The Collaborative International Dictionary
Many \Ma"ny\, a. & pron.
Note: [It has no variation to express degrees of comparison; more and most, which are used for the comparative and superlative degrees, are from a different root.] [OE. mani, moni, AS. manig, m[ae]nig, monig; akin to D. menig, OS. & OHG. manag, G. manch, Dan. mange, Sw. m[*a]nge, Goth. manags, OSlav. mnog', Russ. mnogii; cf. Icel. margr, Prov. E. mort. [root]103.] Consisting of a great number; numerous; not few.
Thou shalt be a father of many nations.
--Gen. xvii.
4.
Not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not
many noble, are called.
--1 Cor. i.
26.
Note: Many is freely prefixed to participles, forming
compounds which need no special explanation; as,
many-angled, many-celled, many-eyed, many-footed,
many-handed, many-leaved, many-lettered, many-named,
many-peopled, many-petaled, many-seeded, many-syllabled
(polysyllabic), many-tongued, many-voiced, many-wived,
and the like. In such usage it is equivalent to
multi. Comparison is often expressed by many with as
or so. ``As many as were willing hearted . . . brought
bracelets.''
--Exod. xxxv. 22. ``So many laws argue so
many sins.''
--Milton. Many stands with a singular
substantive with a or an.
Many a, a large number taken distributively; each one of
many. ``For thy sake have I shed many a tear.''
--Shak.
``Full many a gem of purest ray serene.''
--Gray.
Many one, many a one; many persons.
--Bk. of Com. Prayer.
The many, the majority; -- opposed to the few. See Many, n.
Too many, too numerous; hence, too powerful; as, they are
too many for us.
--L'Estrange.
Syn: Numerous; multiplied; frequent; manifold; various; divers; sundry.
Usage examples of "too many".
He blows too many ways as his advisers persuade him, but left alone he knows a man when he finds one.
I am an old man, and have been too many years in this chair, not to ascertain by the answers which I receive, whether the conscience is unloaded.
It will take many trips to the well, too many for me now that I am old and—.
And the appraisal reflected a vision he had fought away too many times of late.
Templeton can't threaten too many people on The Wages itself with whatever side arms he'll pick up there, but once he gets aboard that freighter all bets are off.
I must have had too many drinks one night, because I didnt recollect telling Brian where I was going.
Gadbois, a barrel-chested paratrooper, forty-year veteran of Algeria, the Congo, and too many brushfires to mention, lit another cigarette and stared at the blizzard of gray and white snow swirling on the television screen a few feet away.
It looks like she put her makeup on with a trowel, but that's still not enough to conceal the deep lines in her face from too many years of hard living.
There are too many radio transmissions at an event like that to use a remote electronic signal to set it off, and multiple locations increase the chance of discovery.