Gĕn′tle-man, n.

n.; pl. GĔN′TLE-MEN. [Cf. Fr. gentilhomme, Pr. gentils hom, Sp. gentilhombre, Pg. gentil-homem, It. gentiluomo. See GENTEEL.]

1. A man who is well born; one who is of good family; one above the condition of a yeoman.
2. One of gentle or refined manners; a well-bred man.
3. (Her.) One who bears arms, but has no title.
4. The servant of a man of rank. “The count’s gentleman, one Cesario.” Shak.
5. (pl.) Citizens; people;—a common appellation by which men are addressed in popular assemblies, irrespective of their condition.

☞ In Great Britain, the term gentleman is applied in a limited sense to those having coats of arms, but who are without a title, and, in this sense, gentlemen hold a middle rank between the nobility and yeomanry. In a more extensive sense, it includes every man above the rank of yeoman, comprehending the nobility. In the United States, the term is applied to men of education and good breeding of every occupation. Gentleman commoner, the highest class of commoners at the University of Oxford.—Gentleman farmer, one who farms his own estate.—Gentleman usher, one who ushers visitors into the presence of a sovereign.—Gentlemen at arms, a band of forty gentlemen who attend the sovereign on occasions of solemnity, as to chapel, &c.; formerly called gentlemen pensioners. [Eng.]