man
noun
an adult male person.
man
1 American
[man]
/ mæn /
noun
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men
plural
-
an adult male person.
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a member of the species Homo sapiens or all the members of this species collectively, without regard to gender.
The gravesite gives us valuable information about the burial practices of prehistoric man.
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the human individual as representing the species, without reference to gender; the human race; humankind.
Man hopes for peace, but prepares for war.
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a human being; person.
to give a man a chance;
When the audience smelled the smoke, it was every man for himself.
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a husband.
I now pronounce you man and wife.
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a male lover or sweetheart.
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a male follower or subordinate.
the king's men;
He's the boss's number one man.
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a male employee or representative, especially of a company or agency.
a Secret Service man;
a man from the utility company.
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a male having qualities considered typical of men or appropriately masculine.
Be a man.
The army will make a man of you.
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a male servant.
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a valet.
He asked his man to prepare a valise for the weekend.
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an enthusiast or devotee.
I like jazz, but I'm essentially a classics man.
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Slang. a male friend or ally.
You're my main man.
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a term of familiar address to a man; fellow.
Now, now, my good man, please calm down.
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Slang. a term of familiar address to a man or a woman.
Hey, man, how's it going?
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one of the figures, disks, etc., used in playing certain games, as chess or checkers.
You can move your men each turn diagonally forward, to the left or to the right.
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Slang. none the man or the Man
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a person or group asserting authority or power over another, especially in a manner experienced as being oppressive, demeaning, or threatening, as the government, an employer, or the police.
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a privileged racial group, especially when exerting a dominating social, cultural, or economic influence.
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Sometimes da man a person of impressive accomplishment; one who excels.
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a drug dealer.
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Obsolete. manly character or courage.
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History/Historical. a liegeman; vassal.
verb (used with object)
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mans,
present (3rd person singular)
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manned,
past participle, past
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manning
present participle
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to furnish with people, as for service or defense.
No matter how complicated war might be, it always comes down to the ones who fly the planes, man the ships, and carry the rifles.
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to take one's place at, as for service: to man the phones.
to man the ramparts;
to man the phones.
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to strengthen, fortify, or brace; steel.
They took a moment to man themselves for the dangers ahead.
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Falconry. to accustom (a hawk) to the presence of people.
interjection
verb phrase
idioms
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man's man, a man who exemplifies masculine qualities.
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man and boy, ever since childhood.
He's been working that farm, man and boy, for more than 50 years.
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as one man, in complete agreement or accord; unanimously.
They arose as one man to protest the verdict.
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to a man, with no exception; everyone; all.
To a man, the members of the team did their best.
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be one's own man,
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to be free from restrictions, control, or dictatorial influence; be independent.
Now that he has a business he is his own man.
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to be in complete command of one's faculties.
After a refreshing nap he was again his own man.
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Man
2
American
[man]
/ mæn /
noun
-man
3
American
man.
4
American
abbreviation
Man.
5
American
abbreviation
-
Manila.
-
Manitoba.
man
1
British
/ mæn /
noun
-
an adult male human being, as distinguished from a woman
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(modifier) male; masculine
a man child
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archaic a human being regardless of sex or age, considered as a representative of mankind; a person
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(sometimes capital) human beings collectively; mankind
the development of man
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Also called: modern man.
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a member of any of the living races of Homo sapiens, characterized by erect bipedal posture, a highly developed brain, and powers of articulate speech, abstract reasoning, and imagination
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any extinct member of the species Homo sapiens, such as Cro-Magnon man
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a member of any of the extinct species of the genus Homo, such as Java man, Heidelberg man, and Solo man
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an adult male human being with qualities associated with the male, such as courage or virility
be a man
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manly qualities or virtues
the man in him was outraged
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a subordinate, servant, or employee contrasted with an employer or manager
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( in combination )
the number of man-days required to complete a job
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(usually plural) a member of the armed forces who does not hold commissioned, warrant, or noncommissioned rank (as in the phrase officers and men )
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a member of a group, team, etc
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a husband, boyfriend, etc
man and wife
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an expression used parenthetically to indicate an informal relationship between speaker and hearer
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a movable piece in various games, such as draughts
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slang any person: used as a term of address
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a vassal of a feudal lord
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with unanimous action or response
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to be independent or free
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he's the person needed (for a particular task, role, job, etc)
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from childhood
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to separate the experienced from the inexperienced
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unanimously
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without exception
they were slaughtered to a man
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interjection
verb
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to provide with sufficient people for operation, defence, etc
to man the phones
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to take one's place at or near in readiness for action
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falconry to induce (a hawk or falcon) to endure the presence of and handling by man, esp strangers
Man
2
British
/ mæn /
noun
-
slang:Black a White man or White men collectively, esp when in authority, in the police, or held in contempt
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slang a drug peddler
Man
3
British
/ mæn /
noun
-man
4
British
combining form
man
More Idioms
Usage
Plural word for man The plural form of the noun man is men. This is one of the few remaining irregular plurals that derive directly from their original pluralization in Old English. A similar change is made when pluralizing woman as women, child as children, and ox as oxen. While it ends in -man, the plural form of human is not humen but rather humans.
