ˈwar-man
1. A fighting-man, warrior, soldier. In early use chiefly Sc.; now rare.
In Minot's Poems x. 9 Ritson and Hall print ‘weremen’ as an emendation of the MS. reading ‘werkmen’.
| 1456 Sir G. Haye Law Arms (S.T.S.) 162 And gif innocent folk takis scathe, than, in sik opyn weris, the prince na the were men may nocht..set remede. c 1470 Henry Wallace iv. 256 Wallace commaundede thai suld na wermen saiff. 1513 Douglas æneis x. xiv. 151 Syne on that weyr⁓man ruschit he in teyn. 1547 J. Harrison Exhort. Scottes a iij b, How the countrey hath been ouer runne..by our awne warremen. 1588 Shakes. L.L.L. v. ii. 666 The sweet War-man is dead and rotten. 1591 2nd Pt. Troub. Raigne K. John (1611) 97 Backe warremen, backe. 1797 T. Dibdin Snug Little Island, A very great war-man, called Billy the Norman. 1831 Scott Cast. Dang. ix, You will command at least twenty war-men, with bow and spear. 1864 R. F. Burton Dahome I. 48, I detected several warmen privily borrowing from their neighbours. 1911 G. K. Chesterton Ballad of White Horse 104 Meeting may be of war-men Where the best war-man wins. |
b. U.S. One whose voice is for war. Cf. war-dog, war-hawk.
| 1814 Columbian Centinel 11 June 2/4 in A. Matthews Uncle Sam (1908) 28. |
† 2. A man-of-war, warship. Sc. Obs.
| 1546 Burgh Rec. Edin. (1871) II. 123 The pryses takin be the Cristopher..to the nummer of sex weirman. |