n. A trough or box in which is laid for horses or cattle such food as oats, bran, roots, or the like (hay being generally placed in a rack above the manger); the receptacle from which horses or cattle eat in a stable or cowhouse.n. Nautical, a small space at the forward end of the deck, divided off by a combing (called the manger-board), just back of the hawse-holes, to prevent the entrance of water through the latter when the after part of the deck is flooded.