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adjective
Main  adj.  
1.
Very or extremely strong. (Obs.) "That current with main fury ran."
2.
Vast; huge. (Obs.) "The main abyss."
3.
Unqualified; absolute; entire; sheer. (Obs.) "It's a man untruth."
4.
Principal; chief; first in size, rank, importance, etc.; as, the main reason to go; the main proponent. "Our main interest is to be happy as we can."
5.
Important; necessary. (Obs.) "That which thou aright Believest so main to our success, I bring."
By main force, by mere force or sheer force; by violent effort; as, to subdue insurrection by main force. "That Maine which by main force Warwick did win."
By main strength, by sheer strength; as, to lift a heavy weight by main strength.
Main beam (Steam Engine), working beam.
Main boom (Naut.), the boom which extends the foot of the mainsail in a fore and aft vessel.
Main brace.
(a)
(Mech.) The brace which resists the chief strain. Cf. Counter brace.
(b)
(Naut.) The brace attached to the main yard.
Main center (Steam Engine), a shaft upon which a working beam or side lever swings.
Main chance. See under Chance.
Main couple (Arch.), the principal truss in a roof.
Main deck (Naut.), the deck next below the spar deck; the principal deck.
Main keel (Naut.), the principal or true keel of a vessel, as distinguished from the false keel.
Synonyms: Principal; chief; leading; cardinal; capital.






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Main" Quotes from Famous Books



... inch. That little movement decides whether the train shall go north or south. Twenty carriages have come so far together; but here is a junction station, and the train is to be divided. The first ten carriages deviate from the main line by a fraction of an inch at first; but in a few minutes the two portions of the train are flying on, miles apart. You cannot see the one from the other, save by distant puffs of white steam through the clumps of trees. Perhaps already a high hill ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Volume 8, No. 48, October, 1861 • Various

... a long time ago to look back to, dear," she began. "I was very strictly brought up, and the training of my conscience began so early that I was always a good child in the main, I think. I was more timid than my brothers and sisters, which may account for some of my goodness, and for the most daring deed I ever did, I was punished so severely that it had a restraining effect ...
— The Little Colonel's House Party • Annie Fellows Johnston

... for nothing was she Michael Trevennack's daughter, well trained from her babyhood to high and airy climbs. She chose an easy spot where it was possible to spring across by a series of boulders, arranged accidentally like stepping-stones; and in a minute she was standing on the main crag itself, a huge beetling mass of detached serpentine pushed boldly out as the advance-guard of the land into the assailing waves, and tapering at its top into ...
— Michael's Crag • Grant Allen

... what I do. Yack, he picks up the trail from here to where you can follow easy. We know two places where he didn't go with her, and from here is two more trails he could take. But one goes to the main road, and he don't take that one, I bet you. I think he takes that girl up Spirit Canyon, maybe. It's woods and wild country in a few miles, and plenty of places to hide, and good chances for getting out over the top of ...
— The Quirt • B.M. Bower

... drownin' as good as any boy goin'," admitted the old man. "But that was only chancey, as ye might say. When it comes to bein' of main use in the world——Wal, it ain't gals thet makes ...
— Ruth Fielding and the Gypsies - The Missing Pearl Necklace • Alice B. Emerson

... of this would, of course, have come had the Colony's ports been free; but the factories engaged in the woollen, printing, clothing, iron and steel, tanning, boot, furniture, brewing, jam-making, and brick and tile-making industries owe their existence in the main to the duties. Nor would it be fair to regard the Colony's protection as simply a gigantic job managed by the more or less debasing influence of powerful companies and firms. It was adopted before such influences and interests were. It could not have ...
— The Long White Cloud • William Pember Reeves

... pleasure of enclosing to you the copy of a letter from General Gates, containing the circumstances of a victory gained over General Burgoyne, on the 7th. This event must defeat the main views of General Clinton, in proceeding up Hudson's river. He has, it is true, got possession of fort Montgomery, but with much loss, as we hear. Though the enemy should boast much of this acquisition, yet we ...
— The Diplomatic Correspondence of the American Revolution, Vol. I • Various

... aloof and full of some wisdom unknown to him. She knew he could not do without her, still more she knew he must not do without her, and these certainties became the main fabric of her love. She had to keep him, less for her own sake than for that of her idea, but gradually the severe rules ...
— THE MISSES MALLETT • E. H. YOUNG

... Commissioner now parted company with our travelers. But occasionally, as the steamer swept away from the high and bold shores on which the old trading-post lay, and passed the vast marshes where the wild-fowl nest in millions every year, they found in the main current of the river scattered odds and ends of river traffic, now and then a brigade scow, or the shapeless boat of some prospector going north, he knew not how ...
— Young Alaskans in the Far North • Emerson Hough

