| 释义 |
▪ I. man, n.1|mæn|
Forms: nom. (acc.) sing. 1–4 mann, (1 monn, manna), 1–5, 8–9 dial. mon, 4–6 manne, Sc. mane, (5 moon), 1– man. nom. (acc.) pl. 1–4 menn, 2 mæn(n, 3 mannes, mannen, 4–5 Sc. mene, (5 menne, 6 men), 1– men. Genitive sing. α. 1–5 monnes, 1–6 mannes, 4 monnis, -ys, mannus, manes, mones, 4–6 manis, mannys, 4–7 mannis, mans, 6– man's. β. uninflected (north.) 4–5 man, 5 mane. gen. pl. α. 1–2 manna, monna, 2 monnan, 2–3 manne(n, monne(n. β. 3–6 mennes, 4 menes, -ys, 4–6 mennis, -ys, 6 menis, 4–8 mens, 8–9 men's. γ. 2 mennen, 4 mennene, menne. δ. uninflected (north.) 4 men. dat. sing. 1–3 men, (1 menne), 3–4 manne, monne. dat. pl. α. 1–2 mannum, monnum, 2 mannan, monnan, 2–3 manne(n, monne(n. β. 3 mennen, 3–4 menne.
[Com. Teut.: OE. man(n, mǫn(n (pl. and dat. sing. męn(n), also rarely manna wk. masc., corresponds to OFris. man, mon, OS. man (inflected mann-, pl. man), Du. man (pl. in MDu. manne, man, in mod.Du. mannen, rarely mans), OHG. man sing. and pl. (MHG. mann sing. and pl., mod.G. mann, pl. männer), ON. mað-r, rarely mann-r, accus. mann, genitive manns, pl. menn, rarely meðr, mæðr (Sw. man, pl. män, Da. mand, pl. mænd), Goth. manna, accus. mannans, genit. mans, pl. mans, mannans. The forms in the various Teut. langs. belong to two declensional stems, the OTeut. forms of which would be *mann- and *mannon-. (The ON. man str. neut., slave, may possibly be related, but the connexion is doubtful). The OE. plural męnn is the regular descendant of OTeut. *manniz, and the dative męnn of OTeut. *manni, from the cons.-stem *mann-.
It was formerly regarded as certain (on the ground of the supposed correspondence with Skr. manu man) that the nn of *mann- was derived from an original nw. The now prevailing view is that the second n represents the zero-grade of the suffix of a stem of which the Gothic form would be *manan-. This hypothesis accounts for the otherwise obscure form mana- which the word assumes in Gothic compounds; if it be correct, the Teut. word and the Skr. manu cannot have any nearer relation than that of independent derivatives of a common root. They have been usually referred to the Indogermanic *men-, *mon-, to think (see mind n.), so that the primary meaning of the n. would refer to intelligence as the distinctive characteristic of human beings as contrasted with brutes. Many scholars, however, regard this as intrinsically unlikely to have been the original sense, though no plausible alternative explanation has been suggested.
In all the Teut. langs. the word had the twofold sense of ‘human being’ and ‘adult male human being’, though exc. in Eng. it has been mainly superseded in the former sense by a derivative (Ger., Du. mensch, Sw. menniska, Da. menneske: cf. mannish n.).]
I.
1. A human being (irrespective of sex or age); = L. homo. In OE. the prevailing sense. †a. In many OE. instances, and in a few of later date, used explicitly as a designation equally applicable to either sex. Obs.
In OE. the words distinctive of sex were wer and wíf, wǽpman and wífman.
971Blickl. Hom. 9 Heofonrices duru..belocen standeþ þurh þa ærestan men. c1000ælfric Gram. ix. (Z.) 36 Hic et haec homo..æᵹðer is man ᵹe wer ᵹe wif. c1000― Saints' Lives viii. 185 [St. Agatha says:] Eala ðu min drihten þe me to menn ᵹesceope. c1000Sax. Leechd. II. 332 ᵹif wife to swiþe offlowe sio monað ᵹecynd, ᵹenim niwe horses tord [etc.]..þ̶ se mon swæte swiþe. c1121O.E. Chron. an. 639 (Laud MS.), Þæs dohter wæs ᵹehaten Ercongota halifemne & wundorlic man. c1325Metr. Hom. 155 And yef thaie [the husband and wife] riht riche men ware. Ibid. 156 Wit tua men [Simeon and Anna], that him comly grette. 1597J. King On Jonas (1618) 480 The Lord had but one paire of men in Paradise. 1752Hume Pol. Disc. x. 159 There is in all men, both male and female, a desire and power of generation more active than is ever universally exerted. 1793Burke Lett., to Comte de Mercy (1844) IV. 144 Such a deplorable havoc is made in the minds of men (both sexes) in France,..that [etc.].
b. In the surviving use, the sense ‘person’ occurs only in general or indefinite applications (e.g. with adjs. like every, any, no, and often in the plural, esp. with all, any, some, many, few, etc.); in modern apprehension man as thus used primarily denotes the male sex, though by implication referring also to women.
The gradual development of the use of the unambiguous synonyms body, person, one, and (for the plural) folk(s, people, has greatly narrowed the currency of man in this sense; it is now literary and proverbial rather than colloquial.
c825Vesp. Hymns i. 8 in O.E. Texts 401 Ic uteode ongeᵹn fremðes cynnes men [L. exivi obviam alienigenae]. c950Lindisf. Gosp. Matt. xii. 19 Ne ᵹeheres æniᵹ mon [c 1000 Ags. Gosp. nan man] in worðum stefn his. Ibid. xvi. 13 Huelcne cueðas menn sie sunu monnes? c1000ælfric Saints' Lives x. 191 Hwæt eom ic manna þæt ic mihte god forbeodan? c1175Lamb. Hom. 3 Ȝif oniman seid eawiht. Ibid. 39 We forȝeueð þan monne þe us to agulteð. Ibid. 127 He wes imacad to monne ilicnesse. c1200Trin. Coll. Hom. 139 He turnde ut of þe burh into wilderne and fro mennes wunienge to wilde deores. c1290S. Eng. Leg. I. 291/112 Ich habbe i-sunegut manne mest. a1300Cursor M. 108 Scho prais ai for sinful menn. 1377Langl. P. Pl. B. Prol. 197 For many mannus malt we mys wolde destruye. 1390Gower Conf. I. 2 That of the lasse or of the more Som man mai lyke of that I wryte. 1393Langl. P. Pl. C. xiv. 46 Ac yf þe marchaunt make hus way ouere menne corne. c1450Merlin 262 A companye of yonge Gentilmen that beth high mennes sones. c1460Fortescue Abs. & Lim. Mon. vii. (1885) 125 Off somme man is highnes shall haue more thanke ffor money then ffor lande. c1475Rauf Coilȝear 46 Men callis me Rauf Coilȝear. 1577B. Googe Heresbach's Husb. i. (1586) 15 We must remember that seruantes be men. 1592Shakes. Rom. & Jul. iii. i. 59. 1632 Sanderson Serm. 14 Measuring other mens actions and consciences. 1634Bp. Hall Contempl., N.T. iv. iii, I regard not the body; the soul is the man. 1764Reid Inquiry vi. §7 Wks. I. 142/2 No man can be sure..that it has the same appearance to him as it has to another man. 1855Tennyson Brook 33 For men may come and men may go, But I go on for ever.
c. Used indefinitely without article.
Chiefly in negative contexts, also in proverbial collocations, as in the traditional inn sign ‘Entertainment for man and beast’.
1382Wyclif John vii. 46 Neuere man spak so, as this spekith. [Similarly in all later versions.] c1450Mirour Saluacioun 1363 Out of a hille a stone with out mans hande was kytte. 1523Cromwell Sp. in Merriman Life & Lett. (1902) I. 31 Yf yt had bene possible by mannys industry. 1530Palsgr. 710/1 He deserveth it as lytell as ever dyd man. 1596Dalrymple tr. Leslie's Hist. Scot. I. 41 Be ony slauchtir, or ony scheding of manis blude. 1600J. Pory tr. Leo's Africa 41 They haue shambles of mans-flesh as wee haue of beeues and muttons. 1754Richardson Grandison II. iv. 48, I never fear'd man, since I could write man. 1847Tennyson Princess iii. 118, I was courteous, every phrase well-oil'd, As man's could be.
Prov. The wind that blows from the east Is neither good for man nor beast.
d. Used predicatively without article in phr. to be, become, be made man: to have or assume human nature.
c1357Lay Folks' Catech. (T.) 26 Iesu crist..toke flesh and blode, and become man. 1377Langl. P. Pl. B. v. 493 Þi sone..bicam man of a mayde. 1413Pilgr. Sowle ii. xlii. (1859) 48 Thou man bycome thy selfe, for mannes nede. 1549Bk. Com. Prayer, Athan. Creed. 1574Whitgift Serm. bef. Eliz. (1714) 11 Whether the Pope be God or man or a meane betwixt both? 1605Shakes. Lear iii. ii. 45 Since I was man,..Such groanes of roaring Winde, and Raine, I neuer Remember to haue heard. 1649J. Ellistone tr. Behmen's Epist. ii. §57. 30 It was for the soules sake that God became man. 1898A. G. Mortimer Cath. Faith & Practice ii. vii. 186 The theologians..have taught that our Lord as Man had three kinds of knowledge.
2. a. In abstract or generic sense, without article: The human creature regarded abstractly, and personified as an individual; human beings collectively; the human race or species; mankind. In Zoology: The human creature or race viewed as a genus (Homo: in the present classification consisting of only one species, H. sapiens) of animals.
In OE. a few examples occur with the definite article. The Eng. use of the word as a quasi-proper name, without article, differs from the practice of most of the modern European langs. (cf. F. l'homme, G. der mensch), and from the usage of Eng. itself with regard to other generic names of animals: cf. ‘the anatomical structure of man and that of the lion’.
c825Vesp. Psalter viii. 5 Hwet is mon [Thorpe se mann] ðæt ᵹemyndiᵹ ðu sie his? c1000Ags. Gosp. Mark ii. 27 Reste-dæᵹ wæs ᵹeworht for þa men, næs se man for ðam reste-dæᵹe. c1175Lamb. Hom. 59 Hit wes for mon alle þinge he makede. c1250Gen. & Ex. 753 For mannes sinne ðus it is went. a1300Cursor M. 552 Man es clepid þe lesse werld. c1380Wyclif Sel. Wks. III. 376 Þo principal poynt and ende of Cristis dyinge..was to save monnis soule. c1440York Myst. xxi. 84 Kynde of man is freele. c1450tr. De Imitatione i. xix, For man purposiþ & god disposiþ. 1577T. Vautrollier Luther on Ep. Gal. 2 Mans weakenes and miserie is so great, that [etc.]. 1619Purchas Microcosm. viii. 90 This Centre is enuironed with a Circle, called Iris, of many colours in Man onely. 1732Pope Ess. Man ii. 2 The proper study of Mankind is Man. 1774Goldsm. Nat. Hist. (1776) II. 132 Man is said to live without food for seven days. 1797Encycl. Brit. (ed. 3) X. 507/2 In the Systema Naturæ, Man (Homo) is ranked as a distinct genus of the Primates. 1829Carlyle Misc. (1857) I. 269 Man is not only a working but a talking animal. 1845R. Chambers Vestiges (ed. 4) 234 The brain of Man. 1859Lowell Villa Franca 14 Men are weak, but Man is strong.
b. With a qualifying word, applied to prehistoric types of man, as Cro-Magnon Man, Neanderthal Man, Peking Man, etc. (see under the qualifying words).
3. a. In Biblical and Theol. use, with inner, inward, outer, † utter, outward, used to denote the spiritual and material parts (respectively) of a human person; also with old, new, to denote the spiritual condition of those who are unregenerate and those who are regenerate. b. Hence inner man, outer man, lower man are jocularly used to denote parts of the physical frame of a person.
c1000, etc. [see inner a. 3]. 1382Wyclif 1 Pet. iii. 4 The hid man of herte [1535 Coverdale y⊇ inwarde-man of y⊇ hert]. 1382, etc. [see old man 2]. 1587Golding De Mornay xiv. 214 In the inward man there are (as ye would say) three men, the liuing, the sensitiue, and the reasonable. 1840Dickens Barn. Rudge xli, Gabriel's lower man was clothed in military gear. 1843Le Fevre Life Trav. Phys. I. i. v. 83 The outer was forgotten in the inner man.
II.
4. An adult male person. a. With special reference to sex.
c1000ælfric Saints' Lives ii. 78 He..sæde hyre ᵹewislice hwæt heo man ne wæs. c1200Ormin 2389 Ȝho wass hanndfesst an god mann Þatt Josæp wass ȝehatenn. a1225Ancr. R. 286 Ert tu so wroð wið mon oðer wið wummon þet [etc.]? c1375Sc. Leg. Saints x. (Mathou) 347 Mariage..to cople man & vemene. 1377Langl. P. Pl. B. xiv. 264 As a mayde for mannes loue her moder forsaketh. 1387Trevisa Higden (Rolls) VI. 421 O mayde mennene drede [Caxton mennes, L. O terror virgo virorum]. 1508Dunbar Tua Mariit Wemen 42 Sen ȝe war menis wyffis. 1603Philotus lxxxi, Ȝour douchter..Ane mannis claithis hes on hir tane. 1605Shakes. Lear ii. iv. 281 Let not womens weapons, water drops, Staine my mans cheekes. 1632Lithgow Trav. iii. 116 They speake..here the Hebrew tongue, man, woman and child. 1671Lady M. Bertie in 12th Rep. Hist. MSS. Comm. App. v. 23 The Dutchesse..was very fine in..a short mans coat very richly laced. 1728–9Mrs. Delany in Life & Corr. 191 Every man took the woman he liked best to dance country-dances. 1880G. Meredith Tragic Com. (1881) 5 Men (the jury of householders empanelled to deliver verdicts upon the ways of women).
¶ contextually = ‘man-child’. Obs.
1578T. N. tr. Conq. W. India 155 Their Priests sacrificed ten children of three yeares of age,..fiue of these children were menne, and the other fiue wemen.
b. generically (without article: cf. 2). The male human being. Also predicatively (cf. 1 d).
1591Shakes. Two Gent. v. iv. 110 Were man But Constant, he were perfect. 1601― All's Well i. i. 123 Man is enemie to virginitie. 1832Coleridge in Life Sir W. Hamilton (1882) I. 543 Man's heart must be in his head. Woman's head must be in her heart. 1847Tennyson Princess vii. 259 Woman is not undevelopt man, But diverse. 1859― Vivien 630 Man! is he man at all, who knows and winks? 1897M. Kingsley W. Africa 318 As for the men, well of course they would marry any lady of any tribe, if she had a pretty face,..that's just man's way.
c. With special reference to adult age. Sometimes: A male who has attained his majority. man and boy (advb. phr.): from boyhood upwards. † to write man: to be entitled by years to call oneself a man. † (to grow up, etc.) to man: to man's estate, to adult age. Colloq. phr. to separate (or sort out) the men from the boys: to distinguish which persons in a group are mature, manly, expert, etc.
a1200Moral Ode 117 Al þet ech Mon haueð idon soððen he com to monne. c1200Ormin 8053 Whil þatt I wass litell child Icc held o childess þæwess, & son summ icc wass wexenn mann, Þa flæh I childess cosstess. 1390Gower Conf. I. 344 He began to clepe and calle, As he which come was to manne. 1500–20Dunbar Poems xix. 14 Thus will thay say, baith man and lad. 1530Palsgr. 863/2 From mans state, des aige parfaict. 1545R. Ascham Toxoph. (Arb.) 100 In shoting both man and boye is in one opinion, that [etc.]. 1600J. Lane Tom Tel-troth (Shaks. Soc.) 43 When chast Adonis came to mans estate. 1601Shakes. All's Well ii. iii. 208, I must tell thee sirrah, I write Man: to which title age cannot bring thee. 1602― Ham. v. i. 177 (1604 Qo.), I haue been Sexten heere man and boy thirty yeeres. 1622Mabbe tr. Aleman's Guzman d'Alf. i. 146 Albeit I did write man, yet I was but a young Lad to speake of. 1654Cromwell in Whitelocke's Mem. (1853) IV. 170 They thought it more noble to die by the hand of a man than of a stripling. 1712Addison Spect. No. 453 ‘When all thy Mercies’ vi, Thine Arm unseen convey'd me safe And led me up to Man. 1729T. Cooke Tales, Proposals, etc. 18 Their Friendship early in their Youth began, Encreasing dayly as they rose to Man. 1754[see 1 c]. 1798Southey Eng. Eclogues i. Poet. Wks. 1838 III. 3 I've lived here, man and boy, In this same parish, well nigh the full age Of man. 1802Wordsw. ‘My heart leaps up’, The Child is father of the Man. 1837Dickens Pickw. xxiv, An elderly gentleman in top-boots, who had been..a peace officer, man and boy, for half a century. 1962J. Braine Life at Top ii. 39 Every day one was tested, the men were separated from the boys. 1967Listener 16 Feb. 239/1 It is always quite a pleasure to see some really professional jazz players and hear their sounds and one of the best examples is Jazz Goes to College..which certainly sorts out the men from the boys. 1968House & Garden May 36/4 The Dry Martini..is a drink that will quickly separate the men from the boys and the girls from their principles. 1972Listener 17 Aug. 201/3 The ability to memorise a whole [chess] game within a few minutes is..what separates the men from the boys.
