ˈman-ˌeater
[man n.1]
One who eats men.
1. A cannibal.
| 1600 J. Pory tr. Leo's Africa Introd. 31 They are man-eaters, and couragious in battaile. 1617 Hieron Wks. (1619–20) II. 103 How foule is the sinne of oppression, when the practisers of it are likened to man-eaters, that liue vpon flesh? 1681 T. Flatman Heraclitus Ridens No. 28 (1713) I. 180 They may talk of Jews, Turks, Pagans, Infidels, Canibals, Man-eaters, Killcraps. 1705 Hickeringill Priestcr. i. (1721) 33 There are Cannibals or Maneaters. 1837 M. Donovan Dom. Econ. II. 44 A stout ferocious-looking fellow..was pointed out to me as a celebrated marksman and man-eater. 1854 Old Story-Teller, Golden Roebuck 61 The man-eater's mouth watered for human food. |
2. a. An animal that eats or has a propensity for eating men;
colloq. a horse given to biting.
| 1840 E. E. Napier Scenes & Sports in For. Lands I. v. 140 The larger horses..are leggy, under-limbed, and, as far as vice goes, regular man-eaters. 1879 Mrs. A. G. F. E. James Ind. Househ. Managem. 68 Some horses in India are called ‘man-eaters’, and have to be blindfolded while you mount, or they would bite you. 1883 F. Day Indian Fish 51 (Fish. Exh. Publ.) The common crocodile, Crocodilus palustris and C. porosus..often termed man-eaters. 1922 Blunden Bonadventure xvi. 95 To sleep there was to be slowly suffocated, let alone the folly of sleeping among man-eaters [sc. mosquitoes]. 1957 R. Campbell Portugal iv. 61 Aulus Fedeus had another [moray]..a man-eater. |
b. A man-eating shark;
esp. Carcharodon rondeleti. Also
man-eater shark.
| 1837 Hawthorne Twice-told T. (1851) II. xviii. 259 To ascertain that the maneater [sc. a shark] had already met his own death. 1882 Jordan & Gilbert Fishes N. Amer. 30 (Bull. U.S. Nat. Mus. No. 16) Man-eater Shark. 1884 G. B. Goode, etc. Nat. Hist. Usef. Aquatic Anim. I. 671 A Shark closely related to our Man-eater. |
c. In India, a man-eating tiger. Applied also to lions and hyenas.
| 1862 J. Greenwood Wild Sports 191 It marks the spot where..fell one of the most terrible ‘man-eaters’ the world ever saw. 1881 J. Grant Cameronians I. iv. 60 Sir Piers..thought it very slow work compared with..potting a man-eater from a howdah. |
| attrib. 1850 R. G. Cumming Hunter's Life S. Afr. (1902) 134/1 A bloodthirsty man-eater lion. |
3. local U.S. a. A large salamander.
b. The dobson or hellgrammite (
Cent. Dict. 1890).
| 1859 Bartlett Dict. Amer., s.v. Water-Dogs, In Pennsylvania and the Eastern States they [various species of salamanders] are called Spring-keepers and Man-eaters. |
4. fig. Of a person (see
quots.).
colloq.| 1906 E. Dyson Fact'ry 'Ands xi. 136 To Spats' Beauties she was always Porline or The Man-Eater. 1928 A. Huxley Point Counter Point xiv. 264 Marjorie isn't the only bore. Nor Lucy the only man-eater. 1929 F. C. Bowen Sea Slang 88 Man Eater, a particularly tough officer under sail. 1944 T. Rattigan While Sun Shines 11. 209 Aw, she's no man-eater. You don't get real man-eaters this side of the Atlantic. 1968 D. Gray Died in Red xx. 122 ‘She's pretty, you said?’.. ‘Very, sir.’ ‘And a man-eater?’ ‘I'd say so, yes, sir.’ 1974 J. Montgomerie Implosion xiii. 97 A womaniser, to use an old-fashioned term. Was a woman ever described as a maniser? No, but I'd heard the designation man-eater. |
So
ˈman-ˌeating vbl. n. and ppl. a. (also
fig.).
| 1607 Hieron Wks. I. 437 A raging, and (as I may terme it) a man-eating pestilence. 1612 Brerewood Lang. & Relig. x. 87 The Anzichi, being an idolatrous and man-eating nation. 1871 J. Forsyth Highl. India 321 When a panther takes to man-eating, he is a far more terrible scourge than a tiger. 1880 Chamb. Jrnl. 15 May 316/2 Man-eating tigers..are..rare in British India. 1954 T. S. Eliot Confid. Clerk ii. 61 Between a couple of man-eating tigers like you and Lizzie, he's got to have protection. 1958 Times Lit. Suppl. 26 Dec. 749/4 He develops an obsession for a fearful man-eating television actress. 1959 Times 28 May 15/5 The Affair in Arcady has everything—a man-eating young heroine..a sinister step-father, [etc.]. 1974 K. Benton Craig & Tunisian Tangle xi. 158 That sadistic bitch... She's got her man⁓eating eye on you. |