Amate

//əˈmɑteɪ// noun, verb

noun, verb ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    Paper produced from the bark of adult Ficus trees.
  2. 2
    An art form based on Mexican bark painting from the Otomi culture.
Verb
  1. 1
    To dishearten, dismay. obsolete

    "Shall I accuse the hidden cruell fate, / And mightie causes wrought in heauen aboue, / Or the blind God, that doth me thus amate, / For hoped loue to winne me certaine hate?"

  2. 2
    To be a mate to; to match. obsolete

    "More lucklesse disadventures did amate"

Example

More examples

"Shall I accuse the hidden cruell fate, / And mightie causes wrought in heauen aboue, / Or the blind God, that doth me thus amate, / For hoped loue to winne me certaine hate?"

Etymology

Etymology 1

From Spanish (papel) amate (“amate paper”), from Classical Nahuatl āmatl (“paper”).

Etymology 2

From Old French amater, amatir.

Etymology 3

From a- + mate.

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.