manual
Pluralmanuals
Pluralmanuals
- 1
- 2Of an activity, done or carried out with the hands.
After college he spent two summers doing manual labor on a construction crew.
With a quick manual sweep, she cleared the crumbs from the table.
Similarphysical
Note
Here the word stays closest to its Latin source, manuālis, from manus, "hand". Its everyday partner is labor: manual labor and manual work mean physical work, as opposed to desk work. Henry James could still write of "a wild manual brush to her locks" in What Maisie Knew (1897), applying it to a single gesture, which now sounds deliberately literary.
- 3A handbook, a reference book of instructions or basic information on a subject.
The staff manual sets out the company's policies on leave and overtime.
She kept a well-worn manual of English grammar beside her keyboard.
Similarhandbook
Note
The noun came into English through Old French manuel from Late Latin manuāle, "handbook", so manual and handbook are one idea in two languages, the first borrowed and the second native. A manual is usually named for its subject or its readers, as in a manual of style, a staff manual or a training manual.
- 4
- 5Of a machine, tool, or other device, operated by means of the hands.
The cabin has a manual water pump in the kitchen and no electricity.
He prefers a manual grinder because he can control how fine the coffee gets.
Similarhand-operated
Oppositeautomatic
- 6A device that is worked by hand, or that a person operates directly rather than a machine.
She uses a manual for short trips around the house and a power wheelchair for longer outings.
He learned photography on a secondhand manual, setting the focus and exposure himself for every shot.
Oppositeautomatic
Note
The umbrella over several narrower nouns: a manual typewriter, a manual car or a manual camera can each be shortened to plain a manual. It comes from the adjective and Latin manus “hand”, not from the Late Latin manuāle “handbook” behind the instruction booklet. In a camera shop that leaves a manual ambiguous (the camera itself or the booklet in its box), and only context tells them apart.
- 7A gearbox, especially in a motor vehicle, in which the operator shifts the gears.
The sports model comes with a six-speed manual or an optional automatic.
The base model is available only in manual, which put off some buyers.
Oppositeautomatic
Note
In car talk the word is clipped from manual transmission: the driver chooses each gear with a hand lever, pressing a clutch pedal to disconnect the engine while shifting, where an automatic makes the changes itself. It works as a count noun (a six-speed manual) and also without an article for the type of gearbox, as in offered in manual or automatic.
- 8A car or other vehicle fitted with a manual transmission rather than an automatic one.
Her first car was a manual, so she learned to work a clutch at sixteen.
The dealer had only two manuals left on the lot, both of them silver.
Oppositeautomatic
Note
The gearbox's name stretches here to the whole car, so "Can you drive a manual?" asks about a skill rather than a part. Drivers say they have always driven manuals or learned on one, and car lots are sorted into manuals and automatics, the same pair that names the gearbox itself.
- 9Control or operation by hand rather than by an automatic system.
The pilot turned off the autopilot and flew the final approach on manual.
Set the camera to manual if you want to choose the focus and exposure yourself.
Oppositeautomatic
Note
It names a setting rather than an object, so it takes no article and follows a preposition: switch to manual, put the controls to manual, leave the system on manual. Its partner is automatic, used the same way, and the pair turns up wherever a person can take over from a machine, on a camera, a heating system or an aircraft.
- 10A typewriter operated by hand, as distinguished from an electronic one.
The novelist drafts everything on a battered manual and loves the clack of its keys.
Collectors pay more for working manuals than for electronic models from the same maker.
- 11A keyboard played with the hands on a harpsichord, organ, or similar musical instrument.
The cathedral organ has four manuals and a full pedalboard.
The harpsichordist played the melody on the upper manual and the bass line on the lower one.
Similarkeyboard
Note
Organ builders and players use it for the keyboards played by hand, as against the pedalboard played with the feet. Instruments are counted by them, so you will read of a two-manual harpsichord or a three-manual organ, and on a large organ each manual commands its own set of pipes.
- 12A military drill in the handling of weapons or similar equipment.
The sergeant drilled the recruits in the manual of arms until every rifle moved in time.
The honor guard went through the manual without a single missed beat.
Note
On the drill ground the word lives mostly in the fixed phrase manual of arms: the set routine of rifle movements that recruits repeat on spoken commands until a whole unit moves as one. Used alone it usually takes the definite article, as when an honor guard goes through the manual, and it names a performance, not a book.
- 13A bicycle technique whereby the front wheel is held aloft by the rider, without the use of pedal force.
- 14A similar maneuver on a skateboard, lifting the front or back wheels while keeping the tail or nose of the board from touching the ground.
- 15Manual measurement of the blood pressure, done with a manual sphygmomanometer.
- 16An old office-book like the modern Roman Catholic ritual.
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Origins
From Middle English manuel, from Old French manuel, from Late Latin manuāle ("handbook, manual").
From Middle English manuel, from Anglo-Norman manuel and Old French manual, from Latin manuālis, which comes from manus ("hand").