Manage, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Managed; p. pr. & vb. n. Managing.]
Etymology: [From Manage, n.]
1. To have under control and direction; to conduct; to guide; to administer; to treat; to handle. Long tubes are cumbersome, and scarce to be easily managed. Sir I. Newton. What wars Imanage, and what wreaths I gain. Prior.
2. Hence: Esp., to guide by careful or delicate treatment; to wield with address; to make subservient by artful conduct; to bring around cunningly to one's plans. It was so much his interest to manage his Protestant subjects. Addison . It was not her humor to manage those over whom she had gained an ascendant. Bp. Hurd.
3. To train in the manege, as a horse; to exercise in graceful or artful action.
4. To treat with care; to husband. Dryden.
2 more senses
5. To bring about; to contrive. Shak.
Syn. -- To direct; govern; control; wield; order; contrive; concert; conduct; transact.
2 other Webster entries under this spelling
Manage, n.
The handling or government of anything, but esp. of a horse; management; administration. See Manege. [Obs.] Young men, in the conduct and manage of actions, embrace more than they can hold. Bacon. Down, down I come; like glistering Phaëthon Wanting the manage of unruly jades. Shak. The unlucky manage of this fatal brawl. Shak.
Note: This word, in its limited sense of management of a horse, has been displaced by manege; in its more general meaning, by management.
Manage, v. i.
To direct affairs; to carry on business or affairs; to administer. Leave them to manage for thee. Dryden .
Shades of meaning
Fernald has no entry of its own for manage; he lists it under govern.
Where he writes about it:
To rule is more absolute and autocratic than to govern; to sway is to move by quiet but effectual influence; to mold is not only to influence feeling and action, but to shape character; to manage is to secure by skilful contrivance the doing of one's will by those whom one can not directly control; a wise mother, by gentle means, sways the feelings and molds the lives of her children; to be able to manage servants is an important element of good housekeeping. — from govern