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Brit. /me
t/, U.S. /met/ [< MATE n.2]
1. a. trans. In later use chiefly poet. To equal, rival; to be a match for. Also: to vie or contend with.
1509 S. HAWES Pastime of Pleasure (1845) xliii. 212 Infinite I am, nothing can me mate.
1580 Order Prayer in W. K. Clay
Liturg. Services Q. Eliz. (1847) 573 The Boy mateth the man of aged gravity.
1623 SHAKESPEARE &
J. FLETCHER Henry VIII III. ii 275 My euer Roiall Master, Dare mate a sounder man then Surrie can be.
1690 J. CHILD Disc. Trade i. 41 Nor ever did we greatly prosper upon it [
sc. our trade to East-India], till our Interest was much abated by Laws; nor ever shall mate the Dutch in it, till our Interest be as low as theirs.
1697 DRYDEN tr. Virgil
Georgics III, in tr. Virgil
Wks. 107 They [
sc. the waves] mate the middle Region with their height.
1718 POPE tr. Homer
Iliad IV.
XIII. 414 In standing Fight he mates Achilles' Force.
1815 SCOTT Lord of Isles I. xii. 19 In speed His galley mates the flying steed.
1874 A. C. SWINBURNE Bothwell I. i. 4, I might sleep well and laugh and walk at ease, With none to mate me.
1891 W. MORRIS Poems by Way 129
Fig-tree. I who am little among trees In honey-making mate the bees.
b. intr. To claim equality with. Also trans. with it. Now rare and arch.
1692 Vindic. Carol. iii. 40 When the safety of the Nation was at stake, [they] insolently contend, nay mate it with their Sovereign.
1702 N. ROWE Tamerlane I. ii. 678 Thou..hast dar'd To lift thy wretched self above the Stars And mate with Power Almighty.
1752 F. G
ENTLEMAN Sejanus III. i. 34 That Independency, and Justice uncorrupt, Which plac'd your Ancestors in Rolls of Fame, And set them up so high to mate with Gods?
1884 TENNYSON Becket I. iii, If Canterbury bring his cross to court, Let York bear his to mate with Canterbury.
2. a. intr. To enter into marriage or (usually in later use) a sexual relationship with someone. 
Also trans. with it (obs.).
1589 W. WARNER Albions Eng. (new ed.)
VI. xxxi. 137 The gayest Females mate With Loutes as soone as Lordes.
1640 R. BRATHWAIT Ar't Asleepe Husband? 84 He suspecting, lay in privy wait To catch the Knave, and keepe his wife more strait. But all in vaine: they day by day did mate it.
1778 H. BROOKE Vestal Virgin II. iv, in
Coll. of Pieces III. 373 She..deems herself, alone, of eminence To mate with the great heir of the
Valerii
To marry with Favonius!
1838 E. BULWER-LYTTON Leila I. iii. 26 Permission were easier given to thee to wed the wild tiger, than to mate with the loftiest noble of Morisca.
1862 J. G. WHITTIER Amy Wentworth 149 Oh, rank is good, and gold is fair, And high and low mate ill.
1895 A. C. F
OX-D
AVIES Armorial Families p. xx, In England men mate with whom they will.
1908 ‘G. A. B
IRMINGHAM’
Spanish Gold 13 It is said that men are attracted to those who differ from them, that like does not readily mate with like.
1990 J. BISHOP & M. W
ALDHOLZ Genome xv. 320 People tend to mate with others in their own social class, a phenomenon psychologists call ‘assortive mating’.
b. trans. To marry; to take or give in marriage; to form a close alliance with (obs.). Now rare.
a1593 MARLOWE Tragicall Hist. Faustus (1604) sig. A2, Not marching now in fields of Thracimene, Where Mars did mate the Carthaginians.
a1616 SHAKESPEARE Timon of Athens (1623)
I. i. 143 How shall she be endowed, If she be mated with an equall Husband?
a1616 SHAKESPEARE All's Well that ends Well (1623)
I. i. 90 The hind that would be mated by the Lion Must die for loue.
1842 TENNYSON Locksley Hall in
Poems (new ed.) II. 97 Thou art mated with a clown.
1843 E. BULWER-LYTTON Last of Barons I.
II. iii. 197, I fear that the king will be teased into mating my sister with the Count of Charolois.
1862 C. MERIVALE Hist. Rom. under Empire (1865) V. xl. 57 The females of ingenuous birth were not numerous enough to mate them.
1884 W. C. SMITH Kildrostan 55 I'd sooner mate me with A cloud,..Or wed a polar bear.
3. trans. To join (a thing) with or to a suitable counterpart; to associate, couple, treat as comparable with. Also: to provide for (a person) suitably in some respect (obs.). Now rare.