... instructors, I cannot but consider that gazette and newspaper reviewers are insufficient and unsatisfactory judges of literature, if not indeed sometimes erring guides to the public taste; the main cause of this consisting in the essential rapidity of their composition. There is not—from the multiplicity of business to be got through, there cannot be—adequate time allowed for any thing like justice to the claims of each author. Periodicals that appear at longer intervals are in all reason ...
— The Complete Prose Works of Martin Farquhar Tupper • Martin Farquhar Tupper

... Socialist applied it to our armaments, which is like applying it to our aeroplanes. Similarly the just description of Feudalism, and of how far it was a part and how far rather an impediment in the main mediaeval movement, is confused by current debates about quite modern things—especially that modern thing, the English squirearchy. Feudalism was very nearly the opposite of squirearchy. For it is the whole point of the squire that his ownership is absolute ...
— A Short History of England • G. K. Chesterton

... of the green colour, which, as if in mockery of the Turks, should cover the scalps of none but the true descendants of the Prophet. Some wore the white kilt of the mountaineers, others the long trousers and loose waistcoat of the main; indeed, their costume was as varied as their arms, and showed that here were collected persons driven from various parts of Greece by the tyranny ...
— The Pirate of the Mediterranean - A Tale of the Sea • W.H.G. Kingston

... Matthew Vassar watched the great buildings take form and shape in the midst of two hundred acres of lake and river and green sward, near Poughkeepsie; the main building, five hundred feet long, two hundred broad, and five stories high; the museum of natural history, with school of art and library; the great observatory, three stories high, furnished with the then third largest telescope in ...
— Lives of Girls Who Became Famous • Sarah Knowles Bolton

... South naturally felt that the darkest hour of their political fortunes had come. It had, for among many other things this election said that after twenty years of discussion and tumult the Negro question was to be relegated to the rear, and that the country was now to give main attention to other problems. For the Negro the new era was signalized by one of the most effective speeches ever delivered in this or any other country, all the more forceful because the orator was a man of unusual ...
— A Social History of the American Negro • Benjamin Brawley

... highest respect for the Buddha and for the teachings which he believed to be his. Gau@dapada took the smallest Upani@sads to comment upon, probably because he wished to give his opinions unrestricted by the textual limitations of the bigger ones. His main emphasis is on the truth that he realized to be perfect. He only incidentally suggested that the great Buddhist truth of indefinable and unspeakable vijnana or vacuity would hold good of the highest ...
— A History of Indian Philosophy, Vol. 1 • Surendranath Dasgupta

... paper about the size of this page and fold it longways, exactly double. Then fold the corners of one end back to the main fold, one each side. The paper sideways will then look as in Fig. 1. Then double these folded points, one each side, back to the main fold. The paper will then look as in Fig. 2. Repeat this process once more. The paper will then look as in Fig. 3. Compress ...
— What Shall We Do Now?: Five Hundred Games and Pastimes • Dorothy Canfield Fisher

... Dr. Opimian. Their system of painting did not require perspective. Their main subject was on one foreground. Buildings, rocks, trees, served simply to indicate, ...
— Gryll Grange • Thomas Love Peacock

... to follow up the advantage which they had gained. Suddenly the cavalry halted; the Roman vanguard found itself face to face with the army of Hannibal drawn up for battle on a field chosen by himself; it was lost, unless the main body should cross the stream with all speed to its support. Hungry, weary, and wet, the Romans came on and hastened to form in order of battle, the cavalry, as usual, on the wings, the infantry in the centre. The light troops, who formed the vanguard on both sides, began the combat: ...
— The History of Rome (Volumes 1-5) • Theodor Mommsen

... has vices enough to draw down punishments upon his head, and to justify Providence in regard to any miseries that may befall him. For this reason I cannot but think that the instruction and moral are much finer, where a man who is virtuous in the main of his character falls into distress, and sinks under the blows of fortune, at the end of a tragedy, than when he is represented as happy and triumphant. Such an example corrects the insolence of human nature, softens the mind of the beholder with ...
— Clarissa Harlowe, Volume 9 (of 9) - The History Of A Young Lady • Samuel Richardson

... great by comparison, and of course overwhelmingly great when there were none but insignificant competitors to challenge it. Mommsen holds that, in the fourth and fifth centuries after the foundation of Rome, 'the two main competitors for the dominion of the Western waters' were Carthage and Syracuse. 'Carthage,' he says, 'had the preponderance, and Syracuse sank more and more into a second-rate naval power. The maritime importance of the Etruscans was wholly ...
— Sea-Power and Other Studies • Admiral Sir Cyprian Bridge

... the Rio Grande region, by invitation of the Walpi, to help them defend this village (See Figure 2) from their Navajo, Apache, and Piute enemies. They were given a place on the mesa-top to build their village, at the head of the main trail, which it was their business to guard, and fields were allotted them in ...
— The Unwritten Literature of the Hopi • Hattie Greene Lockett

