[Heb. ādām man.]
1. The name given in the Bible to the first man, the father of the human race; hence fig. as in the phrase Old Adam, the ‘old man’ of St. Paul (Rom. vi. 6, etc.): The unregenerate condition or character.
a. 1569. Kyngesmill, Godly Adv. (1580), 27. If you laied Adam aslepe, I meane, if you renounced all carnall affections.
1599. Shaks., Hen. V., I. i. 29. Consideration like an Angell came, And whipt th’ offending Adam out of him.
1846. Grote, Greece (1862), II. vi. 165. An impatience to shake off the old social and political Adam.
2. = ADAM’S ALE.
a. 1704. T. Brown, Wks., 1760, IV. ii. (D.). A cup of cold Adam from the next purling spring.
Comb. ADAM’S ALE, -APPLE, -FLANNEL, -MORSEL, -NEEDLE, -WINE, q.v.
