English

Noun

manœuvre ‎(plural manœuvres)

1. (Britain) Alternative form of maneuver
   • 1850, Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

     […] but then it came of itself: it was not elicited by meretricious arts and calculated manœuvres; and one had but to accept it — to answer what he asked […]

   • 1886, Arthur Conan Doyle, A Study in Scarlet

     Gregson and Lestrade had watched the manœuvres of their amateur companion with considerable curiosity and some contempt.

   • 2003, David Miller, Political Philosophy: A Very Short Introduction, page 7 (Oxford University Press)

     […] and the belief that states had increasingly little room for manœuvre if they wanted their people to benefit from it.

Verb

manœuvre ‎(third-person singular simple present manœuvres, present participle manœuvring, simple past and past participle manœuvred)

1. (Britain) Alternative form of maneuver
   • 1954, Gilbert Ryle, Dilemmas: The Tarner Lectures, 1953, dilemma vii: Perception, page 103 (The Syndics of the Cambridge University Press)

     We can ask how long it was before the team scored its first goal; or how long the centre-forward spent in manœuvring the ball towards the goal; and even how long the ball was in flight between his kicking it and its going between the goal-posts. But we cannot ask how many seconds were occupied in the scoring of the goal.

Anagrams

• manoeuver

French

Etymology

Vulgar Latin manuopera, from ablative of Latin manus ‎(“hand”) + opus ‎(“work”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ma.nœvʁ/

Noun

manœuvre f ‎(plural manœuvres)

1. move, movement
2. operation, manoeuvre
3. (military, in the plural) manoeuvres

Noun

manœuvre m ‎(plural manœuvres)

1. labourer

Verb

manœuvre

1. first-person singular present indicative of manœuvrer
2. third-person singular present indicative of manœuvrer
3. first-person singular present subjunctive of manœuvrer
4. third-person singular present subjunctive of manœuvrer
5. second-person singular imperative of manœuvrer

Middle French

Noun

manœuvre f (plural manœuvres)

1. maneuver (movement)