match

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

Can you play billiards? / Yes, do you wish to have a match with me? / Let us simply play (a game) for pleasure. We needn't have a match, as I don't like to gamble.

1886, Lim Hiong Seng, Handbook of the Swatow Vernacular, Singapore: Koh Yew Hean Press:

(sports) A competitive sporting event such as a boxing meet (commonly called a "bout"), a baseball game, or a cricket match.

Ferrer his Taberd vvith rich Verry ſpred, / VVell knovvne in many a vvarlike match before; […]

1605, Michaell Draiton [i.e., Michael Drayton], “The Second Booke of the Barrons Warres”, in Poems: […], London: […] [Valentine Simmes] for N[icholas] Ling, →OCLC, stanza 22, page 31:

A solemn match was made; he lost the prize.

1697, Virgil, “(please specify the page)”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC:

Any contest or trial of strength or skill, or to determine superiority.

He knew he had met his match.

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

1716 February 10 (Gregorian calendar), Joseph Addison, “The Free-holder: No. 12. Monday, January 30. [1716.]”, in The Works of the Right Honourable Joseph Addison, Esq; […], volume IV, London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], published 1721, →OCLC:

Dean Ippolito looks like an ordinary kid. But at chess, he is a knight of battle. Most adults are no match for him.

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

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

1702–1704, Edward [Hyde, 1st] Earl of Clarendon, “(please specify |book=I to XVI)”, in The History of the Rebellion and Civil Wars in England, Begun in the Year 1641. […], Oxford, Oxfordshire: Printed at the Theater, published 1707, →OCLC:

A candidate for matrimony; one to be gained in marriage.

The seat to window match is excellent and there are half-size partition screens between bays.

2019 October 23, Pip Dunn, “The next king of Scotland”, in Rail, page 51:

It were no match, your nail against his horn.

c. 1602, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Troylus and Cressida”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene v]:

Equality of conditions in contest or competition.

The carpet and curtains are a match.

a match made in heaven

A pair of items or entities with mutually suitable characteristics.

Thy hand upon that match.

[I]t hath been obſerv'd, that Love doth ſeldome ſuffer it ſelf to be confin'd by other matches, then thoſe of its ovvne making.

1648 August 16 (date written; Gregorian calendar), Robert Boyle, Some Motives and Incentives to the Love of God. […] [Seraphick Love], London: […] Henry Herringman, […], published 1659, →OCLC, page 6:

(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.

→ Azerbaijani: matç

→ Belarusian: матч (matč)

→ Bengali: ম্যাচ (mêc)

→ Catalan: matx

→ Crimean Tatar: matç

→ Dutch: match

→ Egyptian Arabic: ماتش

→ Esperanto: matĉo

→ Estonian: matš

→ Finnish: matsi

desctree

→ French: match
→ Ladino: mach
→ Romanian: meci
→ Turkish: maç

→ German: Match

→ Greek: ματς (mats)

→ Hindi: मैच (maic)

→ Hungarian: meccs

→ Japanese: マッチ (matchi)

→ Latvian: mačs

→ Polish: mecz
→ Kashubian: mecz

→ Russian: матч (matč)
→ Armenian: մատչ (matčʻ)

→ Swahili: mechi

→ Ukrainian: матч (matč)

→ Welsh: matsh

From Middle English macche, mecche, from Old English mæċċa, ġemæċċa (“companion, mate, wife, one suited to another”), from Proto-West Germanic *makkjō, *gamakkjō (“partner, equal”), from Proto-Germanic *makô, from Proto-Indo-European *mag- (“to knead, work”). Compare Danish mage (“mate”), Icelandic maki (“spouse”).


match

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.

I'll be interested to see how this service does. It will be basic with fares to match, so will be akin to a budget airline taking on a flag-carrier.

2021 June 30, Philip Haigh, “Regional trains squeezed as ECML congestion heads north”, in RAIL, number 934, page 52:

(intransitive) To agree; to be equal; to correspond.

His interests didn't match her interests.

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.

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

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.

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

(transitive) To agree with; to be equal to; to correspond to.

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

(transitive) To equal or exceed in achievement.

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

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.

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

(transitive) To make a successful match or pairing.

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

1598–1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, “Much Adoe about Nothing”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene i]:

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

1712 (date written), [Joseph] Addison, Cato, a Tragedy. […], London: […] J[acob] Tonson, […], published 1713, →OCLC, Act I, scene v, page 1:

(obsolete) To unite in marriage, to mate.

to match boards

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

The behavior matched one or more rules and was rejected by an edit filter.

(transitive, programming) To be an example of a rule or regex.

en-verb

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

matches (present singular third-person)
matching (participle present)
matched (participle past)
matched (past)

From Middle English macchen (“to marry; be paired with”), from the noun (see above).


match

He struck a match and lit his cigarette.

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.

→ Bengali: ম্যাচ (mêc)

→ Hindi: माचिस (mācis)

→ Irish: meaits

→ Japanese: マッチ (matchi)

→ Jersey Dutch: match

→ Malay: macis, mancis

→ Pashto: ماچس (māčás)

→ Urdu: ماچس (mācis)

→ Welsh: matsis

自来火

⁶zy-le-hu / ²zy⁶-le²-hou³ / ⁶zy-le²-hou³

From Middle English macche, mecche (“wick (of a candle)”), 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”).