manes
1 Americannoun
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(used with a plural verb) the souls of the dead; shades.
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(used with a singular verb) the spirit or shade of a particular dead person.
noun
plural noun
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the spirits of the dead, often revered as minor deities
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(functioning as singular) the shade of a dead person
noun
Etymology
Origin of manes
1350–1400; Middle English < Latin mānēs (plural); akin to Latin mānis, mānus good
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.
The screens hang above the row of committee members who all look crisper and a bit more self-consciously groomed than usual with their blowouts and trimmed beards and clipped manes.
From Washington Post • Jun. 14, 2022
I petted my horses’ manes one last time and drove away.
From New York Times • Dec. 29, 2021
Many were emaciated, with unkempt manes and untrimmed hooves, she said, and they often had parasites.
From Seattle Times • May 15, 2021
As he wrote in his 1963 poem “The Child,” “Who were the lion men with faces of fur / and manes / who bent by my crib to bless me?”
From Los Angeles Times • May 7, 2020
When a scouting party spotted a herd, Ne-kah-e-se-y and the other hunters raced on their horses across the plains, the hooves pounding the earth like drums, the manes whipping the riders’ sweating, gleaming faces.
From "Killers of the Flower Moon" by David Grann
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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.