Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Having or showing characteristics traditionally associated with masculinity, such as courage or reserve.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Having or expressing the spirit of a man; manifesting the higher qualities of manhood; courageous; noble; high-minded.
  • Synonyms Manly, etc. (see masculine); stout, strong, vigorous, undaunted, intrepid.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Showing manliness, or manly spirit; hence, brave, courageous, resolute, noble.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Showing the characteristics considered typical of a man; macho or manly

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective characteristic of a man
  • adjective possessing qualities befitting a man

Etymologies

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Examples

  • "Difficulties cannot be artificially overcome," said Mirabeau, "nor is there any invention whereby a man may be spared the trouble of conquering them; they must be grasped firmly, strangled, crushed, trampled down in manful fight.

    Zoe: The History of Two Lives 1845

  • The most positive gender relations one was Google, and they showed no actual humans, and the voices in the background made it clear it was a manful man doing the proactive searching.

    Titleist yuki_onna 2010

  • But I strode manful towards the door of the room I was in, seeing a like crack of light under it.

    Where's the show? John Myles Aavedal 2010

  • American Slang ups the ante further, amplifying guitarist Alex Rosamilia's failsafe hooks and singer Brian Fallon's manful emoting with the back walls of stadiums in mind.

    The Gaslight Anthem: American Slang 2010

  • First time anything like this has happened to him, and of course he's very manful, but his wife is not so easy about it!

    OMG! editormum 2008

  • The essence of our poetic tradition is to be found instead in the unadorned language of the Manyōshū and the manful haiku of Buson!

    Néojaponisme » Blog Archive » A History of Modern Japanese Literary Criticism: Act One, Scene 1 2009

  • He was not a “president stiff and small,” as Mike described him in Newsweek, and the clear, manful, and gracious tone that comes across in all of those post-9/11 speeches was not some invention of the speechwriters.

    Present at the Creation 2007

  • He was not a “president stiff and small,” as Mike described him in Newsweek, and the clear, manful, and gracious tone that comes across in all of those post-9/11 speeches was not some invention of the speechwriters.

    Present at the Creation 2007

  • They met, as was the phrase of the time, “manful under shield.”

    Anne of Geierstein 2008

  • Jon Craig of the Cincinnati Enquirer has made a manful effort to look into the event -- and, predictably, to deny any suggestion that the lockdown helped Bush/Cheney steal their "re-election."

    What really happened: lockdown in Warren County, OH, 2004 2008

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