... had ordered the coachman to drive some little distance along it, and had tethered all the horses to a fence under his charge. He had then stationed one of the band as a sentinel some distance up the main highway to flash a light when the two courtiers were approaching. A stout cord had been fastened eighteen inches from the ground to the trunk of a wayside sapling, and on receiving the signal the other end was tied to a gate-post upon the further side. The ...
— The Refugees • Arthur Conan Doyle

... chair of comparative dramatic literature in connection with the University of Pisa, and offered it to Dall' Ongaro, whose wide general learning and special dramatic studies peculiarly qualified him to hold it. He therefore took up his abode at Florence, dedicating his main industry to a comparative course of ancient and modern dramatic literature, and writing his wonderful restorations of Menander's "Phasma" and "Treasure". He was well known to the local American and English Society, and was mourned by ...
— Modern Italian Poets • W. D. Howells

... and slim, gesticulated madly from the poop at Mr. Baker: "Steady these fore-yards! Steady them the best you can!" On the main deck, men excited by his cries, splashed, dashing aimlessly, here and there with the foam swirling up to their waists. Apart, far aft, and alone by the helm, old Singleton had deliberately tucked his white beard under the top button of his ...
— The Nigger Of The "Narcissus" - A Tale Of The Forecastle • Joseph Conrad

... inside the gate, to the fruit tree that had first attracted Saxon's attention. From the main crotch diverged the four main branches of the tree. Two feet above the crotch the branches were connected, each to the ones on both sides, by braces of ...
— The Valley of the Moon • Jack London

... It is not enough for us to drive the French from Leipsic; we must pursue them, and expel them from Germany. For this purpose we must make haste. We have no time to rest on our laurels and sing hymns—the main point is to pursue the ...
— NAPOLEON AND BLUCHER • L. Muhlbach

... evening of the convention gave a fair statement of the hostile feelings of women toward the amendments; we give the main part of it. Of all the other speeches, which were extemporaneous, only meagre and unsatisfactory reports ...
— History of Woman Suffrage, Volume II • Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, and Matilda Joslyn Gage

... make certain that Benito followed. Down the steep slope of Washington street he went past moss-grown retaining walls; over slippery brick pavements, through which the grass-blades sprouted, to plunge at length into the eddying alien mass of Chinatown's main artery, Dupont street. Here rushing human counter-currents ebbed and flowed ceaslessly. Burdens of all sizes and of infinite variety swept by ...
— Port O' Gold • Louis John Stellman

... its present methods of submarine warfare against passenger and freight carrying vessels" diplomatic relations would be broken off. The threat had its effect; the Germans yielded, grudgingly and in language that aroused much irritation, but on the main question they yielded none the less, and promised to sink no ...
— Woodrow Wilson's Administration and Achievements • Frank B. Lord and James William Bryan

... in the main with Mr. Thostrup," said Miss Grethe, who was busied in unpicking and turning her cloak, in order, as she herself said, to spoil it on the other side. "I think he is right! If a poem is well spoken on the stage, it has always a kind of effect. It is just the same as with stuffs—they ...
— O. T. - A Danish Romance • Hans Christian Andersen

... few followed, when Edith Carr slowly came down the main street of Mackinac, pausing here and there to note the glow of colour in one small booth after another, overflowing with gay curios. That street of packed white sand, winding with the curves of the shore, outlined with brilliant shops, and thronged with laughing, bare-headed people ...
— A Girl Of The Limberlost • Gene Stratton Porter

... would have preferred that to her attitude of studied indifference, the only redeeming feature about which was that it was studied, showing that she, at least, had him in mind. The next best thing, he reasoned, to having a woman love you, is to have her dislike you violently,—the main point is that you should be kept in mind, and made the subject of strong emotions. He thought of the story of Hall Caine's, where the woman, after years of persecution at the hands of an unwelcome suitor, is on the point of yielding, out of sheer irresistible admiration for the ...
— The Marrow of Tradition • Charles W. Chesnutt

... pressed forward; and, despite the complaints, the murmurs, and the intrigues of France, the treaty of Munster was finally signed by the respective ambassadors of the United Provinces and Spain, on the 30th of January, 1648. This celebrated treaty contains seventy-nine articles. Three points were of main and vital importance to the republic: the first acknowledges an ample and entire recognition of the sovereignty of the states-general, and a renunciation forever of all claims on the part of Spain; the second confirms the rights of trade and navigation in the East and West Indies, with ...
— Holland - The History of the Netherlands • Thomas Colley Grattan

... neuer bold: Of Spirit so still, and quiet, that her Motion Blush'd at her selfe, and she, in spight of Nature, Of Yeares, of Country, Credite, euery thing To fall in Loue, with what she fear'd to looke on; It is a iudgement main'd, and most imperfect. That will confesse Perfection so could erre Against all rules of Nature, and must be driuen To find out practises of cunning hell Why this should be. I therefore vouch againe, That with some Mixtures, ...
— The First Folio [35 Plays] • William Shakespeare