What does -man mean?
The combining form -man is used like a suffix meaning “man,” most often to indicate a man who performs a particular job or function. It is often used in a variety of technical and everyday terms.
The form -man comes from Old English mann, which could refer to both an adult male and a human being in general.
What are variants of -man?
The plural form of -man is -men, as in firemen. The female equivalent of -man is -woman, as in saleswoman. However, use of this kind of gendered language for professions has decreased in recent years, with gender-neutral terms often being preferred. Namely, the ending -person is often used, as in salesperson. Some terms are changed altogether, such as mail carrier being used instead of mailman. Still, some people may prefer to use the gender-specific version of a term that applies to them—a mailman may prefer to call himself a mailman and congresswoman may prefer to call herself a congresswoman, for example.
For more guidance, check out the Thesaurus.com guide to gender-neutral language.
Synonym Usage
Man, male, gentleman are nouns referring to an adult male human being, one paradigm of gender and biological sex. Man is the most general and most commonly used of the three; it can be neutral, lacking either favorable or unfavorable implication: a wealthy man; a man of strong character, of unbridled appetites. It can also signify possession of the most typical or traditional masculine qualities: to take one's punishment like a man. Male emphasizes the physical or sexual characteristics of a man; it may also refer to an animal or plant: a male in his prime; two males and three females in the pack; a male of the genus Ilex. In scientific and statistical use, male is the neutral contrastive term to female : 104 females to every 100 males; Among birds, the male is often more colorful than the female. Gentleman, once used only of men of high social rank, now also specifies a man of courtesy and consideration: a real gentleman; to behave like a gentleman. Gentleman is also used as a polite term of reference ( This gentleman is waiting for a table ) or, only in the plural, of address ( Are we ready to begin, gentlemen? ). See also manly, male.
Gender
The use of man1 to mean “human being,” both alone and in compounds such as mankind, has met with objection in recent years, and the use is declining. The objection is based on the idea that man is most commonly used as an exclusive, gender-marked noun meaning “male human being.” Critics of the use of man as a generic maintain that it is sometimes ambiguous when the wider sense is intended ( Man has built magnificent civilizations in the desert ), but more often flatly discriminatory in that it slights or ignores the membership of women in the human race: The man in the street wants peace, not war. Although some editors and writers reject or disregard these objections to man as a generic, many now choose instead to use such terms as human being ( s ), human race, humankind, people, or, when called for by style or context, women and men or men and women. See also -man, -person, -woman.
