mat, n. — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

mat n.

[abbr. SE mattress]

1. (US) a prostitute or sexually promiscuous woman.

1950

Goldin et al. DAUL 137/1: Mat. A prostitute or a very promiscuous woman.

2. (US black) one’s regular sweetheart, one’s wife.

1934		J.L. Kuethe ‘Prison Parlance’ in AS IX:1 27: mat. A woman.
1972		D. Dalby ‘African element in American English’, in Kochman Rappin’ and Stylin’ Out 182: mat — ‘woman, wife’.

SE in slang uses

In phrases

go back to the mat (v.)

(N.Z.) to return to nature, to be reduced in rank, circumstances.

1976

R. Morrieson Pallet on the Floor 49: They all go back to the mat in the end. What’s bred in the bone comes out in the flesh. And that’s where you’ll end up. Eating dried shark and sleeping on a mat.

on the mat [the small mat on which an accused soldier stood in the orderly room or the boxing mat; var. of on the carpet under carpet n.¹]

1. on trial.

1984

Partridge DSUE (8th edn) 726/2: from late 1890s.

2. facing a reprimand and/or punishment, also in fig. use.

1896		Ade Artie (1963) 101: That boy kind o’ had me down on the mat.
1918		‘Sapper’ Human Touch 257: Bunny – stood on the mat in front of his Company Commander. I use the phrase in its military sense [...] a state of affairs sometimes referred to by the vulgar phrase of ‘getting it in the neck’.
1929		(con. 1916) F. Manning Her Privates We (1986) 130: I don’t mind bein’ on the mat, if it’s wo’th it.
1930		(con. 1914–18) Brophy & Partridge Songs and Sl. of the British Soldier.
1943		‘Henry Green’ Caught (2001) 74: Why would they ’ave ’ad ’im on the mat up at the station?
1951		D. Stivens Jimmy Brockett 146: I’ll put them on the mat for this!
1962		J. McNeill How Does Your Garden Grow? (1974) 85: [text missing].
1973		B.S. Johnson All Bull 24: I was up on the mat about that as well.
1982		G. Newbold Big Huey 90: A lot of the guys blamed him for getting us put on the mat.
2001		D. Looser Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 115/1: on the mat phr. = on report.

3. ready to fight; also in fig. use.

1908		Sporting Times 23 May 2/4: They’d better put the muzzle on their line of chesty chat, / An’ pad their solar plexuses when I go on the mat.
1933		J.T. Farrell Gas-House McGinty 258: If he turns you in to Norris, I’ll go on the mat for you.

4. (US) under interrogation.

1929		D. Hammett ‘Fly Paper’ Story Omnibus (1966) 57: We can put Peggy Carroll on the mat again, but it’s not likely we’ll squeeze much more out of her.
1935		A.J. Pollock Und. Speaks 92/2: Put on the mat, a thorough questioning, usually by the police.
1945		A. Christie Sparkling Cyanide (1955) 102: I’ve got him on the mat again this morning.

5. in serious trouble, beaten.

1937

R. Westerby Wide Boys Never Work (1938) 194: You’re on the mat – we’re on the mat – how the hell are you going to get up again?