Find the word definition

Crossword clues for man-of-war

man-of-war
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
man-of-war
noun
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
Portuguese man-of-war
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ Our cog was a sturdy merchantman escorted by a small man-of-war.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Man-of-war

Man-of-war \Man`-of-war"\, n; pl. Men-of-war.

  1. A government vessel employed for the purposes of war, esp. one of large size; a ship of war. [WordNet sense 1]

    Syn: ship of the line.

  2. The Portuguese man-of-war.

    Syn: Syn.
    --, jellyfish.

    Man-of-war hawk (Zo["o]l.), the frigate bird.

    Man-of-war's man, a sailor serving in a ship of war.

    Portuguese man-of-war (Zo["o]l.), any species of the genus Physalia; it is a hydrozoan having both medusa and polyp stages present in a single colony. It floats on the surface of the sea by a buoyant bladderlike structure, from which dangle multiple long tentacles with stinging cells. Its can cause severe rashes when it comes in contact with humans swimming in the area. See Physalia.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
man-of-war

late 14c., "a soldier," from man (n.) + war. Meaning "vessel equipped for warfare" is from late 15c. Man in the sense of "a ship" is attested from late 15c. in combinations (such as merchantman). The sea creature known as the Portuguese man-of-war (1707) is so called for its sail-like crest.

Wiktionary
man-of-war

alt. 1 (&lit man of war English) (A military man.) 2 An armed naval vessel, primarily one armed with cannon and propelled by sails. 3 A jellyfish-like marine cnidarian of the family ''(taxlink Physaliidae family noshow=1)'', a Portuguese man-of-war or (vern: Pacific man-of-war). 4 A (vern man of war bird pedia=1), a magnificent frigatebird. n. 1 (&lit man of war English) (A military man.) 2 An armed naval vessel, primarily one armed with cannon and propelled by sails. 3 A jellyfish-like marine cnidarian of the family ''(taxlink Physaliidae family noshow=1)'', a Portuguese man-of-war or (vern: Pacific man-of-war). 4 A (vern man of war bird pedia=1), a magnificent frigatebird.

WordNet
man-of-war
  1. n. a warship intended for combat [syn: ship of the line]

  2. large siphonophore having a bladderlike float and stinging tentacles [syn: Portuguese man-of-war, jellyfish]

  3. [also: men-of-war (pl), men-o'-war (pl)]

Wikipedia
Man-of-war

The man-of-war (pl. men-of-war; also man of war, man-o'-war, man o' war, or simply man) was a British Royal Navy expression for a powerful warship or frigate from the 16th to the 19th century. The term often refers to a ship armed with cannon and propelled primarily by sails, as opposed to a galley which is propelled primarily by oars. The man-of-war was developed in England in the early 16th century from earlier roundships with the addition of a second mast to form the carrack. The 16th century saw the carrack evolve into the galleon and then the ship of the line. The evolution of the term has been given thus:

Usage examples of "man-of-war".

Sorais turned and whispered to the officer of the royal bodyguard, and then with a rending sound the whole of the brazen flooring slid from before our feet, and there in its place was suddenly revealed a smooth marble shaft terminating in a most awful raging furnace beneath the altar, big enough and hot enough to heat the iron stern-post of a man-of-war.

The next year two Russians, an officer and a sailor from a Russian man-of-war, hacked to death, again in Yokohama.

We sailed from Constantinople in the beginning of September in the same man-of-war which had brought us, and we reached Corfu in fourteen days.

Gorgon, man-of-war, at the Cape, Edwards and his unfortunate prisoners at last reached England safely, and the mutineers were tried by court--martial.

Fair weather, fair weather bore the Surprise right out beyond the chops of the Channel, to the lonely waters Jack preferred for priddying the decks and making all ship-shape and man-of-war fashion before he turned south for Portugal.

The column rose from an imitation castle, and Ted could make out one of the cannons from a man-of-war which poked riverward over mock battlements.

It is proposed to instruct the coast-guard by means of ship platform batteries of one gun each, constructed exactly similar to the ports of a man-of-war, placed in a position in each district convenient for the drill of fifty men, and in a situation in which it may be rendered available for defence, as well as affording a range to sea for practice.

A Chilean man-of-war, the Amazonas, was anchored at Panama on the lookout for a torpedo launch that was expected to arrive for the Peruvian government from New York.

In the great Jamaica earthquake of 1692 a British man-of-war was borne over the tops of certain warehouses and deposited at a distance from the shore.

A man-of-war bird passed a few feet overhead, its long forked tall opening and closing as it glided through the swirling currents about the forestaysail and the jibs, but neither Jack nor Stephen moved their steady gaze from the land.

He would certainly be entangled with the Portuguese officials if he called at Recife, for example: interminable delay at the best, and at the worst some ugly incident, detention, even violence, they being so very jealous of a foreign man-of-war anywhere but Rio.

I spent the afternoon with the consul, and arranged that I should go on a Neapolitan man-of-war which was in quarantine at the time, and was to sail for Trieste.

He had heard, upon enquiry, that the only persons who had seen the beginning of the unfortunate rencounter were a crew belonging to a man-of-war which then lay at Deptford.

After Smith had his purse filled by Sigismund he made a thorough tour of Europe, and passed into Spain, where being satisfied, as he says, with Europe and Asia, and understanding that there were wars in Barbary, this restless adventurer passed on into Morocco with several comrades on a French man-of-war.

He told me that they were going to see a Venetian man-of-war at anchor in the harbor.