Crossword Dictionary

What's The Definition Of Mat?

\Mat\, n. [Cf. {Matte}.] A name given by coppersmiths to an alloy of copper, tin, iron, etc., usually called white metal. [Written also {matt}.]
\Mat\, a. [OF. See 4th {Mate}.] Cast down; dejected; overthrown; slain. [Obs.] When he saw them so piteous and so maat. --Chaucer.
\Mat\, n. [AS. matt, meatt, fr. L. matta a mat made of rushes.] 1. A fabric of sedge, rushes, flags, husks, straw, hemp, or similar material, used for wiping and cleaning shoes at the door, for covering the floor of a hall or room, and for other purposes. 2. Any similar fabric for various uses, as for covering plant houses, putting beneath dishes or lamps on a table, securing rigging from friction, and the like. 3. Anything growing thickly, or closely interwoven, so as to resemble a mat in form or texture; as, a mat of weeds; a mat of hair. 4. An ornamental border made of paper, pasterboard, metal, etc., put under the glass which covers a framed picture; as, the mat of a daguerreotype. {Mat grass}. (Bot.) (a) A low, tufted, European grass ({Nardus stricta}). (b) Same as {Matweed}. {Mat rush} (Bot.), a kind of rush ({Scirpus lacustris}) used in England for making mats.
\Mat\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Matted}; p. pr. & vb. n. {Matting}.] 1. To cover or lay with mats. --Evelyn. 2. To twist, twine, or felt together; to interweave into, or like, a mat; to entangle. And o'er his eyebrows hung his matted hair. --Dryden.
\Mat\, v. i. To grow thick together; to become interwoven or felted together like a mat.