... before the door of the main building, sprang from her saddle, threw the bridle to a man in attendance, and rushed into the house and into the presence of Mr. John Stone, who was busy in prescribing ...
— Capitola's Peril - A Sequel to 'The Hidden Hand' • Mrs. E.D.E.N. Southworth

... was much larger and more powerful than Chimo, but was greatly exhausted by its long chase, while the dog was fresh and vigorous. Once or twice Chimo tossed his huge adversary by main strength, but as often he was overturned and dreadfully shaken, while the long fangs of the wolf met in his neck, and mingled the blood of the deer, which bespattered his black muzzle, with the life's blood that ...
— Ungava • R.M. Ballantyne

... buttonhook, or a battering-ram," impertinently suggested the glib undergraduate who had been applying these words to everybody and everything, and who continued to do so until she had found a new catchword as the main substance of her conversation. The infirmities of age, as well as the mellowed wisdom of it, deserve the utmost consideration, especially from youth; and in this instance deference in aiding the elderly woman to find her word would have been ...
— Conversation - What to Say and How to Say it • Mary Greer Conklin

... made sure, we left no stone unturned in the effort to solve the mystery. No horse, ridden or led, could have lived to cross the pouring torrent of the main river, or to wade up or down its bed; and if the cavalcade had turned up the barrier stream its progress must have ended abruptly against the sheer wall of the cliff at the entrance to the low-arched cavern whence the tributary came into being. ...
— The Master of Appleby • Francis Lynde

... Mackinac," on the main land, which forms the southern border of the straits, we soon came out into the broad waters of Lake Michigan. Every traveller, and every reader of our history, is familiar with the incidents connected ...
— Wau-bun - The Early Day in the Northwest • Juliette Augusta Magill Kinzie

... ancient fisherman and a rock are fashioned, a rugged rock, whereon with might and main the old man drags a great net for his cast, as one that labours stoutly. Thou wouldst say that he is fishing with all the might of his limbs, so big the sinews swell all about his neck, grey-haired though he be, ...
— Theocritus, Bion and Moschus rendered into English Prose • Andrew Lang

... fuller investigation of the many and ever-opening problems of the nascent science which includes both Life and Non-Life are among the main purposes of the Institute I am opening to-day; in these fields I am already fortunate in having a devoted band of disciples, whom I have been training for the last ten years. Their number is very limited, but means ...
— Sir Jagadis Chunder Bose - His Life and Speeches • Sir Jagadis Chunder Bose

... jury-masts were got up, with yards across, and the main-topgallantsail, and such other sails as they could carry were set ...
— The Missing Ship - The Log of the "Ouzel" Galley • W. H. G. Kingston

... Stroud (Gloucester) is a shadow of its former self. It has lost the power of recovering from a depression. The next period of slackness that comes along may bankrupt the business and rob a village of specialized hand-workers of their main employment. ...
— Recent Developments in European Thought • Various

... and beyond this to reach the ideals which they cherished and the ideas which were the impulses of their activities. Events and incidents, such as are recorded in national annals, have for him their main, if not only value, as indications of the inner or soul ...
— An Ethnologist's View of History • Daniel G. Brinton

... shows constant progress toward the goals he aims at—principally the goal of a perfect style. Content, with him, is always secondary. He has ideas, and they are often of much charm and plausibility, but his main concern is with the manner of stating them. It is surely not ideas that make "Jurgen" stand out so saliently from the dreadful prairie of modern American literature; it is the magnificent writing that is visible on every page of it—writing apparently simple and spontaneous, and yet extraordinarily ...
— The Line of Love - Dizain des Mariages • James Branch Cabell

... "She was main fond o' them—she was," Ben Weatherstaff said. "She liked them things as was allus pointin' up to th' blue sky, she used to tell. Not as she was one o' them as looked down on th' earth—not her. She just loved it but she said as th' blue sky allus ...
— The Secret Garden • Frances Hodgson Burnett

... The main point is that the Prince was now rusticating within what you might call a stone's throw of the capacious and lordly country residence of Mr. Blithers; moreover, he was an uncommonly attractive chap, with a laugh that was so charged with heartiness ...
— The Prince of Graustark • George Barr McCutcheon

... a poor man was turning an ox into the main road, that he might drive the animal to his master's residence by daylight; the wolf swept by, and snapped furiously at the ox as he passed: and the beast, affrighted by the sudden appearance, gushing sound, and abrupt though evanescent attack of the ...
— Wagner, the Wehr-Wolf • George W. M. Reynolds

... very lofty, but that is just where the highest exhibition of Holiness can be given to the world. It is not what you do—that may seem very important or may be very trivial; but it is the manner of doing it and the motive behind it which is the main thing. ...
— Standards of Life and Service • T. H. Howard

... doctors were supreme. In his great library they held consultation after consultation and secretly smiled when they thought of the figures they would write on his bills. They disagreed in details, but all agreed on the main conclusion—that the only hope was that he should quit work and play for ...
— The Root of Evil • Thomas Dixon

