Word.ws English Dictionary

manhandles

manhandles is the third-person singular simple present indicative of manhandle.

Meaning of manhandle

Verb

manhandle (third-person singular simple present manhandles, present participle manhandling, simple past and past participle manhandled)

  1. (transitive) To move something heavy by force of men, without aid of levers, pulleys, machine, or tackles.
    • I see him—Tom—on horse-block standing,
      Trumpet at mouth, thrown up all amain,
      An elephant's bugle, vociferous demanding
      Of topmen aloft in the hurricane of rain,
      "Letting that sail there your faces flog?
      Manhandle it, men, and you'll get the good grog!"1876, Herman Melville, Bridegroom Dick
  2. (transitive) To assault or beat up a person.
    • The polls were guarded by bullies who did not hesitate at command to manhandle any decent citizen indicated by the local leaders.1918, Stewart Edward White, chapter 13, in The Forty-Niners, page 177
    Synonyms:
    rough up
  3. (transitive) To mishandle; to handle roughly; to mangle.
    • She yells at people who manhandle the tomatoes or break the beans.1996 April 21, Barbara Stewart, “Another Harvest: One Farm, One Life”, in New York Times, retrieved 06 Nov 2012
    Synonyms:
    mistreat, maltreat
  4. (transitive) To control (a machine, vehicle, situation, etc.) by means of physical strength.
    • Riders who succeed on this terrain are able to manhandle their bike as it rattles over the bumps.2010 July 3, Juliet Macur, “Riders Gird for Four Challenging, Engrossing Stages of the Tour”, in New York Times, retrieved 06 Nov 2012

Questions about manhandles

What is manhandles the third-person singular simple present indicative of?
Manhandles is the third-person singular simple present indicative of manhandle.

Words near manhandles in the dictionary

  1. manhairs
  2. manhandle
  3. manhandled
  4. manhandler
  5. manhandlers
  6. manhandles
  7. manhandling
  8. manhandlings
  9. manharness hitch
  10. manharness hitches
  11. manharness knot

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: manhandles (page history and authors); manhandle (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:

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