Citations:man down

English citations of man down

1. (transitive, idiomatic) To lose courage or cause to lose courage.
   • 1901, New Zealand House of Representatives, Parliamentary Debates, volume 116, Wellington: Government Printer, →OCLC, page 171, column 2:

     Ministers and a good many of their supporters worked in relays, and had so manned down the feeble and numerically small Opposition till we had not strength nor mental energy enough to resist.

   • 1924, George Allan England, The White Wilderness: A Story of the Great Newfoundland Seal-hunt, of Artic Floes, of Perils and Adventures Manifold, London, New York, N.Y.: Cassell and Co., →OCLC, page 160:

     A famous champion, he; super-expert in the art of "manning down" his opponent, and sometimes in the heat of battle glowing with such an ardour of excitement that he would make wide jumps, quite against every rule, and sweep off pieces wholesale.

   • 2013, Alexei Auld, Tonto Canto Pocahontas, [United States]: TemRose Publishing, →ISBN:

     Normally, I'd psych myself out of approaching her. I looked at her, trying to find something that reinforced my manning down.

2. (intransitive) To reduce in manpower.
   • 1913, Fiji. Legislative Council, Debates, page 36:

     The Hon. HENRY MARKS: We are dealing with the Supplementary Estimates, and included in the Estimates I find Mr. Mortle mans down here again.

   • 1973, Canadian Labour, volume 18, Ottawa, Ont.: Canadian Labour Congress, →OCLC, page 10:

     The employer is usually attempting to cut out manning down on a particular piece of equipment, and they have a meeting with us to try to get some kind of an agreement.

   • 2011, Denise A. Bates, House of Bull: Book Three, Bloomington, Ind.: AuthorHouse, →ISBN, page 392:

     These men have gotten word that the fort we left, Ridgeway, is manning down. So we have no worries about that.

3. (intransitive, chiefly falconry) Of a hawk or other bird: to become accustomed to the presence of people.
   • 1995, Main Conference Proceedings: Annual Conference & Expo, August 28 – September 2, 1995, Orlando, Fla.: Association of Avian Veterinarians, page 176:

     Eyasses begin a transition period in the late summer as their falconry training begins. This critical period involves manning down the raptor, slowly lowering the body weight, and controlled flight training.

   • 2001 November 26, Brad Young <brad@home.com>, “I would like to own an owl or kestrel”, in rec.birds‎^[1] (Usenet), message-ID <vdhM7.49740$gQ1.19819527@news1.elmhst1.il.home.com>:

     Raptors can never be "tamed" completely. They can be "manned down" but even imprinted and manned down birds are subject to their flight or fight instinct.

   • 2014, Ben Crane, Sparrowhawks: A Falconer's Guide, Ramsbury, Marlborough, Wiltshire: The Crowood Press, →ISBN:

     When taken directly from the chamber, initially Mrs Woods showed a high level of fear but when manned down, she went on to show no aggression whatsoever.