the aggregate of things used or needed in any business, undertaking, or operation (distinguished from personnel).
Military. arms, ammunition, and equipment in general.
From French, dating back to 1805–15; see origin at material
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Those wars have often turned, perhaps more than any other factor, on industrial attrition, as each side strains to maintain the flow of matériel like tanks and antiaircraft munitions that keep it in the fight.
From New York Times • Jan. 16, 2023
He was not soliciting matériel for them, he added.
From New York Times • Dec. 6, 2022
The Pentagon has long dipped into aging stocks of equipment to supply Kyiv, sometimes leaving Ukrainian forces troops with worn-down matériel.
From New York Times • Nov. 24, 2022
The research team examined the Russian matériel in July at the invitation of the Ukrainian government.
From New York Times • Sep. 4, 2022
His list of matériel liberated from the Union Army during the 1862 Shenandoah campaign included “six handkerchiefs, two and three quarter dozen neckties, and one bottle of red ink.”
From "A Walk in the Woods" by Bill Bryson
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
