matey
1 Americannoun
-
mateys
plural
adjective
adjective
noun
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of matey1
First recorded in 1825–35; mate 1 + -y 2
Origin of matey2
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:
He can be matey or imperious as the fancy takes him.
From Golf Digest ● May 5, 2020
He is very matey even if there must be 20 years between us.
From The Guardian ● Nov. 1, 2019
"I was always looking to the other end and thinking all I've got to do is get there first. I can't affect matey in lane one. The only person you can slow down is yourself."
From BBC ● Aug. 10, 2015
Not since George Carlin reëmerged angry and articulate, in the nineties, has a comedian called American bullshit to order so eloquently, or with more matey good cheer.
From The New Yorker ● Jul. 7, 2015
“Harr, matey, I do!” he said, quite convincingly.
From "The Interrupted Tale" by Maryrose Wood
These onstage mateys may not be the Rockettes, but who needs a toe-tapping tin soldier number when you can have a pirate duel with candy canes?
From New York Times ● Dec. 25, 2014
Their parrots, their peg legs, their eye patches; their planks for walking, their X'ed spot-markings; their swashbuckling ways and way of talking; their "Shiver me timbers!" and "Avast there, mateys!"
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 6, 2014
“Arr roight, mateys, best dumpen this lot whurr it comed from.”
From "Redwall" by Brian Jacques
We at length received our rudder from the hands of the dockyard mateys.
From A Sailor of King George by A. Beckford Bevan
Why, she went off beautifully, but the lubberly mateys contrived to get her foul of the hulk, and Lord Vernon came out of the conflict minus a leg and an arm.'—'Who had you there?'
From The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction Volume 19, No. 552, June 16, 1832 by Various
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.