The sex-neutral use of -man as the last element in compounds referring to a person who performs some function ( anchorman; chairman; spokesman ) has declined a great deal in recent years. If the reference is to a specific male person, the male form is often, but not always, used: Roy Johnston, Channel 83 news anchorman. In many instances, the sex-neutral -person is substituted for -man when the sex of the individual involved is unknown or irrelevant: anchorperson; chairperson; spokesperson. And sometimes, when possible, a form with no suffix at all is used: Roy Johnston, Channel 83 news anchor. All terms historically ending in -man that designate specific occupations ( foreman; mailman; policeman; repairman; etc.) were dropped in favor of sex-neutral terms in the Dictionary of Occupational Titles (DOT), published by the U. S. Dept. of Labor in 1977. DOT terms for the occupations listed above are supervisor, mail or letter carrier, police officer (or just officer ), repairer (as in radio repairer ). Many industries and business firms have adopted similar sex-neutral occupational titles. One -man compound, freshman, is still the term generally used in high schools and colleges and in Congress, and it is applied to all first-year students regardless of their sex. As a modifier, the singular form freshman is used with both singular and plural nouns: a freshman athlete; freshman legislators. See also chairperson, man, -person, -woman.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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mansimple
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manssimple
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have mannedperfect
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has mannedperfect
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am manningprogressive
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are manningprogressive
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is manningprogressive
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have been manningperfect progressive
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has been manningperfect progressive
Past
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mannedsimple
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had mannedperfect
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was manningprogressive
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were manningprogressive
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had been manningperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of man
First recorded before 900; Middle English “human being, person, mankind, adult male, husband,” Old English man(n) “human being, person, servant, vassal”; cognate with German Mann, Dutch man, Old Norse mathr, Gothic manna; akin to Sanskrit mánu- “human being, man,” Polish mąż “husband,” Russian muzh “man, husband”; see also muzhik ( def. )
Explanation
A man is a boy who grew up: an adult male. Man has hundreds of other meanings too, most of them guy-related. In addition to being the male equivalent of a woman, the word man has many meanings in English. Not long ago, man used to mean the same thing as people, as in humanity or mankind. Baseball teams want to get a man on base. Manning up is showing courage. Manning a business is providing workers for that business, including someone to man the phones. In a game like Monopoly, your piece is your man. Also, a common greeting is "Hey, man!"
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:
Detectives believe the Valley Springs man caused the Gann fire that started earlier that day.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 7, 2026
He fled Tibet as a young man and spent 14 years as a monk in southern India, then moved to the US in 2006, settling in Queens.
From Barron's ● Aug. 7, 2026
He also privately approached Neil Patrick Harris to apologize for aggressively trying to out him as a gay man in 2006, before the actor had spoken about his sexuality publicly.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 7, 2026
Secretary general Mattias Grafstrom, Infantino's right-hand man, had been critical in an internal memo to staff, calling the FFE proposals "a sad and reproachable series of events".
From BBC ● Aug. 6, 2026
She’s introducing them to a tall, lean man with pale skin, a thin mustache, and a beret.
From "Split the Sky" by Marie Arnold
Later on in the day and into the night, unseasonably blustery winds will develop across parts of Scotland, Northern Ireland, the Isle of Man and northern England.
From BBC ● Aug. 4, 2026
Laura's previous work includes producing the first three seasons of the CNN documentary series "Inside Man Morgan Spurlock" as the lead researcher and archivist.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 31, 2026
He told the police he was the original Superman artist, and to prove it he drew the Man of Steel convincingly enough to stay out of jail.
From Salon ● Jul. 31, 2026
His last film role had been as the sinister Mystery Man, with a vampire pallor and no eyebrows, in David Lynch’s dreamlike 1997 thriller “Lost Highway.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 30, 2026
Man, I hated time traveling to years before regular bathing was a thing.
From "Glitch" by Laura Martin
And of course, it makes sense to avoid using -man in the 21st century, even though it’s long been accepted within the Air Force as gender neutral.
From Slate ● Feb. 4, 2019
Then, spacing his words for emphasis, he continued: "I -would -hate -to -be -at -the -mercy -of -that -man."
From Time Magazine Archive
Canton, Ohio Sir: Your harsh account is a brutal slap to the thousands who owe their health to this -man and his "glassy" institution.
From Time Magazine Archive
I E -ma, -mana, -man formed adjectives, present participles and nouns; I E akman stone of ak, A S iman; Dak imni stone.
From The Dakotan Languages, and Their Relations to Other Languages by Williamson, A. W. (Andrew Woods)
Like the English -an, -man, -AN- denotes a member of something, such as a club, society, etc.; an inhabitant of a place or country; a partisan; an adherent to a party, faction, religion, etc.
From The International Auxiliary Language Esperanto Grammar and Commentary by Cox, George
“Avery was a devoted son, brother, and thoughtful young man. The light he brought into every room touched everyone who knew him,” the GoFundMe page reads.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 20, 2026
"My team was Liverpool and Kevin was my man. So I say hello to Kevin."
