matchstick
Americannoun
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a short, slender piece of flammable wood used in making matches.
-
something that suggests a matchstick, as in thinness or fragility.
noun
adjective
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made with or as if with matchsticks
a matchstick model
-
(esp of figures drawn with single strokes) thin and straight
matchstick men
Etymology
Origin of matchstick
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
He also ran a clothing business and a matchstick factory.
From BBC • Jul. 12, 2025
Over and over again, they stretch out their spindly little matchstick fingers into the mighty Pacific, and over and over again, they get their knuckles rapped.
From Los Angeles Times • Jun. 5, 2024
“Walk Ventura’s beaches and, in the distance, it wavers like a child’s matchstick project,” the bureau states on its website.
From Seattle Times • Feb. 1, 2024
According to the historian Louise Raw, matchstick makers’ struggle for safer working conditions helped galvanize the modern trade union movement.
From New York Times • Nov. 4, 2022
He pauses, swipes a matchstick on a column.
From "I'll Give You the Sun" by Jandy Nelson
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
