Charg'd our main battle's front. Shakspeare. 4. Important; forcible.

This young prince, with a train of young noblemen and gentlemen, but not with any main army, came over to take possession of his new patrimony. Davies on Ireland.

That, which thou aright Believ'st so main to our success, I bring. Milt. MAIN. n. 5.

1. The gross; the bulk; the greater part. The main of them may be reduced to language, and an improvement in wisdom, by seeing men. Locke.

2. The sum; the whole; the general. They allowed the liturgy and government of the church of England as to the main. K. Charl. These notions concerning coinage have, for the main, been put into writing above twelve months. Locke.

3. The ocean; the great sea, as distinguished from bays or rivers.

A substitute shines brightly as a king, Until a king be by; and then his state Empties itself, as doth an inland brook Into the main of waters.

Where's the king?

Shakspeare.

Bids the wind blow the earth into the sea; Or swell the curled waters 'bove the main, That things might change.

Shakspeare.

He fell, and struggling in the main, Cry'd out for helping hands, but cry'd in vain.

Say, why should the collected main

Itself within itself contain?

Dryden.

That jumbled words, if fortune throw 'em, Shall, well as Dryden, form a poem. Prier. 6. The continent.

In 1589 we turned challengers, and invaded the main of Spain. 7. A hamper.

Bacon. Ainsworth. MAINLAND. n. s. [main and land.] Continent. Spenser and Dryden seem to accent this word differently.

Ne was it island then,

But was all desolate, and of some thought
By sea to have been from the Celtick mainland

brought.

Spenser.

Those whom Tyber's holy forests hide, Or Circe's hills from the mainland divide. Dryd. MAINLY. adv. [from main.] 1. Chiefly; principally.

A brutish vice,

Milton.

Inductive mainly to the sin of Eve. More.

They are mainly reducible to three.

The metallick matter now found in the perpendicular intervals of the strata, was originally lodged in the bodies of those strata, being interspersed amongst the matter, whereof the said strata mainly consist. Woodward's Nat. Hist. 2. Greatly; hugely.

It was observed by one, that himself came hardly to a little riches, and very easily to great riches: for when a man's stock is come to that, that he can expect the prime of markets, and over-come those bargains, which, for their greatness, are few men's money, and be partner in the industries of younger men, he cannot but increase mainly.

Bacen

MAINMAST. n. s. [main and mast.] The chief or middle mast. One dire shot, Close by the board the prince's mainmast bore. Dryden. A Dutchman, upon breaking his leg by a fall from a mainmast, told the standers-by, it was a mercy it was not his neck. Spectater. MAINPERNABLE. adj. Bailable; that may be admitted to give surety. MAINPERNOR. 1. 5. Surety; bail.

He enforced the earl himself to fly, till twentysix noblemen became mainpernors for his appearance at a certain day; but he making default, the uttermost advantage was taken against his sureties. Davies on Ireland.

MAINPRISE. n. s. [main and pris, Fr.] Delivery into the custody of a friend, upon security given for appearance ; bail.

Sir William Bremingham was executed for treason, though the earl of Desmond was left to mainprize. Davies.

Give its poor entertainer quarter; And, by discharge or mainprise, grant Deliv'ry from this base restraint. Hudibrat. To MA'INPRISE. v. a. To bail. MAINSAIL. n. s. [main and sail.] The sail of the mainmast.

They committed themselves unto the sea, and hoisted up the mainsail to the wind, and made toward shore.

Acts.

MA ́INSHEET. n.s [main and sheet.] The sheet or sail of the mainmast.

Strike, strike the top-sail; let the mainsheet fly,

And furl your sails.

Dryden.

To MAINTAIN. v. a. [maintenir, Fr.] 1. To preserve; to keep; not to suffer to

change.

The ingredients being prescribed in their substance, maintain the blood in a gentle fermentation, reclude oppilations, and mundify it. Harv. 1. To defend; to hold out; to make good; not to resign.

This place, these pledges of your love, maintain. Dryden. God values no man more or less, in placing hira high or low, but every one as he maintains his post. Grew's Cosmologia. 3. To vindicate; to justify; to support. If any man of quality will maintain upon Edward earl of Glo'ster, that he is a manifold traitor, let him appear. Shakspeare. These possessions being unlawfully gotten, could not be maintained by the just and honourable law of England. Davies.

Lord Roberts was full of contradiction in his temper, and of parts so much superior to any of the company, that he could too well maintain and justify those contradictions. Clarendon. Maintain My right, nor think the name of mother vain. Dryden.

4. To continue; to keep up; not to suffer to cease.

Maintain talk with the duke, that my charity be not of him perceived. Shakspeare. Some did the song, and some the choir maintain Beneath a laurel shade. Dryden. 5. To keep up; to support the expence of.

I seek not to wax great by others waining; Sufficeth, that I have maintains my state, And sends the poor well pleased from my gate. Shakspeare. What concerns it you if I wear pearl and gold?

I thank my good father I am able to maintain it. Shakspeare. 6. To support with the conveniences of

life.

2. Support; protection; defence.

They knew that no man might in reason take upon him to determine his own right, and according to his own determination proceed in maintenance thereof. Hooker.

