The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Material \Ma*te"ri*al\, a. [L. materialis, fr. materia stuff,
   matter: cf. F. mat['e]riel. See Matter, and cf.
   Mat['e]riel.]
   [1913 Webster]
   1. Consisting of matter; not spiritual; corporeal; physical;
      as, material substance or bodies.
      [1913 Webster]

            The material elements of the universe. --Whewell.
      [1913 Webster]

   2. Hence: Pertaining to, or affecting, the physical nature of
      man, as distinguished from the mental or moral nature;
      relating to the bodily wants, interests, and comforts; as,
      material well-being; material comforts.
      [1913 Webster]

   3. Of solid or weighty character; not insubstantial; of
      consequence; not be dispensed with; important;
      significant.
      [1913 Webster]

            Discourse, which was always material, never
            trifling.                             --Evelyn.
      [1913 Webster]

            I shall, in the account of simple ideas, set down
            only such as are most material to our present
            purpose.                              --Locke.
      [1913 Webster]

   4. (Logic.) Pertaining to the matter, as opposed to the form,
      of a thing. See Matter.
      [1913 Webster]

   Material cause. See under Cause.

   Material evidence (Law), evidence which conduces to the
      proof or disproof of a relevant hypothesis. --Wharton.
      [1913 Webster]

   Syn: Corporeal; bodily; important; weighty; momentous;
        essential.
        [1913 Webster]

The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Material \Ma*te"ri*al\, v. t.
   To form from matter; to materialize. [Obs.] --Sir T. Browne.
   [1913 Webster]

The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Material \Ma*te"ri*al\, n.
   The substance or matter of which anything is made or may be
   made.
   [1913 Webster]

   Raw material, any crude, unfinished, or elementary
      materials that are adapted to use only by processes of
      skilled labor. Cotton, wool, ore, logs, etc., are raw
      material.
      [1913 Webster]

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):

material
    adj 1: concerned with worldly rather than spiritual interests;
           "material possessions"; "material wealth"; "material
           comforts"
    2: derived from or composed of matter; "the material universe"
       [ant: immaterial, nonmaterial]
    3: directly relevant to a matter especially a law case; "his
       support made a material difference"; "evidence material to
       the issue at hand"; "facts likely to influence the judgment
       are called material facts"; "a material witness" [ant:
       immaterial]
    4: concerned with or affecting physical as distinct from
       intellectual or psychological well-being; "material needs";
       "the moral and material welfare of all good citizens"-
       T.Roosevelt
    5: having material or physical form or substance; "that which is
       created is of necessity corporeal and visible and tangible" -
       Benjamin Jowett [syn: corporeal, material] [ant:
       immaterial, incorporeal]
    6: having substance or capable of being treated as fact; not
       imaginary; "the substantial world"; "a mere dream, neither
       substantial nor practical"; "most ponderous and substantial
       things"- Shakespeare [syn: substantial, real, material]
       [ant: insubstantial, unreal, unsubstantial]
    n 1: the tangible substance that goes into the makeup of a
         physical object; "coal is a hard black material"; "wheat is
         the stuff they use to make bread" [syn: material,
         stuff]
    2: information (data or ideas or observations) that can be used
       or reworked into a finished form; "the archives provided rich
       material for a definitive biography"
    3: artifact made by weaving or felting or knitting or crocheting
       natural or synthetic fibers; "the fabric in the curtains was
       light and semitransparent"; "woven cloth originated in
       Mesopotamia around 5000 BC"; "she measured off enough
       material for a dress" [syn: fabric, cloth, material,
       textile]
    4: things needed for doing or making something; "writing
       materials"; "useful teaching materials"
    5: a person judged suitable for admission or employment; "he was
       university material"; "she was vice-presidential material"

Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0:

