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matchstick

[ mach-stik ]

noun

  1. a short, slender piece of flammable wood used in making matches. match.
  2. something that suggests a matchstick, as in thinness or fragility.


matchstick

/ ˈmætʃˌstɪk /

noun

  1. the wooden part of a match
“Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged” 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012


adjective

  1. made with or as if with matchsticks

    a matchstick model

  2. (esp of figures drawn with single strokes) thin and straight

    matchstick men

“Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged” 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
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Word History and Origins

Origin of matchstick1

First recorded in 1785–95; match 1 + stick 1
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Example Sentences

The trees looked like matchsticks, and many of the trees had blown down on the main road.

In bed with the two of them, we fit together like matchsticks, and Manny snored, loudly, so I buried my ears in Jae’s chest.

From Time

The green matchsticks, placed at varying heights for topographic effect, served as a metaphor for trees.

From Time

Now It’s the Climate’s TurnRed designed the dimensions and positions for the matchsticks on a computer, laser cut the holes onto a board and then began the painstaking task of inserting each one by hand.

From Time

Options are available as it allows for 30 different vegetable cuts, including julienne, matchstick, dice and slicing.

Two small openings roughly equal to the diameter of a matchstick are left for urination and menstruation respectively.

Turning sidewise, the boat lifted like a matchstick on the crest of a giant wave and spun dizzily down into the trough.

There were several small matchstick size fragments of rib within the pleural cavity.

He rose up suddenly in the chair, pointing a long matchstick finger into Wyatt's face.

He waved the smoking matchstick to imply virtues in Wheaton which it was unnecessary to mention.

One pier of a concrete bridge, erected two years before,256 which spans Silver and Porter Streets, cracked off like a matchstick.

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