d. without express contrast. (The man is occasionally used for ‘he’, with a slight implication of depreciation, sympathy, or other feeling; similarly the good man, the poor man, etc. So also colloq. in expressions like ‘the late man’, ‘the present man’, etc., referring to the former or present holder of an office or position.)
c1175Lamb. Hom. 31 Bluðeliche þe mon wile gan to scrifte and segge þe preoste þet he haueð ireaueð and istolen. c1200Vices & Virtues 45 Priestes and munekes and þese hadede mannen. c1290Beket 302 in S. Eng. Leg. I. 115 Þe guode Man seint thomas. a1300Cursor M. 4828 (Cott.) We ar all a man [v. rr. an monnes, a manes, oon monnes] barn-teme. c1375Sc. Leg. Saints i. (Petrus) 114 To theophil sanct paule askyt þane, quhy þat he þat wrechit mane held swa in presone. a1400Pistill of Susan 227 He was borlich and bigge,..More miȝti mon þen we his Maistris to Make. 1449Rolls of Parlt. V. 147/2 A man horsed, and armed in bryganders. a1674Clarendon Hist. Reb. xv. §38 And there is no question the man [sc. Cromwell] was in great agony, and in his own mind he did heartily desire to be king. 1735Bolingbroke On Parties Ded. 27 You may pass..for a Man of extreme good Parts, and for a Minister of much Experience. 1760–72H. Brooke Fool of Qual. (1809) I. 24 The man in gibbets who hung by the road. 1837O. A. Brownson in Ht. Martineau Soc. Amer. III. 347 With the discerning it has already become more honourable to call one simply a man than a gentleman. 1851Thackeray Eng. Hum. vi. (1876) 357 [He] was hand and glove with some of the best men in town. 1871Disraeli Viv. Grey ii. xvi, If the forty country gentlemen who follow..our friend Sir Berdmore..were to declare their opposition to any particular tax, the present men would be beaten. [Not in ed. 1, 1826.] 1879Meredith Egoist xiii. (1889) 116 Sir Willoughby was flattered and satisfied... A steady look of hers had of late perplexed the man, and he was comforted by [etc.]. Mod. The late earl was not much liked; the new man seems to be more popular.
e. Used in the vocative by way of introducing a remark, or parenthetically, now usually implying contempt or impatience; dialectally (in stressless forms mun, min) it is in common use as a meaningless expletive, being used in addressing both males and females. Hence in more general use as a form of address to both men and women, as a meaningless expletive, or as an interjection expressing surprise, delight, deep emotion, etc.; esp.: (a) in S. Afr.; (b) among Blacks; (c) among jazz musicians and enthusiasts. Also, man alive! (see alive 2 b).
a1400Pistill of Susan 315 Mon, bi þe muche god,..Vndur a Cyne..my seluen I hir se. 1530Palsgr. 661/2 Plucke up thy herte, man, for Goddes sake. 1589Hay any Work 1 Heere be non but frends man. 1591Shakes. Two Gent. ii. iii. 44 Tut, man. 1705Vanbrugh Country-ho. ii, Char. [to Mariane] You see I can keep a secret—I am no girl, mun. 1772Gentl. Mag. XLII. 191 'Twas quite to'ther thing, mun twas all complaisance. 1773Goldsm. Stoops to Conq. v. Wks. (Globe) 672/2 Tony. Why, that's it, mon. 1826Disraeli Viv. Grey iv. iv, Hah! what—what's all this! Here, read it, read it, man. 1874A. Bathgate Colonial Experiences ix. 110 Man! they all looked as if they had been shot, and would hardly believe me. 1890Besant Demoniac vi. 69 Why, man, with such a vice as yours, you would love your life too well. 1896H. A. Bryden Tales S. Afr. i. 29 ‘Man!’ he said, ‘if I had not not been shamed into following you, I would never have come across that place.’ 1901M. Franklin My Brilliant Career (1966) ii. 7 Here,..with splendid roads, mail thrice weekly, and a railway platform only eight miles away, why, man, my fortune is made! 1933Metronome Aug. 23 Trum's greeting was in the Negro dialect he usually employed: ‘Man! How is you?’ 1952M. Tripp Faith is Windsock i. 21 The Jamaican stood up and stretched himself. ‘Glad you woke me, man,’ he said. 1958Observer 14 Dec. 7/7 The coloured boy..doesn't like the English. ‘I'm nineteen, man, and when I go into a public house, they all look at me.’ 1958Star (Johannesburg) 17 Dec. 17/1 His second play captures a South African atmosphere in flashes—his policeman begins almost every sentence with ‘Man!’ and ends it with ‘Hey!’ 1960Monthly Rev. May 27 Negroes habitually call each other ‘man’ in reaction to a lifetime of being addressed by white folk as ‘boy’. 1961‘B. Wells’ Day Earth caught Fire ix. 145 ‘Cut that out, man,’ the beatnik said. 1966Evening Standard 1 Feb. 8/1 ‘I like to speak the truth, man,’ he said addressing me [sc. a woman] with the universal Jamaican appellation of ‘man’. 1969C. F. Burke (title) God is beautiful, man. 1971Black Scholar Jan. 43/2 Man, this would make these fighters so mad. 1971Black World June 54/2 Hey, only the squares, man, only the squares have it to keep. 1972New Nation (Singapore) 25 Nov. 8/5 Close-cropped Charlie continued: ‘Oh, you live in Bukit Timah... I used to visit my uncle there, man.’ 1973Caribbean Contact Feb. 4/3 ‘No, man,’ the St. Lucian replies.
f. little man: a jocular expression for a young male child. Similarly young man (see young).
c1380Wyclif Serm. Sel. Wks. I. 399 Jesus toke a litil child...Crist toke þis litil man, and putte him in myddil of apostlis. 1468Paston Lett. II. 319, I beseche yow that ye wolbe good mastras to my lytyll man, and to se that he go to scole. 1598Shakes. Merry W. iv. i. 8 Ile but bring my yong-man here to Schoole. 1772Johnson Let. to Langton 14 Mar. in Boswell, I congratulate you and Lady Rothes on your little man, and hope you will all be many years happy together. 1854Thackeray Newcomes lxxx, Clive's black figure striding over the snow..the little man..perched on his father's shoulder.
g. a man: used quasi-pronominally = ‘one’ (ME. man, men, me indef. prons.) or ‘any one’, but implying a reference to the male sex only. So † a man's self, a man's own: in 16–17th c. often = the modern ‘oneself’, ‘one's own’.
c1478Caxton's Bk. Curtesye 283 Who that vsith a mannes tale to breke Letteth vncurteysly alle the audyence. c1485Digby Myst. i. 465 Her, virgynes, as many as a man wyll, shall holde tapers in ther handes. 1597Bacon Ess., Honour & Reput. (Arb.) 70 Enuie..is best extinguished by declaring a mans selfe in his ends, rather to seeke merite then fame. 1610Shakes. Temp. ii. ii. 41 Misery acquaints a man with strange bed-fellowes. 1625Bacon Ess., Praise (Arb.) 357 To Praise a Mans selfe, cannot be Decent..: But to Praise a Mans Office or Profession, he may doe it with Good Grace. 1637Heylin Answ. Burton 53 A man would think that you had said enough against your soueraigne. 1705Addison Italy 14 A Man would expect..to find some considerable Antiquities. 1842Tennyson You ask me, why, tho' ill at ease 8 The land, where..A man may speak the thing he will.
h. In the following phr. with the sense ‘individual (male) person’: man by man, between man and man, man for man, man to man, per man, as one man (app. orig. a Hebraism = unanimously, with one accord, † altogether), to a man (= without exception: see to prep.). Also man to man as adj. or adv. phr. (freq. hyphenated), (a) straight-forward(ly), frank(ly); hence (nonce-wds.) man-to-man-ness, man-to-mannish a.
1382Wyclif 1 Esdr. ii 64 Al the multitude as o man [Vulg. quasi unus, 1535 Coverdale as one man, later versions together, Heb. {hebdaleth}{hebcheth}א{hebkaph}] two and fourti thousend thre hundrid and sixti. Ibid. iii. 2 Thanne is gedered the puple as oon [1388 as o man, Vulg. quasi vir unus, 1535 Coverdale and 1611as one man, Heb. {hebdaleth}{hebcheth}א שׁיא{hebkaph}] in to Jerusalem. 1517R. Torkington Pilgr. (1884) 23 Ther Screvener..wrytyng ower namys man by man. 1535Coverdale Judg. xx. 8 So all the people gat them vp as one man. 1577F. de L'isle's Leg. C iij, The lord of Rochefort..was on a time chalenged man to man..by Francis Duke of Guise. 1611Bible Josh. vii. 14 The housholdes which the Lord shall take, shal come man by man. 1615Bedwell Arab. Trudg., Talby, These..are authorized to draw writings betweene man and man. 1677Hubbard Narrative i. (1865) 161 [He] said they would fight it out to the last Man. 1708Lond. Gaz. No. 4482/2 That the Prisoners taken on either side be exchanged Man for Man. 1712Steele Spect. No. 444 ⁋1 The ordinary Quack-Doctors..are to a Man Impostors. 1809Malkin Gil Blas x. x. ⁋39 The balance of justice, between man and man. 1827Southey Hist. Penins. War II. 48 With no farther ammunition than ten rounds per man more. 1846Tennyson Golden Year 35 And light shall spread, and man be liker man. 1892R. Kipling Barrack-room Ballads 11 Man for man the Fuzzy knocked us 'oller. 1901E. A. Ross Social Control 29 So long as the struggle is man to man..a conscience is a handicap. 1902E. Nesbit Five Children & It ix. 239 The best ‘man to man’ tone at his command. 1908Daily Chron. 11 Aug. 4/5 Another form of suasion is the ‘man-to-man’ talk. 1940N. Marsh Surfeit of Lampreys (1941) x. 141 Mike gave Alleyn a man-to-mannish look. 1943J. B. Priestley Daylight on Saturday xxi. 167 'e remembered..an' stood me a pint. Now that's what I call man-to-man style. 1948Dublin Rev. ii. 11 The [Chinese] character for ‘jen’ is made up of ‘man’ and ‘two’... I translate it ‘man-to-man-ness’. 1952S. Kauffmann Philanderer (1953) ix. 146 Perry spread his palms wide. ‘Why don't you ask her?’ Confidentially, man-to-man. ‘I'd like to do it just to show her our gratitude for that week-end.’ 1955Times 5 Aug. 7/3 Talks man to man can serve the great international peace settlement. 1958E. Hyams Taking it Easy 49 Bachelor had a brisk, man-to-man style [of writing] which was immensely popular. 1973‘M. Innes’ Appleby's Answer xv. 128 A confidential and man-to-man note will be in order. 1974A. Price Other Paths 1. iii. 30 We must talk man-to-man now—if you would leave us for a moment, Mrs. Mitchell.
(b) man-to-man (Sport, orig. U.S.), used chiefly attrib. to denote a type of defensive strategy in which each player is responsible for marking one member of the opposing team. Also man-for- (U.S. -on-) man. Contr. with zone n. 2 d.
1923J. W. Wilce Football ix. 163 Man-for-man defense in football is very much the same as the guarding of a man in basket-ball. 1927G. S. Warner Football Coaches & Players 191 There are three..systems of defense to forward passing. These are zone defense, the man-to-man defense, and a modified form of man-to-man defense. 1937[see zone-defence s.v. zone n. 10 a]. 1957Encycl. Brit. III. 181b/2 There are several variations of the zone defense, and combinations of man-to-man and zone defense. 1963Maclean's Mag. 14 Dec. 21/1 ‘He's always at the outer edge of the rulebook anyway,’ says Eric Nesberenko of the Chicago Black Hawks, who has played frequently against Howe man-on-man. 1970[see zone defence s.v. zone n. 10 a]. 1981J. Lehane Basketball Fund. v. 186 Constant drilling on making the transition from offense to defense is a requirement for effective full-court man-for-man pressure.
i. as a man: (considered) in respect of his personal character, as distinguished e.g. from his achievements, abilities or learning, rank or wealth, etc. Similarly the man: what one is merely ‘as a man’; the person in his human (as distinguished from his professional, etc.) capacity or character.
1674Wycherley Plain-dealer i. i, I weigh the man, not his Title. 1706E. Ward Wooden World Diss. (1708) 45 There's as great a Difference betwixt the Man and the Priest, as betwixt the Duchess upon the Stage, and her behind the Scenes. 1709Pope Ess. Crit. 523 Nor in the Critic let the Man be lost. 1742Young Nt. Th. viii. 242 A Father's Heart Is tender, tho' the Man's is made of Stone. 1771Mackenzie Man Feel. xxxv. (1803) 73, I cannot throw off the man so much, as to rejoice at our conquests in India. 1812Antigallican Monitor 17 May 558/3 The high estimation they entertained of the merits of that illustrious person, both as a Minister and a man. 1856Emerson Eng. Traits x, The incessant repetition of the same hand-work dwarfs the man, robs him of his strength, wit, and versatility, to make a pin-polisher, a buckle-maker, or any other specialty. 1879B. Taylor Stud. Germ. Lit. 174 We feel that the man must have been greater than his works.
j. the (very) man (ellipt. in predicative use): the man intended by some previous allusion; the man most suitable for some office, work, or need; the kind of man qualified or likely to do something. † Also jocularly said of a thing (obs.). the man for me (colloq. man for my money: see money): the man whom I should choose to employ or support; often as an emphatic expression of approval.
1535Coverdale 2 Sam. xii. 7 Thou art euen the man. 1573Tusser Husb. (1878) 28 When Easter comes, who knowes not than, that Veale and Bakon is the man? 1588Shakes. L.L.L. iv. ii. 127 Ouiddius Naso was the man. 1599― Much Ado ii. i. 123 You could neuer doe him so ill well, vnlesse you were the very man. 1678Lady Chaworth in 12th Rep. Hist. MSS. Comm. App. v. 49 The House met to-day and are violent upon chussing a new Speaker and Sir Sawyer is lyke to be the man. 1849Macaulay Hist. Eng. x. II. 549 Lauzun was in every respect the man for the present emergency.
k. With possessive, my, your, etc. man: the person who can fulfil one's requirements, or with whom one has to do. spec. one's representative or envoy in a specified place.
1611Bible 1 Kings xx. 20 And they slew euery one his man [Heb. ‘a man his man’]. 1679Dryden Troil. & Cress. ii. iii, If Hector be to fight with any Greek, He knows his man. 1787‘G. Gambado’ Acad. Horsemen (1809) 34 A horse has various methods of getting rid of his man. 1811Byron Hints fr. Hor. 53 For gallygaskins Slowshears is your man; But coats must claim another artisan. 1821― Juan iv. xlix, His man was floor'd, and helpless at his foot. 1830Chron. in Ann. Reg. (1831) 165/1 He..did not fire for some seconds, until he had fairly covered his man. 1833Marryat P. Simple x, Our sailors had every one seized his man. a1845Hood Agric. Distress vi, ‘Nine pund’ says he, ‘and I'm your man’. 1855Kingsley Westw. Ho! i, And who don't agree, let him choose his weapons, and I'm his man. 1864Lemon Loved at last II. 228 Mr. Rasper entered the room... Cecil knew his man,—he merely bowed to him. 1958G. Greene (title) Our man in Havana. 1961I. Fleming Thunderball xiv. 154 Seems to me your President is taking all this a bit more seriously than his Man in Nassau. 1963L. Deighton Horse under Water vi. 33 ‘Welcome to Gibraltar,’ said Joe MacIntosh, our man in Iberia. Ibid. xxxix. 154 Through the twilight ‘our man in Cardiff’ lifted a finger at the crooked castle of Caerphilly.
l. to be one's own man: (a) to have command or control of oneself; to be in full possession of one's senses, faculties, or powers.
1556in Strype Eccl. Mem. (1721) III. ii. App. lviii. 197 When you were lunatike and not your owne man. 1562Child-Marr. 79 This respondent..fell into such sorowe that he was not his owne man. a1635Naunton Fragm. Reg. (Arb.) 14 The king ever called her his sweetest and dearest Sister, and was scarce his own man, She being absent. 1748Richardson Clarissa (1768) IV. 362 Faith, Jack, thou hadst half undone me with thy nonsense... But I think I am my own man again. 1859Thackeray Virgin. xxxvi, I ate a bit at six o'clock, and drunk a deal of small beer, and I am almost my own man again now. 1902Daily Graphic 27 Oct. 3/1 To many hundreds of thousands..the Royal progress on Saturday will be as a sign..that the King is indeed his own man again.
(b) To be at one's own disposal, to be one's own master.
