Meaning of main | Babel Free

Definitions

1. Of chief or leading importance; prime, principal.
   not-comparable
2. main, most important
3. Chief, most important, or principal in extent, size, or strength; consisting of the largest part.
   not-comparable
4. essential
5. Full, sheer, undivided.
   archaic, not-comparable, usually
6. chief, boss
7. Big; angry.
   dialectal, not-comparable
8. Belonging to or connected with the principal mast in a vessel.
   not-comparable
9. Great in size or degree; important, powerful, strong, vast.
   not-comparable, obsolete

Equivalents

Examples

“The main office is actually one of the smaller rooms.”

“Religion direct us rather to ſecure inward peace than outward eaſe, to be more careful to avoid everlaſting and intolerable torment than ſhort and light afflictions which are but for a moment; […] In a word, our main intereſt is to be as happy as we can, and as long as is poſſible; and if we be caſt into ſuch circumſtances, that we muſt be either in part and for a time or elſe wholly and always miſerable, the beſt wiſdom is to chuſe the greateſt and moſt laſting happiness, but the leaſt and ſhorteſt miſery.”

“With some of it on the south and more of it on the north of the great main thoroughfare that connects Aldgate and the East India Docks, St. Bede's at this period of its history was perhaps the poorest and most miserable parish in the East End of London.”

“By one o'clock the place was choc-a-bloc. […] The restaurant was packed, and the promenade between the two main courts and the subsidiary courts was thronged with healthy-looking youngish people, drawn to the Mecca of tennis from all parts of the country.”

“main timbers”

“main branch of a river”

“main body of an army”

“Not uninvented that, which thou aright / Beleivſt ſo main to our ſucceſs, I bring; […]”

“The dawn of the oil age was fairly recent. Although the stuff was used to waterproof boats in the Middle East 6,000 years ago, extracting it in earnest began only in 1859 after an oil strike in Pennsylvania. […] It was used to make kerosene, the main fuel for artificial lighting after overfishing led to a shortage of whale blubber. Other liquids produced in the refining process, too unstable or smoky for lamplight, were burned or dumped.”

“[…] I shall never forget the diabolical sneer which writhed Rashleigh's wayward features, as I was forced from the apartment by the main strength of two of these youthful Titans.”

“Wounded and overthrown, the Britons continued their resistance, clung round the legs of the Norman steeds, and cumbered their advance; while their brethren, thrusting with pikes, proved every joint and crevice of the plate and mail, or grappling with the men-at-arms, strove to pull them from their horses by main force, or beat them down with their bills and Welch hooks.”

“And now that Current with main Fury ran / (The Stop remov'd that did the Courſe defend) / Unto the full of Miſchief, that began / T' an univerſal Ruin to extend; […]”

CEFR level