Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A person with whom one eats regularly, as in a military mess.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun An associate in a mess, especially in a ship's mess; one who eats ordinarily at the same table with another.
- noun In zoology, a commensal.
- noun In botany, same as
messmate-tree .
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun An associate in a mess.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun nautical an
associate with whom one shares amess (eating place) on aship
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun (nautical) an associate with whom you share meals in the same mess (as on a ship)
Etymologies
Sorry, no etymologies found.
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Examples
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"Ado!" cried Rodney angrily, "is it not bad enough to be called messmate by _you_, and not be able to deny it?"
The Lifeboat 1859
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A letter, written by him in 1841 to his old "messmate," Commodore
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One authority asserts that the bird and the snake are nearly always found together, and seems to imply that a friendship exists between them, for the bird is referred to as a "messmate" of the snake.
My Tropic Isle 1887
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But I say, messmate, that is no reason why we should not believe that all these things are; but, on the contrary, that God, who creates and cares for the smallest birds, watches over us also. "
Peter the Whaler William Henry Giles Kingston 1847
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"an officers 'mess;" i.e. a meal taken in common at the same table; and so, "to mess together," "messmate," and so on.
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He reminded Olmos of his old messmate, Hopi, back in the war.
365 tomorrows » Jared Axelrod : A New Free Flash Fiction SciFi Story Every Day 2006
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Over large areas, either of two eucalypts, messmate stringybark Eucalyptus obliqua and Smithton peppermint Eucalyptus nitida, is found emergent from rain forest, the former species on the better soils in the east and the latter on the poorer soils mainly in the west.
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He reminded Olmos of his old messmate, Hopi, back in the war.
365 tomorrows » 2006 » June : A New Free Flash Fiction SciFi Story Every Day 2006
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Dominant species include brown stringybark (Eucalyptus baxteri), manna gum (E. viminalis), messmate stringybark (E. obliqua), and mountain grey gum (E. cypellocarpa).
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Brown stringybark is restricted to soils of low fertility, whereas messmate stringybark becomes more frequent as soil quality improves.
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