an enthusiast or devotee: I like jazz, but I'm essentially a classics man.
14.
Slang. male friend; ally: You're my main man.
15.
a term of familiar address to a man; fellow: Now, now, my good man, please calm down.
16.
Slang. a term of familiar address to a man or a woman: Hey, man, take it easy.
17.
one of the pieces used in playing certain games, as chess or checkers.
18.
History/Historical. a liegeman; vassal.
19.
Obsolete. manly character or courage.
20.
the man, Slang.
a.
a person or group asserting authority or power over another, esp. in a manner experienced as being oppressive, demeaning, or threatening, as an employer, the police, or a dominating racial group.
b.
a person or group upon whom one is dependent, as the drug supplier for an addict.
Also, the Man.
–verb (used with object)
21.
to furnish with men, as for service or defense.
22.
to take one's place for service, as at a gun or post: to man the ramparts.
23.
to strengthen, fortify, or brace; steel: to man oneself for the dangers ahead.
24.
Falconry. to accustom (a hawk) to the presence of men.
–interjection
25.
Slang. an expression of surprise, enthusiasm, dismay, or other strong feeling: Man, what a ball game!
—Idioms
26.
as one man, in complete agreement or accord; unanimously: They arose as one man to protest the verdict.
27.
be one's own man,
a.
to be free from restrictions, control, or dictatorial influence; be independent: Now that he has a business he is his own man.
b.
to be in complete command of one's faculties: After a refreshing nap he was again his own man.
28.
man and boy, ever since childhood: He's been working that farm, man and boy, for more than 50 years.
29.
man's man, a man who exemplifies masculine qualities.
30.
to a man, with no exception; everyone; all: To a man, the members of the team did their best.
[Origin: bef. 900; (n.) ME; OE man(n); c. G Mann, D man, ON mathr, Goth manna; (v.) ME mannen, OE mannian to garrison]
—Related forms
manless, adjective
man·less·ly, adverb
man·less·ness, noun
manness, noun
—Synonyms Man,male,gentleman are nouns referring to adult human beings who are biologically male; that is, physiologically equipped to initiate conception but not to bear children. Man is the most general and most commonly used of the three; it can be neutral, lacking either favorable or unfavorable implication: a wealthy man; a man of strong character, of unbridled appetites. It can also signify possession of the most typical or desirable masculine qualities: to take one's punishment like a man. Male emphasizes the physical or sexual characteristics of a man; it may also refer to an animal or plant: a male in his prime; two males and three females in the pack; a male of the genus Ilex. In scientific and statistical use, male is the neutral contrastive term to female: 104 females to every 100 males; Among birds, the male is often more colorful than the female. Gentleman, once used only of men of high social rank, now also specifies a man of courtesy and consideration: a real gentleman; to behave like a gentleman. Gentleman is also used as a polite term of reference (This gentleman is waiting for a table) or, only in the plural, of address (Are we ready to begin, gentlemen?). See also manly, male.
—Usage note The use of man1 to mean “human being,” both alone and in compounds such as mankind, has met with objection in recent years, and the use is declining. The objection is based on the idea that man is most commonly used as an exclusive, sex-marked noun meaning “male human being.” Critics of the use of man as a generic maintain that it is sometimes ambiguous when the wider sense is intended (Man has built magnificent civilizations in the desert), but more often flatly discriminatory in that it slights or ignores the membership of women in the human race: The man in the street wants peace, not war. Although some editors and writers reject or disregard these objections to man as a generic, many now choose instead to use such terms as human being(s), human race, humankind, people, or, when called for by style or context, women and men or men and women.See also -man, -person, -woman.
A human or an adult male human belonging to a specific occupation, group, nationality, or other category. Often used in combination: a milkman; a congressman; a freeman.
The human race; mankind: man's quest for peace.
