man crush
- noun
- /mæn krʌʃ/
- Informal
- He admitted he had a man crush on his favorite football player.
Examples
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I have a huge man crush on Dwayne Johnson!
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During the interview, Tom joked about his man crush on the famous director.
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It's pretty common for fans to develop a man crush on inspiring celebrities.
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His man crush is Ryan Gosling.
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He admitted that he has a man crush on the actor because of his impressive performances.
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Many fans have a man crush on celebrities like The Rock for their charisma and talents.
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It's common for guys to express a man crush on sports figures they admire for their skills.
How Admiring
Surface Forms
Morphology
The parts 'man' and 'crush' cue that this is a crush involving a man, so a learner who knows both words can infer a sense of strong attraction or admiration tied to a man. However, the slangy nuance — in particular that it often denotes non-sexual admiration between men and the exact directionality (admiration felt by a man for another man) — is not fully predictable from the constituents, making the expression partially but not fully transparent.
Etymology
Man crush comes from using crush for a very strong liking — like a small love or hero worship — and adding man to show the feeling is for another man. So man crush means a strong, often 'non-sexual' admiration a man feels toward another man.