lucifer match

American  

noun

1. friction match.

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Etymology

Origin of lucifer match

First recorded in 1825–35

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

lucifer match

This was followed by the rasping scrape of a lucifer match, by the feeble light of which the man’s face was seen bending over the lantern which he was endeavouring to light.

From The Pirate Slaver A Story of the West African Coast by William Heysham Overend

Con′greve-match, a kind of lucifer match, invented by Congreve.

From Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary (part 1 of 4: A-D) by Various

We were engaged in our last lecture in considering the various methods that have been adopted from early times for obtaining fire, and we left off at the invention of the lucifer match.

From The Story of a Tinder-box by Charles Meymott Tidy

I could not see my compass, and we were not allowed to light a lucifer match under any pretext whatsoever.

From Up in the Clouds Balloon Voyages by R. M. (Robert Michael) Ballantyne

So you see there are signs, not only of the lucifer match being ousted by the applications of electricity, but of the old tinder-box coming amongst us once again in a new form.

From The Story of a Tinder-box by Charles Meymott Tidy

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