Woman v.

[f. prec.]

  † 1.  Early nonce-uses. a. intr. To become woman-like; with it, to behave as a woman, be womanly. b. trans. To make like a woman in weakness or subservience. c. pa. pple. Accompanied by a woman. d. To make ‘a woman’ of, deprive of virginity.

1595.  T. Edwards, Cephalus (1878), 55. Her courage was euen then a womanning.

1601.  Shaks., All’s Well, III. ii. 53. I haue felt so many quirkes of ioy and greefe, That the first face of neither on the start Can woman me vntoo’t. Ibid. (1604), Oth., III. iv. 195. I … thinke it no addition nor my wish To haue him see me woman’d.

1611.  Heywood, Golden Age, III. i. G 1 b. I woman’d first Calisto, and made thee A grandfather.

1613.  Daniel, Hymen’s Tri., III. ii. This day I should Haue seene my daughter Siluia how she would Haue womand it.

  2.  trans. To furnish or provide with women; to equip with a staff of women. (After MAN v.)

1706.  Mrs. Centlivre, Basset-Table, Epil. The Ship’s well mann’d, and not ill Woman’d neither.

1830.  Wheaton, Jrnl., 271. The tops of the houses were manned and womaned for many a square.

1865.  Burritt, Walk to Land’s End, 108. A sea-boat womanned by a set of Grace Darlings.

1894.  Daily Tel., 7 Aug., 5/2. Our hospitals, dispensaries, and sick wards are not manned, but womanned, with well-educated and intelligent nurses who know their business.

  3.  To address as ‘woman’: see prec. 1 d.

  So to dear woman, to address as ‘dear woman.’

1740.  Richardson, Pamela, II. 269. She call’d her another time Fat-face and woman’d her most violently.

1822.  Blackw. Mag., XI. 399.

1861.  Dutton Cook, Paul Foster’s Daughter, I. iii. 59. Don’t come dear womaning of me.