main
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: enpr: mān
ipa: /meɪn/
rhymes: -eɪn
homophone: mane
homophone: Maine
Forms: form: mains
Etymology: Uncertain; probably from the adjective main. Evidence is lacking for a derivation from French main (“hand”).
Senses: examples: text: That writing is but juſt like dice, / And lucky mains make people wiſe: / That jumbled words, if fortune throw 'em, / Shall, well as Dryden, form a poem; […]
ref: 1689 May 14, Mr. Prior [Matthew Prior?], “Epistle to Fleetwood Shephard, Esq.”, in “Mr. Gentleman” [pseudonym], The New Pleasing Instructor: Or, Entertaining Moralist. […], York, Yorkshire: Printed by C. Etherington, for John Bell, […] and C. Etherington, […], published 1772, →OCLC, page 370:
text: 1876, Charles Dickens, All the Year Round
That no minute might be wasted, the gay gallants of the time generally had a dice-box and a cast of dice in their pockets. This was convenient in the extreme, as, in the intervals of racing, a main could be thrown […]
text: Well-for the rest, will you throw a main?
ref: 1894, Stanley J. Weyman, chapter VIII, in Under the Red Robe:
topics: games
gaming
glosses: A hand or match in a game of dice.
examples: text: Euery man hath not beene brought vp in the knowledge of toungs. And it chanceth often to the reader, as it doth to diceplayers, that gaine more by the bye then by the maine.
ref: 1598, Richard Barckley, “To the Reader”, in A Discourse of the Felicitie of Man: Or His Summum Bonum, London: Printed [by Richard Field] for VVilliam Ponsonby, →OCLC; republished as “To the Reader”, in A Discovrse of the Felicite of Man. Or His Summum Bonum, newly corrected and augmented edition, London: Printed [by James Roberts] for VVilliam Ponsonby, 1603, →OCLC:
text: I had such a run of luck last night, with five for the main, and seven to five all night, until those ruffians wanted to pay me with Altamont’s bill upon me. The luck turned from that minute. Never held the box again for three mains, and came away cleared out, leaving that infernal cheque behind me.
ref: 1848 November – 1850 December, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 44, in The History of Pendennis. […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1849–1850, →OCLC:
topics: games
gaming
glosses: The largest throw in a match at dice; in the game of hazard, a number from one to nine called out by a person before the dice are thrown.
examples: text: [W]ere it good / To ſet the exact wealth of al our ſtates / Al at one caſt? to ſet ſo rich a maine / On the nice hazard of one doubtfull houre?
ref: c. 1597 (date written), [William Shakespeare], The History of Henrie the Fourth; […], quarto edition, London: […] P[eter] S[hort] for Andrew Wise, […], published 1598, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene i]:
english: Is it good / To bet all of our wealth / On one throw of the dice? To place so high a stake / On the risky hazard of one doubtful hour?
translation: Is it good / To bet all of our wealth / On one throw of the dice? To place so high a stake / On the risky hazard of one doubtful hour?
bold_translation_offsets: 85
90
topics: games
gaming
glosses: A stake played for at dice.
examples: text: My lord was hunting all day when the ſeaſon admitted; he frequented all the cockfights and fairs in the country, and would ride twenty miles to ſee a main fought, or two clowns break their heads at a cudgelling match; […]
ref: 1852, William Makepeace Thackeray, “After Good Fortune Comes Evil”, in The History of Henry Esmond, Esq. […] , volume I, London: […] Smith, Elder, & Company, […], →OCLC, page 171:
topics: games
gaming
hobbies
lifestyle
sports
glosses: A sporting contest or match, especially a cockfighting match.
glosses: A banker's shovel for coins.