man

1. noun

1)

a handsome man

Syn:

male, adult male, gentleman; informal guy, fellow, fella, joe, geezer, gent, bloke, chap, dude, hombre; (men) menfolk

2)

all men are mortal

Syn:

human being, human, person, mortal, individual, personage, soul

3)

the evolution of man

Syn:

the human race, the human species, Homo sapiens, humankind, humanity, human beings, humans, people, mankind

4)

the men voted to go on strike

Syn:

worker, workman, laborer, hand, blue-collar worker; staff

5)

have you met her new man?

Syn:

boyfriend, partner, husband, spouse, lover, admirer, fiancé; common-law husband, live-in lover, significant other, main squeeze; informal toy boy, sugar daddy, intended; dated beau, steady, young man

2. verb

1)

the office is manned from 9 to 5

Syn:

staff, crew, occupy, people

2)

firefighters manned the pumps

Syn:

operate, work, use, utilize

•

- man to man

- to a man

••

man

Traditionally, the word man has been used to refer not only to adult males but also to human beings in general, regardless of sex. There is a historical explanation for this: in Old English, the principal sense of man was ‘a human being,’ and the words wer and wif were used to refer specifically to ‘a male person’ and ‘a female person,’ respectively. Subsequently, man replaced wer as the normal term for ‘a male person,’ but the older sense ‘a human being’ remained in use.

In the second half of the twentieth century, the generic use of man to refer to ‘human beings in general’ ( reptiles were here long before man appeared on the earth) became problematic; the use is now often regarded as sexist or old-fashioned. In some contexts, terms such as the human race or humankind may be used instead of man or mankind.