Zoology A member of the genus Homo, family Hominidae, order Primates, class Mammalia, characterized by erect posture and an opposable thumb, especially a member of the only extant species, Homo sapiens, distinguished by a highly developed brain, the capacity for abstract reasoning, and the ability to communicate by means of organized speech and record information in a variety of symbolic systems.
A male human endowed with qualities, such as strength, considered characteristic of manhood.
Informal
A husband.
A male lover or sweetheart.
Workers.
Enlisted personnel of the armed forces: officers and men.
men
Workers.
Enlisted personnel of the armed forces: officers and men.
A male representative, as of a country or company: our man in Tokyo.
A male servant or subordinate.
Informal Used as a familiar form of address for a man: See here, my good man!
One who swore allegiance to a lord in the Middle Ages; a vassal.
Games Any of the pieces used in a board game, such as chess or checkers.
Nautical A ship. Often used in combination: a merchantman; a man-of-war.
often ManSlang A person or group felt to be in a position of power or authority. Used with the: "Their writing mainly concerns the street life—the pimp, the junky, the forces of drug addiction, exploitation at the hands of 'the man'"(Black World).
tr.v.
manned, man·ning, mans
To supply with men, as for defense or service: man a ship.
To take stations at, as to defend or operate: manned the guns.
To fortify or brace: manned himself for the battle ahead.
interj.
Used as an expletive to indicate intense feeling: Man! That was close.
[Middle English, from Old English mann; see man-1 in Indo-European roots.]
Usage Note: Traditionally, many writers have used man and words derived from it to designate any or all of the human race regardless of sex. In fact, this is the oldest use of the word. In Old English the principal sense of man was "a human," and the words wer and wyf (or wæpman and wifman) were used to refer to "a male human" and "a female human" respectively. But in Middle English man displaced wer as the term for "a male human," while wyfman (which evolved into present-day woman) was retained for "a female human." Despite this change, man continued to carry its original sense of "a human" as well, resulting in an asymmetrical arrangement that many criticize as sexist. · Nonetheless, a majority of the Usage Panel still accepts the generic use of man, although the women members have significantly less enthusiasm for this usage than the men do. For example, the sentence If early man suffered from a lack of information, modern man is tyrannized by an excess of it is acceptable to 81 percent of the Panel—but a breakdown by sex shows that only 58 percent of the women Panelists accept it, while 92 percent of the men do. A majority of the Panel also accepts compound words derived from generic man. The sentence The Great Wall is the only man-made structure visible from space is acceptable to 86 percent (76 percent of the women and 91 percent of the men). The sentence "The history of language is the history of mankind" (James Bradstreet Greenough and George Lyman Kittredge) is acceptable to 76 percent (63 percent of the women and 82 percent of the men). The Panel finds such compounds less acceptable when applied to women, however; only 66 percent of the Panel members (57 percent of the women and 71 percent of the men) accept the use of the word manpower in the sentence Countries that do not permit women to participate in the work force are at a disadvantage in competing with those that do avail themselves of that extra source of manpower. · Similar controversy surrounds the generic use of -man compounds to indicate occupational and social roles. Thus the use of chairman in the sentence The chairman will be appointed by the Faculty Senate is acceptable to 67 percent of the Panel (52 percent of the women and 76 percent of the men). Approval rates fall much further, however, for -man compounds applied to women. Only 48 percent (43 percent of the women and 50 percent of the men) accept the use of the word in Emily Owen, chairman of the Mayor's Task Force, issued a statement assuring residents that their views would be solicited. A majority of the Panelists also rejects the verb man when used to refer to an activity performed by women. Fifty-six percent of the Panel (61 percent of the women and 54 percent of the men) disapprove of the sentence Members of the League of Women Voters will be manning the registration desk. See Usage Notes at -ess, men, people, person.
