matchstick
Americannoun
-
a short, slender piece of flammable wood used in making matches.
-
something that suggests a matchstick, as in thinness or fragility.
noun
adjective
-
made with or as if with matchsticks
a matchstick model
-
(esp of figures drawn with single strokes) thin and straight
matchstick men
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
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.
See Examples For:
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
Sequoias can withstand some heat and scorching on their trunks, but flames that reach the crown can torch them, as if it were a giant matchstick.
From New York Times ● Jul. 12, 2022
Down the aisle between the crowds she hobbled on her matchstick, wearing her rusty tiara and a caterpillar boa.
From "Secrets at Sea" by Richard Peck
The first is a savory dip for vegetables — lately carrot and cucumber matchsticks or sugar snap peas.
From Salon ● Mar. 9, 2026
In the fires, palms went up with a whoosh, like matchsticks in hell.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 20, 2025
Dark grey ash blankets the ground on hills encircling Varnavas, while pine trees have taken on the appearance of used matchsticks.
From BBC ● Aug. 14, 2024
The driving sound has a way of meshing with Roberts’s spiky gestures in surprising ways: Elbows poke, hips swivel, the arms ignite the air like matchsticks.
From New York Times ● May 15, 2024
Out where the bluff hadn’t offered its protection, trees were toppled like matchsticks.
From "Mountain of Fire" by Rebecca E. F. Barone
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.
