'Man of war' definitions:

Definition of 'Man of war'

From: GCIDE
  • Man \Man\ (m[a^]n), n.; pl. Men (m[e^]n). [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 to beast. [1913 Webster]
  • These men went about wide, and man found they none, But fair country, and wild beast many [a] one. --R. of Glouc. [1913 Webster]
  • The king is but a man, as I am; the violet smells to him as it doth to me. --Shak. [1913 Webster]
  • 'Tain't a fit night out for man nor beast! --W. C. Fields [PJC]
  • 2. Especially: An adult male person; a grown-up male person, as distinguished from a woman or a child. [1913 Webster]
  • When I became a man, I put away childish things. --I Cor. xiii. 11. [1913 Webster]
  • Ceneus, a woman once, and once a man. --Dryden. [1913 Webster]
  • 3. The human race; mankind. [1913 Webster]
  • And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness, and let them have dominion. --Gen. i. 26. [1913 Webster]
  • The proper study of mankind is man. --Pope. [1913 Webster]
  • 4. The male portion of the human race. [1913 Webster]
  • Woman has, in general, much stronger propensity than man to the discharge of parental duties. --Cowper. [1913 Webster]
  • 5. One possessing in a high degree the distinctive qualities of manhood; one having manly excellence of any kind. --Shak. [1913 Webster]
  • 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. [1913 Webster]
  • 6. An adult male servant; also, a vassal; a subject. [1913 Webster]
  • Like master, like man. --Old Proverb. [1913 Webster]
  • 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. [1913 Webster]
  • 7. A term of familiar address at one time implying on the part of the speaker some degree of authority, impatience, or haste; as, Come, man, we 've no time to lose! In the latter half of the 20th century it became used in a broader sense as simply a familiar and informal form of address, but is not used in business or formal situations; as, hey, man! You want to go to a movie tonight?. [Informal] [1913 Webster +PJC]
  • 8. A married man; a husband; -- correlative to wife. [1913 Webster]
  • I pronounce that they are man and wife. --Book of Com. Prayer. [1913 Webster]
  • every wife ought to answer for her man. --Addison. [1913 Webster]
  • 9. One, or any one, indefinitely; -- a modified survival of the Saxon use of man, or mon, as an indefinite pronoun. [1913 Webster]
  • A man can not make him laugh. --Shak. [1913 Webster]
  • 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. [1913 Webster]
  • 10. One of the piece with which certain games, as chess or draughts, are played. [1913 Webster]
  • 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, repairman, 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). [1913 Webster]
  • Man ape (Zool.), 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 ({Ipomoea pandurata}) with leaves and flowers much like those of the morning-glory, but having an immense tuberous farinaceous root.
  • 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 of war. (a) A warrior; a soldier. --Shak. (b) (Naut.) See in the Vocabulary. (c) See Portuguese man-of-war under man-of-war and also see Physalia.
  • 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, producing a severe wound which is also difficult to treat medically. Types of bullets called hollow-nosed bullets, {soft-nosed bullets} and hollow-point bullets are classed as man-stopping. The dumdum bullet or dumdum is another well-known variety. Such bullets were originally designed for wars with savage tribes.
  • great man, a man[2] who has become prominent due to substantial and widely admired contributions to social or intellectual endeavors; as, Einstein was one of the great men of the twentieth century.
  • To be one's own man, to have command of one's self; not to be subject to another. [1913 Webster +PJC]

Definition of 'Man of war'

From: GCIDE
  • War \War\, n. [OE. & AS. werre; akin to OHG. werra scandal, quarrel, sedition, werran to confound, mix, D. warren, G. wirren, verwirren, to embroil, confound, disturb, and perhaps to E. worse; cf. OF. werre war, F. querre, of Teutonic origin. Cf. Guerrilla, Warrior.] [1913 Webster]
  • 1. A contest between nations or states, carried on by force, whether for defence, for revenging insults and redressing wrongs, for the extension of commerce, for the acquisition of territory, for obtaining and establishing the superiority and dominion of one over the other, or for any other purpose; armed conflict of sovereign powers; declared and open hostilities. [1913 Webster]
  • Men will ever distinguish war from mere bloodshed. --F. W. Robertson. [1913 Webster]
  • Note: As war is the contest of nations or states, it always implies that such contest is authorized by the monarch or the sovereign power of the nation. A war begun by attacking another nation, is called an offensive war, and such attack is aggressive. War undertaken to repel invasion, or the attacks of an enemy, is called defensive. [1913 Webster]
  • 2. (Law) A condition of belligerency to be maintained by physical force. In this sense, levying war against the sovereign authority is treason. [1913 Webster]
  • 3. Instruments of war. [Poetic] [1913 Webster]
  • His complement of stores, and total war. --Prior. [1913 Webster]
  • 4. Forces; army. [Poetic] [1913 Webster]
  • On their embattled ranks the waves return, And overwhelm their war. --Milton. [1913 Webster]
  • 5. The profession of arms; the art of war. [1913 Webster]
  • Thou art but a youth, and he is a man of war from his youth. --1 Sam. xvii. 33. [1913 Webster]
  • 6. a state of opposition or contest; an act of opposition; an inimical contest, act, or action; enmity; hostility. "Raised impious war in heaven." --Milton. [1913 Webster]
  • The words of his mouth were smoother than butter, but war was in his heart. --Ps. lv. 21. [1913 Webster]
  • Civil war, a war between different sections or parties of the same country or nation.
  • Holy war. See under Holy.
  • Man of war. (Naut.) See in the Vocabulary.
  • Public war, a war between independent sovereign states.
  • War cry, a cry or signal used in war; as, the Indian war cry.
  • War dance, a dance among savages preliminary to going to war. Among the North American Indians, it is begun by some distinguished chief, and whoever joins in it thereby enlists as one of the party engaged in a warlike excursion. --Schoolcraft.
  • War field, a field of war or battle.
  • War horse, a horse used in war; the horse of a cavalry soldier; especially, a strong, powerful, spirited horse for military service; a charger.
  • War paint, paint put on the face and other parts of the body by savages, as a token of going to war. "Wash the war paint from your faces." --Longfellow.
  • War song, a song of or pertaining to war; especially, among the American Indians, a song at the war dance, full of incitements to military ardor.
  • War whoop, a war cry, especially that uttered by the American Indians. [1913 Webster]

Words containing 'Man of war'