as in valiant
feeling or displaying no fear by temperament he made the manful decision to stick by his friends when everyone else had abandoned them

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Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of manful Intermittent fasting was of a piece with an interest in manful self-improvement via stoicism. Molly Fischer, The New Yorker, 24 Apr. 2024 Camping with a rogue dynamiter, Siringo stuck elk horns into two neighboring peaks and claimed to have named the mountains in honor of their manful bond. Dan Piepenbring, Harper's Magazine, 14 Aug. 2023 The other deputies smiled, ready to toast the capital with manful drafts of vodka. Alex Halberstadt, Town & Country, 9 Oct. 2015 The other deputies smiled, ready to toast the capital with manful drafts of vodka. Alex Halberstadt, Town & Country, 9 Oct. 2015
Recent Examples of Synonyms for manful
Adjective
  • Without every last one of those points, there’s no telling whether No. 1 Duke would’ve survived No. 4 Arizona’s valiant comeback attempt.
    The Athletic College Basketball Staff, New York Times, 28 Mar. 2025
  • The Cybertruck is indeed a valiant effort in doing something new, and that’s not what most manufacturers dare to do.
    New Atlas, New Atlas, 12 Apr. 2025
Adjective
  • The doc observes students shaping and driving courageous forms of conversation among themselves and with their institutions.
    Lovia Gyarkye, HollywoodReporter, 16 Apr. 2025
  • John Lewis John Lewis, born in 1940 in Troy, Alabama, was a son of sharecroppers who became one of the most courageous and enduring voices of the Civil Rights Movement.
    Sughnen Yongo, Forbes.com, 10 Apr. 2025
Adjective
  • The National Police Office will fully take care of the benefits and welfare of the families of the 5 brave policemen.
    Becca Longmire, People.com, 25 Apr. 2025
  • Holocaust survivor Marian Turski warned us all to be vigilant against indifference for good reason: turning inward at times of strife prevents us from being brave and leads to the exploitation of the vulnerable.
    Robert Williams, Time, 24 Apr. 2025
Adjective
  • Internet users were gripped by Chewy's antics and the heroic rescue, leading to more than 4,200 comments on the TikTok post so far.
    Thomas G. Moukawsher, MSNBC Newsweek, 25 Apr. 2025
  • The history of the news media is filled with heroic efforts of reporters at war fronts – from Edward R. Murrow during World War II’s London Blitz to CBS News’s Dan Rather and Morley Safer in Vietnam to Tyler Hicks covering Afghanistan for 20 years for the New York Times.
    Howard Homonoff, Forbes.com, 24 Apr. 2025
Adjective
  • For nearly a century after the Civil War, terroristic lynchings of Black men in the South were frequently justified as gallant acts by white men to protect their wives and daughters.
    Livia Gershon, JSTOR Daily, 16 Apr. 2025
  • An elaborate ideology confers legitimacy upon the Kim family: according to the country’s founding myth, Kim Il Sung led a gallant band of guerilla fighters in the bitter winds of Manchuria to defeat the Japanese, liberate the Korean people, and establish the North Korean state.
    JENNIFER LIND, Foreign Affairs, 25 Oct. 2010
Adjective
  • Known for their fearless improvisation and genre-defying performances, the trio’s performance in a hall, on the grounds of a former convent, was a 45-minute, intense, non-stop wall of sound.
    Joanne Shurvell, Forbes.com, 19 Apr. 2025
  • The centerpiece is a visually stunning film set in outer space, with Zendaya as the fearless protagonist on an interstellar mission.
    Mecca Pryor, Essence, 18 Apr. 2025

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Cite this Entry

“Manful.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/manful. Accessed 29 Apr. 2025.

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