Noun

(es)

The state of being manful

*{{quote-book, year=1881, author=Thomas Carlyle, title=Past and Present, chapter=, edition= citation

, passage=He will at least have the manfulness to depart out of it, if not; to say: "I cannot move in thee, and be a man; like a wretched drift-log dressed in man's clothes and minister's clothes, doomed to a lot baser than belongs to man, I will not continue with thee, tumbling aimless on the Mother of Dead Dogs here:--Adieu!" }}

*{{quote-book, year=1881, author=Charles Kingsley, title=Westminster Sermons, chapter=, edition= citation

, passage=He only sees his own weakness, and want of life, of spirit, of manfulness , of power. }}

*{{quote-book, year=1825, author=Thomas Carlyle, title=The Life of Friedrich Schiller, chapter=, edition= citation

, passage=Nor were these sentiments, be it remembered, the mere boasting manifesto of a hot-brained inexperienced youth, entering on literature with feelings of heroic ardour, which its difficulties and temptations would soon deaden or pervert: they are the calm principles of a man, expressed with honest manfulness , at a period when the world could compare them with a long course of conduct. }}

Noun

(en noun)

The series of vertebrae, separated by disks, that encloses and protects the spinal cord, and runs down the middle of the back in vertebrate animals.

any fundamental support, structure, or infrastructure

Before automobiles, railroads were a backbone of commerce.

courage, fortitude, or strength

He would make a good manager, if he had a little more backbone .