Mat

a. [ OF. See 4th Mate. ] Cast down; dejected; overthrown; slain. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

When he saw them so piteous and so maat. Chaucer. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ Cf. Matte. ] A name given by coppersmiths to an alloy of copper, tin, iron, etc., usually called white metal. [ Written also matt. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

v. i. To grow thick together; to become interwoven or felted together like a mat, as hair when wetted with a sticky substance; as, a long-haired cat whose fur is matted. [ 1913 Webster +PJC ]

n. [ AS. matt, meatt, fr. L. matta a mat made of rushes. ] 1. A thick flat fabric of sedge, rushes, flags, husks, straw, hemp, or similar material, placed on the floor and used for wiping and cleaning shoes at the door, for covering the floor of a hall or room to protect its surface, and for other purposes. [ 1913 Webster +PJC ]

2. Any similar flat object made of fabric or other material, such as rubber or plastic, placed flat on a surface for various uses, as for covering plant houses, putting beneath dishes or lamps on a table, securing rigging from friction, and the like. [ 1913 Webster +PJC ]

3. Anything growing thickly, or closely interwoven, so as to resemble a mat in form or texture; as, a mat of weeds; a mat of hair. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. An ornamental border made of paper, pasterboard, metal, etc., put under the glass which covers a framed picture; as, the mat of a daguerreotype. [ 1913 Webster ]

Mat grass. (Bot.) (a) A low, tufted, European grass (Nardus stricta). (b) Same as Matweed. --
Mat rush (Bot.), a kind of rush (Scirpus lacustris) used in England for making mats. [ 1913 Webster ]

{ or , prop. n. pl., sing. Matabele. [ Written also Matabili. ] (Ethnol.) A warlike South African Kaffir tribe. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

‖n. [ Sp. ] An old dance with swords and bucklers; a sword dance. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. (Zool.) The three-banded armadillo (Tolypeutis tricinctus). See Illust. under Loricata. [ 1913 Webster ]

{ } n. [ Sp. matador, prop., a killer, fr. matar to kill, L. mactare to sacrifice, kill. ] 1. The killer; the man appointed to kill the bull in bullfights; a bullfighter; a toreador. [ 1913 Webster +PJC ]

2. (Card Playing) In the game of quadrille or omber, the three principal trumps, the ace of spades being the first, the ace of clubs the third, and the second being the deuce of a black trump or the seven of a red one. [ 1913 Webster ]

When Lady Tricksey played a four,
You took it with a matadore. Swift. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. [ Skat ] The jack of clubs, or any other trump held in sequence with it, whether by the player or by his adversaries. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

4. A certain game of dominoes in which four dominoes (the 4-3, 5-2, 6-1, and double blank), called matadors, may be played at any time in any way. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]