See Also: cottonocracy(dictionary)

many (iou) and cottonocracy (iou)


many (iou)



many adjective (in mod. usage also classed as a determiner ), pronoun, & noun. Compar. manier (now served by MORE adjective etc.), maniest (now served by MOST).

A. adjective.
A great (indefinite) number of. Preceding noun sing. with the indef. article a(n) or another (now literary or rhet.), noun sing. without article (long obsolete exc. Scot.), noun pl. (and any determiners); following noun pl. (poet. & arch.). OE.
Shakespeare Anthony & Cleopatra Letters..of many our contriving friends. Dickens We must drink many happy returns to her. R. Ellis Many a wistful boy, and maidens..desire it. Browning In its hope that for many and many a year we may have your very self among us. A. Wilson She dearly loved..a gentleman at her feet, and many a one..she'd had. R. Gordon It's going to be many a long day before I get involved. M. L. King Errands to be run, phone calls to be made, typing, so many things. C. Jackson There weren't many Cadillacs around in those days. comb.: Shelley Like a dome of many-coloured glass. A. N. Whitehead And space is many-dimensional.
As subj. or compl. of be: (indefinitely) great in number. Treated as sing. (only in many is the , many was the , etc., esp. many is the time etc.) or pl. Now literary or rhet. ME.
E. Bowen Though they were still many, the lamps were fewer. Encounter Many were the times we went out to hunt. J. Nagenda Many's the time I've asked myself, 'Why me?'
A great number of; (now usu.) a good, great, etc., number of. L16.
b. pronoun & noun.
absol. Many people or things understood contextually; many people; a great number of, a lot of. OE.
J. Morley Many of his ideas..did not belong to him peculiarly. T. Hardy When..the audience withdrew, many chose to find their way out. O. Manning He was only one knave of many. G. Greene Many served very gallantly in the Red Cross.
The great body of persons or things (specified or understood); the majority. E16.
Coleridge The..foolish self-opinion of the half-instructed many.
A great number (of); (now usu.) a good, great, etc., number (of). E16.
Thackeray Catholic gentry, of whom there were a pretty many in the country. Juliette Huxley A good many were separated at birth from their mothers.
[App. by confusion with MEINIE.] A company, a host, a flock (of); one's retinue or following. L16-E18.
Phrases: as many the same number of, that number of. as many again the same number additionally. as many as all who. have many strings to one's bow: see STRING noun. how many: see HOW adverb. in so many words: see WORD noun. many a time, many a time and oft, many a time and often, many's the time: see TIME noun. of many words: see WORD noun. one too many something not wanted, something repeated to excess. the one and the many Philosophy unity and plurality. too many for more than a match for.
Comb.: many-body adjective pertaining to or involving three or more bodies or particles, spec. with ref. to the problem of predicting their future positions and motions given their present states and manner of interacting; many-headed adjective having many heads; the many-headed, the many-headed beast, the many-headed monster, the people, the populace; many-many adjective designating or pertaining to a correspondence or relation between two sets such that each member of either set is associated with or related to two or more members of the Other; many-one adjective designating or pertaining to a correspondence or relation such that two or more members of one set are associated with or related to each member of a second set; many-sided adjective having many sides, aspects, bearings, capacities, or possibilities; many-sidedness the condition of being many-sided; many-valued adjective (Math.) having more than one value for some or all of its argument(s); that maps to more than one point, number, etc.; many-where adverb (rare) in many places.
manyness noun (rare) (a) a great number; (b) plurality, numerousness: LME.

cottonocracy (iou)



cottonocracy noun. M19.
[from COTTON noun1: see -CRACY.]
Cotton lords as a class.