manage

Etymology

From Early Modern English manage, menage, from Middle English *manage, *menage, from Old French manege (“the handling or training of a horse, horsemanship, riding, maneuvers, proceedings”), probably from Old Italian maneggiare (“to handle, manage, touch, treat”), ultimately from Latin manus (“the hand”); see manual.

verb

1. (transitive) To direct or be in charge of.
   Interlaken East station is jointly owned with the standard gauge Bern-Lötschberg-Simplon Railway from Bern and Thun and the Swiss Federal Railways metre-gauge Brünig line from Lucerne, but is managed and staffed by the Bernese Oberland group. 1960 December, Voyageur, “The Mountain Railways of the Bernese Oberland”, in Trains Illustrated, page 750
2. (transitive) To handle or control (a situation, job).
3. (transitive) To handle with skill, wield (a tool, weapon etc.).
4. (intransitive) To succeed at an attempt in spite of difficulty.
   He managed to climb the tower.
   Old Applegate, in the stern, just set and looked at me, and Lord James, amidship, waved both arms and kept hollering for help. I took a couple of everlasting big strokes and managed to grab hold of the skiff's rail, close to the stern. 1913, Joseph C. Lincoln, chapter 7, in Mr. Pratt's Patients
   Congratulations on managing to use the phrase “preponderant criterion” in a chart (“On your marks”, November 9th). Was this the work of a kakorrhaphiophobic journalist set a challenge by his colleagues, or simply an example of glossolalia? 2013-11-30, Paul Davis, “Letters: Say it as simply as possible”, in The Economist, volume 409, number 8864
5. (transitive, intransitive) To achieve (something) without fuss, or without outside help.
   It's a tough job, but I'll manage.
   Plastics are energy-rich substances, which is why many of them burn so readily. Any organism that could unlock and use that energy would do well in the Anthropocene. Terrestrial bacteria and fungi which can manage this trick are already familiar to experts in the field. 2013-07-20, “Welcome to the plastisphere”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8845
6. To manage to say; to say while fighting back embarrassment, laughter, etc.
   "That's nice, dear!", she managed.
7. To train (a horse) in the manège; to exercise in graceful or artful action.
8. (obsolete) To treat with care; to husband.
   [She] […]manages her last half-crown with care, And trudges to the Mall, on foot 1673, John Dryden, “Prologue”, in Marriage à la Mode
9. (obsolete) To bring about; to contrive.

noun

1. (now rare) The act of managing or controlling something.
2. (horseriding) Manège.
   You must draw [the horse] in his career with his manage, and turn, doing the corvetto, leaping &c.. 1622, Henry Peacham (Jr.), The Compleat Gentleman