manage

present singular third person manages · participle present managing · participle past managed · past managed

1. transitiveTo direct or be in charge of.

   Even though Jack is a novice, he manages his team with great success.

   1 more example

   Interlaken East station is jointly owned with the standard gauge Bern-Lötschberg-Simplon Railway from Bern and Thun and the Swiss Federal Railways metre-gauge Brünig line from Lucerne, but is managed and staffed by the Bernese Oberland group.

   1960 December, Voyageur, “The Mountain Railways of the Bernese Oberland”, in Trains Illustrated, page 750

   Synonyms: handle

2. transitiveTo handle or control (a situation, job).

   The government managed the inflation very poorly.

3. transitiveTo handle with skill, wield (a tool, weapon etc.).

   It was so much his interest to manage his Protestant subjects.

   1705, J[oseph] Addison, Remarks on Several Parts of Italy, &c. in the Years 1701, 1702, 1703, London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC

   1 more example

   The moſt vnruly, and the boldeſt boy, That euer warlike weapons menaged […].

   1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto II”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC

   Synonyms: bewield

4. intransitiveTo succeed at an attempt in spite of difficulty.

   He managed to climb the tower.

   2 more examples

   Old Applegate, in the stern, just set and looked at me, and Lord James, amidship, waved both arms and kept hollering for help. I took a couple of everlasting big strokes and managed to grab hold of the skiff's rail, close to the stern.

   1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter VII, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y.; London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC

   Congratulations on managing to use the phrase “preponderant criterion” in a chart (“On your marks”, November 9th). Was this the work of a kakorrhaphiophobic journalist set a challenge by his colleagues, or simply an example of glossolalia?

   2013 November 30, Paul Davis, “Letters: Say it as simply as possible”, in The Economist, volume 409, number 8864

   1. intransitiveironicTo end up doing something that could or should have been avoided.

      She somehow managed to sit on the wet paint.

      1 more example

      Despite that, Swindon should have been level in stoppage time, but Mathieu Baudry somehow managed to put a free header over the crossbar from point-blank range.

      2020 November 24, PA Media, “Swindon Town 0-1 Lincoln City”, in BBC Sport, archived from the original on 21 Oct 2022

5. ambitransitiveTo achieve (something) without fuss, or without outside help.

   It's a tough job, but I'll manage.

   1 more example

   Plastics are energy-rich substances, which is why many of them burn so readily. Any organism that could unlock and use that energy would do well in the Anthropocene. Terrestrial bacteria and fungi which can manage this trick are already familiar to experts in the field.

   2013 July 20, “Welcome to the plastisphere”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8845

6. transitiveTo manage to say; to say while fighting back embarrassment, laughter, etc.

   "That's nice, dear!", she managed.

7. transitiveTo train (a horse) in the manège; to exercise in graceful or artful action.
8. obsoletetransitiveTo treat with care; to husband.

   [She] […]manages her last half-crown with care, And trudges to the Mall, on foot

   1673, John Dryden, “Prologue”, in Marriage à la Mode

9. obsoletetransitiveTo bring about; to contrive.

   in a town of war, Yet wild, the people's hearts brimful of fear, To manage private and domestic quarrel, In night, and on the court and guard of safety!

   c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Othello, the Moore of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene iii]

   Synonyms: contrive

1. archaicuncountableThe act of managing or controlling something.

   the unlucky manage of this fatal brawl

   c. 1591–1595 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Romeo and Ivliet”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene i]

   2 more examples

   the winged God himſelfe Came riding on a Lion rauenous, Taught to obay the menage of that Elfe […].

   1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto XII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC

   Young men, in the conduct and manage of actions, embrace more than they can hold.

   1625, Francis [Bacon], “Of Youth and Age”, in The Essayes […], 3rd edition, London: […] Iohn Haviland for Hanna Barret, →OCLC

2. uncountableequestrianismManège.

   You must draw [the horse] in his career with his manage, and turn, doing the corvetto, leaping &c..

   1622, Henry Peacham (Jr.), The Compleat Gentleman