matador

plural matadors · plural matadores · alternative archaic matadore

1. bullfightingThe person whose aim is to kill the bull in a bullfight.

   Hemingway's subject for the epilogue was the mano a mano (or hand-to-hand, a duel) between Spain's two leading matadors, Luis Miguel Dominguin and his brother-in-law, Antonio Ordonez.

   1985 June 9, William Kennedy, “The Last Ole”, in The New York Times

   2 more examples

   […] few of these boys know how to fight alone, and hardly any without a knife or a gun. They are not to be equated with matadors or boxers or Hemingway heroes. They are dangerous pack hounds who will not even expose themselves singly in the outfield.

   1962, Arthur Miller, “The Bored and the Violent”, in Herbert Gold, editor, First Person Singular: Essays for the Sixties, New York: Dial, published 1963, page 181

   The second is La Macarena, named after an Arabian princess, and she was preferred by another great matador, Joselito, and to see her leave her parish church of San Gil at one in the morning of Good Friday or return later in the day is held by many Sevillanos to be the most important thing that can happen during Holy Week.

   1968, James A. Michener, “Sevilla”, in Iberia, New York, NY: Dial Press, published 2015, →ISBN, page 317

2. uncountableA certain game of dominoes in which four dominoes (the 4-3, 5-2, 6-1, and double blank), called matadors, may be played at any time in any way.
3. card gamesThe jack of clubs, or any other trump held in sequence with it, in the game of skat.
4. card gamesOne of the three chief cards in ombre and quadrille.

1. A town, the county seat of Motley County, Texas, United States.