MATCH, n.

1. Some very combustible substance used for catching fire from a spark, as hemp, flax, cotton, tow dipped in sulphur, or a species of dry wood, called vulgarly touchwood.
2. A rope or cord made of hempen tow, composed of three strands slightly twisted, and again covered with tow and boiled in the lees of old wine. This when lighted at one end, retains fire and burns slowly till consumed. It is used in firing artillery, &c. Encyc.

1. A person who is equal to another in strength or other quality; one able to cope with another. Government-makes an innocent man of the lowest ranks a match for the mightiest of his fellow subjects. Addison.
2. One that suits or tallies with another; or any thing that equals another.
3. Union by marriage. Love doth seldom suffer itself to be confined by other matches than those of its own making. Boyle. In popular language, it is applied to the engagement of lovers before marriage.
4. One to be married. She inherited a fair fortune of her own-and was looked upon as the richest match in the West. Clarendon.

A contest; competition for victory; or a union of parties for contest; as in games or sports. A solemn match was made; he lost the prize. Dryden.

1. To equal. No settled senses of the world can match / The pleasure of that madness. Shak.
2. To show an equal. No history or antiquity can match his policies and his conduct. South.
3. To oppose as equal; to set against as equal in contest. Eternal might / To match with their inventions they presumed / So easy, and of his thunder made a scorn. Milton.
4. To suit; to make equal; to proportion. Let poets match their subject to their strength. Roscommon. To match patterns and colors. Swift.
5. To marry; to give in marriage. A senator of Rome, while Rome survived, / Would not have match'd his daughter with a king. Addison.
6. To purify vessels by burning a match in them.

1. To be united in marriage. I hold it a sin to match in my kindred. Shak. Let tigers match with hinds, and wolves with sheep. Dryden.
2. To suit; to correspond; to be of equal size, figure or quality; to tally. We say of a piece of cloth, it does not match with another.

1. Anything used for catching and retaining or communicating fire, made of some substance which takes fire readily, or remains burning some time; esp., a small strip or splint of wood dipped at one end in a substance which can be easily ignited by friction, as a preparation of phosphorus or chlorate of potassium.
   
   

   Match box, a box for holding matches. - - Match tub, a tub with a perforated cover for holding slow matches for firing cannon, esp. on board ship. The tub contains a little water in the bottom, for extinguishing sparks from the lighted matches. -- Quick match, threads of cotton or cotton wick soaked in a solution of gunpowder mixed with gum arabic and boiling water and afterwards strewed over with mealed powder. It burns at the rate of one yard in thirteen seconds, and is used as priming for heavy mortars, fireworks, etc. -- Slow match, slightly twisted hempen rope soaked in a solution of limewater and saltpeter or washed in a lye of water and wood ashes. It burns at the rate of four or five inches an hour, and is used for firing cannon, fireworks, etc.

2. A person or thing equal or similar to another; one able to mate or cope with another; an equal; a mate.
   
   

   Government . . . makes an innocent man, though of the lowest rank, a match for the mightiest of his fellow subjects. Addison.

3. To be a mate or match for] to be able to complete with; to rival successfully; to equal.
   
   

   No settled senses of the world can match
   The pleasure of that madness. Shak.

4. To be united in marriage; to mate.
   
   

   I hold it a sin to match in my kindred. Shak.

   Let tigers match with hinds, and wolves with sheep. Dryden.

5. A bringing together of two parties suited to one another, as for a union, a trial of skill or force, a contest, or the like
   
   
   ; as, specifically: (a)
6. To furnish with its match; to bring a match, or equal, against; to show an equal competitor to; to set something in competition with, or in opposition to, as equal.
   
   

   No history or antiquity can matchis policies and his conduct. South.

7. To be of equal, or similar, size, figure, color, or quality; to tally; to suit; to correspond; as, these vases match.
8. An agreement, compact, etc.
   
   
   "Thy hand upon that match." Shak.

   Love doth seldom suffer itself to be confined by other matches than those of its own making. Boyle.

9. To oppose as equal; to contend successfully against.
   
   

   Eternal might
   To match with their inventions they presumed
   So easy, and of his thunder made a scorn. Milton.

10. A candidate for matrimony; one to be gained in marriage.
    
    
    "She . . . was looked upon as the richest match of the West." Clarendon.
11. To make or procure the equal of, or that which is exactly similar to, or corresponds with; as, to match a vase or a horse; to match cloth.
    
    
    "Matching of patterns and colors." Swift.
12. Equality of conditions in contest or competition.
    
    

    It were no match, your nail against his horn. Shak.

13. To make equal, proportionate, or suitable; to adapt, fit, or suit (one thing to another).
    
    

    Let poets match their subject to their strength. Roscommon.

14. Suitable combination or bringing together; that which corresponds or harmonizes with something else; as, the carpet and curtains are a match.
15. To marry; to give in marriage.
    
    

    A senator of Rome survived,
    Would not have matched his daughter with a king. Addison.

16. A perforated board, block of plaster, hardened sand, etc., in which a pattern is partly imbedded when a mold is made, for giving shape to the surfaces of separation between the parts of the mold.
    
    

    Match boarding (Carp.), boards fitted together with tongue and groove, or prepared to be so fitted. -- Match game, a game arranged as a test of superiority. -- Match plane (Carp.), either of the two planes used to shape the edges of boards which are joined by grooving and tonguing. -- Match plate (Founding), a board or plate on the opposite sides of which the halves of a pattern are fastened, to facilitate molding. Knight. -- Match wheel (Mach.), a cogwheel of suitable pitch to work with another wheel; specifically, one of a pair of cogwheels of equal size.

17. To fit together, or make suitable for fitting together; specifically, to furnish with a tongue and a groove, at the edges; as, to match boards.
    
    

    Matching machine, a planing machine for forming a tongue or a groove on the edge of a board.