Mat (?), n. [Cf. Matte.]
A name given by coppersmiths to an alloy of copper, tin, iron, etc., usually called white metal.
[Written also
matt.]
© Webster 1913.
Mat, a. [OF. See 4th Mate.]
Cast down; dejected; overthrown; slain.
[Obs.]
When he saw them so piteous and so maat.
Chaucer.
© Webster 1913.
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.
© Webster 1913.
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.
© Webster 1913.
Mat, v. i.
To grow thick together; to become interwoven or felted together like a mat.
© Webster 1913.