mat — English Dictionary

Noun

1. A flat piece of coarse material used for wiping one’s feet, or as a decorative or protective floor covering.

   Examples

   Wipe your feet on the mat before coming in.

2. A small flat piece of material used to protect a surface from anything hot or rough; a coaster.

   Examples

   They put mats on the table during mealtimes.

3. A floor pad to protect athletes.

   Examples

   The high jumper cleared the bar and landed safely on the mat.

4. A thickly tangled mess.

   Examples

   a mat of weeds

   More examples (1)

   But to return to where we left her, I see her still, propped up in a kind of stupor against one of the walls in which this wretched edifice abounds, her long grey greasy hair framing in its cowl of scrofulous mats a face where pallor, languor, hunger, acne, recent dirt, immemorial chagrin and surplus hair seemed to dispute the mastery.

   and now only a sord of Mallards drifted through the dense mats of New Zealand pigmyweed that coated the surface of the water.

5. A thin layer of woven, non-woven, or knitted fiber that serves as reinforcement to a material.

6. A thin surface layer; superficial cover.

   Examples

   Iceland moss growing in a mat

   More examples (1)

   The fad for blaming all mass extinctions (such as happened at the end of the Cretaceous when the dinosaurs vanished) on impacts of objects from space was extended to the Pleistocene in 2007. That year a group of scientists proposed that the North American extinctions were due to a comet or meteorite impact over the Carolinas, near the beginning of the Younger Dryas event, about 12,900 years ago. The original evidence for this supposed impact was a "black mat" of organic material in many Clovis sites, plus microscopic nano-diamonds in deep-sea cores, and rare Platinum group metals in Greenland ice cores from around 12,900 years ago.

Verb

1. To cover, protect or decorate with mats.

   Usage

   • Transitive

   Examples

   Be careful now to keep the Doors and Windows of your Conservatories well matted

2. To form a thick, tangled mess; to interweave into, or like, a mat; to entangle.

   Usage

   • Intransitive

   Examples

   And o'er his eyebrows hung his matted hair.

Noun

1. An alloy of copper, tin, iron, etc.; white metal.

Noun

1. Vulgar, obscene, or profane language in Russian and some other Slavic language communities.

   Usage

   • Uncountable

   Examples

   More examples (1)

   Most teenagers go through times when they use mat "rather heavily" among themselves. I guess they associate it with being adults. In most cases though this goes away pretty fast, usually when they start dating girls. Using mat rather heavily after graduating from university is a differnet^([sic]) matter.

   Don't you people have anything better to do than collecting mat. I still can't undestand why people in (and from) the ex-USSR like to swear so much.

   More examples (1)

   As the Russian mentality (hopefully) will be less medieval, mat will lose its social role. It will be less frequently used in the spoken language. From the other hand, books will lose its medieval sacrality, and mat will be allowed to be printed.

Adjective

1. not reflecting light; not glossy

   Synonyms

   flatmattmattematted

   Examples

   flat wall paint

   a photograph with a matte finish

Noun

1. a thick flat pad used as a floor covering

   Broader terms

   floor coverfloor covering

2. mounting consisting of a border or background for a picture

   Synonyms

   matting

   Broader terms

   mounting

3. sports equipment consisting of a piece of thick padding on the floor for gymnastic sports

   Synonyms

   gym mat

   Broader terms

   sports equipment

4. a mass that is densely tangled or interwoven

   Broader terms

   mass

   Examples

   a mat of weeds and grass

5. the property of having little or no contrast; lacking highlights or gloss

   Synonyms

   flatnesslusterlessnesslustrelessnessmattmatte

   Broader terms

   dullness

6. a foundation (usually on soft ground) consisting of an extended layer of reinforced concrete

   Synonyms

   raft foundationraft

   Broader terms

   foundationbasefundamentfootgroundworksubstructureunderstructure

7. a small pad of material that is used to protect surface from an object placed on it

   Broader terms

   pad

Verb

1. twist together or entwine into a confusing mass

   Synonyms

   entangletanglesnarl

   Broader terms

   twisttwinedistort

   Examples

   The child entangled the cord

2. change texture so as to become matted and felt-like

   Synonyms

   feltfelt upmat upmatt-upmatte upmatte

   Broader terms

   change

   Examples

   The fabric felted up after several washes