main

Webster's Dictionary (1913)

Origin: F. main hand, L. manus. See Manual.

1. A hand or match at dice. Matthew Prior William M. Thackeray

2. A stake played for at dice. obsolete William Shakespeare

3. The largest throw in a match at dice; a throw at dice within given limits, as in the game of hazard.

4. A match at cockfighting. “My lord would ride twenty miles... to see a main fought.” William M. Thackeray

5. A main-hamper. obsolete Robert Ainsworth

Origin: AS. mægen strength, power, force; akin to OHG. magan, Icel. megin, and to E. may, v. √103. See May, verb

1. Strength; force; might; violent effort. Obs., except in certain phrases.

There were in this battle of most might and main.— R. of Gl.

He 'gan advance, With huge force, and with importable main.— Edmund Spenser

2. The chief or principal part; the main or most important thing. Obs., except in special uses.

Resolved to rest upon the title of Lancaster as the main, and to use the other two... but as supporters.— Francis, Baron Verulam Bacon

3. Specifically: (a) The great sea, as distinguished from an arm, bay, etc.; the high sea; the ocean. “Struggling in the main.” John Dryden (b) The continent, as distinguished from an island; the mainland. “Invaded the main of Spain.” Francis, Baron Verulam Bacon (c) principal duct or pipe, as distinguished from lesser ones; esp. Engineering, a principal pipe leading to or from a reservoir; as, a fire main.

Forcing main, the delivery pipe of a pump. — For the main, or In the main, for the most part; in the greatest part. — With might and main, or With all one's might and main, with all one's strength; with violent effort.

With might and main they chased the murderous fox.— John Dryden

Origin: From Main strength, possibly influenced by OF. maine, magne, great, L. magnus. Cf. Magnate.

1. Very or extremely strong. obsolete

That current with main fury ran.— Daniel.

2. Vast; huge. obsolete “The main abyss.” John Milton

3. Unqualified; absolute; entire; sheer. obsolete “It's a man untruth.” Sir Walter Scott

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.— John Tilllotson

5. Important; necessary. obsolete

That which thou aright Believest so main to our success, I bring.— John Milton

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.— William Shakespeare

— By main strength, by sheer strength; as, to lift a heavy weight by main strength. — Main beam Steam Engine, working beam. — Main boom Nautical, the boom which extends the foot of the mainsail in a fore and aft vessel. — Main brace. (a) Mechanics The brace which resists the chief strain. Cf. Counter brace. (b) Nautical 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 Architecture, the principal truss in a roof. — Main deck Nautical, the deck next below the spar deck; the principal deck. — Main keel Nautical, the principal or true keel of a vessel, as distinguished from the false keel.

Synonyms: Principal; chief; leading; cardinal; capital.

Origin: See Main, adjective

Very; extremely; as, main heavy. “I'm main dry.” Samuel Foote Obs. or Low

Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913), from GCIDE 0.54 · with additions: +PJC

Free On-line Dictionary of Computing

<programming> The name of the subroutine called by the run-time system (RTS) when it executes a C program. The RTS passes the program's command-line arguments to main as a count and an array of pointers to strings. If the main subroutine returns then the program exits.

Java has inheritted the name "main" from C but in Java it's more complicated of course. The main routine must have a signature of exactly

public static void main(String [])

And it must be inside a public class with the same name as the source file where it is defined.

(2008-11-12)