资料来源 : Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)

   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.             --Mi
                                                  --lton.

   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}. --Mansel.

   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.

            Waller, with Sir William Balfour, exceeded in horse,
            but were, upon the whole matter, equal in foot.
                                                  --Clarendon.

Fact \Fact\, n. [L. factum, fr. facere to make or do. Cf.
   {Feat}, {Affair}, {Benefit}, {Defect}, {Fashion}, and {-fy}.]
   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: TheTerm fact has in jurisprudence peculiar uses in
         contrast with low; as, attorney at low, and attorney in
         fact; issue in low, and issue in fact. There is also a
         grand distinction between low and fact with reference
         to the province of the judge and that of the jury, the
         latter generally determining the fact, the former the
         low. --Burrill Bouvier.

   {Accessary before}, or {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.

资料来源 : WordNet®

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