From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishmatemate1 /meɪt/ ●●○ S3 noun 1 FRIENDsomebody you do something with [countable] someone you work with, do an activity with, or share something withclass/team/work etc mate Dad’s office mates are throwing a party for him.house/flat/room mate (=someone you share a house, room etc with)2 friend [countable] British English informal a) FRIENDa friend I’m going out with my mates tonight.good/best mate He’s good mates with John. Most of my school mates are black. b) MANused as a friendly way to address a man What’s the time, mate?► see thesaurus at friend3 animal [countable]HBASY the sexual partner of an animal4 husband/wife [countable] American EnglishMARRY a husband or wife – used especially in magazines SYN partner How do women choose their mates?5 sailor [countable]PMN a ship’s officer who is one rank below the captain 6 navy officer [countable]PMN a US Navy petty officer7 → builder’s/plumber’s/electrician’s etc mate8 game [uncountable]DGB checkmate in the game of chess
Examples from the Corpus
mate• Sometimes these two-survival and acquiring a mate are conflicting goals.• Don't share with anyone - not even your best mate or your partner.• the first mate• The young females tend to fly off and look for mates elsewhere.• Ed and his mates just bobbing along.• He always goes to the pub with his mates on Friday night.• Terry's an old mate of mine.• The running mates don't really matter, so the candidates can improvise more.• What happened to this sock's mate?• I mean, you've heard all his New Age stuff about them being soul mates destined for each other.• After a couple of intense, passionate but ultimately destructive relationships, I craved a gentle, understanding mate.• Would you trade your mate for a million bucks?house/flat/room mate• That's how it is between flat mates.• His room mate, who was considerably older, was due to preach a sermon at St Paul's Cathedral but fell ill.• Oh Fiona what do you think of our new flat mate Tony then, not bad looking eh Fiona.• A spare room with no room mate was available, thank goodness, at the Loch Leven Hotel.• My neighbor, or my, uh, house mates and then we have a pretty big grill.school mates• Most of my school mates were black, though I had a few white ones.matemate2 ●○○ verb 1 [intransitive]HBASY if animals mate, they have sex to produce babiesmate with It’s quite common for male birds to mate with several females.2 [transitive]HBASY to put animals together so that they will have sex and produce babies Rabbits can be mated as early as six months old.3 [transitive]DGB to achieve the checkmate of your opponent in chess→ See Verb tableExamples from the Corpus
mate• In other words, some males are extraordinarily successful while others may never mate.• With one Joey outside the pouch, she looks to mate again with available males.• Nevertheless, they mate and produce Leech and Foam island, two beings considered failures.• Two pigeons performed an elaborate and very noisy mating dance.• A young woman does not mate faithfully with a wealthy tycoon.• The birds mate in April and the eggs are hatched by June.• They will mate in vials and breed in a couple of weeks.• During the mating season, foxes become much more vocal.• Any male who chose not to mate with certain kinds of females would mate less than his non-discriminatory competitors.Origin mate1 (1300-1400) Middle Low German mat mate2 1. (1500-1600) → MATE12. (1200-1300) Old French mater, from mat “checkmate”, from Arabic 