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.
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 (Zoöl.), 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 (Ipomœa 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.