man-child
Americannoun
plural
men-childrenEtymology
Origin of man-child
Middle English word dating back to 1350–1400
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Gannon-Doak is Scotland's flying machine, the man-child who was supposed to scare the wits out of the Greeks with his speed and his daring, and electrify Hampden with his personality.
From BBC • Oct. 9, 2025
Like him, they’re also racing from man-child parts to man-man ones.
From The Wall Street Journal • Sep. 30, 2025
Whether in the interview scenes or in the flashbacks, his hushed intensity suggests a fractured man-child who was never properly socialized.
From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 29, 2024
So many fit the man-child: “light of brain,” “clod of wayward marl,” “bolting-hutch of beastliness,” but specifically to his inability to speak the truth there’s the perfect “infinite and endless liar, an hourly promise-breaker.”
From Salon • Feb. 5, 2024
Acquaintances remember him as a socially awkward man-child with an outrageous sense of humor and a squirrelly, almost manic-depressive personality.
From "Into the Wild" by Jon Krakauer
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