1608Willet Hexapla Exod. 461 So might the seruant be sold..being not his owne man, but to be disposed of at the will of his master. a1610Healey Cebes (1636) 138 Yet brought he al their fury under and now is become his owne man. 1773Goldsm. Stoops to Conq. v. iii, So Constance Neville may marry whom she pleases, and Tony Lumpkin is his own man again. 1839Lockhart Scott (1869) II. xiv. 263 After breakfast, a couple of hours more were given to his solitary tasks, and by noon he [Scott] was, as he used to say, ‘his own man’. 1843Borrow Bible in Spain xlii. (Pelh. Libr.) 287 Pardon me for not being quite frank towards you..but I dare not; I am not now my own man.
m. Prefixed to a name. the man (so-and so): the man previously known or mentioned as bearing the specified name (cf. F. le nommé in legal use); sometimes with contemptuous emphasis; so, still more emphatically, that man (so-and-so). Also (every, not a) man Jack (written also man-Jack, man jack, man-jack, manjack): see Jack n.1 2 c; and occas. man John, man Jonathan (in speaking of Americans).
1826Scott Woodst. xvi, Know'st thou not..that I have followed the man Cromwell as close as a dog follows his master. 1832F. Trollope Dom. Manners Amer. (ed. 4) II. 65 Every man Jonathan of them sets off again full gallop. 1838[see John 1 b]. 1844Dickens Chimes ii. (1845) 64, I am very much indebted to you for your courtesy in the matter of the man William Fern. 1845Disraeli Sybil III. vi. vi. 214 My missus says that not a man John of them is to be seen. 1849Blackw. Mag. 697 At length the men were all embarked—the sick, the wounded, every man John of them. 1864Lemon Loved at Last III. 190 If that should be the man Kiddy, do not admit him.
n. With qualification denoting the nationality, birthplace, dwelling-place, or creed to which a man belongs or the person (etc.) in whose service he is.
c950–[see Englishman]. c1250Kent. Serm. in O.E. Misc. 26 Herodes..was michel anud and alle his men. c1275Passion Our Lord 286 ibid. 45 Son her-after on oþer þer com gon And seyde siker þu ert myd him a galilewis mon. a1300Cursor M. 19385 Sua wex þe cristen mens tale, þat [etc.]. a1400Pistill of Susan 157 Whon kene men of hir court comen til hir cri. c1450Holland Howlat 542 Reskewand it agane the hethin mennis harmes. 1530Palsgr. 242/2 Man of Turkey, Turc. 1535Coverdale Judg. viii. 15 The men of Sucoth. 1693Humours Town 92 He was an Iniskilling-Man, and had eat half an hundred Irish Men for a Breakfast. 1701De Foe True-born Eng. i. 152 He Canton'd out the Country to his Men. 1798Landor Gebir ii. 42 Ye men of Gades. 1878Tennyson Revenge i, For my ships are out of gear, And half my men are sick.
o. Qualified by university, Oxford, Cambridge, etc., applied to one who is or has been a member of a (particular) university, public school, etc.
1573G. Harvey Lett.-Bk. (Camd.) 54 He is a Pembrook Hal man, ergo a good schollar. 1580Spenser & Harvey (title) Three proper, and wittie, familiar Letters passed between two Vniuersitie men. 1687Aldworth in Magd. Coll. & Jas. II (O.H.S.) 42 Dr. Haddon was a Cambr. man. c1720Prior Epil. to Phædra & Hippol. 3 An Oxford man, extremely read in Greek. 1796in Whibley In Cap & Gown (1889) 88 Ye Johnishe men, that have no other care, Save onelie [etc.]. 1853C. Bede Verdant Green i. iii, The thought that he was going to be an Oxford man. 1866John Bull 24 Mar. 202/1 All old Westminster men..will regret to hear [etc.]. 1882J. L. G. Mowat Sinon. Barthol. (Anecd. Oxon.) 2 He gives the authority of Brian Twyne for stating that he was an Oxford man.
p. With prefixed noun (sometimes in the gen. case) man is used to denote: (a) one who is connected with a certain place, building, profession, business, society, etc., as assembly-man, Banbury man, barman, bondsman, clergyman, churchman, countryman, exciseman, harvestman, Inns of Court man, journeyman, linesman, Paul's man, postman, railway man, salesman, waterman, etc.; (b) one who uses or is skilled in the use of an implement or the like, as axe-man, brake-man, canoe-man, hammer-man, lathe-man, penman, swordsman, etc.; (c) a trader in or manufacturer of an article, as ale-man, coal-man, ice-man, lead-man, milk-man, oil-man, pork-man, rag-and-bone man, timber-man, etc. These combs. are treated under the prefixed words, or in their alphabetical place as Main words. In those which have come to be apprehended as single words (whether written with or without a hyphen) the pronunciation is (-man). (d) spec. One who is a specialist in or is expert in a specified subject; a supporter or adherent of a specified person; one who favours a specified product. See also cruelty man.
1921T. S. Eliot Let. 26 Oct. in Waste Land Drafts (1971) p. xxii, I have wondered whether he is quite the best man for me as he is known as a nerve man and I want rather a specialist in psychological troubles. 1938A. Huxley Let. 12 Apr. (1969) 435 The cancer-man..had hit on something very fundamental. 1958Listener 25 Sept. 449/2, I am therefore wholeheartedly a Galbraith man... Professor Galbraith is the first writer to attempt a systematic economic analysis of such a society. 1960Ottawa Citizen 25 Mar. 1/8 Pearkes ‘Bomarc Man’ Despite U.S. Cutbacks... Defence Minister Pearkes today denied the Bomarc-B missile is a ‘dead pigeon’ and affirmed he still retained full confidence in it as an air defence system. 1964College Composition & Communication XV. iv, The program of English studies was in the hands, not of the wise dean who encouraged the variousness of my undergraduate program, but of several gentlemen called ‘the Malory man’, ‘the Restoration drama man’, and ‘the Paradise Lost man’. 1969Listener 24 July 102/1, I had been the Daily Telegraph's main German man for some time. 1973J. Wainwright Touch of Malice 89, I wouldn't have thought..you were a beer man. 1974Country Life 25 Apr. 1008/1 A wonderful cruising ground for the yachtsman, be he a power or sail man. 1974P. Lovesey Invitation to Dynamite Party ii. 25 ‘Is it the hard stuff that you've taken a fancy to?’ ‘Not me, Sarge. I never was a whisky man.’
q. For best man, handy man, reading man, sick man, etc., see the adjs.; also deadman, freeman, new man, old man, red-man.
r. every (or each) man for himself: applied to a situation in which each person is preoccupied with his own safety or advancement.
c1386Chaucer Knt.'s T. (1894) 1182 At the kinges court, my brother, Ech man for him-self. c1515Barclay Ecologues (1928) 1. 1009 Eche man for him selfe, and the frende for all. 1562J. Heywood Dialogue of Proverbs ii. ix, in Works sig. k4 Every man for him selfe, and god for us all. 1629T. Adams Workes 422 That by-word, Euery man for himselfe, and God for vs all, is vncharitable, vngodly; and impugneth directly the end of euery good calling, and honest kinde of life. 1825J. Neal Bro. Jonathan III. xxix. 90 ‘Forward! Forward!’ were the cries, on every side of our hero. ‘Forward! forward! every man for himself!’ 1922H. Walpole Cathedral i. i. 14 They had been troublous times. It had been every man for himself.
s. the man (also the Man): a person in authority; such persons collectively; spec. (a) a prison governor; (b) a policeman or detective; the police; (c) one's employer, ‘boss’; (d) (Black slang) a white man; white people collectively; (e) a drug-pusher (U.S. slang).
1918G. M. Battey 70,000 Miles in Submarine Destroyer (1919) 302 Any body in authority is ‘the man’. 1928R. Fisher Walls of Jericho 306 The man, designation of abstract authority. He who trespasses where a sign forbids is asked: ‘Say, biggy, can't you read the man's sign?’ 1933Amer. Speech VIII. iii. 29/2 Unuther goddam word out o' you-all, an' Ah'll send ev'ry goddam one of ye up t' the Man. 1953W. Burroughs Junkie (1972) ix. 87 When I first hit New Orleans, the main pusher—or ‘the Man’, as they say there—was a character called Yellow. Ibid. 159 ‘The Man’, junk seller. ‘The Man’ is a New Orleans expression, and can also refer to a Narcotics Agent. 1962Amer. Speech XXXVII. 270 Man, a policeman. A word used by teen-age drivers. ‘When I heard the siren, I knew it was the Man.’ 1962J. Baldwin Another Country (1963) ii. ii. 243 One of the musicians came to the doorway, and said, ‘Ida, honey, the man says come on with it if you coming.’ 1963N.Y. Times 18 May 12/2 A well-educated Negro said today: ‘The demonstrations, I think, suggested to ‘The Man’ that tokenism won't make it and that he has to come to grips with the problem right now.’ ‘The Man’, in Negro parlance, is the white man. 1965Times Lit. Suppl. 25 Nov. 1035 Man is the title by which one Negro addresses another... The Man is the way in which he speaks of the enemy, of the white. 1968Blues Unlimited Nov. 8 They were share⁓croppers but the last crop put them so deeply in debt with ‘the man’ that they plan to quit farming. 1970Guardian 3 Nov. 10/1 ‘The Man is repressive. The Man is fascist...’ To the bombers and kidnappers the Man is authority. He is every policeman. He is President Nixon. He is Prime Minister Trudeau. 1972J. Mills Report to Commissioner 106, I heard you were the man, and if I really believed you were the man, you'd be dead now. 1972Guardian 12 Aug. 9 Rus is not Uncle Tomming it around Harlem with ‘the Man’. He has brought a foreign visitor. 1973Black World Nov. 92/2 Their writing mainly concerns the street life—the pimp, the junky, the forces of drug addiction, exploitation at the hands of ‘the man’. 1974R. Thomas Pork-choppers xi. 98 They'll be on my back for telling them something that they don't think the man needs to know.
¶5.
a. Applied to beings other than human, e.g. God, the Devil, Death. Obs.
c1510Lytell Geste Robyn Hode ccxl, For god is holde a ryghtwys man. c1550Lusty Juventus (c 1560) C ij, He wyl say that God is a good man. 15881st Pt. Jeronimo ii. iii, Your the last man I thought on, saue the diuell. 1592Shakes. Rom. & Jul. iii. iii. 42 (2nd Qo., 1599), Flies may do this, but I from this must flie: They are freemen, but I am banished. 1599― Much Ado iii. v. 40. 1625 B. Jonson Staple of N. i. Intermean, Expectation. But was the Diuell a proper man, Gossip? Mirth. As fine a gentleman, of his inches, as euer I saw trusted to the Stage. 17..Pope, etc. Mem. of P.P. in Swift's Wks. (1751) V. 241 Do all we can, Death is a Man, That never spareth none.
†b. In certain plays printed in the 17th c., to escape the penalties against profane language on the stage, man was substituted in oaths for God.
1633B. Jonson Tale of Tub ii. i, For the passion of man, hold. Ibid., Breath of man!
6. a. In a pregnant sense: An adult male eminently endowed with manly qualities. Also phr. to play the man (also † men).
14..Prov. Gd. Counsel 76 in Q. Eliz. Acad. (1869) 70 Grace and good maners makyþ⊇ A man. 1526Tindale 1 Cor. xvi. 13. 1530 Palsgr. 435/1 Have I nat acquit me lyke a man? 1548Udall, etc. Erasm. Par. Mark i. 12–15 Thou haste here behaued thyselfe valiauntly, and played the manne a while. 1560J. Daus tr. Sleidane's Comm. 86 b, That they should play the men. 1598Marston Sco. Villanie vii, A man, a man, a kingdome for a man! 1721R. Wodrow Suff. Ch. Scot. (1838) I. i. v. §2. 394/1 The boys endured their punishment like men and Christians. 1734Pope Ess. Man iv. 203 Worth makes the man, and want of it, the fellow. 1864Trevelyan Compet. Wallah (1866) 299 How their sire played the man in the time of the great troubles. 1900Morley Cromwell v. vii. 453 Of that pettish egotism which regards a step taken on advice as a humiliation, he [Cromwell] had not a trace; he was a man.
b. man of men: a man of supreme excellence.
1594Marlowe & Nashe Dido iii. iii, That man of men. 1606Shakes. Ant. & Cl. i. v. 72. 1623 Massinger Bondman i. iii, Corinth..hath vouchsafed to lend vs Her man of men, Timoleon, to defend Our Country. 1671Milton P.R. i. 122 This man of men, attested Son of God. 1821Scott Kenilw. I. iii. 47 Wilt thou suffer this guest of guests, this man of men..to fall into the meshes of thy nephew? 1887Browning Parleyings, C. Avison xvi, Pym, the man of men!
†c. Put for: Manliness, courage. Obs.
1602Marston Ant. & Mel. i. Wks. 1856 I. 15 Heape up thy powers, double all thy man. 1605Shakes. Lear ii. iv. 42 Hauing more man then wit about me.
7. A person of position, importance, or note. In phr. a man or a mouse: either ‘made’ or ruined. Also, to make (a person) a man: to ensure his prosperity or success.[With a man or a mouse cf. the Ger. mann und maus.] 1541Schole Ho. Women 386 in Hazl. E.P.P. IV. 120 Fear not, she saith vnto her spouse, A man or a Mouse whether be ye. 1542Udall Erasm. Apoph. 267 b, He was vtterly mynded to put al in hasard to make or marre, & to bee manne or mous. 1584R. Scot Discov. Witchcr. xv. xvii. (1886) 357 Applie it, and thou shalt be made a man for ever. c1622Fletcher Love's Cure ii. ii, Your Father has committed you to my charge, and I will make a man, or a mouse on you. 1624Sanderson Serm. I. 251 [To] set him upon his legs, and make him a man for ever. 1671Tillotson Serm. (vol. I.) 227 What poor man could not cheerfully carry a great burthen of Gold..thereby to be made a man for ever. 1859Lever D. Dunn xx, The game is made. Red, thirty-two. Now for it, Grog, man or a mouse, my boy. Mouse it is! 1869Tennyson North. Farmer, New Style ii, Dosn't thou knaw that a man mun be either a man or a mouse?
8. a. A husband. Now only Sc. and dial., exc. in phr. man and wife. (Cf. goodman 2 b.)
a1300Cursor M. 23335 If fader sagh his sun þare,..Þe wijf hir man or man his wijf. 1382Wyclif Gen. iii. 16 Thow shalt be vndre power of thi man [1388 hosebonde]. 1471Ripley Comp. Alch. Ep. i. in Ashm. (1652) 116 Our Man, our Wife. 1567Gude & Godlie B. (S.T.S.) 188 God send euerie Priest ane wyfe, And euerie Nunne ane man. 1633Ford 'Tis Pity iv. i, Be not amaz'd; nor blush, young lovely bride, I come not to defraud you of your man. 1724Ramsay ‘This is no my ain House’ iii, To make me still a prudent spouse And let my man command ay. 1749Fielding Tom Jones i. xii, In less than a month the captain and his lady were man and wife. 1821Clare Vill. Minstr. II. 21 The wary wife..Sits up in bed to strike her man a light. 1842Tennyson Dora 4 He..often thought ‘I'll make them man and wife’. 1889Barrie Window in Thrums 108 Nor would Nancey take it kindly if I called her man names.
b. A lover, suitor. ? dial.
1874T. Hardy Far from Madding Crowd xxxi, Go and marry your man—go on! 1898Besant Orange Girl ii. xiv, You've put my man in prison—the properest man in St. Giles's.
9. A liegeman or vassal. Now Hist. † In ME. poetry often used fig., e.g. of a lover.
c1122O.E. Chron. an. 1072 (Laud MS.) Se cyng Melcolm..griðede wið þone cyng Willelm..& his man wæs. c1175Lamb. Hom. 33 Gif þu me dest woh and wit beon anes lauerdes men. c1205Lay. 4300 Þer fore his mon he bicom & hærdsumnesse him solde don. a1310in Wright Lyric P. 93 To the [seinte Marie] y crie ant calle, thou here me for thi man. 1423Jas. I Kingis Q. lxiii, Quhen sall ȝowr merci rew vpon ȝowr man, Quhois seruice is ȝit vncouth vnto ȝow? c1465Eng. Chron. (Camden 1850) 44 The Erl Douglas of Scotland cam in to Englond, & was swore to the king for to be his trew manne. a1533Ld. Berners Huon xlv. 150 To become my man, and to do me homage. 1609Skene Reg. Maj. 42 b, Homage suld be made in this maner, that is, the maker therof, sall become his over-lords man [etc.]. c1670Hobbes Dial. Com. Laws (1840) 93 The Tenant shall hold his Hands together between the Hands of his Landlord, and shall say thus; I become your Man from this day forth. 1871Freeman Norm. Conq. (1876) IV. xviii. 129 By taking service in William's army he had become the man of the Duke of the Normans.
10. a. A manservant; a valet.
man Friday: a servile follower or attendant; a factotum or servant of all work. (The allusion is to Robinson Crusoe's servant, whom he usually refers to as ‘my man Friday’.)
