matelot
Americannoun
noun
Etymology
Origin of matelot
1910–15; < French ≪ Middle Dutch mattenoot sailor, equivalent to matte mat 1 + noot companion ( Dutch genoot )
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.
They were the only places you’d get French imported stuff from – the hipster trousers and matelot shirts – which we liked.
From The Guardian • May 17, 2015
On one occasion, one of them escaped into the plains, but returned three days after, very complacently heading a herd of hogs, of which his master and his matelot killed four.
From The Monarchs of the Main, Volume I (of 3) Or, Adventures of the Buccaneers by Thornbury, Walter
No excuse was allowed; and if illness prevented the man elected taking the office, his matelot, or companion, took his place.
From The Monarchs of the Main, Volume I (of 3) Or, Adventures of the Buccaneers by Thornbury, Walter
Everywhere Professors in straw hats and Heads of Colleges en matelot.
From The Casual Ward academic and other oddments by Godley, A. D. (Alfred Denis)
So in the old days a boucanier might acquire a matelot, to be his companion, and over the years the matelots got to be more like younger brothers than indentures.
From Caribbee by Hoover, Thomas
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.
