maneuver

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a deliberate coordinated movement requiring dexterity and skill

   I made a great maneuver.

2. 2
   verb

   act in order to achieve a certain goal

   I maneuvered to get the chairmanship.

3. 3
   noun

   The planned movement of troops, vehicles etc.; a strategic repositioning; (later also) a large training field-exercise of fighting units.

   The army was on maneuvers.

4. 4
   noun

   Any strategic or cunning action; a stratagem.

   “This,” cried he, “is a manœuvre I have been some time expecting: but Mr. Harrel, though artful and selfish, is by no means deep.”

5. 5
   noun

   A specific medical or surgical movement, often eponymous, done with the doctor's hands or surgical instruments.

   The otorhinolaryngologist performed an Epley maneuver and the patient was relieved of his vertigo.

6. 6
   noun

   A controlled (especially skillful) movement taken while steering a vehicle.

   Parallel parking can be a difficult maneuver.

7. 7
   verb

   To intrigue, manipulate, plot, scheme

   The patriarch maneuvered till his offspring occupied countless key posts

8. 8
   noun

   an action aimed at evading an opponent

Etymology

From Middle French manœuvre (“manipulation, maneuver”) and manouvrer (“to maneuver”), from Old French manovre (“handwork, manual labor”), 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 *handuwerk (“hand-work”). Compare Old English handweorc, Old English handġeweorc, German Handwerk. The verb is a doublet of the verb manure.