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matchwood

[mach-woo d]
noun
  1. wood suitable for match.
  2. splinters(def 1).
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Origin of matchwood

First recorded in 1590–1600; match1 + wood1
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for matchwood

Historical Examples of matchwood

  • The long-boat changed, as if by magic, into matchwood where she stood in her gripes.

    Youth

    Joseph Conrad

  • The ends of big timbers in her hull were ground to pulp and matchwood.

    Swept Out to Sea

    W. Bertram Foster

  • She would be beaten up into matchwood, all torn and ragged to pieces.

    Menhardoc

    George Manville Fenn

  • Her bottom was stove in, her planks and timbers were riven like matchwood.

  • Such was the fury of the gale that everything seemed split to matchwood.

British Dictionary definitions for matchwood

matchwood

noun
  1. wood suitable for making matches
  2. splinters or fragmentsthe bomb blew the house to matchwood
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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