one-manadj.

1842 Congress. Globe 27th Congress 2 Sess. App. 812/3 Those whose clamors are so unceasing against what they are pleased to call the ‘one-man power’.

1882 Daily News 18 Jan. 5/6 To keep him in, if that may be done without erecting a One-man Government.

1897 M. Kingsley Trav. W. Afr. 306 Mr. Glass and I shared a one-man canoe, and the water lapped over the edge in an alarming way.

1925 J. R. Smith N. Amer. v. 95 Catching lobsters is a one-man job.

1956 Railway Mag. May 301/2 The current practice appears to be dictated..by the economics and safety of one-man operation.

1998 I. Rankin Hanging Garden (1999) xxxi. 340 He was a one-man reign of terror, and that's no exaggeration.

2000 N. DeMille Lion's Game xli. 412 There's a Grodyne Rotorcycle, an experimental one-man Marine helicopter, vintage nineteen fifty-nine.

1922 Broadway Brevities Nov. 17 Why..can't anyone make a date with Bunny Dunlap? Is it because she is a one-man girl?

1929 D. H. Lawrence Lovely Lady (1933) 99 I'm afraid Virginia is a one-man woman.

1951 J. C. Fennessy Sonnet in Bottle vii. i. 244 Goebbels is a one-man monkey—he doesn't like anybody but me.

1975 A. Hunter Gently with Love xi. 32 Anne has been a one-man girl ever since she met Earle.

2002 Mirror (Nexis) 8 June 42 Off screen she's a one man woman.

1876 Burlington (Iowa) Hawk-eye 6 July 1 The one-man band, comprising drums, cymbals, violin, and a squeaking pipe which performed in our Streets on Monday had one thing to reccommend [sic] it. You can kill the drummer and thus obliterate the whole band.

1916 N.Y. Tribune 28 Nov. 9/1 To H. Canby's for supper, where were D. Smith the musick-composer, who told us tayles of the days when..he was known as Dave Smith, the One-Man Band.

1958 Listener 23 Oct. 663/2 The versatility..was capitally sustained. The ‘one-man band’ was never ‘off-beat’.

1974 N. Bentley Inside Information vi. 57 We're two mechanics short and the accountant's on holiday, so I'm a one-man band at the moment.

2000 E. F. Puryear Amer. Generalship viii. 274 Don't be a one-man band. Don't try to run the wing by yourself.

1915 Central Electr. Light & Power Stations (U.S. Dept. of Commerce, Bureau of Census) ii. 366/1 In the case of one-man-operated cars it is ordinarily required that all passengers enter and leave by the front entrance.

1951 Geogr. Jrnl. 41 652 (caption) Typical small single-deck bus, one-man operated.

1993 T. Parker May Lord in His Mercy be Kind to Belfast (1994) x. 157 All the buses are one-man operated, you pay the driver as you get on, so it brings you in touch with people, you've more chance of a chat.

2006 R. J. Fitch Austral. Railwayman vii. 92/1 A worm gear connected the die with a large one-man-operated wheel.

1879 Globe (Atchison, Kansas) 31 Dec. The Topeka ‘Capital’ is frank to say that while Mr. Arlington is a pleasant fellow socially, his one man show is not a success.

1943 F. Scully Rogue's Gallery Hollywood 132 He lectured on the drama at Columbia, and even took up painting in his middle age staging several one-man shows though he never had an art lesson in his life.

1976 ‘Z. Stone’ Modigliani Scandal i. ii. 25 ‘Usher's one-man show has had it.’ ‘I'm afraid so..it won't harm him all that much. His talent will tell in the long run.’

2000 C. V. Hill Brotherhood in Rhythm x. 254 The brothers came together to perform in Las Vegas with Redd Foxx and to appear in Sammy on Broadway,..a one-man show by Sammy Davis Jr.