matchless
English
[edit]Pronunciation
[edit]Audio (Southern England): (file)
Etymology 1
[edit]From match + -less, modelled after or partly continuing Middle English makeless (“having no peer or equal, matchless”), equivalent to make + -less. Compare Swedish makalös (“incomparable, matchless”), Danish mageløs (“matchless”).
Adjective
[edit]matchless (comparative more matchless, superlative most matchless)
- Having no match; without equal.
- 1819, Sir Walter Scott, chapter 8, in Ivanhoe:
- [T]he Prince was to declare the victor in the first day's tourney, who should receive as prize a warhorse of exquisite beauty and matchless strength.
- 2002, Daniel Okrent, "Books: A Prince of a Pitcher" (Review of: Sandy Koufax: A Lefty's Legacy), Time, 30 Sept.:
- It was not his matchless talent that exalted Koufax beyond his greatest contemporaries so much as it was his knowledge that character was not connected to talent.
- Having no mate.
- 2010 June 1, Sandra Brennan, “Movies: The Flying Matchmaker (1966)”, in nytimes.com, retrieved 13 September 2010:
- In this comedy, a matchmaker has a matchless daughter. Try as he might, he cannot seem to find anyone for her.
Synonyms
[edit]- (without equal): incomparable, nonpareil, peerless, unequaled, unmatched, unparalleled, unsurpassed
- (having no mate): single, unattached
Derived terms
[edit]Translations
[edit]without equal
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Etymology 2
[edit]Adjective
[edit]matchless (not comparable)
- Without the use of matches for ignition.
- a matchless stove