Definitions

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

  • noun An adult female human.
  • noun Women considered as a group; womankind.
  • noun An adult female human belonging to a specified occupation, group, nationality, or other category. Often used in combination.
  • noun A female servant or subordinate.
  • noun A wife.
  • noun A female lover or sweetheart.
  • idiom ((one's) own woman) Independent in judgment or action.
  • idiom (to a woman) Without exception.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Formerly, the side of a British penny on which was the figure of Britannia, the other having the king's head: as “man or woman?”—that is, heads or tails?
  • To act the part of a woman: with an indefinite it.
  • To cause to act like a woman; subdue to weakness like a woman.
  • To unite to, or accompany by, a woman.
  • To call (a person) “woman” in an abusive way.
  • noun An adult female of the human race; figuratively, the female sex; human females collectively. See lady, 5.
  • noun The qualities which characterize womanhood; tenderness; gentleness; also, when used of a man, effeminacy; weakness.
  • noun A female attendant on a person of rank (used in such a connection as to show the special sense intended).
  • noun A woman experienced in the ways of the world; a woman engrossed in society or fashionable life.

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

  • transitive verb To act the part of a woman in; -- with indefinite it.
  • transitive verb rare To make effeminate or womanish.
  • transitive verb rare To furnish with, or unite to, a woman.
  • noun An adult female person; a grown-up female person, as distinguished from a man or a child; sometimes, any female person.
  • noun The female part of the human race; womankind.
  • noun A female attendant or servant.
  • noun one who hates women; one who has an aversion to the female sex; a misogynist.

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

  • noun An adult female human.
  • noun A wife (sometimes a fiance or girlfriend)
  • verb To man with female labor.
  • verb transitive To make effeminate or womanish.
  • verb transitive To furnish with, or unite to, a woman.

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

  • noun a female person who plays a significant role (wife or mistress or girlfriend) in the life of a particular man
  • noun a human female employed to do housework
  • noun an adult female person (as opposed to a man)
  • noun women as a class

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English, from Old English wimman, variant of wīfman : wīf, woman + man, person; see man.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English woman, wimman, wifman, from Old English wīfmann ("woman, female servant", literally "female person, female human being"), equivalent to wife +‎ man. Compare Dutch vrouwmens ("wife", literally "woman-person"). Compare also Dutch vrouwspersoon ("woman"), German Weibsperson ("female person"), and dialectal German Fraumensch ("woman", literally "woman human-being").

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Examples

Comments

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  • "A man's only as old as the woman he feels."

    - Groucho Marx.

    December 24, 2007

  • Dumbstruck?

    (Or is it one of those bugs?)

    February 8, 2008

  • Just liked the idea of the 'more ...' entered for me on the home page feed.

    February 8, 2008

  • A woman walks into a bar and asks the bartender for a double entendre...

    ...so the bartender gives her one.

    April 8, 2008

  • HA! HA HA!!! Oh, ha, ha, ha, ha!!! I love this joke!

    April 8, 2008

  • The seven ages of woman:

    Baby,

    Infant,

    Junior miss,

    Young woman,

    Young woman,

    Young woman,

    Young woman.

    November 10, 2008

  • A man walks into a bar with a beautiful woman on his arm...

    November 10, 2008

  • One of the few WordNet defintions above for this word, as compared to man, is "someone whose occupation is cleaning".

    November 27, 2008

  • Even if the word has been used that way, that's a dumb definition and it inspires a new tag.

    November 27, 2008

  • A man walks into a bar with a beautiful arm on his woman...

    November 27, 2008

  • The woman then asks, "Why don't you look where you're going?"

    November 27, 2008

  • Oh, I thought John was going to tag it Sadie.

    November 27, 2008

  • vacuum, to be in conjunction with

    July 24, 2009

  • No woman is very bad http://www.jutaanpembaca.com/2013/04/konsumen-cerdas-paham-perlindungan.html

    April 21, 2013

  • I always assumed woman was a portmanteau of womb and man. A man with a womb.

    December 19, 2017