384 Moby Thesaurus words for "material":
   Adamic, Circean, Formica, Masonite, Philistine, a propos, ab ovo,
   absolute, abundance, accumulation, actual, ad rem, adducible,
   admissible, air, amassment, animal, animalistic, apparatus,
   appertaining, applicable, applying, apposite, appreciable,
   appropriate, apropos, asphalt, atom, atomic particles, atoms,
   attestative, attestive, authentic, backlog, ballpoint pen, basal,
   based on, basic, beastlike, beastly, bedrock, being, belonging,
   bestial, bibliography, big, big-league, big-name, big-time, bigwig,
   bigwigged, blackboard, blacktop, bodily, body of knowledge,
   body of learning, brick, brutal, brute, brute matter, brutish,
   budget, building block, canvas, cardinal, carnal, carnal-minded,
   carpeting, central, certain, chalk, chemical element,
   circumstantial, clapboard, cloth, coarse, cobblestone, collection,
   commissariat, commissary, component, components, conclusive,
   concrete, consequential, considerable, constituent, constituents,
   constitutive, convincing, core, cork tile, cornucopia, corporal,
   corporeal, crayon, cumulation, cumulative, cyclopedia, damning,
   data, decisive, determinative, distillate, distillation,
   documentary, documentation, documented, documents, double-barreled,
   drapery, dump, earth, earthly, earthshaking, earthy, element,
   elemental, elementary, elementary particle, elementary unit,
   elements, elixir, encyclopedia, entity, equipment, eraser, essence,
   essential, etoffe, evidential, evidentiary, ex parte, eye-witness,
   fabric, facts, factual, fallen, felt, fiber glass, figures, final,
   fire, firsthand, flag, flagging, flagstone, fleshly, flooring,
   focal, founded on, fundamental, fundamental particle, gear,
   germane, gist, goods, grand, great, gross, grounded on, gut,
   habiliments, heap, hearsay, heart, heavyweight, high-powered,
   hoard, hyle, hylic, hypostasis, implicit, important, in point,
   incontrovertible, indicative, indispensable, indisputable,
   individual, information, ingredient, ink, inkhorn, inkstand,
   inkwell, inventory, invisible ink, involving, irrefutable,
   irresistible, kernel, lace, lapsed, larder, lay, lead pencil,
   life-and-death, life-or-death, linoleum, literature, lore, macadam,
   machinery, major, marrow, mass, material world, materialistic,
   materiality, materials, materiate, materiel, matter, meaningful,
   means, meat, medium, molecule, momentous, monad, mundane,
   munitions, name, napery, natural world, nature, nib, nonspiritual,
   notes, nub, nuncupative, object, objective, of the essence,
   of vital importance, orgiastic, original, outfit, overwhelming,
   palpable, pantile, paper, papers, paraphernalia, parquet, pavement,
   pavestone, paving, pen, perceptible, pertaining, pertinent,
   phenomenal, physical, physical world, pile, pith, plasterboard,
   plenitude, plenty, plenum, plume, plywood, ponderable,
   postlapsarian, presumptive, primal, primary, primitive, probative,
   provisionment, provisions, publications, quill, quintessence,
   radical, rag, rations, real, reed, relevant, reliable, repertoire,
   repertory, research, resources, rick, roofage, roofing,
   roofing paper, sap, secular, self-important, sensible, sensual,
   serious, shake, sheathing board, sheeting, shingle, siding,
   significant, silk, slate, solid, somatic, soul, spirit, spun glass,
   stack, statistics, stencil, stock, stock-in-trade, stockpile,
   stone, store, store of knowledge, stores, stuff, style, stylograph,
   stylus, substance, substantial, substantive, substratum,
   suggestive, sum and substance, superior, supplies, supply on hand,
   sure, swinish, sympathetic ink, symptomatic, system of knowledge,
   table, tablet, tackle, tackling, tangible, tar paper, telling,
   temporal, terrestrial, textile, textile fabric, texture, thatch,
   the four elements, tile, tilestone, tiling, tissu, tissue,
   to the point, to the purpose, treasure, treasury,
   treasury of information, true, underlying, unit of being,
   unspiritual, valid, veneer, vital, wainscoting, wallboard, walling,
   wallpaper, water, weatherboard, weave, web, weft, weighty, wood,
   woof, wool, world-shaking, worldly



Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856):

MATERIALS. Everything of which anything is made.
     2. When materials are furnished to a workman he is bound to use them
according to his contract, as a tailor is bound to employ the cloth I
furnish him with, to make me a coat that shall fit me, for if he so make it
that I cannot wear it, it is not a proper employment of the materials. But
if the undertaker use ordinary skill and care, he will not be responsible,
although the materials may be injured; as, if a gem be delivered to a
jeweler, and it is broken without any unskillfulness, negligence or rashness
of the artisan, he will not be liable. Poth. Louage, n. 428.
     3. The workman is to use ordinary diligence in the care of the
materials entrusted with him, or to exercise that caution which a prudent
man takes of his own affairs, and he is also bound to preserve them from any
unexpected danger to which they may be exposed. 1 Gow. R. 30; 1 Camp. 138.
     4. When there is no special contract between the parties, and the
materials perish while in the possession of the workman or undertaker,
without his default, either by inevitable casualty, by internal defect, by
superior force, by robbery or by any peril not guarded against by ordinary
diligence, he is not responsible. This is the case only when the material
belongs to the employer and the workman only undertakes to put his work upon
it. But a distinction must be observed in the case when the employer has
engaged a workman to make him an article out of his own materials, for in
that case the employer has no property in it, until the work be completed,
and the article be delivered to him; if, in the mean time, the thing
perishes, it is the loss of the workman, who is wholly its owner, according
to the maxim res perit domino. In the former case the employer is the owner;
in the latter the workman; in the first case it is a bailment, in the second
a sale of the thing in futuro. Domat. B. 1, t. 4, Sec. 7, n. 3; Id. B. 1, t.
4, Sec. 8, n. 10.
     5. Another distinction must be made in the case when the thing given by
the employer was to become the property of the workman, and an article was
to be made out of similar materials, and before its completion it perished.
In this case the title to the thing having passed to the workman, the loss
must be his. 1 Blackf. 353; 7 Cowen, 752, 756, note; 21 Wend. 85; 3 Mason,
478; Dig. 19, 2, 31; 1 Bouv. Inst. 1006-7.
     6. In some of the states by their laws persons who furnish materials
for the construction of a building, have a lien against such building for
the payment of the value of such materials. See Lien of Mechanics.



The Devil's Dictionary (1881-1906):

MATERIAL, adj.  Having an actual existence, as distinguished from an
imaginary one.  Important.

    Material things I know, or fell, or see;
    All else is immaterial to me.
                                                      Jamrach Holobom