MAN-OF-WAR (men-o'-war, men-of-war)

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

Irregular inflected forms: men-o'-war    , men-of-war   

 Dictionary entry overview: What does man-of-war mean? 

• MAN-OF-WAR (noun)
  The noun MAN-OF-WAR has 2 senses:

1. a warship intended for combat

2. large siphonophore having a bladderlike float and stinging tentacles

  Familiarity information: MAN-OF-WAR used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• MAN-OF-WAR (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A warship intended for combat

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Synonyms:

man-of-war; ship of the line

Hypernyms ("man-of-war" is a kind of...):

combat ship; war vessel; warship (a government ship that is available for waging war)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "man-of-war"):

sailing warship (a warship that was powered by sails and equipped with many heavy guns; not built after the middle of the 19th century)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Large siphonophore having a bladderlike float and stinging tentacles

Classified under:

Nouns denoting animals

Synonyms:

jellyfish; man-of-war; Portuguese man-of-war

Hypernyms ("man-of-war" is a kind of...):

siphonophore (a floating or swimming oceanic colony of polyps often transparent or showily colored)

Holonyms ("man-of-war" is a member of...):

genus Physalia; Physalia (Portuguese man-of-war)

 Context examples 

I am talking of Betsey as if she was a man-of-war.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

But the sly dog dived, came up under the man-of-war, scuttled her, and down she went, with all sail set, 'To the bottom of the sea, sea, sea' where...

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

I believe I have lived as much on board as most women, and I know nothing superior to the accommodations of a man-of-war.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

I was very much tired, and disposed to sleep, which my mistress perceiving, she put me on her own bed, and covered me with a clean white handkerchief, but larger and coarser than the main-sail of a man-of-war.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

Here they met the captain of an English man-of-war, fell in talk with him, went on board his ship, and, in short, had so agreeable a time that day was breaking when we came alongside the HISPANIOLA.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

And I do assure you, ma'am, pursued Mrs Croft, that nothing can exceed the accommodations of a man-of-war; I speak, you know, of the higher rates.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

Dance a hornpipe, cut in Fred, as Jo paused for breath, and, as they danced, the rubbishy old castle turned to a man-of-war in full sail.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

I had my own old plate, with a brown view of a man-of-war in full sail upon it, which Peggotty had hoarded somewhere all the time I had been away, and would not have had broken, she said, for a hundred pounds.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)