meet your match

meet (one's) match

To encounter one's equal or superior in ability, skill, etc., especially in a competitive setting. Stevenson used to be the dominant player on the tour, but it looks like she has finally met her match in the young newcomer. A lot of kids who are used to being the smartest student in school are a little shell-shocked when they meet their match in college.
See also: match, meet
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

meet your match

COMMON If you meet your match, you find that you are competing or fighting with someone who is as good as you or is better than you. The United manager, Alex Ferguson, admitted that his team had met their match in Chelsea. The boxer's bruised and bloodied face showed he had met his match in Lewis.
See also: match, meet
Collins COBUILD Idioms Dictionary, 3rd ed.

meet your match

encounter your equal in strength or ability.
See also: match, meet
Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary

find/meet your ˈmatch (in somebody)

meet somebody who is as good at doing something as you are, and perhaps better: He thought he could beat anyone, but he’s finally found his match. As a saleswoman, she’s met her match in Lorna.
See also: find, match, meet
Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary

meet one's match, to

To encounter a person who is one’s equal in ability. This term began life as to find one’s match, a locution that dates back to the fourteenth century or earlier. “He fond his mecche,” wrote Robert Manning of Brunnea (The Story of England, ca. 1330). By the late sixteenth century the alliterative meet had been substituted and has survived to the present day.
See also: meet
The Dictionary of Clichés by Christine Ammer
See also:
  • find (one's) match
  • find/meet your match
  • meet (one's) match
  • meet match
  • meet one's match
  • prime
  • cut (one) down in (one's) prime
  • cut (one) off in (one's) prime
  • cut someone off in their prime
  • a one-trick pony
References in periodicals archive
That's why the ASPCA has developed a program called, "Meet Your Match." To participate, adopters at participating shelters fill out a survey to learn their personality type, and are assigned a corresponding color.
Four years later, the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals' (ASPCA) Meet Your Match Canine-ality Adoption Program is being utilized by at least 65 nonprofit and for-profit animal shelters and ASPCAs across the country (those that reported back).Adoption rates of adult dogs--a notoriously difficult group to adopt out--are collectively up.
According to Weiss, some of the language in the program has been changed in order for it to work across shelters, "but it has really remained the same." The ASPCA now holds regional Meet Your Match training sessions throughout the year, and offers a how-to guide on its Web site (www.aspca.org), both of which are free to shelters, courtesy of program sponsor Iams Company.
According to Weiss, the ASPCA Meet Your Match Puppy-ality program will soon be available to shelters nationwide, followed by an unprecedented Feline-ality program.