match
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: ipa: /mæt͡ʃ/
rhymes: -ætʃ
Forms: form: matches
form: matching
form: matched
form: matched
Etymology: From Middle English macchen (“to marry; be paired with”), from the noun (see above).
Senses: examples: text: Their interests didn't match, so it took a long time to agree what to do together.
text: These two copies are supposed to be identical, but they don't match.
text: 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.
ref: 2021 June 30, Philip Haigh, “Regional trains squeezed as ECML congestion heads north”, in RAIL, number 934, page 52:
synonyms: comport
glosses: To agree; to be equal; to correspond.
examples: text: His interests didn't match her interests.
text: 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.
ref: 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:
text: 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.
ref: 1927, F. E. Penny, chapter 4, in Pulling the Strings:
glosses: To agree with; to be equal to; to correspond to.
examples: text: She matched him at every turn: anything he could do, she could do as well or better.
glosses: To equal or exceed in achievement.
examples: text: They found out about his color-blindness when he couldn't match socks properly.
text: 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.
ref: 2013 June 1, “End of the peer show”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8838, page 71:
glosses: To make a successful match or pairing.
examples: text: […]Adam's sons are my brethren; and truly, I hold it a sin to match in my kindred.
ref: 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]:
text: A senator of Rome survived,
 Would not have matched his daughter with a king.
ref: 1712 (date written), [Joseph] Addison, Cato, a Tragedy. […], London: […] J[acob] Tonson, […], published 1713, →OCLC, Act I, scene v, page 1:
glosses: To unite in marriage, to mate.
examples: text: to match boards
glosses: To fit together, or make suitable for fitting together; specifically, to furnish with a tongue and groove at the edges.
examples: text: The behavior matched one or more rules and was rejected by an edit filter.
topics: computing
engineering
mathematics
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
programming
sciences
glosses: To be an example of a rule or regex.
Derived terms: sense: Terms derived from match (etymology 1, verb)
word: beatmatch
sense: Terms derived from match (etymology 1, verb)
word: bookmatch
sense: Terms derived from match (etymology 1, verb)
word: crossmatch
sense: Terms derived from match (etymology 1, verb)
word: matchability
sense: Terms derived from match (etymology 1, verb)
word: matchable
sense: Terms derived from match (etymology 1, verb)
word: match beat for beat
sense: Terms derived from match (etymology 1, verb)
word: match drill
sense: Terms derived from match (etymology 1, verb)
word: matcher
sense: Terms derived from match (etymology 1, verb)
word: match-four game
sense: Terms derived from match (etymology 1, verb)
word: match-merge
sense: Terms derived from match (etymology 1, verb)
word: match-three game
sense: Terms derived from match (etymology 1, verb)
word: match up
sense: Terms derived from match (etymology 1, verb)
word: matchup
sense: Terms derived from match (etymology 1, verb)
word: matchy
sense: Terms derived from match (etymology 1, verb)
word: mismatch
sense: Terms derived from match (etymology 1, verb)
word: mix and match
sense: Terms derived from match (etymology 1, verb)
word: numbers-matching
sense: Terms derived from match (etymology 1, verb)
word: outmatch
sense: Terms derived from match (etymology 1, verb)
word: overmatch
sense: Terms derived from match (etymology 1, verb)
word: rematch
sense: Terms derived from match (etymology 1, verb)
word: the curtains match the drapes
sense: Terms derived from match (etymology 1, verb)
word: tile-matching game
sense: Terms derived from match (etymology 1, verb)
word: undermatch
sense: Terms derived from match (etymology 1, verb)
word: unmatch
Related terms: mate