man-child
Americannoun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of man-child
Middle English word dating back to 1350–1400
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.
See Examples For:
His death set off waves of grief among generations of "Friends" fans who loved him as the sarcastic man-child Chandler Bing.
From Barron's ● May 13, 2026
But his pitting of empathy in direct opposition to that clarity about our limitations is self-serving and, let’s be real, the kind of man-child narcissism currently being celebrated as strength.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 27, 2025
Gannon-Doak is Scotland's flying machine, the man-child who was supposed to scare the wits out of the Greeks with his speed and his daring, and electrify Hampden with his personality.
From BBC ● Oct. 9, 2025
Like him, they’re also racing from man-child parts to man-man ones.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 30, 2025
Acquaintances remember him as a socially awkward man-child with an outrageous sense of humor and a squirrelly, almost manic-depressive personality.
From "Into the Wild" by Jon Krakauer
“Bring forth men-children only,” he tells her, kneeling before her and placing the side of his head on her womb, almost as if he might wish to return to such motherly safety.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 1, 2024
In keeping with the vision of a “postmenopausal” Macbeth, they did change a line Macbeth speaks to his wife: “Bring forth men-children only/For thy undaunted mettle should compose/Nothing but male.”
From New York Times ● Dec. 4, 2021
The forty-year-old actor, who grew up in Virginia, is known for his gallery of overconfident Southern men-children.
From The New Yorker ● May 29, 2017
Now, old fans and new can watch it in all its insane glory, and get to experience the same crushing disappointment and bemusement that kids and men-children across the US did in 1978.
From The Guardian ● Dec. 1, 2015
She ought assuredly to have "brought forth men-children only;" but she left no son.
From Visits and Sketches at Home and Abroad with Tales and Miscellanies Now First Collected Vol. II (of 3) by Jameson, Mrs. (Anna)
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.
