man among men
English
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Noun
[edit]man among men (plural men among men)
- (idiomatic) A man who is accepted on the same terms, and as having the same worth, as other men in society.
- 1892, Mark Twain [pseudonym; Samuel Langhorne Clemens], chapter XII, in The American Claimant, New York, N.Y.: Charles L[uther] Webster & Co., →OCLC, page 128:
- I have accomplished my dearest wish, I am a man among men, on an equal footing with Tom, Dick and Harry, and yet it isn't just exactly what I thought it was going to be.
- 1913, Joseph A. Altsheler, chapter 5, in The Texan Scouts:
- The boy was on terms of perfect equality with Obed and the Panther. They treated him as a man among men.
- 2001 June 24, Gerald Clarke, “The Double Life of an Aids Victim”, in Time, retrieved 14 July 2014:
- Willson transformed Roy Fitzgerald into Rock Hudson and secured him an apprenticeship. . . . [H]e was able to establish his film personality: steady, likable, a man among men.
- (idiomatic) A superior or remarkable man who stands out from other men; a leader or exemplar for other men.
- 1667, John Milton, “Book III”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC, lines 283–285:
- And be thy ſelf Man among men on Earth, / Made fleſh, when time ſhall be, of Virgin ſeed, / By wondrous birth: […]
- 1890, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “The Bait on the Hook”, in The Firm of Girdlestone: A Romance of the Unromantic, London: Chatto & Windus, […], →OCLC, page 335:
- To her distorted fancy he was a man among men, a hero, all that was admirable and magnificent.
- 1900, John Fox Jr., chapter 7, in Crittenden: A Kentucky Story of Love and War:
- At the head of it rode two men—one with a quiet mesmeric power that bred perfect trust at sight, the other with a kindling power of enthusiasm, and a passionate energy, mental, physical, emotional, that was tireless; each a man among men, and both together an ideal leader for the thousand Americans at their heels.
- 1916, Gilbert Parker, chapter 26, in The World For Sale:
- [H]e was so much a man among men, a giant, with a great, lumbering mind, slow to conceive, but moving in a large, impressive way when once conception came.
- 1997, Harriet Rubin, The Princessa: Machiavelli for Women, →ISBN:
- A prince is a man among men, a canny fighter, a steely sovereign who takes what he wants out of life.
Usage notes
[edit]- Almost always preceded by the article a.
- This term is a contranym, designating, in one sense, an unexceptional man, and, in another sense, an exceptional man.