main clause

a clause in a complex sentence that can stand alone as a complete sentence ;

main course

a square mainsail ; the principal dish of a meal ;

main deck

the uppermost sheltered deck that runs the entire length of a large vessel ;

main diagonal

the diagonal of a square matrix running from the upper left entry to the lower right entry ;

main drag

the main street of a town or city ;

main entry word

the form of a word that heads a lexical entry and is alphabetized in a dictionary ;

main file

(computer science) a computer file that is used as the authority in a given job and that is relatively permanent ;

main line

the principal route of a transportation system ;

main office

(usually plural) the office that serves as the administrative center of an enterprise; "many companies have their headquarters in New York" ;

main road

a major road for any form of motor transport ;

main rotor

rotor consisting of large rotating airfoils on a single-rotor helicopter that produce the lift to support the helicopter in the air ;

main street

street that serves as a principal thoroughfare for traffic in a town ; any small town (or the people who inhabit it); generally used to represent parochialism and materialism (after a novel by Sinclair Lewis); "Main Street will never vote for a liberal politician" ;

main yard

yard for a square mainsail ;

maine

a state in New England ;

maine lobster

lobster of Atlantic coast of America ; flesh of cold-water lobsters having large tender claws; caught from Maine to the Carolinas ;

mainer

a native or resident of Maine ;

mainframe

(computer science) the part of a computer (a microprocessor chip) that does most of the data processing; "the CPU and the memory form the central part of a computer to which the peripherals are attached" ; a large digital computer serving 100-400 users and occupying a special air-conditioned room ;

mainframe computer

a large digital computer serving 100-400 users and occupying a special air-conditioned room ;

mainland

the main land mass of a country or continent; as distinguished from an island or peninsula ;

mainland china

a communist nation that covers a vast territory in eastern Asia; the most populous country in the world ;

mainmast

the chief mast of a sailing vessel with two or more masts ;

mainsail

the lowermost sail on the mainmast ;

mainsheet

(nautical) a line (rope or chain) that regulates the angle at which a sail is set in relation to the wind ;

mainspring

the most important spring in a mechanical device (especially a clock or watch); as it uncoils it drives the mechanism ;

mainstay

the forestay that braces the mainmast ; a central cohesive source of support and stability; "faith is his anchor"; "the keystone of campaign reform was the ban on soft money"; "he is the linchpin of this firm" ; a prominent supporter; "he is a pillar of the community" ;

mainstream

the prevailing current of thought; "his thinking was in the American mainstream" ;

maintainer

someone who upholds or maintains; "firm upholders of tradition"; "they are sustainers of the idea of democracy" ;

maintenance

activity involved in maintaining something in good working order; "he wrote the manual on car care" ; the unauthorized interference in a legal action by a person having no interest in it (as by helping one party with money or otherwise to continue the action) so as to obstruct justice or promote unnecessary litigation or unsettle the peace of the community; "unlike champerty, criminal maintenance does not necessarily involve personal profit" ; the act of sustaining life by food or providing a means of subsistence; "they were in want of sustenance"; "fishing was their main sustainment" ; court-ordered support paid by one spouse to another after they are separated ; means of maintenance of a family or group ;

maintenance man

a skilled worker whose job is to repair things ;

maintenance staff

those in a business responsible for maintaining the physical plant ;

maintenon

French consort of Louis XIV who secretly married the king after the death of his first wife (1635-1719) ;

maiolica

highly decorated earthenware with a glaze of tin oxide ;

maisonette

a small house ; a self-contained apartment (usually on two floors) in a larger house and with its own entrance from the outside ;

maisonnette

a small house ; a self-contained apartment (usually on two floors) in a larger house and with its own entrance from the outside ;

maitland

English historian noted for his works on the history of English law (1850-1906) ;

maitre d'

a dining-room attendant who is in charge of the waiters and the seating of customers ;

maitre d'hotel

a dining-room attendant who is in charge of the waiters and the seating of customers ;

maitreya

the Bodhisattva who is to appear as a Buddha 5000 years after the death of Gautama ;

maize

a strong yellow color ; tall annual cereal grass bearing kernels on large ears: widely cultivated in America in many varieties; the principal cereal in Mexico and Central and South America since pre-Columbian times ;

maja

type genus of the Majidae; nearly cosmopolitan in distribution ;