body man
Americannoun
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a male personal assistant to a politician, who, in addition to handling daily schedule and travel logistics, serves as a constant companion and attends to the politician’s immediate personal needs.
Balancing an armful of papers, the body man ducked into a shop that sold the candidate’s preferred energy drink.
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a person who repairs and refinishes the bodies of cars, trucks, and other vehicles.
Etymology
Origin of body man
First recorded in 1915–20 body man for def. 2, and in 2000–05 body man for def. 1
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
“Initially, it was pretty much laying out the clothing. Now it can be a kind of body man — they can carry the Altoid mints and the Sharpie pen.”
From Washington Post
One video shows the outcome of a friendly wager: “Told the body man that if I get a million views on the shop TikTok, I get to touch his beard and he said “sure.”
From Seattle Times
“He’s going to take as much time as he wants,” added Stephen Goepfert, Biden’s former personal aide, or “body man.”
From Seattle Times
As Obama was running for the White House in 2008, the New York Times reported that his body man kept a supply of Honest Tea’s Black Forest Berry variety, which the paper called “a hard-to-find organic brew.”
From Washington Post
“Usually the body man would have brought them upstairs for Trump or someone from the outer-Oval at the end of the day. They would get handed off to the residence and just disappear.”
From Washington Post
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.