Mater
noun, slang ·Moderate ·High school level
Definitions
- 1 Mother. British, archaic, humorous, slang
"Their maters are all pals of my mater’s, and I don’t want to get them into trouble for aiding and abetting my little show, if you understand what I mean."
- 2 Someone or something that mates.
- 3 Alternative form of 'mater (“tomato”). alt-of, alternative
""A mater sandwich would be better." Trixie said, "but I'll take it if that's all you got." As if we were woefully deprived of food. So Trixie had a tomato sandwich for lunch, carefully prepared by Lillian but for which she received no thanks."
- 4 an informal use of the Latin word for mother; sometimes used by British schoolboys or used facetiously wordnet
- 5 A meninx; the dura mater, arachnoid mater, or pia mater of the brain.
Example
More examples"A class reunion was organized to raise funds for our alma mater."
Etymology
From Latin māter (“mother”), partly via Late Middle English matere. Doublet of mata and mother. Ancestor of matrix.
From mate + -er.
See 'mater.
Related phrases
More for "mater"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.