material noun
1 substance
ADJ. combustible, flammable, hazardous, inflammable, radioactive, toxic | recyclable | man-made
2 things for making sth
ADJ. raw Higher raw material costs have pushed up the price of many manufactured goods. | industrial | building a storeroom full of building materials | drawing, writing Prisoners were not allowed writing materials.
3 cloth
ADJ. thick, thin | coarse, fine | woven
QUANT. length, piece, roll, scrap, strip A patchwork quilt is a good way of using up scraps of material.
4 written matter
ADJ. fascinating, good, relevant, useful | source The letter were used as source material in this new biography. | classified, confidential, sensitive | unpublished | educational, instructional, promotional, teaching | biographical, historical | indecent, obscene, pornographic He was convicted of importing indecent material.
VERB + MATERIAL collect, find, gather, get hold of He's collecting material for a new book on space travel. I can't find any relevant material on him in the library. | contain, include This new biography contains a wealth of previously unpublished material. | produce, publish
PREP. ~ for useful material for a documentary | ~ on original material on the First World War
You can also check other dicts: material (English, 中文解释 ), wordnet sense, Collins Definition