man (m?n)n. pl. men (m?n) 1. An adult male human.2. A human regardless of sex or age; a person.3. 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.4. The human race; mankind: man’s quest for peace.5. A male human endowed with qualities, such as strength, considered characteristic of manhood.6. Informal a. A husband.b. A male lover or sweetheart.7. mena. Workers.b. Enlisted personnel of the armed forces: officers and men.8. A male representative, as of a country or company: our man in Tokyo.9. A male servant or subordinate.10. Informal Used as a familiar form of address for a man: See here, my good man!11. One who swore allegiance to a lord in the Middle Ages; a vassal.12. Games Any of the pieces used in a board game, such as chess or checkers.13. Nautical A ship. Often used in combination: a merchantman; a man-of-war.14. often Man Slang 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 1. To supply with men, as for defense or service: man a ship.2. To take stations at, as to defend or operate: manned the guns.3. To fortify or brace: manned himself for the battle ahead.interj. Used as an expletive to indicate intense feeling: Man! That was close.Phrasal Verb: man up Slang To take an action displaying stereotypically masculine virtues such as decisiveness or courage.Idioms: as one man1. In complete agreement; unanimously.2. With no exception: They objected as one man. (one’s) own man Independent in judgment and action. to a man Without exception: All were lost, to a man.[Middle English, from Old English mann; see man- 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.” Man also continued to carry its original sense of “a human,” resulting in an asymmetric arrangement that many criticize as sexist. Despite the objections to the generic use of man, a solid majority of the Usage Panel still approves of it. For example, the sentence If early man suffered from a lack of information, modern man is tyrannized by an excess of it was acceptable to 79 percent of the Panel in our 2004 survey, and the sentence The site shows that man learned to use tools much earlier than scientists believed possible was acceptable to 75 percent. However, only 48 percent approved of the generic plural form of man, as in Men learned to use tools more than ten thousand years ago, probably because the plural, unlike the singular man, suggests that one is referring to actual men of ten thousand years ago, taking them as representative of the species. · A substantial majority of the Panel also accepts compound words derived from generic man, and resistance to these compounds does not appear to be increasing. In the 2004 survey, 87 percent accepted the sentence The Great Wall is the only manmade structure visible from space?essentially the same percentage that accepted this sentence in 1988 (86 percent). In the 2004 survey, 86 percent also accepted The first manmade fiber to be commercially manufactured in the US was rayon, in 1910, suggesting that context makes no difference on this issue. · As a verb, man was originally used in military and nautical contexts, when the group performing the action consisted entirely of men. In the days when only men manned the decks, there was no need for a different word to include women. Today, the verb form of man can be considered sexist when the subject includes or is limited to women, as in the sentence Members of the League of Women Voters will be manning the registration desk. But in our 2004 survey only 26 percent of the Usage Panel considered this sentence to be unacceptable. This is noticeably fewer Panelists than the 56 percent who rejected this same sentence in 1988. This suggests that for many people the issue of the generic use of man is not as salient as it once was. See Usage Notes at chairman, -ess, men.American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.man (mæn) n, pl men (m?n) 1. an adult male human being, as distinguished from a woman2. (modifier) male; masculine: a man child. 3. archaic a human being regardless of sex or age, considered as a representative of mankind; a person4. (sometimes capital) human beings collectively; mankind: the development of man. 5. (Anthropology & Ethnology) a. a member of any of the living races of Homo sapiens, characterized by erect bipedal posture, a highly developed brain, and powers of articulate speech, abstract reasoning, and imaginationb. any extinct member of the species Homo sapiens, such as Cro-Magnon man6. (Zoology) a. a member of any of the living races of Homo sapiens, characterized by erect bipedal posture, a highly developed brain, and powers of articulate speech, abstract reasoning, and imaginationb. any extinct member of the species Homo sapiens, such as Cro-Magnon man7. (Anthropology & Ethnology) a member of any of the extinct species of the genus Homo, such as Java man, Heidelberg man, and Solo man8. (Zoology) a member of any of the extinct species of the genus Homo, such as Java man, Heidelberg man, and Solo man9. an adult male human being with qualities associated with the male, such as courage or virility: be a man. 10. manly qualities or virtues: the man in him was outraged. 11. a. a subordinate, servant, or employee contrasted with an employer or managerb. (in combination): the number of man-days required to complete a job. 12. (Military) (usually plural) a member of the armed forces who does not hold commissioned, warrant, or noncommissioned rank (as in the phrase officers and men)13. (Military) a member of a group, team, etc14. a husband, boyfriend, etc: man and wife. 15. an expression used parenthetically to indicate an informal relationship between speaker and hearer16. (Games, other than specified) a movable piece in various games, such as draughts17. slang South African any person: used as a term of address18. (Historical Terms) a vassal of a feudal lord19. as one man with unanimous action or response20. be one’s own man to be independent or free21. he’s your man he’s the person needed (for a particular task, role, job, etc)22. man and boy from childhood23. sort out the men from the boys separate the men from the boys to separate the experienced from the inexperienced24. to a man a. unanimouslyb. without exception: they were slaughtered to a man. interjinformal an exclamation or expletive, often indicating surprise or pleasurevb (tr) , mans, manning or manned25. to provide with sufficient people for operation, defence, etc: to man the phones. 