gentlemen

Noun

gentleman (plural gentlemen)

1. Any well-bred, well-mannered, or charming man.
   • I corralled the judge, and we started off across the fields, in no very mild state of fear of that gentleman's wife, whose vigilance was seldom relaxed.1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter VIII, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC
2. (broadly, polite, term-of-address) Any man.
   • Please escort this gentleman to the gentlemen's room.

   Synonyms:

   sahib

3. (historical) A man of gentle but not noble birth, particularly a man of means (originally ownership of property) who does not work for a living but has no official status in a peerage; (UK law) an armigerous man ranking below a knight.
   • Being a gentleman, Robert was entitled to shove other commoners into the gongpit but he still had to jump out of the way of the knights to avoid the same fate himself.
4. (derogatory) An effeminate or oversophisticated man.
   • Well, la-di-da, aren't you just a proper gentleman?

   Synonyms:

   cockney, puss-gentleman, sissy, bading, big girl's blouse, cot-quean, cupcake, dudelet, fakaleiti, fairy

5. (derogatory, historical, sometimes, usually) An amateur or dabbler in any field, particularly those of independent means.
   • Latrobe had extensive dealings with Jefferson, the most prominent gentleman-architect in the United States.2004, Mary N. Woods, “The First Professional: Benjamin Henry Latrobe”, in Keith L. Eggener, editor, American Architectural History: A Contemporary Reader, electronic edition, Routledge, →ISBN, page...

   Synonyms:

   dilettante

6. An amateur player, particularly one whose wealth permits him to forego payment.

See all 7 meanings of gentleman

Noun

gentlemen's (plural gentlemen's)

1. possessive case of gentlemen: belonging to some or all gentlemen.