matey

Etymology

Definitions

1. 1

   Sociable or friendly.

   • You've been very matey with that new bird.
   • She asked in what sort of accident I had broken my back, and when I told her that I had been shot down she became much more matey.
   • We decided that it would be more matey to have communal meals, so all the guests and hosts foregathered at the hotel for lunches and dinners, and at every sitting there were about 40 of us, all in high spirits.
2. 2

   Diminutive of mate, friend.

   • Hello, matey, just back from the pub?
   • “No, no, matey, I means no harm. Ye see, I think I done ye a bad turn onst, an′ I′m minded t′ do ye right afore I goes off. You bring a writer here, matey, an′ I′ll tell ye what.”
   • 1920, Francis Stevens (Gertrude Barrows Bennett), Claimed, 2009, Munsey′s, page 49, And take my advice, matey. When yer buys it, don′t yer make Lutz′s mistake and think yer can wriggle out easy.
3. 3

   A fellow sailor

   A fellow sailor; often used affectedly, especially when portraying a pirate.

   • Ahoy mateys, scrub the deck!
   • “Well, Mateys,” he said, “heave to. Rum for all.” The pirates grabbed their bottles, and as they drank they began to sing and laugh and shout at each other.
4. ›+ 3 more definitionsshow fewer

   1. 4

      A dockyard worker.

      • He got the dockyard 'mateys' to install a primitive form of steam heating which he had seen in Navy ships […]
   2. 5

      Alternative form of maty (“native house servant in India”).

   3. 6

      A surname from the Slavic languages.

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