> as lemmas

a1616 W. Shakespeare Taming of Shrew (1623) i. i. 240 I aduise you vse your manners discreetly in all kind of companies. View more context for this quotation

a1616 W. Shakespeare All's Well that ends Well (1623) iv. v. 88 Madam, I was thinking with what manners I might safely be admitted. View more context for this quotation

1701 D. Defoe True-born Englishman ii. 34 But like our Modern Quakers of the Town, Expect your Manners, and return you none.

a1727 W. Pattison Cupid's Metamorph. (1728) 31 Apollo beheld him, and call'd him aloud; Declaring his Manners, tho' perhaps not his Wit.

1824 in Spirit of Public Jrnls. (1825) 226 Having done their manners to his Worship, Mr. Dennis Macarthy proceeded to question his beloved.

1824 J. F. Cooper Pilot 239 The ship is to be so cluttered with she-cattle [i.e. women], that a man will be obligated to spend half his time in making his manners!

1825 J. Neal Brother Jonathan I. 138 Declaring, with a bow, or a bob, that ‘nobody needn't plague themselves..;’ and—making their manners, once more—‘and, whether or no’ [etc.].

1863 E. C. Gaskell Sylvia's Lovers I. ii. 30 I humbly make my manners, missus.

a1908 H. C. Hart MS Coll. Ulster Words in M. Traynor Eng. Dial. Donegal (1953) 179 To make one's manners, to salute one's superiors.., to bow, curtsey.

1930 G. B. Johnson in B. A. Botkin Folk-say ii. 357 When a Negro tells his child, on the approach of a white person, ‘Make yo' manners’, he is repeating a command used in England to remind children to curtsy or touch the hat in the presence of superiors.

1942 Z. N. Hurston Dust Tracks on Road (1944) vi. 49 Death..entered the room. He bowed to Mama..She made her manners and left us.

1991 S. King Needful Things 416 Ole Harry Samuels said you ast if I'd stop by this mornin if I had a chance... I'm just makin my manners to you, sir.