13..Guy Warw. (A.) 393 Þou þat art a garsoun, & art mi man, & man schalt be. 1377Langl. P. Pl. B. xiii. 40 Ac þis maister ne his man no manere flesshe eten. 1381Rolls of Parlt. III. 113/1 Johannes Pope, Taverners-man. 1463Bury Wills (Camden) 16 To Raffe Otle sumtyme my man a blak gownne. 1486Bk. St. Albans E vj b, The mayster to his man makyth his Roys. 1500–20Dunbar Poems xv. 19 To serve and leif in beggartie To man and maistir is baith schame. 1617Moryson Itin. iii. 151 A Gentleman and his Man shall spend as much, as if he were accompanied with another Gentleman and his Man. 1638T. Randolph Amyntes Dram.-Pers., Jocastus, a fantastic shepherd and a fairy knight, Bromius, his man, a blunt clown. 1639J. Endecott in Massachusetts Hist. Coll. Ser. iv. (1863) VI. 136 One Samuel Eale, a man of Mr. Nathan Rogers, which Nele hath caryed with him. 1728Swift My Lady's Lament. 174 Find out..who's master, who's man. 1791C. Smith Celestina IV. 117 There was no possibility of his man giving Willoughby notice. 1870Ramsay Remin. vi. (ed. 18) 209 Another functionary of a country parish is usually called the minister's man. 1885G. Allen Babylon xix, Awkward, when people mistake your man for your nephew. 1887Athenæum 16 Apr. 504/3 Count von Rechberg,..was Prince Bismarck's man Friday.
b. man-of-all-work: jocular formation after maid-of-all-work (see maid n. 4 b).
1830Miss Mitford Village Ser. iv. 278 Mrs. Villars's man-of-all-work, Joseph. 1836F. Mahoney Rel. Father Prout (1859) 73 A genius infinitely superior even to the man-of-all-work at Ravensworth Castle, the never-to-be-forgotten Caleb Balderstone. 1896Furnivall Eng. Conq. Irel. p. vii, But illness prevented him; and so I (as the Society's man-of-all-work) had to take the book up.
c. In wider sense, as the correlative of master. In recent use commonly applied (chiefly in pl.) to workmen in contradistinction to their employers.
c1375Sc. Leg. Saints xii. (Mathias) 127 Iudas þane be-come his mane, & mad his dwelling with hym þane. [1486,1728: see a.] 1860Nat. Assoc. Soc. Sci., Rep. Comm. Trades' Soc. 109 The masters had locked out the men..from seventeen factories. 1872Brassey Work & Wages i. 6 The masters had found it necessary..to reduce the rate of wages; but the men.. refused to accept the reduction.
11. Applied (chiefly in pl.) to the members of a fighting force; now esp. to the common soldiers as distinguished from the officers.
c1205Lay. 636 Þe king of his monnen monie þusend læs. c1450Merlin 244 Ther were..moo than a thousande me[n] slayn. 1535Coverdale Ps. xviii. 29 In the I can discomfit an hoost of men. 1536Wriothesley Chron. (Camden) I. 57 The King sent the duke of Norfolke, with an armie of menn. 1622Donne Serm. 15 Sept. 11 Should God haue stayd to leuie and arme..men enow to discomfit Sennacherib? 1630R. Johnson's Kingd. & Commw. 111 Foure thousand men would have made a shrewd adventure to have taken his Indies from him. 1878Tennyson Revenge 10 I've ninety men and more that are lying sick ashore. 1880Wheeler Short Hist. India 604 The English had lost more than 2,400 officers and men.
12. In university and public-school language, an undergraduate or student (as contrasted with a graduate or a don). Cf. 4 p.
1803Gradus ad Cantabr. 89 At Cambridge, and, eke, at Oxford, every stripling is accounted a Man from the moment of his putting on the gown and cap. 1811Lex. Balatron., Man (Cambridge), any undergraduate from fifteen to thirty. As a man of Emanuel—a young member of Emanuel. 1874Lays Mod. Oxford 43 Every bulldog when he spies a Man without a gown, Promptly chases him and tries a- Main to run him down. 1897Barrère & Leland Dict. Slang II. 103/1 [At Winchester Coll.] When a master wishes a ‘man’ to taste the sweets of a flogging he tells him to order his name to.
III. Transferred uses.
13. Applied to any image or portrait of a man, or to anything bearing a resemblance to a human figure. man of straw (fig.): see straw n.
1636T. Randall in Ann. Dubrencia (1877) 17 They looke like yonder man of wood, that stands To bound the limits of the Parish lands.
14. With qualification used for: A ship. See also man-of-war, Indiaman, merchantman, etc.
1473J. Paston in P. Lett. III. 81 A few Frenchmen be whyrlyng on the coasts, so that there no fishers go out. 1558W. Towrson in Hakluyt Voy. (1589) 125 The Christopher being the headmost & the weathermost man, went roome with the Admirall. 1665Lond. Gaz. No. 3/4 They chased a Barbadoes and a Jamaica man into Limrick. a1700B. E. Dict. Cant. Crew, Tant,..Mast of a Ship or Man. 1709[see East India]. 1712–1844 [see Indiaman]. 1778H. Walpole Last Jrnls. (1859) II. 284 The Brest fleet was sailed, twenty-eight men-of-the-line. 1788J. May Jrnl. & Lett. (1873) 33 In order to put them on board the Kentucky-man.
15. One of the pieces used in chess, draughts, and backgammon. (Cf. chess-men and meinie.)
c1400Beryn 1820 The Burgeyse seid: ‘comyth nere! ye shul se þis man, How he shall be matid, with what man me list!’ He drouȝe, & seyd ‘chek mate!’ c1440Gesta Rom. xxi. 71 (Harl. MS.) The first man, þat goth afore hath not but oo poynt, but whenne he goth aside, he takith anoþer{ddd}The secund, scil. alphyn, renneth iij poyntes both vpward and douneward. 1562Rowbotham Pleas. & Wittie Play of Cheests A ij, As if thei had the cheste-bourde and men in their handes. 1562J. Heywood Prov. & Epigr. (1867) 110 Eche other caste thou bearest a man to many. 1611Cotgr., Dame,..a man at Tables, or Draughts. 1668Dryden Ess. Dram. Poesy (1889) 77 Like a skilful chess-player by little and little he draws out his men. 1735Bertin Chess vi, Never croud your game by too many men in one place. 1806–7J. Beresford Miseries Hum. Life vi. xxxi, On asking for a back-gammon-board seeing one brought in in ruins, the men half lost and the dice quite. 1865Dickens Mut. Fr. ii. iv, The huffing of Miss Bella, and the loss of three of her men at a swoop.
16. In Cumbria, a cairn or pile of stones marking a summit or prominent point of a mountain; cf. low man, high man as local names for particular cairns, also applied to portions of the mountains themselves.
1800Wordsw. Rural Archit. 6 And there they built up, without mortar or lime, A Man on the peak of the Crag. 1871L. Stephen Playgr. Eur. (1894) vii. 166 A stone man or cairn. 1897O. G. Jones Rock-climbing 68 They reached the Low Man, as the nearly horizontal crest of the first huge buttress is called. Ibid. 243 Then to the right comes the actual Pillar Rock, the ‘High Man’. Ibid., The Low Man, the immense buttress that from below hides the true summit altogether.
17. The obverse of a coin used in tossing.[Originally, the side of a penny which has the king's head, the ‘woman’ being the side with the figure of Britannia.] 1828‘Bee’ Living Pict. London 241 The person calling for ‘man’ or ‘woman’. 1858Househ. Words 4 Dec. 1/2 Up goes the dollar... ‘Heads or tails? Man or woman?’
IV. Phrases and combinations.
18. Man enters into an almost unlimited number of phraseological collocations in which it is connected by a preposition with another n. denoting quality, character, occupation, or profession; e.g. † m. of afterwits, m. of antipathies, m. of chaff, m. of character, † m. of charge, m. of dignity, m. of feeling, m. of glee, m. of healing, m. of honour, m. of nothing to do, m. of office, m. of peace, m. of practice, m. of preferment, m. of property, m. of rank, m. of sense, m. of talent, m. of theory, m. of title, m. of weight, m. of wisdom, m. of years; also man of action, a man whose life is characterized by physical activity or deeds rather than by thoughts and ideas; † man with the beard, a drinking mug on which a bearded man was represented; man of Belial, a worthless or wicked man (cf. 1 Samuel xxv. 25); † man in black, a clergyman; man of blood (a Hebraism), one who is laden with bloodguiltiness; man in blue, a policeman (Farmer Slang 1896); † man of cabinets, an antiquarian; man-in-the-cars, the U.S. equivalent of ‘man-in-the-street’; † man of the church, an ecclesiastic = churchman 1; † man of the long coat = gentleman of the long robe; † man of death (a Hebraism), one worthy to be put to death; man of destiny, a man looked upon as an instrument of destiny; spec. Napoleon I; man of distinction, a person who is distinguished in his looks, manners, and bearing; man of the earth U.S., the wild potato vine, Ipomæa pandurata; man of God (OE. and early ME. godes man(n, a Hebraism), a man devoted to the service of God, (a) a saint, (b) an ecclesiastic; man of Kent (see quot. 1787, and cf. Kentish a.); man of the moment: see moment n. 1 c; † man in the oak, a spirit supposed to inhabit an oak; man of the people, a man who comes from or identifies himself with the common people; a working-class man; † man of Rome, the Pope. For man of business, m. of clouts, m. of colour, m. of fashion, m. of figure, m. of (his) hands, m. of the house, m. of letters, m. of mark, m. of means, m. of motley, m. of numbers, m. of quality, m. of religion, m. of service, m. of sin, m. of sorrows, m. in the street, m. about town, m. of the town, m. of wax, m. of the wood(s, m. of one's word, m. of few or many words, m. of worship, see these ns. Also lady's man or ladies' man (see lady n. 18); † world's man (see world); man-of-law, man of the world, etc.
1597*Man of Action [see action 1 a]. 1828Scott F.M. Perth in Chron. Canongate 2nd Ser. I. vii. 140 Our neighbour Proudfute..is of course a man of action. 1853C. Brontë Villette II. xxiv. 193 Dr. John could think, and think well, but he was rather a man of action than of thought. 1937Discovery July 226/1 The outdoor man of action and the indoor man of thought. 1963Auden Dyer's Hand vii. 435 It was inevitable that..a dramatist would ask himself if the artist-genius could be substituted for the traditional man-of-action as a dramatic hero.
1652–62Heylin Cosmogr. iii. (1677) 13/1 The People of this Country were..said to be also the Inventors of Augury..And yet for the most part *men of after-wits.
1837Hist. in Ann. Reg. (1838) 412/1 William the 4th was not a *man of antipathies.
1614B. Jonson Barth. Fair iv. iii, He has wrashled so long with the bottle here, that the *man with the beard hash almosht streek up hish heelsh.
1692Gentl. Jrnl. May 5 The *Man in black makes but one of two in less than half an Hour.
1382Wyclif 2 Sam. xvi. 7 Go out, go out, thou *man of bloodis [1611 bloody man, marg. Hebr. man of blood]. 1605Shakes. Macb. iii. iv. 126 The secret'st man of Blood. 1648[see blood n. 3].
1698M. Lister Journ. Paris (1699) 58 The Vulgar Name, by which those *Men of Cabinets distinguish them is..Des Lampes.
1888Bryce Amer. Commw. III. iv. lxxvi. 7 That representative of public opinion whom Americans call ‘the *man in the cars’.
1799Wordsw. Poet's Epit. 14 Or art thou one of gallant pride, A Soldier and no *man of chaff?
1746Rep. Cond. Sir J. Cope 115 General Keith..is a ‘*Man of Character’.
1590Sir J. Smyth Disc. Weapons Ded. 9 All great Captaines, Chieftaines, and *men of charge.
1523Ld. Berners Froiss. I. clxii. 199 *Men of the Churche that cometh and goeth for treaty of peace. 1530Palsgr. 318/1 Man of the churche, ecclesiastique.
1579Fenton Guicciard. i. (1599) 45 Certaine *men of the long coate (so are called in Fraunce Lawyers, Doctors, and men of Iustice).
1535Coverdale 1 Kings ii. 26 Thou art a *man of deeth. 1642Ess. of a King in Bacon's Wks. (1858) VI. 596 Not to suffer a man of death to live.
1827Scott Napoleon IX. 329 The great plans which the *Man of Destiny had been called upon earth to perform. 1909Westm. Gaz. 26 Aug. 5/1 His man-of-destiny characteristics made him an interesting study to the newspaper correspondents. 1921G. B. Shaw Back to Methuselah iv. ii. 178 Napoleon (impressively). I am the Man of Destiny.
a1300Cursor M. 27170 *Man of office or dignite,..werlds man, or clerc, or closterer.
1699M. Lister Journey to Paris 40 It is..much more pleasing to see..a dead Friend, or Relation, or..a *Man of Distinction, Painted as he was. 1954‘P. Quentin’ Wife of R. Sheldon xix. 167 He'd never been so innocent, so the man of distinction. 1971D. Lees Rainbow Conspiracy vii. 111 He had a nervous apprehensive look that contrasted strangely with his man-of-distinction appearance.
1846–50A. Wood Class-bk. Bot. 442 Wild Potato. *Man-of-the-Earth.
1771H. Mackenzie (title) The *Man of Feeling.
1799Wordsw. Fountain 20 The dear old Man,..The grey-haired *man of glee.
a900tr. Bæda's Hist. iv. xxv[i]. (1890) 352 Þa ᵹeswearc se *Godes mon semninga. c1200Moral Ode 266 in Trin. Coll. Hom., He nolde ihere godes men þan he sat at his biede. 1382Wyclif 2 Tim. iii. 17 [16] That the man of God be perfyt, lerud to al good werk. c1450St. Cuthbert (Surtees) 3588 Spak to þaim þe goddis man. 1658Sir T. Browne Hydriot. v. (1896) 180 The man of God lives longer without a tomb, than any by one. 1748Thomson Cast. Indol. i. lxix, A little, round, fat, oily man of God. 1814Cary Dante, Paradise xiii. 30 The wondrous life Of the meek man of God [St. Francis].
1847James Convict II. 195 As soon as the *man of healing was gone,..he sprang up in his bed, hurried on his clothes [etc.].
1577tr. Bullinger's Decades (1592) 193 *Men of honours letters, or some such like stuffe. 1641S. D'Ewes in Lett. Lit. Men (Camden) 169 Like a brave gentleman and man of honour. 1711Addison Spect. No. 99 ⁋10 If every one that fought a Duel were to stand in the Pillory, it would quickly lessen the Number of these imaginary Men of Honour.
1787Grose Prov. Gloss. s.v. Kent, All the inhabitants of Kent east of the river, Medway, are called *Men of Kent,..the rest of the inhabitants of the county are stiled Kentish-men. 1861C. Bede New Rector x. 104 The ‘Men of Kent’, you know, were never conquered!
1719De Foe Crusoe ii. x, Like a *man of nothing to do.
1584R. Scot Discov. Witchcr. vii. xv. (1886) 122 Robin Goodfellow, the spoome, the mare, the *man in the oke. 1604Middleton Witch i. ii, Dwarfes, Imps, the Spoone, the Mare, the Man i'th'oake; the Hell-waine, the Fire-drake, the Puckle.
1611Bible Ps. cxx. 7, I am for peace [marg. Or, a *man of peace].
1849C. Brontë Shirley III. ii. 36 Mrs. Pryor..wondered how her daughter could be so much at ease with a ‘*man of the people’... She felt as if a great gulf lay between her caste and his. 1885H. James Little Tour in France xxiii. 151 A man of the people,..extremely intelligent,..yet remaining essentially of the people. 1971W. J. Burley Guilt Edged vii. 116 ‘You have the most revolting habits, Jimmy.’ ‘A man of the people, that's me!’ 1973P. Malloch Kickback vii. 47 He was a man of the people. He'd been born in the Gorbals and had left school at fourteen.
1843Carlyle Past & Pr. iii. v, This..almost stupid *Man of Practice, pitted against some light adroit Man of Theory.
1698Money Masters all Things, etc. 131 The ugly and crippled were the only *Men of Preferment.
1861M. Pattison Ess. (1889) I. 45 When no *man of rank or property was safe.
1581J. Walker in Confer. iv. (1584) Z iij b, He..hath..fled to the *man of Rome.
1680Rochester Poems 12 Dares chide at Kings, and raile at *Men of sense. 1711Steele Spect. No. 153 ⁋4 It is thus in the life of a Man of Sense, a short Life is sufficient to manifest himself a Man of Honour and Virtue.
1843Mozley Ess. (1878) I. 156 The acuteness, point, and clearness which his controversial writings show, give him..an undoubted rank as a *man of talent.
1632Massinger City Madam i. ii, A sin your *man of title Is seldom guiltie of.
1855Macaulay Hist. Eng. xii. III. 153 If any *man of weight..would.. explain the state of things.
1742Young Nt. Th. v. 775 The *Man of Wisdom is the *Man of Years.
19. Obvious combinations:
a. simple attrib. and appositive, as man-angel, man-beast, man-devil, man-dinner, man-dog, man-eye, man-excellence, man-famine, man-fiend, man-fish, man-flesh, man-fly, man-life, man-management, man-mark, man-meat, man-miracle, man-monster, man-nature, man-plague, man-satyr, man-seed, man-service, man-sex, man-shape, man-smell, man-soul.
a1711Ken Hymnotheo Poet. Wks. 1721 III. 315 A new extemporaneous Race Of those *Man-Angels peopled the whole place.
