Dictionary

many a en · DET

Meanings

1. Being one of a large number, each one of many; belonging to an aggregate or category, considered singly as one of a kind.
   • Many a crime has being committed in its name: there are some being committed now. 1914, David Lloyd George, The Great War, Toronto: Hodder and Stoughton, Limited, page 3:
   • Danny Boyle's T2 Trainspotting is everything I could reasonably have hoped for—scary, funny, desperately sad, with many a bold visual flourish. 2017 January 19, Peter Bradshaw, “T2 Trainspotting review—choose a sequel that doesn't disappoint”, in The Guardian:
   • Know then that God, to the end He be not thought, / A powerless judge, here plagueth many a fault, / And many a fault leaves here unpunished, / That men may also His last judgment dread. 1608–1641, Guillaume de Salluste Du Bartas, edited by Theron Wilber Haight, The Divine Weeks of Josuah Sylvester, Waukesha, Wis., USA: H. M. Youmans, published 1908, page 150:
   • So this was my future home, I thought! Certainly it made a brave picture. I had seen similar ones fired-in on many a Heidelberg stein. Backed by towering hills,[…]a sky of palest Gobelin flecked with fat, fleecy little clouds, it in truth looked a dear little city; the city of one's dreams. 1908, W[illiam] B[lair] M[orton] Ferguson, chapter IV, in Zollenstein, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, →OCLC:
   • There is many a true word spoken in jest.
   • If the 250,000 miners, which threaten to stop work, go out on strike there is likely to be many an idle mill beside the water courses and many a factory with silent spindles. 1908 April 11, “The Coal-Miners and the Wage-Scale”, in The Literary Digest, volume 36, number 15, page 507:
   • Many a flower is born to blush unseen.

Forms

Deriveds

many a mickle makes a muckle · there's many a slip between the cup and the lip · there's many a slip twixt cup and lip · many a time and often · there's many a good tune played on an old fiddle · many a time and oft · there's many a slip twixt the cup and the lip · many a time · many a times

Relateds

nary a · a fair booty makes many a thief · many another

Translations (14)

ru многий (being one of a large number, each one of many; belonging to an aggregate or category, considered singly as one of a kind) · it parecchio (being one of a large number, each one of many; belonging to an aggregate or category, considered singly as one of a kind) · da mangt et (being one of a large number, each one of many; belonging to an aggregate or category, considered singly as one of a kind) · cs leckterý (being one of a large number, each one of many; belonging to an aggregate or category, considered singly as one of a kind) · nb mangen (being one of a large number, each one of many; belonging to an aggregate or category, considered singly as one of a kind) · sv månget (being one of a large number, each one of many; belonging to an aggregate or category, considered singly as one of a kind) · da mangen en (being one of a large number, each one of many; belonging to an aggregate or category, considered singly as one of a kind) · pl niejeden (being one of a large number, each one of many; belonging to an aggregate or category, considered singly as one of a kind) · it molto (being one of a large number, each one of many; belonging to an aggregate or category, considered singly as one of a kind) · nb mang en (being one of a large number, each one of many; belonging to an aggregate or category, considered singly as one of a kind) · cs mnohý (being one of a large number, each one of many; belonging to an aggregate or category, considered singly as one of a kind) · nb mangt et (being one of a large number, each one of many; belonging to an aggregate or category, considered singly as one of a kind) · de manch (being one of a large number, each one of many; belonging to an aggregate or category, considered singly as one of a kind) · sv mången (being one of a large number, each one of many; belonging to an aggregate or category, considered singly as one of a kind)