Definitions for: Man


[n] any living or extinct member of the family Hominidae
[n] game equipment consisting of an object used in playing certain board games; "he taught me to set up the men on the chess board"; "he sacrificed a piece to get a strategic advantage"
[n] all of the inhabitants of the earth; "all the world loves a lover"
[n] one of the British Isles in the Irish Sea
[n] someone who serves in the armed forces; a member of a military force; "two men stood sentry duty"
[n]
[n] (informal) a male person who plays a significant role (husband or lover or boyfriend) in the life of a particular woman; "she takes good care of her man"
[n] an adult male person who has a manly character (virile and courageous competent); "the army will make a man of you"
[n] the generic use of the word to refer to any human being; "it was every man for himself"
[n] a male subordinate; "the chief stationed two men outside the building"; "he awaited word from his man in Havana"
[n] a manservant who acts as a personal attendant to his employer; "Jeeves was Bertie Wooster's man"
[v] provide with men; "We cannot man all the desks"
[v] take charge of a certain job; occupy a certain work place; "Mr. Smith manned the reception desk in the morning"



Webster (1913) Definition: 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.


Man, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Manned; p. pr. & vb. n.
Manning.]
1. To supply with men; to furnish with a sufficient force or
complement of men, as for management, service, defense, or
the like; to guard; as, to man a ship, boat, or fort.

See how the surly Warwick mans the wall ! --Shak.

They man their boats, and all their young men arm.
--Waller.

2. To furnish with strength for action; to prepare for
efficiency; to fortify. ``Theodosius having manned his
soul with proper reflections.'' --Addison.

3. To tame, as a hawk. [R.] --Shak.

4. To furnish with a servants. [Obs.] --Shak.

5. To wait on as a manservant. [Obs.] --Shak.

Note: In ``Othello,'' V. ii. 270, the meaning is uncertain,
being, perhaps: To point, to aim, or to manage.

To man a yard (Naut.), to send men upon a yard, as for
furling or reefing a sail.

To man the yards (Naut.), to station men on the yards as a
salute or mark of respect.


Man, n.

Man of sin (Script.), one who is the embodiment of evil,
whose coming is represented (--2 Thess. ii. 3) as
preceding the second coming of Christ. [A Hebraistic
expression]

Man-stopping bullet (Mil.), a bullet which will produce a
sufficient shock to stop a soldier advancing in a charge;
specif., a small-caliber bullet so modified as to expand
when striking the human body. Such bullets are chiefly
used in wars with savage tribes. Manbird Man"bird`, n.
An aviator. [Colloq.]

Synonyms: adult male, gentleman's gentleman, homo, human, human being, human beings, human race, humanity, humankind, humans, Isle of Man, mankind, military man, military personnel, piece, serviceman, valet, valet de chambre, world

Antonyms: adult female, civilian, woman

See Also: Abel, Adam, adonis, adult male body, air force officer, anatomy, arm, artilleryman, baboo, babu, bachelor, beau, bey, black, Black man, bloke, bluejacket, bod, body hair, body servant, boy, boyfriend, bozo, bruiser, build, bull, buster, Cain, cannoneer, castrate, cat, chassis, checker, chess piece, chessman, clotheshorse, commander, commando, conscript, crew, dandy, devil dog, divorced man, do work, Don, draftee, dude, ejaculator, enlisted person, Esq, Esquire, eunuch, ex, exboyfriend, ex-husband, ex-serviceman, face, fashion plate, father figure, father surrogate, father-figure, fellow, figure, flesh, foot, fop, force, form, frame, gallant, galoot, game equipment, geezer, gentleman, genus Homo, grass widower, graybeard, greybeard, group, grouping, gunner, guy, Ham, hand, head of hair, Herr, hombre, hominid, Homo erectus, Homo habilis, Homo rhodesiensis, Homo sapiens, Homo sapiens neanderthalensis, Homo soloensis, Hooray Henry, housefather, human, human body, human face, human foot, human head, hunk, inamorato, individual, inductee, ironside, island, Japheth, junior, leatherneck, loin, lover, lumbus, machine gunner, male, male person, mane, man's body, manservant, manus, Marine, material body, Methuselah, middle-aged man, military force, military group, military officer, military unit, military volunteer, mister, mitt, Monsieur, mortal, Mr, navy man, Neandertal, Neandertal man, Neanderthal, Neanderthal man, noncombatant, occupier, officer, old boy, old man, paw, people, person, pes, Peter Pan, physical body, physique, posseman, ranger, Rhodesian man, sailor, sailor boy, Samson, Senhor, Senor, Seth, shape, shaver, sheik, Shem, shipboard soldier, signior, signor, signore, skilled worker, soma, somebody, someone, soul, staff, strapper, striper, subordinate, subsidiary, swain, swell, trained worker, underling, unmarried man, vet, veteran, veteran soldier, voluntary, volunteer, white, white man, work, yellow man, young man

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