1633Ford Love's Sacr. iv. i, Some strangely-shaped *man-beast. 1648Hunting of Fox 38 That Man⁓beast, the Major of London.
c1600Timon i. iv. (Shaks. Soc.) 16 His name is Philargurus, a *man-devill.
1832Miss Mitford Village Ser. v. 88 An odious *man-dinner at the Clarendon.
1884Chamb. Jrnl. 10 May 304/2 The *Man⁓dog came from Russia, and was for a long time exhibited in Paris. 1887G. Meredith Ballads & P. 19 The man-dog for his mistress thinks, Not less her faithful dog.
1711Shaftesbury Charac. (1737) II. 305 In such a tender frame, as is indeed wonderfully commodious to support that *man-excellence of thought and reason.
1932W. Faulkner Light in August i. 23 She traverses the ranked battery of *maneyes and enters the store.
1876T. Hardy Ethelberta (1890) 262, I..found a husband before the present *man-famine began.
1638Ford Lady's Trial iii. i, There is no valour in tugging with a *man-fiend.
1892C. R. B. Barrett Essex Highways, etc. 139 The catching..of a *man-fish, or sea-monster, in the reign of Henry II.
1812Sporting Mag. XXXIX. 17 Crib having been known to be the best bit of *manflesh nature ever cast in her mould. 1833Fonblanque Eng. under Seven Administ. (1837) II. 403 The injustice of depriving the planters of their property in man-flesh without compensation. 1923R. Graves Whipperginny 25 And frozen music dulls their need Of drink and man-flesh greed.
1832Miss Mitford Village Ser. v. 81 The sedan-chair—a much more dignified conveyance..than any of the race of flies, whether horse-fly or *man-fly.
1918D. H. Lawrence New Poems 43 The *man-life north-imprisoned, shut in the hum of the purpled steel.
1967A. Battersby Network Analysis (ed. 2) xv. 271 If the senior executives of a company really feel that the risk is great, they might do better to shelve network analysis and continue with existing methods until better *man-management relations have been forged. 1971Mod. Law Rev. XXXIV. vi. 680 The principle of an employer's responsibility for the results of ‘teamwork by his team’ goes to the centre of all thinking upon the techniques of organisation of groups and ‘man-management’ in large organisations. 1971C. Bonington Annapurna South Face i. 7 The smaller the party, the closer you can get to the mountains uncluttered by all the..complications of man-management caused by a larger expedition.
1888G. M. Hopkins Poems (1967) 105 Squadroned masks and *manmarks treadmire toil there.
1962W. Stegner Wolf Willow iii. ii. 148 ‘What's a windigo?’ ‘What the Crees used to call an Injun that made use of *man-meat.’ 1971B. Malamud Tenants 207 The sweaty youths, holding long spears, leaped and yelped as they danced, their man-meat swinging like grapes in bunches in their loincloths.
1898G. Meredith Odes Fr. Hist. 34 Sure of the blade that served the great *man-miracle [Napoleon].
1610Shakes. Temp. iii. ii. 14 My *man-Monster hath drown'd his tongue in sacke. 1784Cowper Task vi. 499. 1928 Blunden Jap. Garland 16 Claw-tendrils reach, *man-monsters glare.
1895How to get Married 107 Her knowledge of *man-nature.
a1649Drummond of Hawthornden Poems Wks. (1711) 37/1 Who have no law to their ambitions will, But (*man-plagues!) born are humane blood to spill.
1780Chron. in Ann. Reg. 196/2 A large fierce animal which Mr. Atkins affirmed to be a centaur..it proved to be a *Man satyr.
1934Dylan Thomas 18 Poems 27 The growing bones, the rumour of *manseed Within the hallowed gland. 1971G. M. Brown Fishermen with Ploughs 4 Hoof-fast Njal bore his manseed womb⁓furled waveward.
1862Ansted Channel Isl. iv. xxiv. (ed. 2) 552 Every male between the ages of seventeen and sixty-five in Jersey,..is bound to render *man-service to the Crown.
c1879G. M. Hopkins Poems (1967) 82 Breathing bloom of a chastity in *mansex fine.
1888Ibid. 105 *Manshape, that shone Sheer off, disseveral, a star, death blots black out.
1922Joyce Ulysses 368 Perhaps they get a *man smell off us. 1938M. K. Rawlings Yearling xi. 113 I'm jest lonesome for boy-smell and man-smell. 1961R. P. Hobson Rancher takes Wife viii. 118 She [sc. a cow moose] would trot over to the timber, lick her calf to its feet, and lead it off—away from the contaminated area of man-smell.
1682J. Bunyan Holy War (1905) 190 For here lay the excellent wisdom of him that builded *Mansoul, that the Walls could never be broken down. 1929R. Bridges Testament of Beauty iv. 1391 From this dilemma..Man-soul made glad escape in the worship of Christ.
b. appositive, passing into adj. = ‘male’, as man cook, man-friend, man-child, manservant; in comb. with a female designation, as man nurse, man-midwife; occas. with names of animals, as man seal. (Cf. 22 a.)
1530Palsgr. 242/2 Man lover, amant. Ibid., Man nourse, novrricier. 1596Dalrymple tr. Leslie's Hist. Scot. vii. 8 The manbarnes following of him sall be heyires. 1624Heywood Captives i. i, The man-makarel and marchant of madens fleshe. 1640Brome Antipodes iv. iv, Enter women and man-scold. 1734Berkeley Let. to Prior 30 Apr. in Fraser Life vi. (1871) 227 A man-cook would be a great convenience to us. 1736Ld. Hervey Mem. (1952) 182 The King's letter to the Queen about this affair was an extraordinary one, asking her, as he would have done a man-friend, what she thought of all this business. 1746H. Walpole Lett. (1846) II. 147 The principal man-dancer. 1754–64Smellie Midwif. I. Introd. 55 The lives of many women and children were saved by the skill of the man-practitioner. 1886E. Marshall Tower on Cliff v. 68 If ever there was a man-witch, it's Sir Thomas Cooke. 1889Barrie Window in Thrums 99 Every man-body and woman-body on the farm. 1893Ladies' Home Jrnl. Apr. 39/1 There is no impropriety in a man friend writing to you without having asked your permission. 1901Munsey's Mag. (U.S.) XXV. 355/2 Frequently a man seal will swim out to a lady seal [etc.]. 1922D. H. Lawrence Fantasia of Unconscious xi. 204 The woman..will have a new man-friend, if nothing more.
c. In phrasal comb. used attrib., as one-man show, two-man rule, etc.
1597Shakes. 2 Hen. IV, i. ii 255 If I do, fillop me with a three-man-Beetle. 1882[see one 35]. 1891Times 6 Oct. 7/5 ‘One-man’ photographic exhibitions. 1900Sir W. Harcourt in Westm. Gaz. 24 Aug. 6/1 Their forefathers had renounced one-man rule, and they were not likely to go back to two-man rule. 1902Daily Chron. 16 July 9/1 A couple of four-man teams.
d. objective and objective gen., as man-container, man-destroyer, † man-fisher, man-maker, man-marrer, man-moulder, man-murder(er, man-picker, man-planter, man-pleaser, man-stealer, man-subduer, man-tamer, man-thief, man-tracker, man-trapper; man-abhorring, man-baiting, man-carrying, man-catching, man-compelling, man-degrading, man-destroying, man-devouring, man-fearing, man-lifting, man-loving, man-maiming, man-making, man-mimicking, man-pleasing, man-selling, man-stealing, man-stopping, man-supporting, man-tracking, vbl. ns. and ppl. adjs.; man-idolatry, † man-pleasance, † man-stealth; man-shy, man-worthy (hence man-worthiness) adjs. (Cf. 22 b.)
1846C. G. Prowett Prometh. Bound 33 The bands Of *man-abhorring Amazons.
1655Fuller Ch. Hist. iv. i. §8 To see this *man-baiting, all people of all kindes flock'd together.
1909Westm. Gaz. 25 Feb. 4/1 The latter..achieved for the first time in history a *man-carrying machine propelled by its own motive power. 1961Times 28 Apr. 3/6 The placing in orbit of a man-carrying satellite.
1876T. Hardy Ethelberta (1890) 291 A harassing mistrust of her *man-compelling power.
1711Shaftesbury Charac. (1737) II. 373 This mansion-globe, this *man-container.
1788Cowper Negro's Compl. 46 Our sufferings, since ye brought us To the *man-degrading mart.
1824J. Symmons tr. æschylus' Agam. 137 Nor turn thy wrath 'gainst Helen, that she was a *man-destroyer.
1743Blair Grave 210 Th' oppressive, sturdy, *Man-destroying Villains.
1864Kingsley Rom. & Teut. i. (1875) 14 A mighty *man-devouring ogre.
1881Bridgett Hist. Holy Eucharist Gt. Brit. II. 297 Free from *man-fearing and man-pleasing.
c1305St. Andrew 6 in E.E.P. (1862) 98 Come, he seide, after me: and ic wole ȝou make *Manfischers.
1647H. More Song of Soul ii. ii. iii. iv, Nor forc'd conceit, nor *man-idolatry.
1846Pract. Mechanic June 235/1 The *man-lifting engine erected at United Mines, Gwennap..for lowering and raising the miners. 1899Rep. Brit. Assoc. Adv. Sci. 948 Man-lifting kites might be used instead of a balloon. 1927C. L. M. Brown Conquest of Air 122 By 1905 Cody had attracted official attention to his man-lifting kites.
1895W. James in Internat. Jrnl. Ethics Oct. 8 The old warm notion of a *man-loving Deity.
1809Sporting Mag. XXXIII. 63 The royal and martial games of cock-fighting, bull-baiting, and *man⁓maiming.
1649G. Daniel Trinarch., Rich. II, cclxviii, In his want Pittied, perhaps by Maiestie, who now Was a *Man-Maker. 1901G. Meredith Reading of Life, etc. 7 Maid-preserver, man-maker.
a1600B. Jonson Case is Altered v. i, Gold, gold, *man-making gold. 1675Cotton Scoffer Scoft 25 Some say that Man-making was no treason. 1684Otway Atheist v. i, What, Manslaying! when all my thoughts were upon Manmaking. 1902Edin. Rev. Jan. 30 All the man-making pastimes of Eton boys.
a1500Colkelbie Sow 149 And a *man merrour, An evill wyffis mirrour.
1711Shaftesbury Charac. (1737) II. 203 How the dangerous *man-moulder wou'd proceed; and what wou'd be the event of his tampering.
a1300Cursor M. 17303 (Cott.) Ȝe *man mortherar[s] so crus.
1939W. B. Yeats Last Poems 17 *Man-picker Niamh leant and sighed By Oisin on the grass.
1656Trapp Comm. Gal. i. 10 Dastardliness and *man-pleasance.
1564Brief Exam. **** b, This is very sore judgement, to condemne all your brethren for *manpleasers. 1727Swift State Irel. Wks. 1755 V. ii. 169 A man-pleaser at the expence of all honour, conscience, and truth.
1669Baxter Power Mag. & Ch. Past. i. (1671) 16 No *man⁓pleasing, no worldly honour to invite them.
1860Gen. P. Thompson Audi Alt. III. cxxxvii. 110 This is what you call your Crown; it can shake hands with *man-selling.
1931F. D. Davison (title) *Man-shy.
1582N. T. (Rhem.) 1 Tim. i. 10 To *man-stealers, to liers, to periured persons. 1884S. E. Dawson Handbk. Dom. Canada 272 It was as man-stealers that Europeans made their debut upon this continent.
1577tr. Bullinger's Decades (1592) 395 The offence called Plagium, that is *man⁓stealing. 1769Blackstone Comm. IV. Index, Manstealing.
1638Mayne Lucian (1664) 382 Are you not affraid he should accuse you of *Man-stealth, and summon you before the Areopagus?
1899Kynoch Jrnl. Oct.–Nov. 15/2 The *manstopping powers of the..bullets appear to be considerable at short ranges. 1905Ibid. Apr.–June 96 Man-stopping bullets are not allowed. 1973Guardian 17 Mar. 13/2 Both guns increase the ‘man⁓stopping’ effectiveness of police marksmen.
1899R. Whiteing 5 John St. 272 Woman, as the *man-subduer.
1856Kane Arct. Expl. I. xxvi. 343 It had a bad look, this *man-supporting August ice.
1922Joyce Ulysses 526 Master! Mistress! *Mantamer!
c890Laws of ælfred c. 9 §2 Maniᵹu witu maran ðonne oðru; nu sint ealle ᵹelice butan *manþeofe, cxx sciłł. 1863Dicey Federal St. II. 254 This nation..has for two generations been the accomplice of man-thieves.
1931D. Runyon Guys & Dolls (1932) i. 32 Nip and Tuck go back to Georgia..with a big reputation as *man-trackers.
Ibid. i. 17 They is *man-tracking bloodhounds from Georgia.
1815Zeluca III. 167, I hope I shall not be marked out as a *man-trapper for my friend as well as myself.
18..Coleridge (Webster), A better and more *manworthy order of things.
1841Emerson Method of Nat. Wks. 1875 II. 233 How all that is called talents and success in our noisy capitals, becomes buzz and din before this *man-worthiness.
e. instrumental, as man-created, man-devised, man-enslaved, man-filled, man-girdled, man-gripped, man-measured, man-named, man-powered, man-propelled, man-taught ppl. adjs. Also man-made a.
1849Saxe Times 149 Mitres and thrones are *man-created things.
1547Life Abp. Canterb. To Rdr. F ij b, This Church off Englande allowinge no *mandeuised order off regular ministerie. 1871E. F. Burr Ad Fidem xi. 207 Man-devised religion.
a1873Lytton Pausanias (1876) 67 In the city one is the god-born, the other the *man-enslaved.
1909E. Pound Personae 30 A bustling *man-filled place.
1847Tennyson Princess v. 419 Almost our maids were better at their homes, Than thus *man-girdled here.
1921D. H. Lawrence Sea & Sardinia vi. 215 How old the real Italy is, how *man-gripped, and how withered.
1943D. Gascoyne Poems 1937–42 v. 60 In the pure ray shed by the loss Of all *man-measured value.
1836Mrs. Browning Poet's Vow ii. xv, Stars—revealed to man, And *man-named.
1959Times 27 July 7/6 A purely private effort..to achieve a *man⁓powered ‘ornithopter’. 1962Listener 10 May 812/2 A man-powered flight.
1937Sunday Times 10 Jan. 27/5 All *man-propelled or horse-drawn traffic would automatically be relegated to the service roads.
1884J. Tait Mind in Matter (1892) 304 The apostle Paul did not consider himself *man-taught.
f. parasynthetic, similative, originative, or predicative, as man-bodied, man-born, man-breasted, man-centred, man-faced, man-grown, man-headed, man-high, man-minded, man-shaped, man-smelling, man-stale, man-tall, † man-turned, man-visaged adjs.; man-fashion adv.
1880S. Lanier Sunrise 19 Sweet burly-bark'd, *man⁓bodied Tree.
1839Bailey Festus xix. (1852) 301 All theosophic lore Of *man-born, or angelic mind.
1859Tennyson Guinevere 244 And strong *man-breasted things stood from the sea.
1959D. Cooke Lang. Mus. ii. 54 A proud, *man-centred existence, in which the emphasis was on personal happiness.
1877G. Macdonald Marquis of Lossie II. x. 116 There's mair poetry in auld *man-faced Miss Horn nor in a dizzen like them. a1930D. H. Lawrence Etruscan Places (1932) iv. 123 Some acts..the man-faced bull accepts calmly.
1890L. D'Oyle Notches 32 She..rode *man⁓fashion.
[1587Golding De Mornay xvii. 320 Not being a babe or a yoong childe, but being come to yeeres of discretion and a *mangrowne.] c1640J. Smyth Lives Berkeleys (1883) I. 168 His owne sonnes now man-growne. 1883Blackw. Mag. June 800 He was man-grown and in the Scottish service in France between 1420 and 1430.
1855J. Gott Lett. (1918) 81 Rows of sphinxes *man-headed and god-headed. 1941L. MacNeice Poetry of Yeats v. 98 The hero of this poem..is a man sailing through faerie seas haunted by man-headed birds.
1679Moxon Mech. Exerc. 164 Part of the Battlement being Breast high..the other part *Man-high, to secure Men from the shot of their enemies. 1837Longfellow Frithiof's Homestead 4 Man-high was waving the rye-field. 1932Auden Orators ii. 44 After the death of their proud master, who Stood man-high in his socks and paid his debts. 1954J. R. R. Tolkien Two Towers 171 Man-high, but with goblin-faces. 1973C. Bonington Next Horizon xiv. 209 We..had reached the grass-line—great tussocks of coarse, man-high grass.
1842Tennyson Talking Oak 51 When his [sc. Hen. VIII's] *man-minded offset rose To chase the deer at five.
1855A. de Vere Poems 120 That love, or none, is fit for one *Man-shaped like thee. 1871Duncan in Cassell's Nat. Hist. I. 6 The man-shaped, or anthropomorphous apes.
