Definition of "match"

Can you play billiards? / Yes, do you wish to have a match with me? / Let us simply play (a game) for pleasure. We needn't have a match, as I don't like to gamble.

1886, Lim Hiong Seng, Handbook of the Swatow Vernacular, Singapore: Koh Yew Hean Press

Ferrer his Taberd vvith rich Verry ſpred, / VVell knovvne in many a vvarlike match before; […]

1605, Michael Drayton, “The Second Booke of the Barons Warres”, in Poems: […], London: […] W[illiam] Stansby for Iohn Smethwicke, […], published 1613, stanza 22, page 31

A solemn match was made; he lost the prize.

1697, Virgil, “(please specify the page)”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […]

Government […] makes an innocent man, though of the lowest rank, a match for the mightiest of his fellow subjects.

1716 February 10 (Gregorian calendar), Joseph Addison, “The Free-holder: No. 12. Monday, January 30. ”, in The Works of the Right Honourable Joseph Addison, Esq; […], volume IV, London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], published 1721

Dean Ippolito looks like an ordinary kid. But at chess, he is a knight of battle. Most adults are no match for him.

1991, Boys' Life‎, volume 81, number 4

She […] was looked upon as the richest match of the West.

1702–1704, Edward [Hyde, 1st] Earl of Clarendon, “(please specify |book=I to XVI)”, in The History of the Rebellion and Civil Wars in England, Begun in the Year 1641. […], Oxford, Oxfordshire: Printed at the Theater, published 1707

The seat to window match is excellent and there are half-size partition screens between bays.

2019 October 23, Pip Dunn, “The next king of Scotland”, in Rail, page 51

It were no match, your nail against his horn.

c. 1602, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Troylus and Cressida”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act IV, scene v]

Thy hand upon that match.

c. 1602, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Troylus and Cressida”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act IV, scene v]

[I]t hath been obſerv'd, that Love doth ſeldome ſuffer it ſelf to be confin'd by other matches, then thoſe of its ovvne making.

1648 August 16 (date written; Gregorian calendar), Robert Boyle, Some Motives and Incentives to the Love of God. […], London: […] Henry Herringman, […], published 1659, page 6

I'll be interested to see how this service does. It will be basic with fares to match, so will be akin to a budget airline taking on a flag-carrier.

2021 June 30, Philip Haigh, “Regional trains squeezed as ECML congestion heads north”, in RAIL, number 934, page 52

There was a neat hat-and-umbrella stand, and the stranger's weary feet fell soft on a good, serviceable dark-red drugget, which matched in colour the flock-paper on the walls.

1913, Mrs. [Marie] Belloc Lowndes, chapter II, in The Lodger, London: Methuen; republished in Novels of Mystery: The Lodger; The Story of Ivy; What Really Happened, New York, N.Y.: Longmans, Green and Co., […], page 0091

Soon after the arrival of Mrs. Campbell, dinner was announced by Abboye. He came into the drawing room resplendent in his gold-and-white turban. […] His cummerbund matched the turban in gold lines.

1927, F. E. Penny, chapter 4, in Pulling the Strings

Finance is seldom romantic. But the idea of peer-to-peer lending comes close. This is an industry that brings together individual savers and lenders on online platforms. Those that want to borrow are matched with those that want to lend.

2013 June 1, “End of the peer show”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8838, page 71

[…] Adam's sons are my brethren; and truly, I hold it a sin to match in my kindred.

1598–1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, “Much Adoe about Nothing”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act II, scene i]

A senator of Rome survived, Would not have matched his daughter with a king.

1712 (date written), [Joseph] Addison, Cato, a Tragedy. […], London: […] J[acob] Tonson, […], published 1713, Act I, scene v, page 1