Matchwood

noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    Wood, often in the form of splinters, suitable for making matches. countable, uncountable

    "The great stick was torn from his grasp and broken in two as though it had been matchwood, to be flung aside as the now infuriated beast charged for his adversary’s throat."

  2. 2
    fragments of wood wordnet
  3. 3
    wood suitable for making matchsticks wordnet
  4. 4
    wood in small pieces or splinters wordnet

Example

More examples

"The great stick was torn from his grasp and broken in two as though it had been matchwood, to be flung aside as the now infuriated beast charged for his adversary’s throat."

Etymology

From match + wood.

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