mainly
EnglishEdit
EtymologyEdit
From Middle English maynly; equivalent to main + -ly.
PronunciationEdit
AdverbEdit
mainly (not comparable)
- Chiefly; for the most part. [from 17th c.]
- 1913, Joseph C. Lincoln, chapter 12, in Mr. Pratt's Patients:
- She had Lord James' collar in one big fist and she pounded the table with the other and talked a blue streak. Nobody could make out plain what she said, for she was mainly jabbering Swede lingo, but there was English enough, of a kind, to give us some idee.
- (obsolete) Forcefully, vigorously. [13th–17th c.]
- c. 1587–1588, [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire; London: Scolar Press, 1973, →ISBN, Act II, scene i:
- Such breadth of ſhoulders as might mainely beare
Olde Atlas burthen, […]
- 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto I”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:
- Mainly they all attonce vpon him laid, / And sore beset on euery side around […]
- (obsolete) Of the production of a sound: loudly, powerfully. [14th–19th c.]
- 1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 31, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book II, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC:
- But in the end, mainly crying out, he fell to raling and wringing his master, upbraiding him that he was not a true Philosopher […].
- (obsolete) To a great degree; very much. [15th–19th c.]
SynonymsEdit
- (for the most part): in the main, principally; see also Thesaurus:mostly
- (forcefully): energetically, powerfully, strongly
- (loudly): earsplittingly, lustily, raucously, thunderously
- (to a great degree): a lot, extremely
TranslationsEdit
chiefly; for the most part
See alsoEdit
AnagramsEdit
Middle EnglishEdit
AdverbEdit
mainly
- Alternative form of maynly