Mr

BrE, Mr. AmE

1 a title used before a man's family name when you are speaking to him or writing to him and want to be polite: Mr Smith | Mr. John Smith | Mr and Mrs Smith

2 a title used when addressing a man in an official position: Mr Chairman | Mr. President

—compare madam (3)

3 Mr Right a man who would be the perfect husband for a particular woman: She's spent years waiting for Mr Right to come along.

4 Mr Big informal the leader or most important person in a group, especially a criminal group

5 Mr Clean informal someone who is honest and always obeys the law

6 spoken used before the name of a personal quality or kind of behaviour as a humorous name for a man who has that quality: I don't think we need any comments from Mr Sarcasm here.

—see also: no more Mr nice Guy! guy 1 (5) USAGE NOTE: MR COLLOCATION Mr, Mrs, Miss, and Ms are only used with full names or last names (surnames): Hello Mr Gray | The next candidate for the job is Mrs Betty Schwarz (NOT Please Miss teacher or Good morning Mr Jerry). When you are talking or writing to someone directly, you do not usually use their full name: Hello, Mr Smith (NOT Hello, Mr Alan Smith). Usually Mr, Ms etc is not used with names of people you know well or who are famous: This is my friend Annie Walker. | the defeat of Adolf Hitler | Clinton's health care policy | `The Wave' by Hokusai POLITENESS Many women prefer to be addressed as Ms rather than Miss or Mrs, as Ms does not unnecessarily draw attention to whether or not the woman is married.