1932W. Faulkner Light in August ii. 44 The house unpainted, small..*mansmelling, manstale.
1938S. Spender Trial of Judge i. 15 Electric advertisements In city squares—those *man-tall golden letters.
1615Chapman Odyss. i. 205 In a throne, he plac'd The *man-turnd Goddesse.
1920R. Graves Country Sentiment 39 Sing then of ringstraked manticor, *Man-visaged tiger.
20. a. Special comb.: man-ape, an anthropoid ape; † man-bane, an opprobrious name for tobacco; man-bound a., ‘detained in port in consequence of being short of complement’ (Smyth Sailor's Word-bk. 1867); man-boy, a youth, an immature man; man-broker = crimp n.1 2 (ibid.); man-car U.S., a kind of car used for carrying miners up and down the steeply inclined shafts of mines on Lake Superior (Cent. Dict. 1890); † man-case, nonce-wd. for ‘body’; † man-catch v., to trap (men); man-catcher, (a) one who catches or traps men; (b) an instrument used in New Guinea for catching men (see quot. 1898); so man-catching vbl. n.; man-crab (see quot.); man-crazy a. = man-mad adj.; man-dealer, a slave-dealer; † man-dream [dream n.1], human joy, loud mirth; man-engine, a kind of lift for lowering and raising miners in a shaft, consisting essentially of a reciprocating vertical rod with platforms at intervals; † man-entered a., initiated into manhood; † man-fish Her. = merman; man-fungus, a fungus of the genus Geaster; an earth-star (Treas. Bot. 1866); man-hair, a man's pubic hair; † man-huckster nonce-wd. (applied to a ‘mistress of the male stews’); man-hungry a., desirous of a man; man-in-space orig. U.S., an astronaut; freq. attrib.; man-keeper local, the water newt, Lissotriton punctatus; † man-leech, a whore; † man-litter, a sedan chair; man-load, a load such as one man can carry; man-machine, (a) = man-engine; (b) a man who acts mechanically; an automaton (cf. quot. 1904 s.v. 22 a below); (c) used as adj. to denote a relationship or communication between a man and a machine; man-mad a., madly desirous of a man or men (cf. man-wood adj.); † man-mender, a surgeon; man-mercer, one who deals in man's wear; man-merchandise, slave-dealing; † man-miln Sc., a hand-mill for grinding; † man-minister, a chaplain; man-monkey, an anthropoid ape; man-mountain, the name given to Gulliver by the Lilliputians; hence allusively; now applied esp. to a wrestler; man-mountainism; man orchis, (a) also green man-orchis or greenman orchis, the greenish-flowered orchid, Aceras anthropophora; (b) Orchis mascula; man-pack, manpack, a compact package containing equipment or supplies, designed to be carried easily by one man; also attrib.; † man peach, a variety of peach; man-power, (a) the power or agency of man in work; (b) used as a unit of power or rate of working; (c) the number of persons available for a purpose, esp. for military service; also attrib.; man-rail (see quot.); man-riding Mining, the vehicular transport of miners underground; freq. attrib.; so man-rider, a train of vehicles designed for this; man-root, the American Ipomæa leptophylla (Cent. Dict.); man-rope Naut., one of the ropes on each side of a gangway or ladder, used in ascending and descending a ship's side, etc.; man-rope (knot) (see quot.); manself [after himself pron.] nonce-wd., man's self; man-shift, (the amount of work done in) a single shift worked by one man; man-size(d) a., of the size of a man; large, full-size; large enough to occupy, suit, or satisfy a man; man-starved ppl. a., suffering from the lack of a man or men; desirous of a man; † man-state, the age at which a Roman youth assumed the toga virilis; † man-steid a. Sc., supplied with men; man-strength = man-power (c); man-sty [after pig-sty], a dwelling-house or hut unfit for human habitation; man-tailored a., of women's clothes: tailored after the fashion of men's clothes; † man-thews, human customs, manners; man-trade, the slave-trade (cf. man-dealer); man-way U.S. Mining, ‘a small passage used by workmen, but not for transportation’ (Raymond Mining Gloss. 1881); manweed, fuller's teazel, Dipsacus fullonum; man-wise adv. and pred. a., in the fashion or way of men; in respect of a man; concerning individual men; † man-wood a., ‘man-mad’, madly desirous of a man; † man-worth (see quot. 1670).
1878N. Amer. Rev. CXXVII. 44 The myriads of years which have elapsed since the *man-apes began to stand upright.
a1618Sylvester Tobacco Battered 515 Th' Heat and Drought of th' Herb American Being intensive (fitter call'd *Man-bane). 1630J. Taylor (Water P.) Proclamation Wks. ii. 252/1 A foule contagious, stinking Manbane weede.
1927W. Deeping Kitty ix. 115 This husband of hers, this *man-boy, what was he? 1945S. Spender Citizens in War iv. 35 Tolerance defeated the religious man-boy who expected at least to be persecuted.
1655Fuller Ch. Hist. iii. vii. §13 He had an handsome *man-case.
1682Hickeringill Black Non-Conf. B, Bespatter them, Trepan them, Teague them, Taffee them, and *Man-catch them.
1702C. Mather Magn. Chr. vii. 63 Captain..fell into the Hands of these desperate [Indian] *Man-catchers. 1898Dublin Rev. July 170 Another instrument of capture is the ‘man-catcher’, a flexible rattan fastened at one end in a loop, into which a sharp spike protrudes. As it is slipped over the foe, a sudden jerk is given to it, which causes the latter to impale the base of the skull.
1681E. Hickeringill (title) The Horrid Sin of *Man-catching: a Sermon on Jer. v. 25, 26.
1772Rutty Nat. Hist. Dublin I. 375 Cancer latipes Rondeletti, a small shell-fish about the bigness of a wall-nut, which has something like the delineation of a human face upon it, whence it has been sometimes called the *Man-Crab.
1923G. Atherton Black Oxen xlii. 262 The young women would say, in their nasty slang, that I was probably *man-crazy. 1967H. Van Siller Biltmore Call 128 Never liked the woman... Man crazy and two-faced. 1972A. Amin tr. Ahmad's No Harvest but Thorn xi. 115 Let them call her bold... That Jeha was man-crazy.
1860Gen. P. Thompson Audi Alt. III. cxxxvii. 110 The Transatlantic *man-dealer.
Beowulf 1264 He [Cain] þa faᵹ ᵹewat, morþre ᵹemearcod *mandream fleon, westen warode. c1205Lay. 23945 Þa aras þe mon-drem [c 1275 mannes drem] þat þe wolde dunede a-ȝen.
1865Morn. Star 7 Jan., In a few mines the *man-engine, which hoists and lowers the men, has been introduced. 1881Raymond Mining Gloss., Man-machine or Man-engine, Corn. and Derb.
1607Shakes. Cor. ii. ii. 103 His Pupill age *Man-entred thus.
1688R. Holme Armoury ii. 360/1 A Mere-man, or a Man-marine, or a *Man⁓fish..by others termed a Triton.
1928*Man-hair [see maidenhair 5 b].
a1625Beaum. & Fl. Custom Country v. v, Be so, and no more, you *man-huckster.
1951J. Cornish Provincials 220 Douglas fell..to a girl described by Bunty as twenty-eight and strictly *man⁓hungry.
1959Daily Tel. 21 Nov. 1/2 Capsule recovery is a crisis point in our *man-in-space programme. 1962Amer. Speech XXXVII. 43 Before April 12, 1961, the concept expressed by cosmonaut..was rendered..by such terms as..man-in-space. 1968Economist 28 Dec. 11/2 The man-in-space programme has earned itself enemies in powerful reaches of the scientific establishment.
1824Mactaggart Gallovid. Encycl. 392 He was fond of drinking filthy fluids, and his belly gave birth to some asks and *man-keepers. 1825–80Jamieson, Man-keeper, a name given to the newt..by the inhabitants of Dumfr. and Roxb., because they believe that it waits on the adder to warn man of his danger.
1687Sedley Bellamira iv. i, Thou punk, thou cockatrice, thou *man-leech, that suck'st their marrow and their money.
1640Brome Sparagus Garden ii. ii, A couple of lusty able bodied men..carry mee in a *Man-litter into the great bed at Ware.
1878H. M. Stanley Through Dark Continent I. xiv. 376 Suna commanded his Katekiro to make up 300 *man-loads of hoes and old iron.
1855J. R. L[eifchild] Cornwall Mines 279 Where they descend by the *man-machines their journey is easy both down and up. 1951M. McLuhan Mech. Bride (1967) 18/1 There is a wide range of mental states engendered in the same *man–machine relationship. 1953R. Lehmann Echoing Grove 240 He was now an automaton, a man-machine. 1967Cox & Grose Organiz. Bibliogr. Rec. by Computer iv. 99 This is what is meant by man–machine dialoguing.
1904N.E.D. s.v. man-wood adj., *Man-mad. 1928R. Macaulay Keeping up Appearances vii. 62 If a woman went on that way about men you'd call her man-mad. 1959News Chron. 28 Aug. 6/3 The man-mad duchess..picks up the young peasant painter.
a1641Suckling Goblins i. (1648) 15 A *Man⁓mender,..Has broacht me in so many places, All the Liquor in my body will run out. 1703Brit. Apollo No. 3 Man-menders then had noble pay—Which we call surgeons to this day.
1837Miss Mitford Country Stories (1850) 99 What business had he in a great shop? a *man⁓mercer's they call it.
1788Cowper Let. to Lady Hesketh 16 Feb., It being impossible to alledge an argument on behalf of *man-merchandize that can deserve a hearing.
1566Inv. R. Wardr. (1815) 173 Ane *mann-miln for making of poulder, with thre mortaris. 1580Ibid. 302 Ane man myln with all hir ganging geir.
1715M. Davies Athen. Brit. I. 52 Richard Paice..was at first but a *Mann-minister to Thomas Langton Bishop of Winchester.
1782F. Burney Cecilia vi. x, Why you won't pretend you did not hear Miss Beverley say you were the truest ourang outang, or *man-monkey, she ever knew?
1726Swift Gulliver i. ii, In the Right Coat Pocket of the Great *Man-Mountain (for so I interpret the Quinbus Flestrin). 1942Berrey & Van den Bark Amer. Thes. Slang §429/1 Corpulent person,..man mountain. Ibid. §707/2 Man mountain, a large wrestler. 1956J. Symons Paper Chase xxx. 240 He was trying desperately to establish some kind of grip that would move this man mountain. 1960E. W. Hildick Jim Starling & Colonel xii. 105 ‘Are you—er—Mr Thimble?’.. ‘Well, I'm not Man-Mountain Dean.’ 1972J. Mosedale Football viii. 105 A man-mountain for his time, he played tackle for the Giants and Packers.
a1861Mrs. Browning Bk. Poets Poems 1890 V. 204 While Gower may blame ‘his fortune’..for the dry specimen crumbled off from his *manmountainism.
1776Withering Bot. Arrangem. Vegetables II. 543 *Man Orchis. 1868Paxton's Bot. Dict., Green-man orchis. See Aceras anthropophera. 1882Garden 27 May 365/3 The popular name of Man Orchis given to Aceras anthropophora is certainly well bestowed, as a resemblance to a hanging man in the singular flowers of this plant is very apparent.
1967Electronics 6 Mar. 52/2 The jungle..absorbs and deflects transmissions from *man-pack radio sets. 1970Islander (Victoria, B.C.) 8 Feb. 5/3 Transportation was all by man-pack, pack-horse, canoe and raft.
1664Evelyn Kal. Hort., Aug. (1679) 22 Roman Peach, *Man Peach, Quince Peach [etc.].
1862H. Spencer First Princ. ii. xiv. §114 (1875) 325 When horse-power and *man-power were alone employed. 1893Eng. Mechanic Dec. 332/2 Maxim's early trials gave..about 1 lb. per man-power. 1898Century Mag. July 346 Jinrikisha,—those most fascinating man-power carriages. 1917W. S. Churchill in World Crisis 1916–18 (1927) 11. 378 It is not possible to settle the question of man-power without a clear idea of the plan of campaign. 1919Brit. Manufacturer Nov. 25/1 One of these man-power ploughs, adapted for small holdings and for use on terraced land, is driven by a cable. 1926A. Bennett Lord Raingo xii. 60 Biggest piece of political camouflage ever attempted, the Man-Power bill is. 1972Accountant 28 Sept. 386/2 The popular vogue of ‘man⁓power planning’..must be more competently compiled where new relevant facts and figures are fed back from the human resource accounting system. 1972Daily Tel. 28 Nov. 16 A great deal of manpower was being wasted before the merger.
1871Routledge's Ev. Boy's Ann. Dec. 24 Along each side of the boiler is fixed a hand-rail, called a *man-rail.
1967Gloss. Mining Terms (B.S.I.) x. 11 *Manrider, a manriding train.
1950H. F. Banks in E. Mason Pract. Coal Mining II. xxxv. 530/2 Where locomotives and large mine cars are in use, they serve also as a means of *man riding. Ibid. 531/1 Fig. 78 illustrates one type of man-riding car. 1952T. Bryson Mining Machinery (ed. 3) xiv. 381 The train..comprises six man-riding carriages with seating accomodation for 18 persons, two brake cars.., and one tool car. 1972(title) Specification for cars for manriding in mines. (B.S.I.). 1973Times 2 Mar. (Wales Suppl.) p. iii/3 The coal board is now concentrating on increasing ‘manriding’—trains from pit bottom to coalface—wherever the geology makes it possible.
1769Falconer Dict. Marine ii. (1780) Tire-veilles, the *man⁓ropes, or entering-ropes of the side. 1851H. Melville Whale viii. 42 With both hands grasping the ornamental knobs of the man-ropes. 1883Man. Seamanship for Boys' Training Ships R. Navy (Admiralty) (1886) 121 A double-wall, double-crowned..is used for man-ropes, stopper-knots, &c., also called a man-rope knot.
1880G. M. Hopkins Note-bks. & Papers (1937) 271 He..would raise man..infinitely above *man⁓self to the divine justice.
1930Engineering 3 Jan. 23/3 Variations in the standard of living..are reflected in the average output per *man-shift. 1946Nature 17 Aug. 226/2 In 1938..the Ruhr coal miner produced 30·5 cwt. per man-shift; in the same year the British miner produced 23 cwt. per man-shift.
1913R. W. Service Rhymes of Rolling Stone 103 The *man-size mountains palisade us round on every side. 1928Publishers' Weekly 16 June 2441 Since writing is a man-size job, he would have his hands full. 1963House & Garden Mar. 130/1 (Advt.), Fourpenn'orth of Phurnacite ‘eggs’ will heat enough water for a man-size bath. 1975Times 13 Jan. 8/1 We would..drink whisky out of mansize glasses.
1920J. Gregory Man to Man (1921) xvii. 209 He was trying to hide a pair of *man-sized feet behind his table. 1920S. Lewis Main St. xxiii. 277 A regular man-sized pair of pants. 1954‘N. Shute’ Slide Rule vii. 167 These wood⁓workers, accustomed as they were to man-sized factories, regarded Airspeed Ltd as a joke. 1972F. Durbridge Bat out of Hell v. 174 Thelma..blew her nose on a tiny handkerchief which seemed ridiculous in her man-sized hand.
1961Times 24 Oct. 13/2 Beautiful, *man-starved women.
1558T. Phaer æneid Life Virgil (1573) A iij, When he was thirteene yeere of age, he receaued the garment of *manstate. 1610Healey St. Aug. Citie of God 140 He tooke on his gowne of man-state.
a1578Lindesay (Pitscottie) Chron. Scot. (S.T.S.) I. 228 Thrie greit scheipis weill *man steid, weill wittallit and artaillzeit.
1931Ann. Reg. 1930 1. 23 The United States was greatly adding to its *man-strength.
1799Southey Comm.-pl. Bk. IV. 518 The most miserable and beastly collection of *man-sties I ever beheld. 1887Pall Mall G. 4 May 5/1 The unutterable ‘man-sties’ which do duty for labourers' cottages.
1922Joyce Ulysses 153 Molly had that elephantgrey dress with the braided frogs. *Mantailored with selfcovered buttons. 1970Women's Wear Daily 23 Nov. 31 (Advt.), Man-tailored jeans by Anvil Brand are now available.
c1000Juliana 410 Þæt he *mon⁓þeawum minum lifᵹe. a1250Prov. ælfred 432 in O. E. Misc. 128 Þe hwile hit is lutel ler him monþewes [later text monnis þewis].
1760J. Philmore (title) Two Dialogues on the *Man-Trade. 1828Burton's Diary III. 258 note, This lettered barbarian,..in the genuine spirit of the man-trade, ‘hoped never to see our negroes in America become Christians’.
1829Glover's Hist. Derby i. 108 Dipsacus fullonum, *manweed or fuller's teasel.
1901*Man-wise [see group-wise adv. s.v. group n. 6]. 1930D. H. Lawrence A propos Lady Chatterley 39 Men experience the great rhythm of emotion man-wise, women experience it women-wise.
