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man of means

man of means

4 4.9
A person who has a lot of money and property
  • noun
translation icon : hombre adinerado
  • Which it would do if the alleged perpetrator were a hotel maid and the victim a man of means—like yourself.
  • man of means

Examples

  • Heinrich Ratzlaff, a man of means who settled in Rosenort, Manitoba, wrote that "since I had already been commissioned village mayor in Russia."

    Academic text (1992)
  • Then you say, "If men of means and vision in St. Louis financed this flight, "it would help to establish our city as a hub "of the national airways of the future."

  • People say I'm a man of means.

  • Look, I'm a man of means.

  • I swear to you, I'm a man of means.

  • Many were men of means who signed the Declaration of Independence, knowing that they would face certain death if they were caught.

    Blog text (21)
  • Wally, however, was quite cordial, as befitted his new status as a man of means.

    Fiction book (1993)
  • It is thought that Epaphroditus was a man of means and was respected by those in the congregation.

    Blog text (31)
  • "At the same time, as an experienced man of means with an independent income (this seemed to be the profile that fueled the rumors), he spent a lot of time eating and drinking well.

    Blog text (23)
  • Alfonso was a man of means, and that's how we got the down payment on the house.

Synonyms

rich man
vsman of means
74 1.0

A man who has a lot of money and owns many things

is a slightly more formal phrase for the same meaning
wealthy person
vsman of means
26 1.8

A person who has a lot of money and property

refers specifically to an adult male rather than any gender
multimillionaire
vsman of means
20 2.7

A person who has several million in money or property

means wealthy without specifying a particular amount
rich person
vsman of means
6 1.0

A person who has a lot of money and many valuable things

refers specifically to an adult male rather than a person of any gender
multi-billionaire
vsman of means
1 4.2

A person who has many billions of dollars

means wealthy without indicating an extreme multi-billion amount

Antonyms

8 1.0

A person who has very little money and few things

How Wealthy

tycoon
38 5.5
affluent
1 6.0
man of means
4 4.9
well-off
33 3.4
comfortable
107 2.9
poor person
8 1.0

Surface Forms

man of means singular
men of means plural

Morphology

man + of + means

The phrase directly combines 'man' with 'means' (financial resources) via the simple linking preposition 'of', so a learner who knows the constituents can infer 'a man who has resources/wealth'. This compositional possessive pattern is common cross-linguistically and follows ordinary English noun + of + noun logic, making the expression transparently interpretable at B1.

Etymology

Man of means comes from an older use of the word means, which meant 'resources' or ways to pay for things. So a man of means is a man who has money and property, which is why it means 'to be wealthy'.