manage
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈmænɪdʒ/
note: General American, weak vowel merger
ipa: /ˈmænədʒ/
note: weak vowel distinction
ipa: /ˈmænɪdʒ/
note: Indic
ipa: /mænedʒ/
rhymes: -ænɪdʒ
Forms: form: manages
form: managing
form: managed
form: managed
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”), ultimately from Latin manus (“the hand”); see manual. Doublet of manège.
Compare typologically English handle; Russian руководи́ть (rukovodítʹ) (< рука́ (ruká)).
Senses: examples: text: Even though Jack is a novice, he manages his team with great success.
text: Interlaken East station is jointly owned with the standard gauge Bern-Lötschberg-Simplon Railway from Bern and Thun and the Swiss Federal Railways metre-gauge Brünig line from Lucerne, but is managed and staffed by the Bernese Oberland group.
ref: 1960 December, Voyageur, “The Mountain Railways of the Bernese Oberland”, in Trains Illustrated, page 750:
glosses: To direct or be in charge of.
examples: text: The government managed the inflation very poorly.
glosses: To handle or control (a situation, job).
examples: text: It was so much his interest to manage his Protestant subjects.
ref: 1705, J[oseph] Addison, Remarks on Several Parts of Italy, &c. in the Years 1701, 1702, 1703, London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC:
text: The moſt vnruly, and the boldeſt boy,
 That euer warlike weapons menaged […].
ref: 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto II”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:
glosses: To handle with skill, wield (a tool, weapon etc.).
examples: text: He managed to climb the tower.
text: 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.
ref: 1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter VII, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y.; London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC:
text: 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?
ref: 2013 November 30, Paul Davis, “Letters: Say it as simply as possible”, in The Economist, volume 409, number 8864:
info_templates: expansion: [with infinitive]
glosses: To succeed at an attempt in spite of difficulty.
examples: text: She somehow managed to sit on the wet paint.
text: Despite that, Swindon should have been level in stoppage time, but Mathieu Baudry somehow managed to put a free header over the crossbar from point-blank range.
ref: 2020 November 24, PA Media, “Swindon Town 0-1 Lincoln City”, in BBC Sport, archived from the original on 21 Oct 2022:
info_templates: expansion: [with infinitive]
glosses: To succeed at an attempt in spite of difficulty.
To end up doing something that could or should have been avoided.
examples: text: It's a tough job, but I'll manage.
text: 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.
ref: 2013 July 20, “Welcome to the plastisphere”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8845:
glosses: To achieve (something) without fuss, or without outside help.
examples: text: "That's nice, dear!", she managed.
glosses: To manage to say; to say while fighting back embarrassment, laughter, etc.
glosses: To train (a horse) in the manège; to exercise in graceful or artful action.
examples: text: [She] […]manages her last half-crown with care,
And trudges to the Mall, on foot
ref: 1673, John Dryden, “Prologue”, in Marriage à la Mode:
glosses: To treat with care; to husband.
examples: text: in a town of war,
Yet wild, the people's hearts brimful of fear,
To manage private and domestic quarrel,
In night, and on the court and guard of safety!
ref: c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Othello, the Moore of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene iii]:
glosses: To bring about; to contrive.
Synonyms: sense: To handle with skill, wield
word: bewield
sense: to accomplish (something difficult/unexpected)
word: contrive
Derived terms: assistant-manage
comanage
macromanage
manageability
manageable
manage arms
managed care
managed code
managed house
manage down
managee
manageless
management
manage out
manager
managerial
manage up
manage with
managing director
mismanage
outmanage
overmanage
project manage
stage-manage
undermanage
unmanage
unmanageable
Related terms: sense: Terms etymologically related to manage (verb)
word: manege
sense: Terms etymologically related to manage (verb)
word: manual
sense: Terms etymologically related to manage (verb)
word: manus