man-eater
Americannoun
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an animal, especially a tiger or lion, that eats or is said to eat human flesh.
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a cannibal.
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Slang. femme fatale.
noun
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an animal, such as a tiger, that has become accustomed to eating human flesh
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any of various sharks that feed on human flesh, esp the great white shark ( Carcharodon carcharias )
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a human cannibal
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informal a woman with many lovers
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of man-eater
First recorded in 1590–1600
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.
“It was the Titanic of shark attacks,” said Richard Fernicola, a New Jersey physician and author of “Twelve Days of Terror,” an account of what became known as the Matawan Man-Eater.
From Washington Post • Jul. 25, 2022
"The Man-Eater of Surrey Green" turns out to be a not so Jolly Green Giant with a brain that responds to special signals from the evil ones.
From Time Magazine Archive
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He first gained prominence in 1975 with The Cook and the Man-Eater, a book inspired by Alexander Solzhenitsyn's disclosures of the horrors of Stalin's Gulag.
From Time Magazine Archive
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While the Man-Eater Finished His Supper They were now thoroughly alarmed, and almost dreaded the supper hour.
From In Africa Hunting Adventures in the Big Game Country by McCutcheon, John T.
Our suspense was soon relieved by being informed that the strangers were Man-Eater, the principal chief of the Rock River Indians, who had come with his band to "hold a talk" and bring information.
From Wau-bun The Early Day in the Northwest by Kinzie, Juliette Augusta Magill
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.