Link Centre Dictionary

manoeuvre

ma·noeuvre

UK/məˈnuːvə/ US/məˈnuːvɚ/ uncommon

noun

1.

a plan for attaining a particular goal

3.

a deliberate coordinated movement requiring dexterity and skill

  • “he made a great maneuver”
  • “the runner was out on a play by the shortstop”
Synonyms
5.

an action aimed at evading an opponent

verb

1.

act in order to achieve a certain goal

  • “He maneuvered to get the chairmanship”
  • “She maneuvered herself into the directorship”

Origin

From Middle French manœuvre (“manipulation, manoeuvre”) and manouvrer (“to manoeuvre”), from Old French manovre (“handwork, manual labour”), from Medieval Latin manopera, manuopera (“work done by hand, handwork”), from manu (“by hand”) + operari (“to work”). First recorded in the Capitularies of Charlemagne (800 AD) to mean "chore, manual task", probably as a calque of the Frankish *handwerc (“hand-work”). Compare Old English handweorc, Old English handġeweorc, German Handwerk.

Related words

WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.