From BBC ● Jul. 10, 2026
“I love this man. Like, he’s mine,” she said.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 28, 2026
“All of our definitions about masculine and feminine are evolving … It doesn’t necessarily have to be only for a man. I really like that idea, particularly as the definitions of masculinity are in transition.”
From Salon ● May 27, 2026
“That’s the whole point. Being a rat is the next step up to being a man. You want to be a man, don’t you?”
From "Fourth Grade Rats" by Jerry Spinelli
“This is Tariff Man. There’s no way he takes this lying down,” said Jeremy Chan, senior analyst for China and northeastern Asia at Eurasia Group, a political-risk research firm.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 21, 2026
Tyler the Creator posted a black and white photograph of D'Angelo on X, while the Alchemist wrote simply "Man. Rest in peace D'Angelo."
From Barron's ● Oct. 14, 2025
“Thank you Method Man. It takes a real man to tell this story!” she wrote.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 6, 2022
“I’m like the Iron Man. Nothing is touching me!”
From Washington Times ● Dec. 15, 2021
“More like Twitter Man. I never heard so much gabbing in my life. The way he promised stuff and then figured out how to take it away—what a sneak.”
From "Chasing Vermeer" by Blue Balliett
Two of the men arrested are in police custody.
From BBC ● Aug. 7, 2026
Groups of young migrants, many of them men from sub-Saharan Africa, could be seen on Thursday gathering in wooded areas and on a beach in the city.
From Barron's ● Aug. 6, 2026
One writer sailing the Persian Gulf in 1939 described how 32 men each dived 100 times beneath the sea, filling seven sacks with oysters, only to find a “teaspoonful” of low-grade pearls in their haul.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 6, 2026
But the real tragedy was that the men likely had no idea how loud their digital echoes actually were.
From Slate ● Aug. 6, 2026
And there are many powerful men with their eyes on the island nation’s abundance of raw materials.
From "At Last She Stood" by Erin Entrada Kelly
Some of the employees still work there, including Jorge Cuervo, the production supervisor, and Fabian Diaz, who mans the forklift.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 12, 2026
“I travel through at least eight to 10 towns to reach Mogadishu. But we don’t count the towns, we count the checkpoints and who mans them,” Mr Diriye says.
From BBC ● Oct. 20, 2024
In the ad, Affleck mans the drive-through booth at a Dunkin’ Donuts in Medford, Massachusetts, with a Boston accent and shocks customers.
From Seattle Times ● Feb. 12, 2023
In the ad, Affleck mans the drive-through booth at a Dunkin’ Donuts in Medford, Massachusetts with a Boston accent and shocks customers.
From Washington Times ● Feb. 12, 2023
Hardy, trim, and darker toned than his wife, in disposition still the affable bartender, Jim Link mans the beer cooler at holiday parties at the Medlock Bridge clubhouse.
From "Class Matters" by The New York Times
Across the nation, they’ve set up safe spaces in schools, specialized classrooms that feel more like living rooms and that are manned by professional counselors trained in domestic violence intervention.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 26, 2026
The Air Force says its new drones are needed in battles where manned jets would be at a high risk of getting shot down.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 18, 2026
Air Force as the “backbone of the manned strategic bomber force for the United States,” the B-52 Stratofortress has been a vital aircraft for the country’s armed conflicts.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 16, 2026
"Will we still need a manned fighter jet in 20 years' time?" he mused on the Machtwechsel podcast.
From BBC ● Jun. 9, 2026
Nine rats now manned each rope; two stayed behind, watching the rollers.
From "Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH" by Robert C. O'Brien
A single operator manning a computer-guided saw cuts 40-foot timbers into every length and angle required.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 7, 2026
Waking up early, pricing items, setting up tables and manning the cash register — all of this is, as you say, labor.
From MarketWatch ● May 28, 2026
BBC Music correspondent Mark Savage said security guards manning the main stage were helping to give out water to the crowds in the heat.
From BBC ● May 24, 2026
In one of his first monologues, he pointed out his boss in the audience, then-network-head Les Moonves, manning a switch that could kill Colbert’s show in favor of reruns.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 21, 2026
Coach Noles is manning the pitching machine by home plate.
From "A High Five for Glenn Burke" by Phil Bildner
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.
