mate
verb/meɪt/
/meɪt/
Verb Forms
| present simple I / you / we / they mate | /meɪt/ /meɪt/ |
| he / she / it mates | /meɪts/ /meɪts/ |
| past simple mated | /ˈmeɪtɪd/ /ˈmeɪtɪd/ |
| past participle mated | /ˈmeɪtɪd/ /ˈmeɪtɪd/ |
| -ing form mating | /ˈmeɪtɪŋ/ /ˈmeɪtɪŋ/ |
- [intransitive] mate (with something) (of two animals or birds) to have sex in order to produce young
- Do foxes ever mate with dogs?
- After mating, the female kills the male.
- Females that mate with several males are rare.
- the sexual signal from the adult female that tells the male she is ready to mate
- [transitive] mate something (to/with something) to put animals or birds together so that they will have sex and produce young
- (also checkmate)[transitive] (in chess) to put your opponent in a position in which they cannot prevent their king (= the most important piece) being captured and therefore lose the game
- (also checkmate)[transitive] to defeat somebody completely
animals/birds
in chess
Word Originverb senses 1 to 2 late Middle English: from Middle Low German māt(e) ‘comrade’, of West Germanic origin; related to meat (the underlying concept was of eating together). verb sense 3 Middle English: the noun from Anglo-Norman French mat (from the phrase eschec mat ‘checkmate’); the verb from Anglo-Norman French mater ‘to checkmate’.
Check pronunciation:
mate