Mat·ter n.
 1. That of which anything is composed; constituent substance; material; the material or substantial part of anything; the constituent elements of conception; that into which a notion may be analyzed; the essence; the pith; the embodiment.
    He is the matter of virtue.   --B. Jonson.
 2. That of which the sensible universe and all existent bodies are composed; anything which has extension, occupies space, or is perceptible by the senses; body; substance.
 Note: ☞ Matter is usually divided by philosophical writers into three kinds or classes: solid, liquid, and gaseous. Solid substances are those whose parts firmly cohere and resist impression, as wood or stone. Liquids have free motion among their parts, and easily yield to impression, as water and wine. Gaseous substances are elastic fluids, called vapors and gases, as air and oxygen gas.
 3. That with regard to, or about which, anything takes place or is done; the thing aimed at, treated of, or treated; subject of action, discussion, consideration, feeling, complaint, legal action, or the like; theme. “If the matter should be tried by duel.”
 Son of God, Savior of men!  Thy name
 Shall be the copious matter of my song.   --Milton.
    Every great matter they shall bring unto thee, but every small matter they shall judge.   --Ex. xviii. 22.
 4. That which one has to treat, or with which one has to do; concern; affair; business.
    To help the matter, the alchemists call in many vanities out of astrology.   --Bacon.
    Some young female seems to have carried matters so far, that she is ripe for asking advice.   --Spectator.
 5. Affair worthy of account; thing of consequence; importance; significance; moment; -- chiefly in the phrases what matter? no matter, and the like.
 A prophet some, and some a poet, cry;
 No matter which, so neither of them lie.   --Dryden.
 6. Inducing cause or occasion, especially of anything disagreeable or distressing; difficulty; trouble.
    And this is the matter why interpreters upon that passage in Hosea will not consent it to be a true story, that the prophet took a harlot to wife.   --Milton.
 7. Amount; quantity; portion; space; -- often indefinite.
    Away he goes, . . . a matter of seven miles.   --L' Estrange.
    I have thoughts to tarry a small matter.   --Congreve.
    No small matter of British forces were commanded over sea the year before.   --Milton.
 8. Substance excreted from living animal bodies; that which is thrown out or discharged in a tumor, boil, or abscess; pus; purulent substance.
 9. Metaph. That which is permanent, or is supposed to be given, and in or upon which changes are effected by psychological or physical processes and relations; -- opposed to form.
 10. Print. Written manuscript, or anything to be set in type; copy; also, type set up and ready to be used, or which has been used, in printing.
 Dead matter Print., type which has been used, or which is not to be used, in printing, and is ready for distribution.
 Live matter Print., type set up, but not yet printed from.
 Matter in bar, Matter of fact. See under Bar, and Fact.
 Matter of record, anything recorded.
 Upon the matter, or Upon the whole matter, considering the whole; taking all things into view; all things considered.
    Waller, with Sir William Balfour, exceeded in horse, but were, upon the whole matter, equal in foot.   --Clarendon.
 Fact n.
 1. A doing, making, or preparing. [Obs.]
 A project for the fact and vending
 Of a new kind of fucus, paint for ladies.   --B. Jonson.
 2. An effect produced or achieved; anything done or that comes to pass; an act; an event; a circumstance.
    What might instigate him to this devilish fact, I am not able to conjecture.   --Evelyn.
    He who most excels in fact of arms.   --Milton.
 3. Reality; actuality; truth; as, he, in fact, excelled all the rest; the fact is, he was beaten.
 4. The assertion or statement of a thing done or existing; sometimes, even when false, improperly put, by a transfer of meaning, for the thing done, or supposed to be done; a thing supposed or asserted to be done; as, history abounds with false facts.
    I do not grant the fact.   --De Foe.
    This reasoning is founded upon a fact which is not true.   --Roger Long.
 Note: ☞ The term fact has in jurisprudence peculiar uses in contrast with law; as, attorney at law, and attorney in fact; issue in law, and issue in fact. There is also a grand distinction between law and fact with reference to the province of the judge and that of the jury, the latter generally determining the fact, the former the law.
 Accessary before the fact, or Accessary after the fact. See under Accessary.
 Matter of fact, an actual occurrence; a verity; used adjectively: of or pertaining to facts; prosaic; unimaginative; as, a matter-of-fact narration.
 Syn: -- Act; deed; performance; event; incident; occurrence; circumstance.
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 matter of fact
      n 1: a disputed factual contention that is generally left for a
           jury to decide [syn: question of fact]
      2: a matter that is an actual fact or is demonstrable as a fact