1579–80North Plutarch Lycurgus & Numa (1595) 84 Andromanes; to say, *manwood [printed manhood, corrected in ed. 1612]. a1586Sidney Arcadia ii. (1598) 229 Women man-wood, & men effeminate.
c1000Laws Hloðhære & Eadric c. 1 ᵹif mannes esne eorlcundne mannan ofslæhþ..se aᵹend þone banan aᵹefe, and do þær þrio *man-wyrþ to. 1670–91Blount Law Dict., Manworth, the price or value of a Man's Life or Head; every Man, according to his degree, being rated at a certain price, according whereunto, satisfaction was, of old, made to his Lord, for the killing him.
b. With a period of time, as man-day, man-hour, man-minute, man-month, man-week, man-year, a day, hour, etc., of one person's work (or life). Also in extended use. Cf. man-load, -shift (sense 20 a above).
1925E. O. Shebbeare in E. F. Norton Fight for Everest, 1924 iii. vi. 364 Each case would contain a sufficient ration of all kinds of food for a given number of ‘men-days’. 1957M. Swan Brit. Guiana i. iv. 83 The doctor told me that before the conquest malaria accounted for about 55,000 hospital man-days a year. 1972D. Haston In High Places vi. 74 As for food... Some dried meat, bacon, nuts, chocolate and a few hot drinks per man-day. 1972M. D. Papagiannis Space Physics & Space Astron. 280 In less than 10 years from the first manned flight we have accumulated more than a year of man-days in space.
1917Anti-Submarine Rep. (Admiralty, R. Naval Air Service) Dec., Many air stations have large complements, and a comparison of the number of ‘man hour's’ work carried out with the the hours of flying on anti-submarine service will be found of interest. 1924H. H. Emsley Factory Costing 76 The number of productive ‘man-hours’ in each department during each ‘cost period’. 1951R. A. Knox Stimuli iii. xxii. 131 Experts are uncomfortably reckoning out what chances..we are throwing away in terms of man-hours. 1971Nature 29 Oct. 625/1 Countless man⁓hours have been spent on ‘measuring’ such allegedly useful entities as ‘IQ’ and ‘reading age’. 1973D. Westheimer Going Public ix. 133 How many man-hours do you spend actually executing an assignment?
1934Webster, Man-minute. 1947Crowther & Whiddington Science at War ii. 111 The actual working-time was only 53 man-minutes.
1956Jrnl. Assoc. Computing Machinery III. 65 At the cost of..two or three man-months of programming time. 1969J. Argenti Managem. Techniques vii. 42 This package cuts out nearly all the hard, highly skilled man-months of programming. 1973Computers & Humanities VII. 190 The preparation of the double transcription of the Vulgate text took seven man⁓months.
1945Times 19 Jan. 2/4 About 1,300,000 man⁓weeks remained to be consumed by March 31 if the labour force remained the same. 1961Jrnl. Oil & Colour Chemists' Assoc. XLIV. 296 With proper planning fifty paints can be fully investigated in approximately two man weeks.
1928A. S. Eddington Nature Physical World ix. 180 We must describe the amount of humanity in it [sc. Great Britain] as 400 million man-years. 1956J. Masters Bugles & Tiger ii. 71 All my family's hundreds of man-years of work now focused on me. 1969J. Argenti Managem. Techniques vii. 41 Linear Programming..might take two man⁓years to develop an ‘LP Model’ of a company. 1973Times 12 Feb. (Anchor Project Suppl.) p. i/5 This level is likely to be little more than half the output a man-year that will be expected from single, integrated works of more than seven million tonnes capacity.
21. Combinations with man's: † man's age = man-age; † man's blood, (a) a kind of thistle; (b) the Gr. ἀνδρόσαιµον, ‘a kind of St. John's wort, with blood-red juice’ (Liddell and Scott); † man's-bond, a slave, bondsman, in quot. collect. sing.; man's enemy, the Devil; † man's kind = mankind; man's man, a man whose qualities are appreciated by other men; a man who is popular with other men; so man's woman (see also quot. 1905); † man's meat, food for men; also transf. in indecent sense; man's mercer (see quot.); † man's motherwort = Palma Christi; † man's queller, an executioner (cf. manqueller).
1594T. B. La Primaud. Fr. Acad. ii. To Rdr., The bodie of man in the third part of his age, commonly called *mans-age [etc.].
1601Holland Pliny II. 98 Acorna, marg., A kind of thistle: some call it *Mans bloud. Ibid. 275 Some cal this herbe Androsæmon, marg. Mans bloud. 1611Florio, Acorna, a thistle called Mans blood.
c1330R. Brunne Chron. (1810) 115 Now er þise bot *mansbond, rascaile of refous.
a1800Laird of Waristoun v. in Child Ballads IV. 31/1 At her richt hand There stood *Man's Enemy.
a1300Cursor M. 14909 For he þe time sais command nei, þar he for *mans kind wil dei. 1390Gower Conf. II. 264 And what hir liste,..Sche dede..That passeth over manneskinde.
1897G. du Maurier Martian 214 He had been essentially a *man's man hitherto, in spite of his gay light love for lovely women; a good comrade par excellence, a frolicsome chum, a rollicking boon-companion, a jolly pal! 1902J. Buchan Watcher by Threshold v. ii. 277, I know he's supposed to be a man's man..but I'm honest enough to own to detesting him. 1960Man's man [see dig v. 6 c]. 1972P. Newton Sheep Thief v. 39 He had had comparatively little to do with women. Essentially a man's man he had been wrapped up in his calling.
1475Bk. Noblesse (Roxb.) 30 They finding bothe horsmete and *mannysmete to youre soudeours. 1586J. Hooker Hist. Irel. in Holinshed II. 166/2 In dooing of his seruice, he shall take horsse-meat, and mans-meat where he list. 1629Burton Babel no Bethel 46, I will not envy him, so long as I feed on that which is sound and mans meate (as we say). 1664Falkland Marriage Night ii. i. 13 But is she Mans meat? I..can scarcely digest one in her Teens. 1760Foote Minor ii. (1767) 53 Here she has brought a pretty piece of man's meat already; as sweet as a nosegay, and as ripe as a cherry.
1803S. Pegge Anecd. Eng. Lang. 267 A *man's mercer—One who furnishes small articles to taylors', as twist, buckram, stay tape.
1597Gerarde Herbal App., *Mans motherwort is Palma Cristi.
c1450Mirour Saluacioun 3270 Qwene Thamare..Whilk Cirus..*mannes qwellere hevedid.
1905A. Bennett Sacred & Profane Love ii. vi. 191, I was at last a *man's woman. I had a protector. 1930W. S. Maugham Writer's Notebk. (1949) 232 She is what is called a man's woman, and exchanges chaff across the dining-room with the other guests. 1968E. McGirr Lead-Lined Coffin iii. 108 Jeanie's a man's woman, you know, not a woman's woman.
22. Combinations with men:
a. appositive, serving as plurals of combs. with man (see 19 a, b, and main words, e.g. man-child). Also men-folk, men-kind.
[1382Wyclif Joel iii. 9 Alle Men-fiȝters [Vulg. viri bellatores] cum to, and stey vp. ]1611Bible Eccl. ii. 8 Men singers and women singers. 1632Lithgow Trav. x. 463 O strange inhumanity of Men-monster Manglers! 1646M. Lluelyn (title) Men-miracles with other Poemes. 1687T. Brown Saints in Uproar Wks. 1730 I. 72 Both among the Men-Saints and Women-Saints. 1739Cibber Apol. (1756) I. 105 Those other men actors who..were equally famous in the lower life of comedy. 1741Richardson Pamela (1824) I. 179 Do you, Beck, help Pamela to 'tend us; we will have no men-fellows. a1745Swift Direct. Serv. ii. (1745) 36 The Custom began..to keep Men Cooks, and generally of the French Nation. 1814Sir R. Wilson Pr. Diary II. 346 His holiness made his entrance yesterday, drawn by men cattle. 1864Pusey Lect. Daniel vii. 442 Large colossi and very long men-sphinxes. 1892E. Reeves Homeward Bound 141 We had a dispute which were men Cingalese and which women. 1904Westm. Gaz. 22 Nov. 12/1 Nowadays the Kaiser's men-machines take the best part of the pavement from anyone whom they may safely elbow off. 1907A. C. Benson Diary 31 Jan. (1926) 157 Yet I do not squabble with my men-friends. 1910F. L. Barclay Rosary ii. 10 But of men friends she had many. 1923D. H. Lawrence Birds, Beasts & Flowers 172 Men-peasants from jungle villages dancing and running with sweat and laughing. 1952S. Spender Shelley ii. 9 Hogg..was the first in a series of rather earth-bound men-friends. 1973J. Burrows Like an Evening Gone i. 12 How many attendant men friends?
b. objective, instrumental, etc., synonymous with the corresp. combs. with man (see 19 d, e and main words, e.g. man-eater).
1692Bentley Boyle Lect. 125 Those mountainous kind of animals and *men-bearing trees.
1682S. Pordage Medal Rev. 274 Rebels and Traytors they will still Create, And are *Men-Catchers of the highest rate.
1599Hakluyt Voy. II. ii. 104 Which made them beleeue that we were cruell people and *men-eaters. 1719De Foe Crusoe i. xiii, They..being men-eaters.
1634Sir T. Herbert Trav. (Table) 228 Anzigues, a *men-eating Nation.
1619A. Newman Pleas. Vis. (1840) 42 They have such *men-inchanting features.
c1550Cheke Matt. iv. 19 Come after me and J wil maak yow *menfischers.
1895Churchman No. 185. 268 *Men⁓fishing is most difficult work, but He who bade us go has likewise said ‘I am with you’.
1553T. Wilson Rhet. 51 Such *menflesht vilaynes make small accompte for killynge anye one.
1834Tait's Mag. I. 124 The *men-hunters found a Guahibi mother, with three children.
1832Miss Mitford Village Ser. v. 337 The *men-like bathing women.
1753Foote Eng. in Paris i. Wks. 1799 I. 33 All the fraternity of *men-makers..; taylors, peruquiers, hatters, hosiers.
1619Fletcher M. Thomas ii. iii, Whither goe all these *men⁓menders, these Physicians?
1526Tindale Eph. vi. 6 Not with service in the eye sight, as *men pleasars.
1615Hieron Wks. I. 604 Such a time-seruing, *men-pleasing, forsaking of flockes. 1632Sanderson Serm. (1681) II. 19 S. Paul, who in one place professeth men-pleasing,..taking it in the better sense.
1297R. Glouc. (Rolls) 9333 Robbeors..& manquellars [MS. B. *menquellares]. 1422tr. Secreta Secret., Priv. Priv. 164 Traytouris, and rebelle, trew men quelleris. 1563–87Foxe A. & M. (1596) 70/2 Which all were esteemed as men quellers.
a1300E.E. Psalter lviii. 3 And *men-slaers, sauve me fra þa. 1380Lay Folks Catech. 736 (Lamb. MS.) Bakbyters and sowers of fals lesynggys..arn wykkyd men-sleers. c1450St. Cuthbert (Surtees) 810 Menslaers, robbours.
1526Tindale 1 Tim. i. 10 To *menstealers: to lyars and to periured. a1677Hale Hist. Placit. Cor. (1736) I. 9 Men-stealers were punished with death. 1860Pusey Min. Proph. 134 The Tyrians..were slave-dealers, and in the earliest time, men-stealers.
1796M. Robinson Angelina I. 36 The *men-trappers rushed in, and they forced him away.
1865J. H. Ingraham Pillar of Fire (1872) 164 We are still idolaters, that is, mere *men-worshippers.
c. men-only a., designating a place, etc., restricted for the use of men.
[1935(magazine-title) Men only. 1955H. W. Allen in Stag Party with ‘Men Only’ 12 The Sporting Times, affectionately known from the colour of its paper as the Pink 'Un, that spicy and distinctly Men Only weekly of Victorian days.] 1965‘S. Ransome’ Alias his Wife vi. 57 Without discouraging women as customers, it had become a men-only place. 1967N. Fitzgerald Affairs of Death ii. 34 It's a men-only bathing place. 1972G. Beare Bee Sting Deal x. 123 There was one hotel..rigidly dry and rigidly men-only.
23. Combinations with men's: † mens-kind = men-kind, † menskins, of the male sex; Men's Liberation, Men's Lib. orig. U.S. [after Women's Liberation, Women's Lib.], a movement aimed at freeing men from traditional views of their character and role in society; men's room orig. U.S., a lavatory for men; also (ellipt.) men's; men's wear, menswear, clothes for men.
1534Will Sir W. Butler (Somerset Ho.), Euerye of my seruauntes aswell menskynes as womenskynnes.
1592Kyd Sp. Trag. iii. v. 3 Wee mens-kinde, in our minoritie, are like women in their vncertaintie.
1970New Yorker 19 Dec. 101 We recently read in the Times about a group called Men's Liberation, Inc., whose aim is to free men from their traditional role of ‘all-powerful provider’ and embolden them to cry, complain, feel sorry for themselves, and change their minds. The members of Men's Lib say they are tired of ‘having to prove our masculinity twenty-four hours a day’ and believe that if their cause should prevail ‘outmoded concepts would disappear in the face of reality’. 1971N.Y. Times 17 June 41 To the Women's Liberation Movement the sex-role distinctions mean pressure to conform to separate and unequal rewards for being a woman. To the Men's Liberation Movement they mean pressure to conform to the ‘ego ethic’—or conform to perform. 1972‘J. Melville’ Ironwood ix. 154 Three months of Tessa and they [sc. her male assistants] must have been heading for freedom and Men's Lib.
1929‘E. Queen’ Roman Hat Mystery iii. 31 Search the lounge downstairs. The men's room, the ladies' room. 1947Auden Age of Anxiety (1948) ii. 51 Malin excused himself and went to the men's room. 1957S. Beckett All that Fall 24 Mrs. Rooney. ‘Where were you all this time?’ Mr. Rooney. ‘In the men's.’ 1962J. Wain Strike Father Dead 138 He's in the men's room. He's been wanting to go all evening, but as long as you were playing he didn't want to miss a note. 1972R. Lockridge Preach No More iii. 43 This friend of his had..gone to the men's, or something.
1947Partisan Rev. XIV. 364 Seymour's taste in clothes and men's wear was loud, practically spectacular. 1972P. Flower Cobweb ii. 58 Among the heaps of flowers a wreath from the Menswear Dept. 1973D. Robinson Rotten with Honour 35 [He] looked at Hale as if Hale were modelling menswear. 1974Radio Times 28 Feb. 4/3 The family textile and menswear business.
Add:[IV.] [20.] man-rem, a unit of radiation exposure equal to one rem incident on one person.
1973J. Dunster in New Scientist 18 Oct. 194/1 The collective dose..is the sum of the products of a level of radiation dose and the number of people exposed at that level. The collective dose has the unit ‘*man-rem’ and is auseful measure of the total dose to a community or population. 1975Science 14 Feb. 509 The total future cost of one man-rem in terms of health costs paid in present dollars, is between $12 and $120. 1977Health Physics XXXIII. 155/1 An additional concept was considered [by the American Nuclear Society]; that of the man-rem. Current guidelines detail the dose limit projection for individuals, but fail to consider the number of individuals—the integrated effect considered in man-rem... The work group expended considerable effort in attempting to incorporate a man-rem limit into research reactor siting criteria. 1979Washington Post 31 Mar. a8/2 Studies..show 10,000 to 20,000 man-rems would result in one to two excess cases of cancer in future years. 1983Financial Times 8 Jan. 4/2 The collective radiation dose of 50,000 man-rems accumulated by that work-force ‘may be increasing this number [of deaths from cancer] to 505 per year’.
▸ man bag n. a man's handbag or shoulder bag, esp. one of a style more usually carried by women.
1968Newark (Ohio) Advocate & Amer. Tribune 24 Apr. 10/1 (caption) The *manbag is a natural progression in the men's wear revolution that started a short time ago with turtlenecks. 1996Atlanta Jrnl. & Constit. (Nexis) 2 Aug. 32 s, A third guy who wasn't carrying a man bag. But he was wearing open-toed sandals with socks. 2004Independent 18 Nov. (Tabloid ed.) (Rev. section) 15/1 Last weekend, one Sunday supplement was full of the damn things—men, in case you didn't know—and they were all carrying man bags.
▸ man boobs n. colloq. = man breasts n.
1991soc.motss (Usenet Newsgroup) 3 Jan. (title of posting) Like *man boobs eh? 1999Vancouver Sun 30 Apr. a15/4 He proceeded to clasp one of my ‘man boobs’..and encourage the others in his group to come over and ‘cop a feel’. 2006Teen Now Spring 11/2 My body could be a bit thinner. I'm not keen on my belly or my man-boobs.
▸ man breasts n. colloq. unusually prominent breasts on a man (likened to those of a woman), typically consisting of pectoral fat but sometimes caused by hormonal factors.
1993Re: Tuan & Breasts: Flame-war in alt.sex-stories.d (Usenet newsgroup) 22 July You are nothing but an imposter, a disgusting worm tweaking the tiny nipples of your *man breasts. 1997Face June 204/2 My stomach is too big. I appear to be growing man-breasts. 2006Express (Nexis) 22 July 12 Our summer dress sense is appalling... Horrendous man breasts and beer guts decorate every pavement.
