safety match

plural safety matches

1. A friction match only able to be activated by strikes against a specific kind of surface, usually by coating it with red phosphorus.

   1 more example

   The invention of the Lucifer Match has brought with it many dangers. In one year, in London, there were published thirty-nine accounts of serious conflagrations through children playing with lucifers, the igniting of the matches, and the careless use of them... To guard against the recurrence of these sad results has been invented "the Safety Match," or a match which cannot ignite by friction with ordinary substances, but which bursts into flame when struck upon a chemically prepared strip, without which the matches may be struck or trodden upon without the possibility of ignition.

   1865, The Domestic Service Guide..., p. 223

   Synonyms: safety light