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See Matte. Knight.

A shrike or butcher bird; -- written also matagasse. [Prov. Eng.]

A subterranean repository for wheat.

A partly reduced copper sulphide, obtained by alternately roasting and melting copper ore in separating the metal from associated iron ores, and called coarse metal, fine metal, etc., according to the grade of fineness. On the exterior it is dark brown or black, but on a fresh surface is yellow or bronzy in color.…

Having a dull surface; unburnished; as, matted gold leaf or gilding. Matted glass, glass ornamented with figures on a dull ground.

hat into which a notion may be analyzed; the essence; the pith; the embodiment. He is the matter of virtue. B. Jonson.

Adhering to facts; not turning aside from absolute realities; not fanciful or imaginative; commonplace; dry.

Not being, or having, matter; as, matterless spirits. Davies (Wit's Pilgr. ).

Full of substance or matter; important. B. Jonson.

The act of interweaving or tangling together so as to make a mat; the process of becoming matted.

e an adz and the other like a narrow ax or the point of a pickax. 'T is you must dig with mattock and with spade. Shak.

A person of congenitally abnormal mind bordering on insanity or degeneracy.

A kind of coarse punch with a rasplike face, used for making a rough surface on etching ground, or on the naked copper, the effect after biting being very similar to stippled lines.

An American clupeoid fish (Clupea mediocris), similar to the shad in habits and appearance, but smaller and less esteemed for food; -- called also hickory shad, tailor shad, fall herring, and shad herring.

A quilted bed; a bed stuffed with hair, moss, or other suitable material, and quilted or otherwise fastened. [Written also matress.]

A dry, hot wind, prevailing on the Atlantic coast of Africa, in December, January, and February, blowing from the interior or Sahara. It is usually accompanied by a haze which obscures the sun.

A light fabric of cotton and worsted, resembling bombazine or merino. Beck (Draper's Dict.)

To talk superficially or ignorantly; to babble; to chatter. Of state affairs you can not smatter. Swift.

One who has only a slight, superficial knowledge; a sciolist.

sm. I had a great desire, not able to attain to a superficial skill in any, to have some smattering in all. Burton.