little green man
7
8.2
- noun
- /ˈlɪtəl ɡrin mæn/
- Jargon
:
hombrecito verde
- In the movie, the little green man befriends a lonely astronaut lost in space.
- saw a little green man
See, they don't have to be in alien form with, with little green men.
- See, they don't have to be in alien form with, with little green men.
- See, let's create a decision tree, which is there are little green men, shiny spacecrafts and all this kind of cool stuff, and there aren't.
- Now, I don't know, but is there some way that's helpful for you to think about beyond the little green men?
Examples
-
See, let's create a decision tree, which is there are little green men, shiny spacecrafts and all this kind of cool stuff, and there aren't.
-
Mine is to get away from the little green men, just divorced the two little green men.
-
See, let's create a decision tree, which is there are little green men, shiny spacecrafts and all this kind of cool stuff, and there aren't.
-
And Trump would be like, it's aliens folks, little green men short are spying on us just like Obama spied on me during my very successful campaign.
-
I think it was really influential to me is showing me that aliens don't have to necessarily be, you know, little green men, even the curly, the curly tree.
-
While walking in the desert, I spotted a little green man peeking from behind a rock.
-
The children were excited by the story of the little green man who visited Earth from another planet.
Synonyms
4
5.9
An imaginary being like a dragon or unicorn with magical powers
Surface Forms
Morphology
The political/military sense ('an unmarked soldier deployed for deniability') is not directly derivable from 'little' + 'green' + 'man'; a B1 learner would more likely interpret it literally (a small green-coloured person) or recall the folkloric 'little green men' (aliens). The specialized, culture-specific usage is idiomatic and unpredictable from the constituents, so it would not be clear to learners without prior exposure.
Etymology
Little green man comes from old stories and movies that showed tiny creatures with green skin visiting Earth, a clear picture of a small green visitor that stuck in people's minds. So, it is used to mean 'an alien'.