Frenchmann.

1473 Paston Lett. III. 81 A few Frenchmen be whyrlyng on the coasts.

1488 Paston Lett. III. 344 They had nott seylyd not paste vj. leges butt they aspied a Frencheman [etc.].

1548 Misc. Spald. C. V. 52 To pas on ane Frencheman..deliuerit Wat Andersone, 2 s.

1582 R. Madox Diary 8 May in Elizabethan in 1582 (1976) 131 M. Owtreads ship..had geven such a salt to a Frenchman as made hir beshrew hir own selfe, so that now she lay wounded at Dartmowth.

1608 E. Grimeston tr. J. F. Le Petit Gen. Hist. Netherlands vi. 269 Two shippes of warre Frenchmen, ranne along the coast of Holland, who with their long boats went some-times to land, to surprize some of the Country-men, if they could in their beds.

1650 Mercurius Politicus No. 9. 144 A French man laden with Arms.

1723 D. Defoe Hist. Col. Jack (ed. 2) 228 The English Ship, tho' she did not sail so well as the Frenchman, was a bigger Ship, and strong built.

1798 T. Dibdin Mouth of Nile i. 5 D'ye see that fleet of Frenchmen off the coast! a vessel from it has just put into yonder Bay; a whole legion of red night-caps have landed.

1835 Naut. Mag. 4 738 We hailed a Ship which answred [sic] she was a frenchman from Marseilles.

1889 Daily News 21 Oct. 6/5 The vessel..proved to be a Frenchman.

1909 Times 14 Oct. 12/6 While there was still ample time for the German vessel to pass under the Frenchman's stern, the latter starboarded and continued starboarding.

1969 J. Coggins Ships & Seamen Amer. Revol. xxi. 199/2 The British had already formed line on the same (port) tack as the French..before the last of the Frenchmen were clear of the Cape.

1996 R. J. Martin & J. B. Havens Chief 42 In April 1798, the ship Nonpareil is taken off the Florida coast by a Frenchman from Guadeloupe.

1670 C. Cotton in tr. G. Girard Hist. Life Duke of Espernon Pref. sig. a^v The greater part of them being better Frenchmen, than I pretend to be.

1784 S. Johnson Let. 2 Sept. (1994) IV. 390 Your critick seems to me to be an exquisite Frenchman; his remarks..would..have escaped me.

1792 P. Wyndham in B. Ward Dawn Catholic Revival (1909) II. 15 Should be much obliged to you if you would give them [sc. French refugee priests] faculties to hear [i.e. confess] one another, for I am not Frenchman enough for that.

1828 J. Bentham Wks. (1843) I. 247 The subject was not without its difficulties; the language French: I am but a sorry Frenchman now; I was, I imagine, not quite so bad an one then.

1862 J. Timbs School-days Eminent Men (rev. ed.) 236 While there [sc. at Oxford] Mr. Fox read hard..and by the advice of a friend, he made himself an excellent Frenchman.

1693 Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) 17 948 French-men they [sc. Virginians] call those Plants, whose Leaves do not spread and grow large, but rather spire upwards, and grow tall.

1896 P. A. Bruce Econ. Hist. Virginia I. 439 The plants..showed..a tendency to lag in their growth and to take a spiral shape. For this reason they were always referred to as ‘Frenchmen’, a people who were associated in the Virginian mind with tallness and attenuation in form.

1944 Publ. Amer. Dial. Soc. ii. 66 Frenchman, Frenchmen, stalk(s) with short, erect small leaves and worthless as to quality. E. Va.

1885 Spons' Mechanics' Own Bk. 591 This Frenchman is simply an old dinner-knife ground to a point, the tip of which is turned down square to form a hook.

1934 T. S. Eliot Rock i. 22 Fancy anyone not knowin' that a Frenchman's a pointin' tool!

1966 W. G. Nash Brickwork 1 iii. 40 The frenchman is not generally purchased but is usually made from an old table knife.

1991 APT Bull. 23 44/3 The groove could also be cut with a ‘Frenchman’, a tool invariably recommended for trimming the pointing. It was typically described as being made from an old dinner knife.

1893 Baily's Mag. Oct. 258/1 The red leg, the very much-abused ‘Frenchman’ of the English fields.

1920 F. M. Ogilvie Field Observ. Brit. Birds 58 A Frenchman..has a loud, combative call.

1965 P. Wayre Wind in Reeds iii. 41 If they are Frenchmen, they may refuse to fly and simply run in front of the dog.

2006 Field July 47/3 While the greys came over in tight coveys which burst in a dizzying explosion of birds the split second they saw the guns, the Frenchmen came over in ones and twos and were easier to pick off.

1760 S. Derrick Lett. (1767) I. vi. 24 Having twice run round us, which she [sc. a French privateer] did with ease.., she then, French-man like, sheered off.

1807 W. Taylor in Ann. Rev. 5 560 The character of Orasmane is somewhat too chivalrous and Frenchmanlike for an Eastern sultan.

1873 Times 27 Aug. 4 French-man-like, he is so bored by the triste aspect of everything around him.., that he is dying to be off.

1945 A. Bryant Years of Victory iii. 69 Pitt's niece..found them perfectly at ease and engaged, Frenchmanlike, in dressing their hair and attending to their persons.