How to Use first mate in a Sentence

first mate

noun
  • The captain is a local guide, the first mate is the chef, and the nightly rate includes housekeeping, meals, drinks, snorkel equipment, and more.
    Meagan Drillinger, Travel + Leisure, 24 Aug. 2023
  • My first mate, Teeshy McGann, informed me that an unexpected storm was moving in from the east.
    Mike O’Brien, The New Yorker, 7 Nov. 2023
  • Unaware that Dracula is onboard, the captain writes how, over the course of their journey, crew members went missing until just he and the first mate were left on the Demeter.
    Megan McCluskey, Time, 11 Aug. 2023
  • The captain's descriptions of goings-on aboard the ship begin ordinarily enough, but within days of being at sea, the ship's first mate disappeared, and before long the crew and passengers were being picked off one by one each night.
    Philip Ellis, Men's Health, 11 Aug. 2023
  • Klaus is Zissou’s emotionally fragile first mate, a role that Dafoe digs into with real exuberance.
    Joe Reid, Vulture, 26 June 2023

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'first mate.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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