Source : Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)

Potato \Po*ta"to\, n.; pl. {Potatoes}. [Sp. patata potato,
   batata sweet potato, from the native American name (probably
   batata) in Hayti.] (Bot.)
      (a) A plant ({Solanum tuberosum}) of the Nightshade
          family, and its esculent farinaceous tuber, of which
          there are numerous varieties used for food. It is
          native of South America, but a form of the species is
          found native as far north as New Mexico.
      (b) The sweet potato (see below).

   {Potato beetle}, {Potato bug}. (Zo["o]l.)
      (a) A beetle ({Doryphora decemlineata}) which feeds, both
          in the larval and adult stages, upon the leaves of the
          potato, often doing great damage. Called also
          {Colorado potato beetle}, and {Doryphora}. See
          {Colorado beetle}.
      (b) The {Lema trilineata}, a smaller and more slender
          striped beetle which feeds upon the potato plant, bur
          does less injury than the preceding species.

   {Potato fly} (Zo["o]l.), any one of several species of
      blister beetles infesting the potato vine. The black
      species ({Lytta atrata}), the striped ({L. vittata}), and
      the gray ({L. cinerea, or Fabricii}) are the most common.
      See {Blister beetle}, under {Blister}.

   {Potato rot}, a disease of the tubers of the potato, supposed
      to be caused by a kind of mold ({Peronospora infestans}),
      which is first seen upon the leaves and stems.

   {Potato weevil} (Zo["o]l.), an American weevil ({Baridius
      trinotatus}) whose larva lives in and kills the stalks of
      potato vines, often causing serious damage to the crop.

   {Potato whisky}, a strong, fiery liquor, having a hot, smoky
      taste, and rich in amyl alcohol (fusel oil); it is made
      from potatoes or potato starch.

   {Potato worm} (Zo["o]l.), the large green larva of a sphinx,
      or hawk moth ({Macrosila quinquemaculata}); -- called also
      {tomato worm}. See Illust. under {Tomato}.

   {Seaside potato} (Bot.), {Ipom[oe]a Pes-Capr[ae]}, a kind of
      morning-glory with rounded and emarginate or bilobed
      leaves. [West Indies]

   {Sweet potato} (Bot.), a climbing plant ({Ipom[oe]a Balatas})
      allied to the morning-glory. Its farinaceous tubers have a
      sweetish taste, and are used, when cooked, for food. It is
      probably a native of Brazil, but is cultivated extensively
      in the warmer parts of every continent, and even as far
      north as New Jersey. The name potato was applied to this
      plant before it was to the {Solanum tuberosum}, and this
      is the ``potato'' of the Southern United States.

   {Wild potato}. (Bot.)
      (a) A vine ({Ipom[oe]a pandurata}) having a pale purplish
          flower and an enormous root. It is common in sandy
          places in the United States.
      (b) A similar tropical American plant ({I. fastigiata})
          which it is thought may have been the original stock
          of the sweet potato.



   2. Especially: An adult male person; a grown-up male person,
      as distinguished from a woman or a child.

            When I became a man, I put away childish things. --I
                                                  Cor. xiii. 11.

            Ceneus, a woman once, and once a man. --Dryden.

   3. The human race; mankind.

            And God said, Let us make man in our image, after
            our likeness, and let them have dominion. --Gen. i.
                                                  26.

            The proper study of mankind is man.   --Pope.

   4. The male portion of the human race.

            Woman has, in general, much stronger propensity than
            man to the discharge of parental duties. --Cowper.

   5. One possessing in a high degree the distinctive qualities
      of manhood; one having manly excellence of any kind.
      --Shak.

            This was the noblest Roman of them all . . . the
            elements So mixed in him that Nature might stand up
            And say to all the world ``This was a man!'' --Shak.

   6. An adult male servant; also, a vassal; a subject.

            Like master, like man.                --Old Proverb.

            The vassal, or tenant, kneeling, ungirt, uncovered,
            and holding up his hands between those of his lord,
            professed that he did become his man from that day
            forth, of life, limb, and earthly honor.
                                                  --Blackstone.

   7. A term of familiar address often implying on the part of
      the speaker some degree of authority, impatience, or
      haste; as, Come, man, we 've no time to lose!

   8. A married man; a husband; -- correlative to wife.

            I pronounce that they are man and wife. --Book of
                                                  Com. Prayer.

            every wife ought to answer for her man. --Addison.

   9. One, or any one, indefinitely; -- a modified survival of
      the Saxon use of man, or mon, as an indefinite pronoun.

            A man can not make him laugh.         --Shak.

            A man would expect to find some antiquities; but all
            they have to show of this nature is an old rostrum
            of a Roman ship.                      --Addison.

   10. One of the piece with which certain games, as chess or
       draughts, are played.

   Note: Man is often used as a prefix in composition, or as a
         separate adjective, its sense being usually
         self-explaining; as, man child, man eater or maneater,
         man-eating, man hater or manhater, man-hating,
         manhunter, man-hunting, mankiller, man-killing, man
         midwife, man pleaser, man servant, man-shaped,
         manslayer, manstealer, man-stealing, manthief, man
         worship, etc. Man is also used as a suffix to denote a
         person of the male sex having a business which pertains
         to the thing spoken of in the qualifying part of the
         compound; ashman, butterman, laundryman, lumberman,
         milkman, fireman, showman, waterman, woodman. Where the
         combination is not familiar, or where some specific
         meaning of the compound is to be avoided, man is used
         as a separate substantive in the foregoing sense; as,
         apple man, cloth man, coal man, hardware man, wood man
         (as distinguished from woodman).

   {Man ape} (Zo["o]l.), a anthropoid ape, as the gorilla.

   {Man at arms}, a designation of the fourteenth and fifteenth
      centuries for a soldier fully armed.

   {Man engine}, a mechanical lift for raising or lowering
      people through considerable distances; specifically
      (Mining), a contrivance by which miners ascend or descend
      in a shaft. It consists of a series of landings in the
      shaft and an equal number of shelves on a vertical rod
      which has an up and down motion equal to the distance
      between the successive landings. A man steps from a
      landing to a shelf and is lifted or lowered to the next
      landing, upon which he them steps, and so on, traveling by
      successive stages.

   {Man Friday}, a person wholly subservient to the will of
      another, like Robinson Crusoe's servant Friday.

   {Man of straw}, a puppet; one who is controlled by others;
      also, one who is not responsible pecuniarily.

   {Man-of-the earth} (Bot.), a twining plant ({Ipom[oe]a
      pandurata}) with leaves and flowers much like those of the
      morning-glory, but having an immense tuberous farinaceous
      root.

   {Man of war}.
       (a) A warrior; a soldier. --Shak.
       (b) (Naut.) See in the Vocabulary.

   {To be one's own man}, to have command of one's self; not to
      be subject to another.