main
Listen:Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
main1
▶adjective chief in size or importance. ▶noun
- 1 a principal pipe carrying water or gas or a cable carrying electricity.
■ (the mains) Brit. the source of public water, gas, or electricity supply through pipes or cables.
- 2 (the main) archaic or literary the open ocean.
– phrases
by main force through sheer strength.
in the main on the whole.
by main force through sheer strength.
in the main on the whole.
– origin ME: from OE mægen ‘physical force’, reinforced by ON meginn, megn ‘strong, powerful’, both from a Gmc base meaning ‘have power’.
Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
main2
▶noun
- 1 (in the game of hazard) a number (5, 6, 7, 8, or 9) called by a player before dice are thrown.
- 2 historical a match between fighting cocks.
– origin C16: prob. from the phr. main chance.
'main' also found in these Oxford entries:
Acheulian
- act
- Adi Granth
- advanced level
- advance guard
- aftershock
- agarose
- Anglosphere
- annex
- antechamber
- anterior
- aorta
- apodosis
- architrave
- Arianism
- A-side
- back
- background
- backing
- backplane
- barb
- base
- base station
- beat
- beforehand
- below decks
- big top
- blinding
- blue-plate
- body
- book
- bough
- brain
- branch
- branch line
- bread
- break
- broadway
- bronchiole
- bungalow
- burden
- bypass
- campus
- canard
- carbon
- carbon steel
- cardinal point
- careerist
- carina
- Carnatic
