manhaul

English

Alternative forms

• man-haul

Etymology

From man +‎ haul.

Verb

manhaul (third-person singular simple present manhauls, present participle manhauling, simple past and past participle manhauled)

1. (transitive) To pull sledges, trucks, etc. by manpower, unaided by animals or machines.
   • 1996, Sara Wheeler, Terra Incognita: Travels in Antarctica, New York: Random House, →ISBN, page 139:

     He would die in the Arctic, but in 1908 he manhauled to the South Magnetic Pole with Mawson and Edgeworth David, and on the way they camped near our spot.

   • 2001, Julian Stockwin, Kydd, Scribner, →ISBN, page 73:

     With agile topmen at the summit of the towering mast tending the sheaves of the blocks, it needed the humble laborers to manhaul ropes, seized to a girt-line, up the entire height of the mainmast.

   • 2007, Ralph Albert Gessner, Deep in My Heart, 2nd edition, Lulu.com, →ISBN, page 177:

     SS-Sturmbannführer Fritz Hartjenstein, the camp commandant, prefers to use kids ranging in ages from five to eleven to manhaul the scattered dead as he believes children are less likely to escape, pilfer, or make contact with the Polish partisans on the outside of the camp.

   • 2014, Sir Ranulph Fiennes, “Foreword”, in Sir Ernest Shackleton, South: The Last Antarctic Expedition of Shackleton and the Endurance, Adlard Coles Nautical, →ISBN, page xi:

     I have fallen into yawning crevasses hundreds of miles from the nearest human, I have manhauled sledge loads, for a thousand miles and more, that were 100 lbs heavier than those of Shackleton's men.

Noun

manhaul (countable and uncountable, plural manhauls)

1. The act or practice of pulling sledges, trucks, etc. by human power, unaided by animals or machines.
   • 2006, Granville Allen Mawen, South by Northwest: The Magnetic Crusade and the Contest for Antarctica, Edinburgh: Birlinn, →ISBN, page 2:

     Australians, for whom Mawson is a national hero, might have heard of his solo trek to survival in 1913, but few would know that he and another Australian, Edgeworth David, with a lone Briton, were the first men to reach the vicinity of the South Magnetic Pole, and that they did it by the longest unsupported manhaul of the era of discovery.

   • 2012, Captain R. F. Scott, The Last Expedition:

     Huntford accuses Scott of choosing manhaul as his favoured method of travel purely to be macho.

   • 2013, Ranulph Fiennes, Cold: Extreme Adventures at the Lowest Temperatures on Earth:

     That night I asked Ginny to get this manhaul equipment to us the next day in the Twin Otter.

2. A sledge, travois, etc. that is pulled by human power, along with the cargo it is carrying.
   • 2021, Brian J Taylor, Tales from Bluebell Cottage:

     After Jim had secured his load, he moved off and must have been a quarter of a mile ahead before Ralph and I set off with the manhaul in tow.

3. A truck with two long benches in the back (oriented the long way) for people to sit on, or any similar utilitarian vehicle designed to carry many people.
   • 1954 January, CDR J. L. Dowd, CEC, USN, “Something from Nothing”, in U.S. Navy Civil Engineer Corps Bulletin, volume 8, number 1, United States Navy Civil Engineer Corps: Bureau of Yards and Docks, page 14:

     During this period of rehabilitation, personnel had to be hauled over the 12 miles from the old quarters to the new in box-type manhauls that were forever breaking down.

   • 1960 July, Robert L. Jenkins, “Habits, Customs, Beliefs of Native Labor on Overseas Construction Concern Army, Air Force, Navy Engineers”, in The Navy Civil Engineer, United States Navy Civil Engineer Corps: Bureau of Yards and Docks, page 21:

     In many countries commercial bus service is infrequent and the vehicles are small. They haul animals and freight as well as people. The buses are always crowded with people perched on every square foot of the bus and sometimes hanging from windows by their fingers. Since that is the custom, they swarm over a manhaul vehicle the same way.

   • 1971, Asian Pacific Quarterly of Cultural and Social Affairs, volumes 3–4, Cultural and Social Centre for the Asian and Pacific Region, page 92:

     The mechanic and a couple of his mates came in and Toby turned to them. "Ray, get a manhaul, pull in here right at the door. See how fast you can be."

4. (US, dated, naval, slang) A meal.
   • 1998, Dirk Anthony Ballendorf, editor, U.S. Naval Ship Repair Facility: Guam History Book: 1945 to 1997, United States Department of Defense, page 54:

     During his years at SRF, Kooch never missed the manhauls (meals) at 1100 and 1600. […] Through the years as his hearing got bad, Kooch would not hear the Whistle. Since then, manhauls were delayed until he was found and ushered aboard.