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matelot

American

[mat-loh, mat-l-oh] / ˈmæt loʊ, ˈmæt lˌoʊ /

Or matelow

noun

British Slang.

a sailor.

matelot British

/ ˈmætləʊ /

noun

slang a sailor

"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

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.

See Examples For:

matelot

"At home or with friends, you just say 'yeah, I was a matelot mate'," he chuckled.

From BBC ● Oct. 12, 2026

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

He had been a matelot, he said,—made a long voyage, and once touched at an English port.

From Rambles in the Islands of Corsica and Sardinia with Notices of their History, Antiquities, and Present Condition. by Thomas Forester

Also, no man has more than one matelot.

From Caribbee by Thomas Hoover

Everywhere Professors in straw hats and Heads of Colleges en matelot.

From The Casual Ward academic and other oddments by A. D. (Alfred Denis) Godley

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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023