friction match

American  

noun

1. a kind of match tipped with a compound that ignites by friction.

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friction match British  

noun

1. a match that ignites as a result of the heat produced by friction when it is struck on a rough surface See also safety match

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Etymology

Origin of friction match

An Americanism dating back to 1830–40

Example Sentences

And who really invented those later marvels, the friction match, the barometer, the airplane, the steamboat?

From Time Magazine Archive

The sewing-machine had brought with it, like the friction match, one of the most profound influences in modifying domestic life, and making it different from that of all preceding time.

From Edison, His Life and Inventions by Dyer, Frank Lewis

No wort der Breitmann ootered, He only make a sgratch, Calm and silend on de daple, Mit a liddle friction match.

From The Breitmann Ballads by Leland, Charles Godfrey

So simple an invention as the discovery of the friction match saved hours of labor and permitted hours of leisure to be used in other ways.

From History of Human Society by Blackmar, Frank W. (Frank Wilson)

Thucydides never had his works puffed in a newspaper, Virgil and Horace never poetized or lectured for a lyceum; Charlemagne never saw a locomotive, nor did St. Thomas Aquinas ever use a friction match.

From My Unknown Chum by Fairbanks, Charles Bullard