... make his escape on board the ships which at that very time moved into the bay opposite to him.[*] Determined therefore to cut off his retreat, they quitted their camp; and passing the River Eske, advanced into the plain. They were divided into three bodies: Angus commanded the vanguard; Arran the main body; Huntley the rear: their cavalry consisted only of light horse, which were placed on their left flank, strengthened by some Irish archers whom Argyle had brought over ...
— The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol.I., Part C. - From Henry VII. to Mary • David Hume

... belt walk to the parking area and stepped off it at George's car. Moving quietly on its air cushion, the car joined the line-up out on the main road where George locked the controls on to Route 63. The speed rose to eighty and steadied as the car settled into its place in the traffic pattern. Relaxed in their seats the two men lit their anticancers ...
— Mother America • Sam McClatchie

... with a horizontal blue stripe in the center superimposed on a vertical red band, also centered; five white, five-pointed stars are arranged in an oval pattern in the center of the blue band; the five stars represent the five main islands of Bonaire, Curacao, Saba, ...
— The 2003 CIA World Factbook • United States. Central Intelligence Agency

... been lacking in that dignity which should be its main characteristic, and this fault was largely due to the Flemish composers, who thought most of displaying their technical skill. They frequently selected some well-known secular tune around which to weave their counterpoint, many masses, for instance, having been written ...
— Among the Great Masters of Music - Scenes in the Lives of Famous Musicians • Walter Rowlands

... pull which almost upset me, for I had been standing in the boat. Two hands had caught the gunwale, and the pull of dead weight swung the heavy, clumsy craft round on a new course without, however, upsetting it. This took us into shallower waters, and presently the suction of the main surge got fainter and we were aground ...
— The Black Colonel • James Milne

... elderly people to mar the picnics with their presence. The children were considered safe enough under the wings of a few young ladies of eighteen and a few young gentlemen of twenty-three or thereabouts. The old steam ferryboat was chartered for the occasion; presently the gay throng filed up the main street laden with provision-baskets. Sid was sick and had to miss the fun; Mary remained at home to entertain him. The last thing Mrs. ...
— Innocents abroad • Mark Twain

... guns were being brought into battery, and the remainder of his seamen and marines posted to support them,—"the engagement continued, the enemy advancing, and our own army retreating before them, apparently in much disorder. At length the enemy made his appearance on the main road, in force, in front of my battery, and on seeing us made a halt. I reserved our fire. In a few minutes the enemy again advanced, when I ordered an 18-pounder to be fired, which completely cleared the road; shortly after, a second and a third attempt was made by the enemy ...
— Sea Power in its Relations to the War of 1812 - Volume 2 • Alfred Thayer Mahan

... England taken the news? In the main soberly and in a spirit of infinite thankfulness, though in too many thousands of homes the loss of our splendid, noble and gallant sons—alas! so often only sons—who made victory possible by the gift of their lives, has made ...
— Mr. Punch's History of the Great War • Punch

... and a guide, and set out, on the 2d of May, Messrs M'Kay, R. Stuart, Montigny, and I, with a sufficient number of hands. We first passed a lofty head-land, that seemed at a distance to be detached from the main, and to which we gave the name of Tongue Point. Here the river gains a width of some nine or ten miles, and keeps it for about twelve miles up. The left bank, which we were coasting, being concealed by little low islands, we encamped for the night on one of them, at the village of Wahkaykum, ...
— Narrative of a Voyage to the Northwest Coast of America in the years 1811, 1812, 1813, and 1814 or the First American Settlement on the Pacific • Gabriel Franchere

... the part of wise people," said I, "to make sure of the battle before it is fought: there's the landlord of the public-house, who made sure that his cocks would win, yet the cocks lost the main, and the landlord is little better ...
— The Romany Rye - A Sequel to 'Lavengro' • George Borrow

... vision, born of misrepresentation of facts and misrepresentation of doctrine and practice; the blind prejudice against which our refutation of facts and explanation of principles are of little avail: these are the two main causes to which can be traced this universal opposition. And indeed no one will tax us with exaggeration were we to repeat here what Tertullian wrote in his "Defence of the Church," a hundred years after ...
— Catholic Problems in Western Canada • George Thomas Daly

... Seamen.'' He wrote numerous articles for the press and delivered many addresses on behalf of seamen, or for institutions for their benefit such as "Father'' Taylor's Bethel and for a more cordial reception of sailors in the church. He wrote the introduction of Leech's "A Voice from the Main Deck,'' but above all it was the indirect influence of his "Two Years Before the Mast'' which did the most to relieve ...
— Two Years Before the Mast • Richard Henry Dana

... ammeter should be the greatest when the main headlamps are burning bright. By comparing the readings obtained when the different lighting combinations are turned on, it is sometimes possible to detect trouble in some ...
— The Automobile Storage Battery - Its Care And Repair • O. A. Witte

