Definition of "messmate" [mess•mate]

• A person with whom one eats regularly, as in a military mess. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• ""Ado!" cried Rodney angrily, "is it not bad enough to be called messmate by _you_, and not be able to deny it?""
• "A letter, written by him in 1841 to his old "messmate," Commodore"
• "One authority asserts that the bird and the snake are nearly always found together, and seems to imply that a friendship exists between them, for the bird is referred to as a "messmate" of the snake."