26. to take one’s place at or near in readiness for action27. (Falconry) falconry to induce (a hawk or falcon) to endure the presence of and handling by man, esp strangers[Old English mann; related to Old Frisian man, Old High German man, Dutch man, Icelandic mathr] ?manless adjUsage: The use of man and mankind to mean human beings in general is often considered sexist. Gender-neutral alternatives include human beings, people and humankind. The verb to man can also often be replaced by to staff, to operate and related words. Gender-neutral alternatives to manpower include personnel and staff. Man (mæn) n (sometimes not capital) 1. Black slang a White man or White men collectively, esp when in authority, in the police, or held in contempt2. (Recreational Drugs) slang a drug peddlerMan (mæn) n (Placename) Isle of Man an island in the British Isles, in the Irish Sea between Cumbria and Northern Ireland: a UK Crown Dependency (but not part of the United Kingdom), with its own ancient parliament, the Court of Tynwald; a dependency of Norway until 1266, when for a time it came under Scottish rule; its own language, Manx, became extinct in the 19th century but has been revived to some extent. Capital: Douglas. Pop: 86 159 (2013 est). Area: 588 sq km (227 sq miles)Collins English Dictionary ? Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014man (mæn) n., pl. men, n. 1. an adult male person, as distinguished from a boy or a woman. 2. a member of the species Homo sapiens or all the members of this species collectively, without regard to sex. 3. the human individual as representing the species, without reference to sex; the human race; humankind: Man hopes for peace. 4. a human being; person: every man for himself. 5. a husband. 6. a male lover or sweetheart. 7. a male having qualities considered appropriately masculine: made a man of him. 8. a male servant or attendant. 9. a feudal tenant; vassal. 10. Slang. a male friend; ally: my main man. 11. Slang. (used as a term of familiar address): Man, take it easy. 12. a playing piece used in certain games, as chess or checkers. 13. Obs. manly character. 14. the man or Man, Slang. a. an authoritative or controlling person or group. b. (among blacks) white persons collectively; white society. c. a person who is greatly admired: He’s the man. interj. 15. (used to express astonishment or delight): Man, what a car! v.t. 16. to supply with people, as for service: to man the ship. 17. to take one’s place at: to man the ramparts; to man the phones. 18. to strengthen; fortify: to man yourself for danger. Idioms: 1. one’s own man, free from restrictions or influences; independent. 2. man and boy, ever since childhood: He’s been working, man and boy, for 50 years. 3. to a man, including everyone. [before 900; Middle English; Old English man(n), c. Old Frisian, Old Saxon mann, Old High German man(n), Old Norse mathr, Gothic manna] usage: The use of generic man (?human being?), alone and in compounds such as mankind, is declining. Critics of generic man maintain that its use is sometimes ambiguous and often slighting of women. Although some editors and writers dismiss these objections, many now choose instead such terms as human(s), human being(s), human race, humankind, people, or, when necessary, men and women or women and men. See also -man, -person, -woman. Man (mæn) n. Isle of, an island of the British Isles, in the Irish Sea. 73,837; 227 sq. mi. (588 sq. km). Cap.: Douglas. -man a combining form of man: layman; postman. usage: The use of -man as the last element in compounds referring to a person of either sex who performs some function (anchorman; chairman; spokesman) has declined in recent years. In some instances the sex-neutral -person is substituted for -man (anchorperson; spokesperson), and sometimes a form with no suffix at all is used (anchor; chair). Terms ending in -man that designate specific occupations (foreman; mailman; policeman, etc.) have been dropped by the U.S. government in favor of neutral terms, and many industries and business firms have done likewise. The compounds freshman, underclassman, and upperclassman are still generally used in schools, freshman in Congress also, and they are applied to both sexes. The term first-year student is increasingly common as an alternative to freshman. As a modifier, freshman is used with both singular and plural nouns: a freshman athlete; freshman legislators. See also man, -person, -woman. Man. 1. Manila. 2. Manitoba. man. manual. Random House Kernerman Webster’s College Dictionary, © 2010 K Dictionaries Ltd. Copyright 2005, 1997, 1991 by Random House, Inc. All rights reserved.man1. ‘man’A man is an adult male human being. The plural of man is men.Man is sometimes used to refer to human beings in general. For example, instead of saying ‘Human beings are destroying the environment’, you can say ‘Man is destroying the environment’. When man has this meaning, don’t use ‘the’ in front of it.Men is sometimes used to refer to all human beings, considered as individuals.Mankind is used to refer to all human beings, considered as a group.Some people do not like the use of man, men, and mankind to refer to human beings of both sexes, because they think it suggests that men are more important than women. You can use people instead.