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.

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.

c. Used indefinitely without article.
Chiefly in negative contexts, also in proverbial collocations, as in the traditional inn sign ‘Entertainment for man and beast’.

d. Used predicatively without article in phr. to be, become, be made man: to have or assume human nature.

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’.

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.

II. 4. An adult male person. a. With special reference to sex.

¶contextually = ‘man-child’. Obs.

b. generically (without article: cf. 2). The male human being. Also predicatively (cf. 1d).

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.

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.)

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 2b).

f. little man: a jocular expression for a young male child. Similarly young man (see young).

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’.

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.

(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. 2d.

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.

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.

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.

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.

(b) To be at one's own disposal, to be one's own master.

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 2c; and occas. man John, man Jonathan (in speaking of Americans).

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.

o. Qualified by university, Oxford, Cambridge, etc., applied to one who is or has been a member of a (particular) university, public school, etc.

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.

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.

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).

¶5. a. Applied to beings other than human, e.g. God, the Devil, Death. Obs.

†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.

6. a. In a pregnant sense: An adult male eminently endowed with manly qualities. Also phr. to play the man (also †men).

b. man of men: a man of supreme excellence.

†c. Put for: Manliness, courage. Obs.

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.]

8. a. A husband. Now only Sc. and dial., exc. in phr. man and wife. (Cf. goodman 2b.)

b. A lover, suitor. ? dial.

9. A liegeman or vassal. Now Hist. †In ME. poetry often used fig., e.g. of a lover.

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’.)

b. man-of-all-work: jocular formation after maid-of-all-work (see maid n. 4b).

c. In wider sense, as the correlative of master. In recent use commonly applied (chiefly in pl.) to workmen in contradistinction to their employers.

11. Applied (chiefly in pl.) to the members of a fighting force; now esp. to the common soldiers as distinguished from the officers.

12. In university and public-school language, an undergraduate or student (as contrasted with a graduate or a don). Cf. 4p.

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.

14. With qualification used for: A ship. See also man-of-war, Indiaman, merchantman, etc.

15. One of the pieces used in chess, draughts, and backgammon. (Cf. chess-men and meinie.)

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.

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.]

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. 1c; †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.

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.

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. 22a.)

c. In phrasal comb. used attrib., as one-man show, two-man rule, etc.

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. 22b.)

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.

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.

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. 22a 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).

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 20a above).

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).

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.

b. objective, instrumental, etc., synonymous with the corresp. combs. with man (see 19 d, e and main words, e.g. man-eater).

c. men-only a., designating a place, etc., restricted for the use of men.

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.