Word.ws English Dictionary

messmate

messmate noun: an associate with whom one shares a mess (eating place) on a ship.

Noun

messmate (plural messmates)

  1. An associate with whom one shares a mess (eating place) on a ship.
    • Messmates, ahoy! Come here! Come here!1879, W[illiam] S[chwenck] Gilbert, Arthur Sullivan, composer, H.M.S. Pinafore; […], San Francisco: Bacon & Company, […], →OCLC
    • The cap’n was displeased at that, but my messmates were all of a mind and landed.1881–1882, Robert Louis Stevenson, Treasure Island, London; Paris: Cassell & Company, published 14 November 1883, →OCLC
  2. (Australia) Any of various eucalypts with rough bark, specifically Eucalyptus obliqua.

Forms of messmate

pluralmessmates

Origin of messmate

From mess + mate.

Questions about messmate

What does messmate mean?
Messmate means an associate with whom one shares a mess (eating place) on a ship.
What part of speech is messmate?
Messmate is a noun.
What is the plural of messmate?
The plural of messmate is messmates.

Words near messmate in the dictionary

  1. messless
  2. messlessly
  3. messlessness
  4. Messman
  5. Messmans
  6. messmate
  7. messmates
  8. Messmer
  9. Messmers
  10. Messmore
  11. Messmores

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: messmate (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Cite this entry: “messmate.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/messmate. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.