1594 SHAKESPEARE Venus & Adonis (new ed.) sig. Fiiij, Her more then hast, is mated with delayes.
1626 J. H
AIG Let. in J. Russell
Haigs of Bemersyde (1881) 178, I pray you..write to my Colonel..desiring him..to mate me in clothes if you be not able.
1670 DRYDEN &
W. DAVENANT Shakespeare's Tempest I. 6 And on a night Mated to his design, Antonio opened the Gates of Millan.
1703 N. ROWE Ulysses I. i. 52 'Twou'd make Comparison..monstrous seem, as if to mate A Mole-Hill with Olympus.
1891 J. WINSOR Columbus ii. 54 None knew this better than those, like Las Casas, who mated their faith with charity of act.
4. a. intr. To associate or keep company with. Now rare.
a1832 ‘B. CORNWALL’ Owl 5 Not a bird of the forest e'er mates with him.
1871 B. TAYLOR tr. Goethe
Faust II.
I. ii. 12 The judge, debarred from punishment, Mates with the felon, ere he endeth.
1881 W. BESANT &
J. RICE Chaplain of Fleet I. vii. 160 It was a shame that a gentleman of his rank should mate with men whose proper place was among the thieves of Turnmill Street.
b. trans. To accompany suitably. rare.
1870 W. MORRIS Earthly Paradise I.
I. 369 How sweet it would be, could I hear, Soft music mate the drowsy afternoon.
5. a. intr. Of birds and other animals: to pair for breeding. Of an animal: to copulate with a mate.
1853 E. S. D
IXON in
Househ. Words 14 May 248/2 The perverse pair of pigeons..seem determined to ‘mate’ according to their own, rather than in obedience to Bob's ideas of a suitable match.
1877 J. BURROUGHS Birds & Poets (1895) 103 These birds do not mate.
1927 F. B
ALFOUR-B
ROWNE Insects iv. 108 In this position, the male finds her and mates with her, the spermatozoa being released into the large brood-pouch.
1963 A. HERON Towards Quaker View of Sex 54 In the baboon..females in oestrus will mate with other males if their overlord's attention is temporarily distracted.
1991 Garden Apr. 180/2 Any male she mates with is bound to help feed her nestlings.
b. trans. To pair (birds or other animals) for the purpose of breeding (also with up); to introduce (an animal) to another as a breeding partner; to provide with a mate. Also fig.
1859 C. DARWIN Origin of Species i. 28 Pigeons can be..mated for life.
1882 ‘OUIDA’ In Maremma I. 165 ‘One does not mate a trailing weed with a young oak,’ she said.
1899 Feathered World 10 Mar. 477 The birds had been previously mated up.
1913 Jrnl. Exper. Zool. 15 587 When a female [Drosophila] with white eyes is mated to a wild male with red eyes, the daughters have red, and the sons, white eyes.
1932 J. E. N
ICHOLS Study Empire Wool Production 66 The first cross ewe progeny are mated to pure Merino rams
1966 D. FRANCIS Flying Finish v. 63 They are English mares going to be mated with Italian sires.
1991 Dogs Monthly Feb. 30/2 Di had already decided, even before they were born, that The Heavyweight and The Lioness should be mated.
6. a. intr. Of a mechanical part: to make a good or proper fit (with).
1909 Webster's New Internat. Dict. Eng. Lang. (at cited word),
Mate,
Mach. To gear properly together, as two cogwheels.
1956 S. PARKER Drawings & Dimensions vii. 52 When considering the application of ‘Go’ and ‘Not Go’ gauges..the questions ‘Will
like mate with
like?’ and ‘How much force may be used when gauging?’ inevitably arise.
1959 Motor Man. (ed. 36) v. 132 A large eared nut, which is coned internally to mate with a cone on the edge of the wheel hub.
1967 Electronics 6 Mar. 15/3 (
advt.) Push-pull coupling mates easily.
1991 What Personal Computer Dec. 127/1 You have to feed the card onto guide rails on either
sidea little force is needed to get it to mate with the IDC connector.
b. trans. To fit or join (a mechanical part) with or to another.
1959 National Geographic Mag. Feb. 159/1 High on skeletal service towers, we watched engineers mate, or couple, rocket stages and gingerly install the payloads.
1970 N. ARMSTRONG et al.
First on Moon iii. 55 By mid-May it was time to ‘mate’ the electrical systems of the rocket boosters with those of the spacecraft.
1992 Guns Illustr. (ed. 24) 6/2 What we had..was a barreled action from a 40XR mated to a Model 700 custom-made stock.
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