mates

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of mate.

   The first and second mates took turns on watch through the night.

   Half the gloves in the lost-and-found had lost their mates.

   Note

   A regular plural that carries every meaning of the noun at once: shipmates and classmates, breeding partners, and naval ranks such as Boatswain's Mates or Gunner's Mates. In British, Irish, Australian, New Zealand and South African speech it most often means friends, as in out with his mates, a colloquial use. The same spelling is also the present-tense verb, so the sentence decides which one is meant.

2. 2
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present of mate.

   The biologist mates rare frogs in a carefully controlled enclosure.

   When the season turns, the eagle mates and begins building its nest.

   Note

   The present-tense form covers two families of meaning: fitting closely together, as when one part mates with another, and pairing for breeding. Both can stand alone, as in the eagle mates, or take an object, when someone pairs animals or arranges things in matched sets. The spelling is shared with the plural noun, but a singular subject in front marks the verb.

3. 3
   adjective

   Friendly toward someone, or on terms of close friendship with them.

   By the end of the season the rivals had become quite mates.

   He's been mates with his neighbors for decades.

   Similarfriendly, chummy, pally, close

   Oppositeunfriendly, hostile

   Note

   A plural noun that has hardened into a predicate adjective: one person can be mates with another, so a plural form describes a single subject. It follows be or become rather than standing before a noun, takes with to name the friend, and does not take more or most. It draws on the colloquial "friend" meaning of the plural noun.

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