfaces of separation between the parts of the mould.

• competition
• game
• set
• tournament

match (third-person singular simple present matches, present participle matching, simple past and past participle matched)

1. (intransitive) To agree, to be equal, to correspond to.

   Their interests didn't match, so it took a long time to agree what to do together.

   These two copies are supposed to be identical, but they don't match.

2. (transitive) To agree, to be equal, to correspond to.

   His interests didn't match her interests.

   • 1913, Mrs. [Marie] Belloc Lowndes, chapter II, in The Lodger, London: Methuen, OCLC 7780546; republished in Novels of Mystery: The Lodger; The Story of Ivy; What Really Happened, New York, N.Y.: Longmans, Green and Co., 55 Fifth Avenue, [1933], OCLC 2666860, page 0091:

     There was a neat hat-and-umbrella stand, and the stranger's weary feet fell soft on a good, serviceable dark-red drugget, which matched in colour the flock-paper on the walls.

   • 1927, F. E. Penny, chapter 4, in Pulling the Strings:

     Soon after the arrival of Mrs. Campbell, dinner was announced by Abboye. He came into the drawing room resplendent in his gold-and-white turban. […] His cummerbund matched the turban in gold lines.

3. (transitive) To make a successful match or pairing.

   They found out about his color-blindness when he couldn't match socks properly.

   • 2013 June 1, “End of the peer show”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8838, page 71:

     Finance is seldom romantic. But the idea of peer-to-peer lending comes close. This is an industry that brings together individual savers and lenders on online platforms. Those that want to borrow are matched with those that want to lend.

4. (transitive) To equal or exceed in achievement.

   She matched him at every turn: anything he could do, she could do as well or better.

5. (obsolete) To unite in marriage, to mate.
   • 1599, William Shakespeare, Much Ado About Nothing, Act 2 Scene 1:

     […] Adam's sons are my brethren; and truly, I hold it a sin to match in my kindred.

   • (Can we date this quote?) Joseph Addison

     A senator of Rome survived, / Would not have matched his daughter with a king.

6. To fit together, or make suitable for fitting together; specifically, to furnish with a tongue and groove at the edges.

   to match boards

• mate

A match.

From Middle English macche, mecche, from Old French mesche, meische, from Vulgar Latin micca (compare Catalan metxa, Spanish mecha, Italian miccia), which in turn is probably from Latin myxa (“nozzle, curved part of a lamp”), from Ancient Greek μύξα (múxa, “lamp wick”).

match (plural matches)

1. A device made of wood or paper, at the tip coated with chemicals that ignite with the friction of being dragged (struck) against a rough dry surface.

   Synonym: spunk (obsolete)

   He struck a match and lit his cigarette.

• fire, lighter, cigarette lighter
• strike (to strike a match)

From English match.

• IPA^(key): /matʃ/

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match m (plural matches or matchs)

1. (sports) match

Sometimes translated as rencontre (sportive).

• match nul

• “match” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Borrowed from English match.

match m (invariable)

1. match (sports event)
2. horserace involving only two horses

match

1. imperative of matche

match m (plural matches)

1. match

match c

1. match