mat

plural mats

1. A flat piece of coarse material used for wiping one’s feet, or as a decorative or protective floor covering.

   Wipe your feet on the mat before coming in.

2. A small flat piece of material used to protect a surface from anything hot or rough; a coaster.

   They put mats on the table during mealtimes.

3. athleticsA floor pad to protect athletes.

   The high jumper cleared the bar and landed safely on the mat.

4. A thickly tangled mess.

   a mat of weeds

   2 more examples

   But to return to where we left her, I see her still, propped up in a kind of stupor against one of the walls in which this wretched edifice abounds, her long grey greasy hair framing in its cowl of scrofulous mats a face where pallor, languor, hunger, acne, recent dirt, immemorial chagrin and surplus hair seemed to dispute the mastery.

   1953, Samuel Beckett, Watt, [Paris]: Olympia Press, →OCLC

   and now only a sord of Mallards drifted through the dense mats of New Zealand pigmyweed that coated the surface of the water.

   2018, Steve Burrows, A Tiding of Magpies: A Birder Murder Mystery, Oneworld Publications

5. A thin layer of woven, non-woven, or knitted fiber that serves as reinforcement to a material.
6. A thin surface layer; superficial cover.

   Iceland moss growing in a mat

   1 more example

   The fad for blaming all mass extinctions (such as happened at the end of the Cretaceous when the dinosaurs vanished) on impacts of objects from space was extended to the Pleistocene in 2007. That year a group of scientists proposed that the North American extinctions were due to a comet or meteorite impact over the Carolinas, near the beginning of the Younger Dryas event, about 12,900 years ago. The original evidence for this supposed impact was a "black mat" of organic material in many Clovis sites, plus microscopic nano-diamonds in deep-sea cores, and rare Platinum group metals in Greenland ice cores from around 12,900 years ago.

   2016 November 15, Donald R. Prothero, The Princeton Field Guide to Prehistoric Mammals, page 222

present singular third person mats · participle present matting · participle past matted · past matted

1. transitiveTo cover, protect or decorate with mats.

   Be careful now to keep the Doors and Windows of your Conservatories well matted

   1664, J[ohn] E[velyn], “Kalendarium Hortense: Or, The Gard’ners Almanac; […] ”, in Sylva, or A Discourse of Forest-trees and the Propagation of Timber in His Majesties Dominions. […], London: […] Jo[hn] Martyn, and Ja[mes] Allestry, printers to the Royal Society, […], →OCLC

2. intransitiveTo form a thick, tangled mess; to interweave into, or like, a mat; to entangle.

   And o'er his eyebrows hung his matted hair.

   1700, [John] Dryden, “Palamon and Arcite: Or, The Knight’s Tale. In Three Books.”, in Fables Ancient and Modern; […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC

plural mats

1. abbreviationclippingin pluralslangvideo gamesClipping of material.

   I used up all my mats cranking 90s and ended up getting one-pumped.

   4 more examples

   Using a Weapon Upgrade Bench, it's possible to upgrade a Common Shotgun, for example, all the way to Legendary provided you've harvested enough mats to do so.

   2019 October 24, Christopher Groux, “'Fortnite' Weapon Upgrade Guide - Upgrade Bench Locations & More”, in Newsweek, New York, N.Y.: Newsweek Publishing LLC, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 30 Mar 2023

   While there are game modes where you can build without any requirements, you'll need to harvest materials to build in normal Fortnite games. Mats is the shortened version of materials.

   [2020 November 28, Gökhan Çakır, “Common Fortnite terms and their meanings”, in Dot Esports, archived from the original on 21 May 2023

   Fortnite added a new trap with the Armored Wall reinforcement for mats and one viral TikTok showed just how deadly the new item can be in a close fight.

   2021 September 25, Alan Bernal, “Viral Fortnite TikTok trick shows how to use Armored Walls for easy kills”, in Dexerto, archived from the original on 26 Oct 2021

   The looper goes on laying more than a thousand mats in thirty seconds. He finally reaches his opponent, who is easily brought down with a shell of a shotgun and a burst of an SMG. Upon eliminating the opponent, he is ecstatic in celebration.

   2022 July 16, Sarthak Chauhan, “Fortnite YouTuber using 1000 mats in less than 30 seconds shows exactly what not to do”, in Sportskeeda, archived from the original on 29 May 2023

plural mats · alternative matt

1. An alloy of copper, tin, iron, etc.; white metal.
2. alternativeAlternative form of matte (“instrument for producing a dull, lustreless surface”).

present singular third person mats · participle present matting · participle past matted · past matted · alternative matt

1. alternativeAlternative form of matte (“to produce a dull, lustreless surface on metal”).

plural mats

1. abbreviationdatedslangAbbreviation of matinee (“performance at a theater”).

   A gents' toilet room might be found in a house that caters for the cheaper class of theatrical patronage, where the slangy language of the "goin' to the mat this aft?" style prevails. A gents toilet room is not found in the Southern Hotel. It either "men's" or "gentlemen's".

   1898, The Hotel/Motor Hotel Monthly, volume 6, page 27

plural mats

1. alternativeAlternative spelling of matte (“decorative border around a picture”).

   the mat of a daguerreotype

1. alternativeAlternative form of matte (“not reflecting light”).

   Frons mat black, orbits slightly paler, more greyish; mesonotum distinctly mat, greyish-black, but with some subshine; […]

   2013, K. A. Spencer, Agromyzidae (Diptera) of Economic Importance, page 264

plural mats

1. abbreviationclippingmediaClipping of matrix.

1. uncountableVulgar, obscene, or profane language in Russian and some other Slavic language communities.

   Don't you people have anything better to do than collecting mat. I still can't undestand why people in (and from) the ex-USSR like to swear so much.

   1993 March 31, Elena Tsifrina, “let's collect MAT”, in soc.culture.soviet (Usenet), archived from the original on 15 Aug 2025

   2 more examples

   Most teenagers go through times when they use mat "rather heavily" among themselves. I guess they associate it with being adults. In most cases though this goes away pretty fast, usually when they start dating girls. Using mat rather heavily after graduating from university is a differnet^([sic]) matter.

   1991 September 16, Michael Rabinovich, “Profanity in the USSR”, in soc.culture.soviet (Usenet), archived from the original on 15 Aug 2025

   As the Russian mentality (hopefully) will be less medieval, mat will lose its social role. It will be less frequently used in the spoken language. From the other hand, books will lose its medieval sacrality, and mat will be allowed to be printed.

   1993 June 22, Boris A. Veytsman, “Russian "mat" and Russian mentality”, in talk.politics.soviet (Usenet), archived from the original on 15 Aug 2025

plural Mats

1. A diminutive of the male given name Matthew.
2. Singaporeethnicslura Malay man

plural MATs

1. abbreviationinitialismInitialism of medication-assisted treatment.
2. abbreviationinitialismInitialism of Master of Arts in Teaching.