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Webster’s Dictionary (1828)

98,828 entries. Headwords are matched first, then definition text.

1,073 words match “MAIN”

MAIN n. 17 definitions

A match at cockfighting. "My lord would ride twenty miles . . . to see a main fought." Thackeray.

The yard on which the mainsail is extended, supported by the mainmast.

The dagger held in the left hand, while the rapier is held in the right; -- used to parry thrusts of the adversary's rapier.

A hamper to be carried in the hand; a hand basket used in carrying grapes to the press.

One of the New England States. Maine law, any law prohibiting the manufacture and sale of intoxicating beverages, esp. one resembling that enacted in the State of Maine.

land, or peninsula. Dryden. After the two wayfarers had crossed from the peninsula to the mainland. Hawthorne.

MAINLY adv. 2 definitions

Very strongly; mightily; to a great degree. [Obs.] Bacon. Shak.

The principal mast in a ship or other vessel.

A thing stolen found on the person of the thief.

MAINPERNABLE a.

Capable of being admitted to give surety by mainpernors; able to be mainprised.

A surety, under the old writ of mainprise, for a prisoner's appearance in court at a day.

MAINPRISE n. 3 definitions

A writ directed to the sheriff, commanding him to take sureties, called mainpernors, for the prisoner's appearance, and to let him go at large. This writ is now obsolete. Wharton.

The farm attached to a mansion house. [Scot.]

The principal sail in a ship or other vessel. [They] hoised up the mainsail to the wind. Acts xxvii. 40.

One of the ropes by which the mainsail is hauled aft and trimmed.

The principal or most important spring in a piece of mechanism, especially the moving spring of a watch or clock or the spring in a gunlock which impels the hammer. Hence: The chief or most powerful motive; the efficient cause of action.

MAINSTAY n. 2 definitions

The stay extending from the foot of the foremast to the maintop.

To swear falsely. [Obs.] Blount.

MAINTAIN v. 5 definitions

; to support; to sustain; to uphold; to keep up; not to suffer to fail or decline; as, to maintain a certain degree of heat in a furnace; to maintain a fence or a railroad; to maintain the digestive process or powers of the stomach; to maintain the fertility of soil; to maintain present reputation.