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Webster 1913 Edition

Manage

Man′age

,
Noun.
[F.
manège
, It.
maneggio
, fr.
maneggiare
to manage, fr. L.
manus
hand. Perhaps somewhat influenced by F.
ménage
housekeeping, OF.
mesnage
, akin to E.
mansion
. See
Manual
, and cf.
Manege
.]
The handling or government of anything, but esp. of a horse; management; administration. See
Manege
.
[Obs.]
Young men, in the conduct and
manage
of actions, embrace more than they can hold.
Bacon.
Down, down I come; like glistering Phaethon
Wanting the
manage
of unruly jades.
Shak.
The unlucky
manage
of this fatal brawl.
Shakespeare
☞ This word, in its limited sense of management of a horse, has been displaced by manege; in its more general meaning, by management.

Man′age

,
Verb.
T.
[
imp. & p. p.
Managed
;
p. pr. & vb. n.
Managing
.]
[From
Manage
,
Noun.
]
1.
To have under control and direction; to conduct; to guide; to administer; to treat; to handle.
Long tubes are cumbersome, and scarce to be easily
managed
.
Sir I. Newton.
What wars I
manage
, and what wreaths I gain.
Prior.
2.
Hence, Esp.:
to guide by careful or delicate treatment; to wield with address; to make subservient by artful conduct; to bring around cunningly to one’s plans.
It was so much his interest to
manage
his Protestant subjects.
Addison.
It was not her humor to
manage
those over whom she had gained an ascendant.
Bp. Hurd.
3.
To train in the manege, as a horse; to exercise in graceful or artful action.
4.
To treat with care; to husband.
Dryden.
5.
To bring about; to contrive.
Shak.
Syn. – To direct; govern; control; wield; order; contrive; concert; conduct; transact.

Man′age

,
Verb.
I.
To direct affairs; to carry on business or affairs; to administer.
Leave them to
manage
for thee.
Dryden.

Webster 1828 Edition

Manage

MAN'AGE

, v.t.
1.
To conduct; to carry on; to direct the concerns of; as, to manage a farm; to manage the affairs of a family.
What wars I manage, and what wreaths I gain.
2.
To train or govern, as a horse.
They vault from hunters to the managed steed.
3.
To govern; to control; to make tame or tractable; as, the buffalo is too refractory to be managed.
4.
To wield; to move or use in the manner desired; to have under command.
Long tubes are cumbersome, and scarce to be easily managed.
5.
To make subservient.
Antony managed him to his own views.
6.
To husband; to treat with caution or sparingly.
The less he had to lose, the less he car'd
To manage lithesome life, when love was the reward.
7.
To treat with caution or judgment; to govern with address.
It was much his interest to manage his protestant subjects.

MAN'AGE

,
Verb.
I.
To direct or conduct affairs; to carry on concerns or business.
Leave them to manage for thee.

MAN'AGE

,
Noun.
Conduct; administration; as the manage of the state or kingdom.
1.
Government; control,as of a horse, or the exercise of riding him.
2.
Discipline; governance; direction.
3.
Use; application or treatment.
Quicksilver will not endure the manage of the fire.
[This word is nearly obsolete in all its applications, unless in reference to horses. We now use management.]

Definition 2024

manage

manage

English

Verb

manage ‎(third-person singular simple present manages, present participle managing, simple past and past participle managed)

  1. (transitive) To direct or be in charge of.
  2. (transitive) To handle or control (a situation, job).
  3. (transitive) To handle with skill, wield (a tool, weapon etc.).
  4. (intransitive) To succeed at an attempt.
    He managed to climb the tower.‎
    • 1913, Joseph C. Lincoln, chapter 7, in Mr. Pratt's Patients:
      Old Applegate, in the stern, just set and looked at me, and Lord James, amidship, waved both arms and kept hollering for help. I took a couple of everlasting big strokes and managed to grab hold of the skiff's rail, close to the stern.
    • 2013 November 30, Paul Davis, “Letters: Say it as simply as possible”, in The Economist, volume 409, number 8864:
      Congratulations on managing to use the phrase “preponderant criterion” in a chart (“On your marks”, November 9th). Was this the work of a kakorrhaphiophobic journalist set a challenge by his colleagues, or simply an example of glossolalia?
  5. (intransitive) To achieve without fuss, or without outside help.
    • 2013 July 20, “Welcome to the plastisphere”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8845:
      Plastics are energy-rich substances, which is why many of them burn so readily. Any organism that could unlock and use that energy would do well in the Anthropocene. Terrestrial bacteria and fungi which can manage this trick are already familiar to experts in the field.
  6. To train (a horse) in the manege; to exercise in graceful or artful action.
  7. (obsolete) To treat with care; to husband.
    (Can we find and add a quotation of Dryden to this entry?)
  8. (obsolete) To bring about; to contrive.
    (Can we find and add a quotation of Shakespeare to this entry?)

Synonyms

  • (To handle with skill, wield): bewield

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

Noun

manage ‎(uncountable)

  1. (now rare) The act of managing or controlling something.
    • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, III.xii:
      the winged God himselfe / Came riding on a Lion rauenous, / Taught to obay the menage of that Elfe [...].
    • Francis Bacon
      Young men, in the conduct and manage of actions, embrace more than they can hold.
    • Shakespeare
      the unlucky manage of this fatal brawl
  2. (horseriding) Manège.

See also

Anagrams

Etymology

From Early Modern English manage, menage, from Middle English *manage, *menage, from Old French manege ‎(“the handling or training of a horse, horsemanship, riding, maneuvers, proceedings”), probably from Old Italian maneggiare ‎(“to handle, manage, touch, treat”), from mano, from Latin manus ‎(“the hand”); see manual.

Pronunciation

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