... narrows, (2) ran his triremes aground off Rhoeteum. When the Athenians had come to close quarters, the fighting commenced, and was sustained at once from ships and shore, until at length the Athenians retired to their main camp at ...
— Hellenica • Xenophon

... us took up his position a good way from the village of the cross-roads; I was posted at the entrance of the main street, where the road from the level country enters the village, while the two others, the captain and his wife were in the middle of the village, near the church, whose tower served ...
— The Works of Guy de Maupassant, Volume III (of 8) • Guy de Maupassant

... Rock of Ages, by the Rev. E. H. Bickersteth,[546] now published by the Religious Tract Society, without date, answered by the Rev. Dr. Sadler,[547] in a work (1859) entitled Gloria Patri, in which, says Mr. Bickersteth, "the author has not even attempted to grapple with my main propositions." I have read largely on the controversy, and I think I know what this means. Moreover, when I see the note "There are two other passages to which Unitarians sometimes refer, but the deduction they draw from them is, in ...
— A Budget of Paradoxes, Volume I (of II) • Augustus De Morgan

... detained for that: the moment he was recaptured he and his luggage were whisked off in the other carriage, and, with Rolfe and his secretary, dashed round the town, avoiding the main street, to a railway eight miles off, at a pace almost defying pursuit. Not that they dreaded it: they had numbers, arms, and a firm determination to fight if necessary, and also three tongues to tell ...
— A Terrible Temptation - A Story of To-Day • Charles Reade

... that, in tune with the company's passion for {TLA}s, this is often abbreviated as 'BRS' (this has also become established on FidoNet and in the PC {clone} world). It is alleged that the emergency pull switch on an IBM 360/91 actually fired a non-conducting bolt into the main power feed; the BRSes on more recent machines physically drop a block into place so that they can't be pushed back in. People get fired for pulling them, especially inappropriately (see also {molly-guard}). Compare {power cycle}, {three-finger salute}, {120 reset}; ...
— THE JARGON FILE, VERSION 2.9.10

... like the Torrent roar. When Ajax strives some Rocks vast Weight to throw, The Line too labours, and the Words move slow; Not so, when swift Camilla scours the Plain, Flies o'er th' unbending Corn, and skims along the Main. ...
— The Spectator, Volume 2. • Addison and Steele

... forward, painfully conscious that all eyes were fixed upon him. Yet he did not flinch. He beckoned the bargeman aside, and in a few broken, gasping sentences told him the main ...
— Two Little Travellers - A Story for Girls • Frances Browne Arthur

... of Earth, he was brought to grief by Drona and Karna and at last succumbed to the son of Dussasana. If, O lord, he had been encountered, one to one, without intermission, he was incapable of being slain in battle by even the wielder of the thunderbolt. When his sire Arjuna was withdrawn from the main body by the Samsaptakas (who challenged to fight him separately), Abhimanyu was surrounded by the enraged Kaurava heroes headed by Drona in battle. Then, O sire, after he had slaughtered a very large number ...
— The Mahabharata of Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa, Volume 4 • Kisari Mohan Ganguli

... resume the main line of my story it may be well to describe the personal appearance of my uncle as I remember him during those magnificent years that followed his passage from trade to finance. The little man plumped up very considerably ...
— Tono Bungay • H. G. Wells

... is closely related to that peculiar moral-philosophic tendency in England, which long before Darwin's appearance, took its origin in John Stuart Mill, but which now, in the closest connection with Darwin's principles, has its main advocate in Herbert Spencer, and is commonly called the utilitarian tendency. We understand by this that conception of the moral motive which allows the moral good, however it may be ideally ...
— The Theories of Darwin and Their Relation to Philosophy, Religion, and Morality • Rudolf Schmid

... there, shot up to the sky chimneys taller than Cleopatra's Needle, vomiting forth huge wreaths of that black smoke which forms the canopy—occasionally a gorgeous one—of the more than Babel city. Stretching before me, the troubled breast of the mighty river, and, immediately below, the main whirlpool of the Thames—the Maelstrom of the bulwarks of the middle arch—a grisly pool, which, with its superabundance of horror, fascinated me. Who knows but I should have leapt into its depths?—I have heard of such things—but ...
— George Borrow - The Man and His Books • Edward Thomas

... the General, coloring up to his ears, 'a blunder of some of our volunteer officers. Ordinary military prudence made us send forward some force to reconnoitre before crossing the main army. These troops were to fall back if the enemy appeared in force. Not understanding their orders, or carried away by the excitement of the moment, they engaged the enemy with the unfortunate ...
— Red-Tape and Pigeon-Hole Generals - As Seen From the Ranks During a Campaign in the Army of the Potomac • William H. Armstrong

