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Glite Dictionary
to a man

to a man

3 6.2
To say that every single person in a group is included
  • idiom
translation icon : sin excepción
  • Almost to a man, each was bearded, hatted, and booted.
  • to a man, the players

And they were all to a man and woman, absolutely anti, you know, Brexit.

Examples

  • The team celebrated their win, and to a man, they agreed that hard work paid off.

  • The government forgot about the sanitation workers, who were, to a man, black and paid so poorly that they could put in forty hours a week and still qualify for welfare.

    Fiction book (1996)

  • And they were all to a man and woman, absolutely anti, you know, Brexit.

    Triggernometry

  • The incredible happened: The denizens of the coffee shop, to a man, rose to their feet and gave that slap a standing ovation.

    Fiction book (1999)

  • It was these young Afrikaans guys and, to a man, they'll tell you they were influenced by Rodriguez.

    Searching for Sugar Man (2012)

  • The workers, to a man, supported the new safety measures introduced by the company.

  • After the meeting, the committee members, to a man, expressed their satisfaction with the proposed plan.

Synonyms

universally
vsto a man
65 3.7

In every case and by everyone

is used specifically to stress every single person rather than all cases
one and all
vsto a man
23 2.8

All people without exception

is used to stress that every single person is included
to each one
vsto a man
7 1.0

For each person or thing separately

emphasizes inclusion of all members without any exception

Antonyms

some
∞ 1.0

A not exact amount or number that is more than a little

Surface Forms

to a man positive

Morphology

to + a + man

The sense 'every single person without exception' cannot be directly derived from the literal meanings of 'to' (direction/recipient), 'a' (indefinite article) and 'man' (person); the phrase has an idiomatic, distributive force that is not signaled by straightforward composition. A B1 learner who knows the words but has not encountered the expression would likely not infer this meaning, so the item is best classified as opaque.

Etymology

To a man comes from an old way of saying you included each person, literally pointing 'to a man' one by one. That's why it means 'every single person' with 'no exceptions'.