matchless
adjEtymology From match + -less.
1
Without the use of matches for ignition.
- a matchless stove
matchless
adjEtymology 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”).
1
Having no match; without equal.
- [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.1819, Sir Walter Scott, chapter 8, in Ivanhoe:
- 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.2002, Daniel Okrent, "Books: A Prince of a Pitcher" (Review of: Sandy Koufax: A Lefty's Legacy), Time, 30 Sept.
2
Having no mate.
- In this comedy, a matchmaker has a matchless daughter. Try as he might, he cannot seem to find anyone for her.2010 June 1, Sandra Brennan, “Movies: The Flying Matchmaker (1966)”, in nytimes.com, retrieved 13 Sep 2010:
- Synonyms
- incomparable, nonpareil, peerless, unequaled, unmatched, unparalleled, unsurpassed, single, unattached
- Derived terms
- matchlessly, matchlessness, unmatchless