Man\, n.; pl. Men. [AS. mann, man, monn, mon; akin to OS., D., & OHG. man, G. mann, Icel. ma[eth]r, for mannr, Dan. Mand, Sw. man, Goth. manna, Skr. manu, manus, and perh. to Skr. man to think, and E. mind. [root]104. Cf. Minx a pert girl.]1. A human being; -- opposed tobeast. These men went about wide, and man found they none, But fair country, and wild beast many [a] one. --R. of Glouc. The king is but a man, as I am; the violet smells to him as it doth to me. --Shak. 2. Especially: An adult male person; a grown-up male person, as distinguished from a woman or a child. When I became a man, I put away childish things. --I Cor. xiii. 11. Ceneus, a woman once, and once a man. --Dryden. 3. The human race; mankind. And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness, and let them have dominion. --Gen. i. 26. The proper study of mankind is man. --Pope. 4. The male portion of the human race. Woman has, in general, much stronger propensity than man to the discharge of parental duties. --Cowper. 5. One possessing in a high degree the distinctive qualities of manhood; one having manly excellence of any kind. --Shak. This was the noblest Roman of them all . . . the elements So mixed in him that Nature might stand up And say to all the world "This was a man!" --Shak. 6. An adult male servant; also, a vassal; a subject. Like master, like man. --Old Proverb. The vassal, or tenant, kneeling, ungirt, uncovered, and holding up his hands between those of his lord, professed that he did become his man from that day forth, of life, limb, and earthly honor. --Blackstone. 7. A term of familiar address often implying on the part of the speaker some degree of authority, impatience, or haste; as, Come, man, we 've no time to lose! 8. A married man; a husband; -- correlative to wife. I pronounce that they are man and wife. --Book of Com. Prayer. every wife ought to answer for her man. --Addison. 9. One, or any one, indefinitely; -- a modified survival of the Saxon use of man, or mon, as an indefinite pronoun. A man can not make him laugh. --Shak. A man would expect to find some antiquities; but all they have to show of this nature is an old rostrum of a Roman ship. --Addison. 10. One of the piece with which certain games, as chess or draughts, are played. Note: Man is often used as a prefix in composition, or as a separate adjective, its sense being usually self-explaining; as, man child, man eater or maneater, man-eating, man hater or manhater, man-hating, manhunter, man-hunting, mankiller, man-killing, man midwife, man pleaser, man servant, man-shaped, manslayer, manstealer, man-stealing, manthief, man worship, etc. Man is also used as a suffix to denote a person of the male sex having a business which pertains to the thing spoken of in the qualifying part of the compound; ashman, butterman, laundryman, lumberman, milkman, fireman, showman, waterman, woodman. Where the combination is not familiar, or where some specific meaning of the compound is to be avoided, man is used as a separate substantive in the foregoing sense; as, apple man, cloth man, coal man, hardware man, wood man (as distinguished from woodman). Man ape (Zo["o]l.), a anthropoid ape, as the gorilla. Man at arms, a designation of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries for a soldier fully armed. Man engine, a mechanical lift for raising or lowering people through considerable distances; specifically (Mining), a contrivance by which miners ascend or descend in a shaft. It consists of a series of landings in the shaft and an equal number of shelves on a vertical rod which has an up and down motion equal to the distance between the successive landings. A man steps from a landing to a shelf and is lifted or lowered to the next landing, upon which he them steps, and so on, traveling by successive stages. Man Friday, a person wholly subservient to the will of another, like Robinson Crusoe's servant Friday. Man of straw, a puppet; one who is controlled by others; also, one who is not responsible pecuniarily. Man-of-the earth (Bot.), a twining plant (Ipom[oe]a pandurata) with leaves and flowers much like those of the morning-glory, but having an immense tuberous farinaceous root. Man of war. (a) A warrior; a soldier. --Shak. (b) (Naut.) See in the Vocabulary. To be one's own man, to have command of one's self; not to be subject to another.
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Audio Help [man] Pronunciation Key noun, plural men, verb, manned, man·ning, interjection 
