mandrake, the plant Atropa mandragora; of a strong narcotic quality. Its root was thought to resemble the human figure, and to cause madness by its shriek or groan when torn from the ground. 2 Hen. VI, iii. 2. 310; Romeo, iv. 3. 47; a term of abuse, 2 Hen. IV, i. 2. 16; iii. 2. 342.
mandritta, mandrita, in fencing, a cut from right to left. Nabbes, Microcosmos, i. 2 (Choler); Marston, Scourge of Villainy, Sat. xi. 56. Ital. mandritto, manritto, ‘a right handed blow’ (Florio).
maner, manner: in phr. to be taken with the maner, to be taken in the act. Bible, Num. v. 13 (ed. 1611); also, in the Geneva Bible (1562); 1 Hen. IV, ii. 4. 350; Winter’s Tale, iv. 3 (or 4), 755. ‘If the Defendant were taken with the mainour (or manour)’, Cowell, Interpreter (s.v. Mainour); ‘He is taken with the maynure’, Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. ii. c. 7, § 6. Compare the Anglo-F. legal phrase pris ov mainoure, and the L. cum manuopere captus, i.e. taken with the thing stolen in one’s possession (Ducange, s.v. Manopera); mainoure, lit. hand-work, acquired the legal sense of ‘thing stolen’. Later, to be taken in the (i’th) manner, Fletcher, Rule a Wife, v. 4. 8. See Dict. (s.v. Mainour).
mangonize, to sell men or boys for slaves. B. Jonson, Poetaster, iii. 1 (Tucca). L. mangonizare, to trim up an article for sale (Pliny); mango, a dealer in slaves and wares.
manicon, the name of a narcotic, obtained from a kind of night-shade, so called from its supposed power of causing madness; ‘(Who) Bewitch hermetic men to run Stark staring mad with manicon’, Butler, Hud. iii. 1. 324. See Alphita, 176 (under Strignus manicon, and Solatrum mortale). Cp. Gk. στρύχνος μανικός (Dioscorides).
maniple, a handful, bundle. B. Jonson, Magn. Lady, i. 1 (Sir Dia.); a band of men, Milton, Areopagitica (ed. Hales, 48). See Dict.
manner; see [maner].
manred, the men whom the lord could call upon in time of war; hence, a supply of fighting men; ‘Manred and retinew’, Holland, Camden’s Brit., Scot. ii. 17 (NED.); Phaer, Aeneid vii, 644 and 710 (L. orig. ‘cohors’). OE. mannrǣden, homage, service due from tenants.
manticore, a fabulous animal, compounded of a lion, porcupine, and scorpion, with a human head. Skelton, ed. Dyce, i. 118 and 124; ‘Mantichoras, monstrous beasts’, Wilkins, Miseries of inforst Marriage, v (Butler). Gk. μαντιχώρας, a corrupt reading for μαρτιχόρας in Aristotle; from a Persian word meaning ‘man-eater’. See NED.
manto, a cloak. Butler, Hud. iii. 1. 700. Ital. manto.