metate

[muh-tah-tee, me-tah-te]

noun

plural

metates 

1. a flat stone that has a shallow depression in the upper surface for holding maize or other grains to be ground with a mano.

Word History and Origins

Origin of metate¹

1825–35, < Mexican Spanish < Nahuatl metlatl

Example Sentences

Though it was too rainy to join the park’s nightly stargazing program, we decided to grab dinner and a few drinks at the Metate Room.

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The woman's mother had buried her molcajete, metate, comal, and cazuelas in a hole in the ground and fled.

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The scene where Pedro is hypnotized by Tita's dangling breast as she hovers over a metate, an indigenous grinder, used to pulverize the almonds and sesame seeds for her turkey mole, stayed with me for more than 20 years.

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Each of the seating areas has a bench shaped like a metate and a brand that marks the cattle of that region.

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In a shaded courtyard overgrown with succulents, Margarita, with her graying pigtails and brightly embroidered apron, had crushed rice, which had been soaking for an hour or so, on a metate, a hollowed, mortarlike stone.

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