Word.ws English Dictionary

man-mark

UK/ˈmænmɑːk/US/ˈmænmɑɹk/

man-mark verb: to mark an opposition player closely.

Verb

man-mark (third-person singular simple present man-marks, present participle man-marking, simple past and past participle man-marked)

  1. (transitive) To mark an opposition player closely.
    • In the most extreme form of man-marking, each player has a pre-established opponent to be followed and to be man-marked, from a more or less short distance, wherever he goes. The main objective of the defender is to steal the ball from his opponent if he receives it, or to place him in a threatened...2003, Floriano Marziali, Vincenzo Mora, “The Factors in a Soccer Player’s Performance”, in Bryan R. Beaver, editor, The Zone, Spring City, Pa.: Reedswain Publishing, →ISBN, page 34
    • No, and I still hate him. This is for you. He's going to be man-marked. He won't be allowed anywhere near you. I'll rip him to pieces if he tries anything funny, […]2010, Lars Husum, translated by Mette Petersen, My Friend Jesus Christ, London: Portobello Books, →ISBN

Examples of man-mark in a sentence

  • In the most extreme form of man-marking, each player has a pre-established opponent to be followed and to be man-marked, from a more or less short distance, wherever he goes.2003, Floriano Marziali, Vincenzo Mora, “The Factors in a Soccer Player’s Performance”, in Bryan R. Beaver, editor, The Zone, Spring City...
  • Our manager Don Megson had given me the job of man-marking George Best, so we were both a little disappointed, shall we say, that he scored after only 71 seconds.2012, Ivan Ponting, quoting Frankie Prince, George Best: The Extraordinary Story of a Footballing Genius, London: Simon & Schuster UK...
  • If a team man-marks you that just pulls people out of position.2018 April 29, Scott McDermott, “‘They told me I was finished’: Celtic skipper Scott Brown having the last laugh at his critics”, in Daily...

Forms of man-mark

third-person singular presentman-marks
present participleman-marking
past participleman-marked
pastman-marked

Words formed from man-mark

Questions about man-mark

What does man-mark mean?
Man-mark means to mark an opposition player closely.
How do you use man-mark in a sentence?
In the most extreme form of man-marking, each player has a pre-established opponent to be followed and to be man-marked, from a more or less short distance, wherever he goes.
What part of speech is man-mark?
Man-mark is a verb.
How do you pronounce man-mark?
Man-mark is pronounced /ˈmænmɑːk/ (UK).
What is the past tense of man-mark?
The past tense of man-mark is man-marked.

Words near man-mark in the dictionary

  1. man-killers
  2. man-machine
  3. man-made
  4. man-made fiber
  5. man-made fibers
  6. man-mark
  7. man-marked
  8. man-marker
  9. man-markers
  10. man-marking
  11. man-marks

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: man-mark (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-au-man-mark.ogg.

Cite this entry: “man-mark.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/man-mark. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.