1. (noun)mate, first mate the officer below the master on a commercial ship
2. (noun)teammate, mate a fellow member of a team
"it was his first start against his former teammates"
3. (noun)mate the partner of an animal (especially a sexual partner)
"he loved the mare and all her mates"; "camels hate leaving their mates"
4. (noun)spouse, partner, married person, mate, better half a person's partner in marriage
5. (noun)match, mate an exact duplicate
"when a match is found an entry is made in the notebook"
6. (noun)mate, fellow one of a pair
"he lost the mate to his shoe"; "one eye was blue but its fellow was brown"
7. (noun)mate, Paraguay tea, Ilex paraguariensis South American holly; leaves used in making a drink like tea
8. (noun)mate informal term for a friend of the same sex
9. (noun)mate South American tea-like drink made from leaves of a South American holly called mate
10. (noun)checkmate, mate a chess move constituting an inescapable and indefensible attack on the opponent's king
11. (verb)copulate, mate, pair, couple engage in sexual intercourse
"Birds mate in the Spring"
12. (verb)match, mate, couple, pair, twin bring two objects, ideas, or people together
"This fact is coupled to the other one"; "Matchmaker, can you match my daughter with a nice young man?"; "The student was paired with a partner for collaboration on the project"
13. (verb)checkmate, mate place an opponent's king under an attack from which it cannot escape and thus ending the game
"Kasparov checkmated his opponent after only a few moves"