nearly man
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Meaning · English
Someone who often comes close to achieving success but fails
Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt
Người thường đạt gần thành công nhưng thất bại
Machine-translated — suggest a fix
Literally: a man who is nearly
Where it’s used:
Used
Widespread English
Examples
He was the nearly man of the tournament, losing in the final.
AI-drafted example auto-approved by rule (illustrative, not a corpus attestation)
Sources & notes
Listed in Wiktionary’s “English idioms” category (retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-07-31; pending editor spot-check.
Common questions
What does “nearly man” mean?
Someone who often comes close to achieving success but fails Literally: a man who is nearly
Is “nearly man” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.