(italics) Spanish. a corrida in which two matadors alternate in fighting two or three bulls each.
2.
a direct confrontation or conflict; head-on competition; duel.
3.
being or resembling such a confrontation:
a mano a mano struggle in the courtroom between two superb criminal lawyers.
4.
in direct competition or rivalry:
a brash newcomer in tennis taking on the reigning champion mano a mano.
Origin
< Spanish: on an equal footing, without advantage (to either of two contestants); literally, hand to hand
Examples from the web for mano a mano
Many musicians cannot take the strain of going mano a mano with the same three people year after year.
Word Origin and History for mano a mano
1970s, Spanish, literally "hand-to-hand."
Slang definitions & phrases for mano a mano
mano a mano
noun phrase
A hand-to-hand fight or duel: Hemingway's subject was the mano a mano between Spain's two leading matadors/ a literary mano a mano with some good books as weapons