A dictionary of Confusable Phrases: More Than 10,000 Idioms and Collocations

man and boy • old and young
man and boy —from boyhood onwards: I have worked here,
man and boy, for several different corporations, for twenty
years now.
old and young —people of all ages: Then old and young
came from every side with roses, the loveliest that bloomed in
each garden.
man in the middle • middleman
man in the middle —a person between two opponents: And
now, Specter is the man in the middle when it comes to the
current wrangling over judicial nominees.
middleman —a person who buys from the producer and sells
to the merchant: If we can buy from the producer, we can
save the money we pay to the middleman.
man in the moon • moon man
man in the moon —a vague, unidentified person; an imagi-
nary person: “Then you don’t know how things are settled?”
“No more than the man in the moon.”
moon man —an astronaut who journeys to the moon: The
moon men (or lunarnauts, as they will doubtless come to be
called) must be able to park their spacecraft.
man in the street • street man
man in the street—the common man; just anyone selected
at random: But what does the man in the street think about
all this?
street man —(U.S. sl.) a petty criminal (as a pickpocket, drug
peddler, etc.) who operates on the streets: He is playing partner
to the pusher whose street man is keeping the girl hooked.
man of blood • man of blood and iron
man of blood—(arch.) smb. guilty of bloodshed; a man
responsible for the murder or death of any one: David was
called a man of blood not because he enraged in wars which
were legitimate but on account of Uriah, whose blood he crim-
inally shed.
Note: 
The expression does not correlate in meaning with the
phrase man of blue blood— a man who comes of an ancient
family; an aristocrat: Is he a man of blue blood? We are wor-
shipping him because of his ideas, what he stood for and what
he preached.
man of blood and iron —(originally of Prince Bismarck) a man
who advocates the use of brute force as distinguished from
diplomacy: One such victory involved Omar ibn al-Khattab,
who was regarded as “a man of blood and iron” and a bitter
opponent of the new faith.