Crossword clues for manhandle
manhandle
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Manhandle \Man*han"dle\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. -handled; p. pr. & vb. n. -handling.]
To move, or manage, by human force without mechanical aid; as, to manhandle a cannon.
To handle roughly; as, the captive was manhandled.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
mid-15c., "wield a tool," also, late 15c., "to attack (an enemy)," from man (n.) + handle (v.). Nautical meaning "to move by force of men" (without levers or tackle) is attested from 1834, and is the source of the slang meaning "to handle roughly" (1865).\n\n[T]he two Canalers rushed into the uproar, and sought to drag their man out of it toward the forecastle. Others of the sailors joined with them in this attempt, and a twisted turmoil ensued; while standing out of harm's way, the valiant captain danced up and down with a whale-pike, calling upon his officers to manhandle that atrocious scoundrel, and smoke him along to the quarter-deck.
[Melville, "The Town-Ho's Story," "Harper's" magazine, October 1851]
Wiktionary
vb. 1 (context transitive nautical English) To move something heavy by force of men, without aid of levers, pulleys, machine, or tackles. 2 (context transitive English) To assault or beat up a person. 3 (context transitive English) To mishandle; to handle roughly; to mangle. 4 (context transitive English) To control (a machine, vehicle, situation, etc.) by means of physical strength.
WordNet
v. handle roughly; "I was manhandled by the police"
Usage examples of "manhandle".
You plan to stand up in a rubber boat on the high seas and manhandle a fifty-five-gallon drum of avgas up onto the wing of a Catalina?
As they rounded a corner they met the manager and the two who had gone with him manhandling Baumer the other way, struggling, kicking, and emitting muffled screams behind the hand clamped across his mouth.
Doctor was in her cabin on the deck above, which either meant Navigator Chuang had to manhandle an unconscious woman through eighteen hatches and along two kilometres of narrow corridor or else he could cheat.
In the next two hours we met two small ridges and had to get out and manhandle the Doos across, but in both cases it was possible to do it under power and in minutes.
Tom slipped the garrote from his pocket, disposed of the man without trouble, took his keys, and manhandled the limp body into the bottom cabinet of a built-in china hutch where nobody was likely to look.
As impossible was it was to believe, she was being manhandled by Jarred Varrain, the dark hero of her dreams.
Valeria thought she had tasted the ultimate in humiliation already that night, but her shame at being manhandled by Olmec was nothing to the sensations that now shook her supple frame.
In moments, soldiers were manhandling the wooden punts out of the stream as fast as they could and piling them up to form an improvised barricade.
People skidded in mud trying to manhandle the long hook through the air and let it fall amidst the burning rafters of a boathouse.
He also heard rocks being manhandled, rocks clonking down, to block the passage was his only guess.
Legend has it that the cyclists literally took over the town, defied the police, manhandled local women, looted the taverns and stomped anyone who got in their way.
They had to be bridged by the Italian engineers before the transports could be manhandled across, and the pursuit continued.
Bland felt almost sorry he had been so rude to Harkens, but then again he should not have manhandled Lorna.
Soldi made his examination of the sandstone ledge while the surveyors started the compressor and manhandled the jackhammer into position.
Holly was like that, like those women whose manhandled bodies had slight discolorations, bruises like thumbprints, little reddened patches of pressure.