▪ II. † man, n.2 Obs.
[OE. mán str. neut. = OS. mên, OHG. mein, ON. mein:—OTeut. *mainom, neut. of *maino- adj.: see man a.]
Wickedness. Also Comb., † man deed, wicked act.
Beowulf 978 Ðær abidan sceal maᵹa mane fah miclan domes. c1000Ags. Ps. (Th.) cxviii. 69 Ys nu mæniᵹfeald ofer me man and unriht oferhydiᵹra. c1000Phœnix 457 [He] leahtras dwæsceþ mirce mandæde. c1175Lamb. Hom. 99 Deofles gast wissað to sunnan and to mandeden. c1200Ormin 4478 Þatt tu þe loke wel fra man Inn aþess & i wittness.
▪ III. † man, n.3 Obs.
Also 5 mane.
[a. late L. man (Vulgate), a. Heb. mān.]
= manna.
a1300–1400Cursor M. 6384 (Gött.) Þai called it in þair langag man [Cott. manna]. 1382Wyclif Exod. xvi. 31 The hows of Yrael clepide the name of it man. c1485E.E. Misc. (Warton Cl. 1856) 14 O Crystes modyre, That feede ȝeure chyld with the heyvynly mane. 1604Hieron Wks. I. 500 As soone as they came into the promised land, the man ceased. 1644Z. Boyd Gard. Zion in Zion's Flowers (1855) App. 11/2 Th' Egyptian hotch potch which God's Israel Preferr'd to Man, their whilom—Angel's food.
▪ IV. † man, a. Obs.
[OE. mán = MHG. mein, ON. meinn:—OTeut. *maino-: according to some scholars a pa. pple. from the Indogermanic root *mei-, *moi- to change.]
Wicked.
c1000Ags. Ps. (Th.) liv. 15 Forðam..on hiora midle [is] man inwit-stæf. a1300Cursor M. 6848 Athes noiþer sothfast ne man [cf. Manath].
▪ V. † man, indef. pron. Obs.
Also mon. See also the weakened forms men, me indef. prons.
[OE. man, mǫn = OS., OHG. (MHG., G.) man; an unstressed form of man n.1]
= one 21.
Beowulf 3176 Þæt mon his winedryhten wordum herᵹe. c1000Ags. Gosp. Matt. xiv. 11 And man brohte þa his heafod on anum disce. c1175Lamb. Hom. 139 Muchel man ach to wurþen þis halie dei. c1220Bestiary 267 Ȝet is wunder of ðis wirm more ðanne man weneð. c1250Gen. & Ex. 1488 A mete ðat man callen lentil gete. 1340Ayenb. 86 Yef man dede þet kuead to-yeans wylle: hit nere non zenne. a1375Treat. Mass 2 in Lay Folks Mass Bk. App. iv. 128 Hou mon scholde here hys masse.
▪ VI. man, v.|mæn|
Forms: 1 mannian, 4–6 manne, 6–7 mann, 6– man.
[OE. mannian, f. mann man n.1 Cf. MLG., MDu., Du., MHG., mod.G. mannen, ON., Sw. manna, Da. mande.]
1. a. trans. (orig. Mil. and Naut.) To furnish (a fort, ship, etc.) with a force or company of men to serve or defend it. Said also of the men.
c1122O.E. Chron. an. 1087 (MS. E.) Heora ælc ferde to his castele & þone mannoden. c1450St. Cuthbert (Surtees) 5876 With' halfe þair men þis schip þai mande. 1480Caxton Chron. Eng. ccxliii. 288 The thre carrikkes were lade with dyuerse marchaundyse and wel y manned. 1494Fabyan Chron. vii. ccxix. 241 Kyng Wyllyam also made .iiii. Stronge Castelles,..and manned theym with Normayns. 1592Nobody & Someb. in Simpson Sch. Shaks. (1878) I. 328 Man the Court gates, barricade al the streets. 1596Dalrymple tr. Leslie's Hist. Scot. ix. 155 Tha schot out the capitan Erskin, and manit the hous. 1600Holland Livy vi. 90 Every man cried Al'arm, ran up to the walls to man them. 1627Capt. Smith Seaman's Gram. vi. 27 Man the Boat is to put a Gang of men..into her. c1645Tullie Siege of Carlisle (1840) 3 He found the other side [of the river] manned wth regiments of hors and foot. 1694Motteux Rabelais iv. xxiv. (1737) 101 Man the Pinnace, and get her by the Ship's Side. 1781Gibbon Decl. & F. xlv. (1869) II. 711 The ramparts were manned. 1795Nelson 21 Mar. in Nicolas Disp. (1845) II. 20 A Fleet half manned, and in every respect inferior to the Enemy. 1833Marryat P. Simple xi, At last the frigate was full manned. 1861Hughes Tom Brown at Oxf. xiv. (1889) 134 The Oriel boat was manned chiefly by old oars. 1865Carlyle Fredk. Gt. xiv. ii. (1872) V. 165 The garrison of Eger..barely mans its own works. 1874Green Short Hist. vii. §6. 410 The English ships..were manned with 9000 hardy seamen. 1876Voyle & Stevenson Milit. Dict., To man, this term is commonly used in artillery to signify the arming of a battery with men, ready for action. 1885U. S. Grant Pers. Mem. I. xxi. 292 One hundred men left to man the guns in the fort.
absol.1713Steele Guard. No. 170 ⁋21 It is very rare if the French ever make use of any other ships than their own; they victual and man cheaper than we.
b. Naut. To place men at or on (a particular part of a ship), as at the capstan to heave anchor, or on the yards to salute a distinguished person. Said also of the men.
1697Tutchin Search Honesty v. 16 The Boatswain's whistle, and they Man the Side. 1706Phillips (ed. Kersey) s.v., Man the Capstan... Man well the Top... Man the Ladder. 1743Bulkeley & Cummins Voy. S. Seas 174 He came close by our Vessel, we mann'd her, and gave him three Cheers. 1796Log ‘Agamemnon’ 19 Jan. in Nicolas Disp. Nelson (1846) VII. p. xxxii, Manned Ship and cheered Sir John Jervis. 1817Byron Beppo xxvi, A better seaman never yet did man yard. 1840R. H. Dana Bef. Mast xv. 41 We manned the windlass, and hove, and hove away. 1875Bedford Sailor's Pocket Bk. vii. (ed. 2) 282 As soon as the signal is perceived by those on shore, the whip..will be manned, and the hawser hauled off by it to the wreck.
†c. To equip and send (a boat, occas. an army) with its complement of men in a certain direction (out, forth, after..). Obs.
1494Fabyan Chron. vi. clxxiii. 169 Y⊇ Londoners..manned out a certayne nombre of men of armys. 1556W. Towrson in Hakluyt Voy. (1589) 99 We manned out our Skiffe in like case to laye him aboorde. 1611Speed Hist. Gt. Brit. ix. xiii. 599 The Townesmen of Portsmouth and Dart maund [read mannd] forth a few ships at their owne perill and charge. a1659Osborn Ess. ii. Wks. (1673) 558 When God Mans out his Hosts, the Poor are found in the Forlorn Hope. 1698Fryer Acc. E. India & P. 51 We had mann'd three Boats after them. 1719De Foe Crusoe ii. xi, I..manned out the pinnace. a1774Goldsm. Hist. Greece I. 320 Lysander at first manned out a few ships.
†2.
a. To supply with inhabitants; to people. Obs.
c1400Mandeville (1839) xviii. 187 This Yle is fulle wel inhabyted, and fulle wel manned. 1433Rolls of Parlt. IV. 445/1 Howe youre Toune..is wele enhabited and manned. a1548Hall Chron., Hen. VI 156 b, The Englishemen wer not of puyssaunce, either to man the tounes..or to inhabite the countrey. 1598Sylvester Du Bartas ii. i. iv. Handie-crafts 272 Man-kind with fruitfull Race began A little corner of the World to Man. Ibid. ii. ii. ii. Babylon 185.
†b. nonce-use. To fill up with men. Obs.
1596Spenser F.Q. vi. xi. 46 [He] slew the formost that came first to hand So long till all the entry was with bodies mand.
†3.
a. To provide (a person) with followers or attendants. Obs.
14..Sir Beues 3080 (MS. S.), [He] armed him foot hot And manned him welle in a bot. 1526Skelton Magnyf. 441 Counterfet capytaynes by me are mande. 1597Shakes. 2 Hen. IV, i. ii. 18 Thou art fitter to be worne in my cap, then to wait at my heeles. I was never mann'd with an Agot till now. Ibid. 66. 1606 Chapman Mons. D'Olive Plays 1873 I. 221 To be mand with one bare Page and a Pandare. 1621Bp. R. Montagu Diatribæ 446 Such roysters and rake-shames as Mars is manned with, Hercules is not said to be attended withall. 1752Fielding Amelia ix. ix, Come along, Jack, I have seen her before; but she is too well manned already.
b. † To furnish (horses) with riders (obs.). Also (Australian), to catch hold of and restrain (a horse).
1535Coverdale 2 Kings xviii. 23, I wil geue y⊇ two thousande horses, let se yf thou be able to man them. 1655E. Terry Voy. E. Ind. 411 To have horses alwayes in readinesse well mann'd. 1890‘R. Boldrewood’ Col. Reformer (1891) 193 Man the horses, Eachin!
4. To fill (a post, office, etc.) with a man or men. Also with up; spec. to supply with the full number of workers required.
1821Southey in Q. Rev. XXV. 295 The pulpits were manned with seditious preachers. 1822J. W. Croker in C. Papers 25 Aug., No Government..was ever better manned in the subordinate departments than ours. 1900Blackw. Mag. Jan. 37/1 There are often twenty to thirty of these committees to be manned in a session. 1947Times 6 Feb. 5/5 Must industries be fully ‘manned up’ rather than ‘manned’? Must the strong, simple transitive verb..become as obsolete in England as it appears to be in America? 1947Hansard Commons 18 Dec. 1895/1 Mining and agriculture are the two most vital industries which we must man-up. 1951E. A. G. Robinson in D. N. Chester Lessons Brit. War Econ. iii. 52 Their most urgent jobs were not in fact manned-up as they would have liked. 1955Times 20 May 11/6 The need to ‘man up’ undermanned industries ‘in the national interest’ might justify higher wages. 1969Times 6 Mar. 23/1 ‘We're manned up again,’ came a voice of relief... Superstitious members..now have the satisfaction of seeing their numbers rise from 13 to 20.
†5. To escort (a person, esp. a woman). Obs.
1567Drant Horace, Ep. vi. D ij, A cut throte rutterkin..Who will, and dare retche forthe his hande, and man the throughe the croude. 1580Lyly Euphues (Arb.) 291 She saide: will you not manne vs Fidus, being so proper a man? 1599Porter Angry Wom. Abingt. (Percy Soc.) 61 Thou knowest that Barnses wife And I am foes: now, man me to her house. 1607Dekker & Webster Northw. Hoe iv. F 1 b, Wife, on with your ryding suite, and..let my Prentice get vp before thee, and man thee to Ware. 1688R. Holme Armoury iii. 71/1 A Waiting Man..goeth abroad with his..Mistriss as a Companion, Manning or taking her by the hand in all dangerous places.
†6.
a. refl. To play the man. Obs.
c1330R. Brunne Chron. (1810) 224 Þei manned þam so boldely, on þam had non entre.
†b. to man it out: to bear up manfully. Obs.
1668Dryden All for Love ii. i, Well, I must Man it out.
7. To make manly or courageous; to brace up; to fortify the spirits or strengthen the courage of. Chiefly refl.
1617Fletcher Valentinian ii. iv, Good your Grace, Retire, and man your selfe. 1630R. Johnson's Kingd. & Commw. 26 Courage, is able at a pinch to man up it selfe. Ibid. 31 The conscience is an active sparke, and can easily man up all the powers of soule and body. 1668Dryden All for Love i. i, My Soul's up in Arms, And Mans each part about me. 1707S. Centlivre Cruel Gift iii, I feel my spirits gather to my heart, And man it out with courage for the tryal. 1711Addison Spect. No. 164 ⁋5 Theodosius having manned his Soul with proper Thoughts and Reflections. 1810Scott Lady of L. v. x, He mann'd himself with dauntless air. 1813Byron Corsair ii. iii, Submissive, yet with self-possession mann'd. 1883J. Hawthorne Dust xxvii. 225 So he manned himself, and said, quietly and firmly: ‘Though [etc.]’. 1875Emerson Lett. & Soc. Aims ix. 238 Only that is poetry which cleanses and mans me. 1881Mrs. C. Praed Policy & P. II. 251 He had manned himself to the sacrifice of his dearest hopes.
8. a. To invest with manly qualities or aspect; to make man-like. rare.
1615Chapman Odyss. ix. 688 One Vlysses; who I thought was mand With great and goodly personage [Gr. ϕῶτα µέγαν καὶ καλὸν]. 1616–61B. Holyday Persius 289 The different seasons of his life, and so riper age, might easily more man his countenance. 1839Bailey Festus viii. (1848) 78, I am a man in love, I cried; My heart was early manned. 1883E. Pennell-Elmhirst Cream Leicestersh. 152 We manned ourselves in breeches and gaiters.
†b. to be manned: to be made man. Obs.
1577tr. Bullinger's Decades Introd., Who for vs men,..was incarnate and manned [L. humanatus]. 1677Gilpin Demonol. (1867) 167 Just like the ravings of H. Nicholas, David George, and others, who..discourse of being ‘godded with God’,..and of God's being ‘manned with them’.
9. To be the master of; to manage, rule. Obs. exc. dial. (see E.D.D.).
c1330R. Brunne Chron. Wace (Rolls) 6436 To manne Armoriche [v.r. to haf a reume] þou were worthi. 1597–8Bp. Hall Sat. iv. vi. 18 Who like a cot-queene freezeth at the rocke, While his breach't dame doth man the forren stock. 1637Rutherford Lett. (1862) I. 337 Happy is your soul if Christ man the house..and command all.
10. Falconry. To accustom (a hawk, occas. other birds) to the presence of men. Hence (transf. and gen.) to make tame or tractable.[The spelling mained in quot. 1632, if not a mere misprint, seems intended to suggest derivation from F. main hand.] 1575Turberv. Faulconrie 79 To the ende your hawke may be the better manned and the sooner reclaimed. 1590Greene Mourn. Garm. (1616) 53 There are no Hawks sooner manned then they of India. 1590― Orl. Fur. (1599) 2 Those siluer Doues, That wanton Venus manth vpon her fist. 1596Shakes. Tam. Shr. iv. i. 196 Another way I haue to man my Haggard, To make her come, and know her Keepers call. 1607Markham Caval. ii. (1617) 30 After your horse is thus mand, and made gentle to be drest, shod, and handled. 1621Burton Anat. Mel. ii. ii. iv. (1651) 268 Some reclaime Ravens, Castrils, Pies &c. and man them for their pleasures. 1632Guillim's Heraldry (ed. 2) 227 Birds or fowles of Prey that are throughly mained and brought to the fist. 1633Massinger Guardian i. i, A cast of Haggard Falcons, by me man'd. 1668Shadwell Sullen Lovers v. Wks. 1720 I. 98 Must people then be tam'd into marriage, as they man Hawks with watching? 1881Macm. Mag. Nov. 39 He [the young hawk] is ‘carried’ for some hours amongst men, children, dogs, and horses..; and by this means,..is soon ‘manned’.
Hence manned ppl. a. (now esp. relating to aviation and space travel).
1617Moryson Itin. iii. 141 Shropshire..was a fortified and manned frontyer against the Welsh. 1685Boyle Enq. Notion Nat. vii. 330 Like a manned boat, where,..there is an intelligent being that.. steers it, or otherwise guides it. 1810Scott Lady of L. ii. xvi, Four manned and masted barges. 1906Nature 8 Nov. 35/1 (title) The first ‘manned’ flying machine. 1907Ibid. 4 Apr. 538/2 During the course of the last few years very rapid strides have been made in investigating the upper air by means of manned and unmanned balloons and kites. 1936G. Heard Exploring Stratosphere 18 As it was obviously impossible to obtain sufficient data by manned balloons, small sounding-balloons were released bearing a light cage containing self-recording instruments. 1946H. Harper Dawn of Space Age 4 It is intended to develop manned and instrument-carrying rockets capable of being projected in and beyond the earth's atmosphere. 1957Observer 28 July 6/3 In the present phase of manned bombers, which will last into the mid-1960s, the United States Strategic Air Command has some 1,500 B47 medium bombers capable of attacking the Soviet Union from bases around its periphery. 1960John o' London's 7 Apr. 395/1 Manned entry into interplanetary space is inevitable. 1968Times 16 Oct. 8/7 The probe seemed to be a trial for an imminent manned flight to the moon. 1971Guardian 3 July 1/3 The indication of a technical failure rather than a human failure..should be encouraging both to the Russian and the US manned space programmes.
▪ VII. man
var. maun v., must; var. maund n.2, an Indian weight: obs. north. f. moan v. |