subs. (colloquial).—A companion; a partner; a PAL (q.v.). Also MATEY.
1580. TUSSER, Five Hundred Pointes of Good Husbandrie, ch. 113, st. 30, p. 212 (E.D.S.). As for such MATES, as vertue hates,… small matter it is.
1630. MASSINGER, The Renegado, iv. 1.
| Come, my MATES! | |
| I hitherto have liv’d an ill Example; | |
| And as your Captain led you on to Mischief. |
1859. H. KINGSLEY, Recollections of Geoffry Hamlyn, ch. xxxi. I took him for a flash overseer, sporting his salary, and I was as thick as you like with him. And, ‘MATEY,’ says I, (you see I was familiar, he seemed such a jolly sort of bird), ‘MATEY, what station are you on?’
1865. H. KINGSLEY, The Hillyars and the Burtons, chap. xxx. ‘Well, then, I’ll tell you where it is,’ said Jack Marton [Blacksmith] ‘me and my MATES must look to ourselves.’…
1874. E. WOOD, Johnny Ludlow, 1 S. No. XXII. p. 403. ‘’Twasn’t me that originated the strike. I but joined in it with the rest of my MATES.’
1892. SYDNEY WATSON, Wops the Waif, ch. i. p. 2. ‘I say, Tickle MATEY, wot’s all them a-readin’ of on that bill over there?’ interrupted Wops.
1892. T. A. GUTHRIE (‘F. Anstey’), Mr. Punch’s Model Music-Hall Songs & Dramas, 119. Way-oh, ole MATEY, I don’t bear no malice.
