Meaning of matey | Babel Free

Definitions

1. A surname from the Slavic languages.
2. A fellow sailor; often used affectedly, especially when portraying a pirate.
   slang
3. A dockyard worker.
   slang

Examples

“Hello, matey, just back from the pub?”

““No, no, matey, I means no harm. Ye see, I think I done ye a bad turn onst, an′ I′m minded t′ do ye right afore I goes off. You bring a writer here, matey, an′ I′ll tell ye what.””

“1920, Francis Stevens (Gertrude Barrows Bennett), Claimed, 2009, Munsey′s, page 49, And take my advice, matey. When yer buys it, don′t yer make Lutz′s mistake and think yer can wriggle out easy.”

““You've got great legs, matey,” he said to me. “You know that?” They were good straight legs, and could run, but I had always thought them too much on the lean side.”

““I couldn't bloody believe it when Charmaine said we were seeing the Rat Pack. I mean, what a coincidence. My old mateys performing here, tonight!””

“Ahoy mateys, scrub the deck!”

“c. 1906, Herbert Strang (pseudonym), In Clive′s Command, 2006, Echo Library, page 35, “Well, we are and we en′t, eh, mateys? The Waterman′s Rest en′t exactly the kind of place to spend shore leave; it en′t a patch on Wapping or Rotherhithe. […] ””

““Well, Mateys,” he said, “heave to. Rum for all.” The pirates grabbed their bottles, and as they drank they began to sing and laugh and shout at each other.”

“Soon the talking skull came into view and gave us a warning, “Avast there, it be to late to alter course mateys and there be plundering pirates lurking in every cove waiting to board.[…]””

““Ahoy, mateys!” The chorus came from all sides, and he fought the urge to snicker. She nudged him with her elbow, and he looked down to find her eyes twinkling. “Hope you brushed up on your pirate lingo. The desk is over there. I gotta go use the little wench′s room.” He watched her go with a grin and nearly laughed again when he saw the signs on the bathroom doors. Wenches and Mateys. Good God.”

“He got the dockyard 'mateys' to install a primitive form of steam heating which he had seen in Navy ships […]”

“Mediterranean peoples are thought to be excitable, but the Maltese stood up to the blitz with great aplomb, especially the dghaisa men who plowed back and forth across the harbours regardless of the raids, the mateys who made the devastated dockyard work, and all who served in units of the armed forces.”

CEFR level