... This main Catholic doctrine of the warfare between the city of God and the powers of darkness was also deeply impressed upon my mind by a work of a character very opposite to ...
— Apologia Pro Vita Sua • John Henry Cardinal Newman

... English and geography," I said; "but I won't miss them. Come on up the main street and let's see if we can find ...
— Roy Blakeley's Camp on Wheels • Percy Keese Fitzhugh

... features of the plot are the same, viz., the striking likeness between the impostor and the dead prince, and the complete success which, for a time, attended the fraud. In both narrations, too, we can perceive, behind the main personages ostensibly brought forward, the outline of a profound device of the magi to win back from the Persian conquerors, and to secure to a Mede, the empire ...
— Athens: Its Rise and Fall, Complete • Edward Bulwer-Lytton

... able. I wish to see how calmly she sleeps away from us all, with her dear hands folded over her breast as if in mute prayer, while her pure spirit is traversing the land of the blessed. I shall diverge from the main route of travel for this purpose, and it will depend somewhat upon my feelings and somewhat upon my procuring an escort for Agnes, whether I go ...
— Recollections and Letters of General Robert E. Lee • Captain Robert E. Lee, His Son

... trunk of the tree, O Lono! Give me the tree's main root, O Lono! Give me the ear ...
— On the Makaloa Mat/Island Tales • Jack London

... speaking, was abashed by these tokens of his own importance, and heartily wished that he had stopped at home. It never occurred to his simple mind that his value was not political, but commercial; not "anthropological," but fishy, the main ambition of the Free and Frisky Club having long been the capture of his father. If once Zeb Tugwell could be brought to treat, a golden era would dawn upon them, and a boundless vision of free-trade, when a man might be paid for refusing to sell fish, as he now is for keeping to himself his ...
— Springhaven - A Tale of the Great War • R. D. Blackmore

... unicameral National Assembly (81 seats; members are elected by popular vote to serve five-year terms) elections: last held 21 March 1999 (next due to be held NA 2004) election results: percent of vote by party - NA; seats by party - RPT 77, independents 2, vacant 2 note: Togo's main opposition parties boycotted the election because of EYADEMA's alleged manipulation of 1998 presidential polling; since March of 1999, opposition parties have entered into negotiations with the president over the establishment ...
— The 2000 CIA World Factbook • United States. Central Intelligence Agency.

... English merchants was formed to trade with the West Indies and the "Spanish Main," and commanded great success. Other merchants did the same. Soon after the Spanish court instituted a coast-guard to make war upon these traders; and as they had full power to capture and slay all who did not bear the King of Spain's commission, ...
— The Story of Extinct Civilizations of the West • Robert E. Anderson

... saw him coming. He had more than half expected to be interfered with in his designs; but it would please him first of all to riddle this ambitious young airman, and his Nieuport, and then to accomplish his main purpose. ...
— Air Service Boys Over The Enemy's Lines - The German Spy's Secret • Charles Amory Beach

... some land out there," grinned Johnny. "Your best route will be from Marble Bluffs to Sage City, and from there straight across to Salt Pool, then up along the Buffalo Canon to Silver Ledge and on to the main line." ...
— Five Thousand an Hour - How Johnny Gamble Won the Heiress • George Randolph Chester

... Pittsburgh and the West. A year later surveys were authorized to be made from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh, from Allegheny to Erie, from Philadelphia to the northern boundary of the State, and also south to the Potomac River. The construction of the main lines of communication between the east and the west and the coal fields in the north was soon commenced. Large loans were repeatedly made, and the work was vigorously prosecuted. In 1834 Pennsylvania had 589 miles of State canals, among them the Central Division Canal, 172 ...
— The Railroad Question - A historical and practical treatise on railroads, and - remedies for their abuses • William Larrabee

... were the main ideas which guided the selection of the menu for this golden-rod breakfast. Everything possible was in the yellow tint or rich golden brown. With plenty of cream and fresh eggs and the fresh fruits of the farm to work with the menu was an easy one to furnish. Ices served in ...
— Social Life - or, The Manners and Customs of Polite Society • Maud C. Cooke

... interest. There it stood, plain yet stately, with a great pointed and shingled roof, its front and side walls unbroken save for a gentle projection supported by two uniform Doric pillars which served as a sort of a portal before the main entrance. Numerous windows with small panes of glass, and with trim green shutters thrown full open revealing neatly arranged curtains, glinted and glistened in the beams of the afternoon sun. The nearer of the two great chimneys which ran up the sides, like two great buttresses of an old English ...
— The Loyalist - A Story of the American Revolution • James Francis Barrett

... breezes fight with the flying winds of the hills. It is a land of green meadows on the brink of heather, of far-stretching fir woods that climb to the edge of the uplands and sink to the fringe of corn. Nowhere is there any march between art and nature, for the place is in the main for sheep, and the single road which threads the glen is little troubled with cart and crop-laden wagon. Midway there is a stretch of wood and garden around the House of Glenavelin, the one great dwelling-place in the vale. But it is a dwelling and a little more, ...
— The Half-Hearted • John Buchan

... main gateway of the palace rose the walls of the Imperial Academy, where eight thousand Chinese boys received instruction under the patronage of the emperor, while, just beyond extended the long, low range of the archery school, in which even the emperor himself sometimes came ...
— Historic Girls • E. S. Brooks

... his silver locks, as he wanders in the valley and explores the footsteps of his fathers. Alas! no vestige remains but their tombs. His thought then hangs on the silver moon, as her sinking beams play upon the rippling main; and the remembrance of deeds past and gone recurs to the hero's mind—deeds of times when he gloried in the approach of danger, and emulation nerved his whole frame; when the pale orb shone upon his bark, laden with the spoils of his enemy, and illuminated his triumphant return. When I see ...
— A History of English Romanticism in the Eighteenth Century • Henry A. Beers

... noble churches and public buildings, the statues, columns, and other triumphs of architecture which abundantly adorn the great modern capital. The marshy island soil has been lifted by two centuries of accretions, while the main city has crept up from its old location to the mainland, where the fashionable quarters and the ...
— Historic Tales, Vol. 8 (of 15) - The Romance of Reality • Charles Morris

... and Miriam, each with an arm around the waist of the other, walked out of the barn and passed the lower story, the calf, who had been the main instrument in bringing about the cordial relations between the two, raised his head and gazed at them with his good eye. Then perceiving that they had forgotten him, and were going away without even arranging his mosquito net for ...
— The Girl at Cobhurst • Frank Richard Stockton

... Meurice's, I found Dupuytrien in waiting, who immediately pronounced the main artery of the limb as wounded; and almost as instantaneously proceeded to pass a ligature round it. This painful business being concluded, I was placed upon a sofa, and being plentifully supplied with lemonade, and enjoined to keep quiet, left to my own ...
— The Confessions of Harry Lorrequer, Complete • Charles James Lever (1806-1872)

... reported that when asked his impression of President WILSON Mr. BALFOUR remarked, "Gee! He's the top shout and the main squeeze. ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 156, Jan. 1, 1919 • Various

... unconscious of danger or the trampling of hostile feet. One o'clock! And over High Gap hostile horsemen are galloping. They separate; one division wheels to the left led by the relentless Colonel Hardin, still smarting from the defeat of the last year by the great Miami, Little Turtle. But the main division, led by the noble Colonel Scott, afterward the distinguished soldier and governor of Kentucky, moves ...
— The Land of the Miamis • Elmore Barce

... percentage upon all savings on the total sum of L30,000l., the outside estimate taken for the whole job, and a small premium for all time saved in the completion of the work. These payments were to be so made that the integrity, completeness, and success of the work would be their main condition. ...
— Canada and the States • Edward William Watkin

... hills. Two clefts or chasms (quebradas) divide this part of the town into three separate parts consisting of low, shabby houses. These three districts have been named by the sailors after the English sea terms Fore-top, Main-top, and Mizen-top. The numerous quebradas, which all intersect the ground in a parallel direction, are surrounded by poor-looking houses. The wretched, narrow streets running along these quebradas are, in winter, and especially at night, exceedingly dangerous, Valparaiso being very badly ...
— Travels in Peru, on the Coast, in the Sierra, Across the Cordilleras and the Andes, into the Primeval Forests • J. J. von Tschudi

... Britannia's triumphs on the main: See Nelson, pale and fainting, 'mid the slain, Whilst Victory sighs, stern in the garb of war, And points through clouds the rocks of Trafalgar! Here cease the strain; but while thy hulls shall ride, Britain, dark shadowing the tumultuous ...
— The Poetical Works of William Lisle Bowles, Vol. 1 • William Lisle Bowles

... that no sheep or heifers had been killed and very little porter drunk, but she preferred to leave these details aside and stick to her main point. ...
— Lady Bountiful - 1922 • George A. Birmingham

... noticed bearing more to the west. Obliged to keep out some distance from the ravine, to avoid the small gullies emptying into it and the various elbows which it made, about noon we struck upon a large trail, running directly west; this we followed, and on reaching the main chasm, found that it led to the only place where there was any chance of crossing. Here, too, we found that innumerable trails joined, coming from every direction—proof conclusive that we must cross here or travel many weary ...
— Travels and Adventures of Monsieur Violet • Captain Marryat

... waves, vainly breaking, Seem here no painful inch to gain, Far back, through creeks and inlets making, Comes silent, flooding in, the main." ...
— Life and Letters of Lord Macaulay • George Otto Trevelyan



Words linked to "Main" :   water main, dependent, main diagonal, base, main course, main-topsail, main street, sewer line, main rotor, main entry word, primary, main deck, electric main, pipe, main drag, independent, main office, pipage, hydrosphere, grammar, water, gas main, coup de main, important, infrastructure, intense, body of water, high sea



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