The beginning and cause of this ordinance amongst the Irish was for the defence and maintenance of their lands in their posterity. Spenser. 3. Continuance; security from failure.

Whatsoever is granted to the church for God's honour, and the maintenance of his service, is granted to God.

South.

MAINTOP. n. s. [main and top.] The top of the mainmast.

From their maintop joyful news they hear Of ships, which by their mould bring new supplies. Dryden. Dictys could the maintop-mast bestride, And down the ropes with active vigour slide. Addison.

MA'INYARD. n. s. [main and yard.] The yard of the mainmast.

With sharp hooks they took hold of the tackling which held the mainyard to the mast, then rowing they cut the tackling, and brought the mainyard by the board. Arbuthnot. MAJOR. adj. [major, Latin.] 1. Greater in number, quantity, or ex

tent.

s. [from maintain.]

He dedicated the work to Sir Philip Sidney, special maintainer of all learning. Spenser. The maintainers and cherishers of a regular devotion, a true and decent piety. South. MAINTENANCE. n. s. [maintenant, Fr.] 1. Supply of the necessaries of life; sustenance; sustentation.

It was St. Paul's choice to maintain himself,

The major of our author's argument is to be understood of the material ingredients of bodies. Boyle. MAJOR-general. The general officer of

the second rank.

Bacon.

communication; reflection concurrent; and approach to the sensory. MAJORITY. n. s. [from major.] 1. The state of being greater.

It is not plurality of parts without majority of Grew. parts that maketh the total greater. 3. The greater number. [majorité, Fr.]

It was highly probable the majority would be so wise as to espouse that cause which was most agreeable to the publick weal, and by that means hinder a sedition. Addison. Prior.

As in senates so in schools,
Majerity of voices rules.

Decent executions keep the world in awe; for that reason the majority of mankind ought to be hanged every year. Arbuthnot.

3. [from majores, Lat.] Ancestry.

Of evil parents an evil generation, a posterity not unlike their majority; of mischievous progenitors, a venomous and destructive progeny. Brown.

4. Foll age; end of minority.

During the infancy of Henry the IIId, the barons were troubled in expelling the French: but this prince was no sooner come to his majority, but the barons raised a cruel war against him. Davies.

5. First rank. Obsolete.

Douglas, whose high deeds,

Whose hot incursions, and great name in arms,
Holds from all soldiers chief majority,
And military title capital.

6. The office of a major.
MAIZE, or Indian Wheat. n. s.

Shakspeare.

The whole maize plant has the appearance of a reed. This plant is propagated in England only as a curiosity, but in America it is the principal support of the inhabitants, and consequently propagated with great care. Miller. Maize affords a very strong nourishment, but more viscous than wheat. Arbuthnot.

To MAKE. V. a. [macan, Saxon; mechen, German; maken, Dutch.]

Thy making, while the Maker gave thee being? Milton.

2. To form of materials.

He fashioned it with a graving tool, after he had made it a molton calf. Exodus.

God hath made of one blood all nations of men.
Acts.

We have no other measure, save one of the moon, but are artificially made out of these by compounding or dividing them. Holder. 3. To compose: as, parts, materials, or ingredients.

One of my fellows had the speed of him; Who, almost dead for breath, had scarcely more Than would make up his message. Shaksp.

The heav'n, the air, the earth, and boundless

sea,

Make but one temple for the deity.

Waller.

A pint of salt of tartar, exposed unto a moist air, will make more liquor than the former measure will contain. Brown.

4. To form by art what is not natural.

There lavish nature, in her best attire, Pours forth sweet odours, and alluring sights; And art with her contending, doth aspire T'excel the natural with made delights. Spens. 5. To produce or effect as the agent.

If I suspect without cause, why then make sport at me; then let me be your jest.

Shaksp

When their hearts were merry they said, Call for Sampson, that he may make us sport.

Judges.

Give unto Solomon a perfect heart to build the palace for the which I have made provision. 1 Chronicles.

Thou hast set signs and wonders in the land of Egypt, and hast made thee a name. Jeremiah. Joshua made peace, and made a league with them. Joshua. Both combine

To make their greatness by the fall of man. Dryd. Egypt, mad with superstition grown, Makes gods of monsters. Tate's Juvenal. 6. To produce as a cause.

Wealth maketh many friends; but the poor is separated from his neighbour. Proverbs. A man's gift maketh room for him, and bringeth him before great men. Proverbs.

The child taught to believe any occurrence to be a good or evil omen, or any day of the week lucky, hath a wide inroad made upon the soundness of his understanding.

Watts,

7. To do; to perform; to practise; to use in action.

Though she appear honest to me, yet in other places she enlargeth her mirth so far, that there is shrewd construction made of her. Shaksp She made haste, and let down her pitcher. Gen. We made prayer unto our God. Nehemiah. He shall make a speedy riddance of all in the land. Zephaniab.

Luke.

They all began to make excuse. It hath pleased them of Macedonia and Achia to make a certain contribution for the poor.

Romans.

All the actions of his life were ripped up and surveyed, and all malicious glosses made upon all he had said, and all he had done. Clarendon. Says Carneades, since neither you nor I love repetitions, I shall not now make any of what else was urged against Themistius. Boyle.

The Phoenicians made claim to this man as theirs, and attributed to him the invention of letters. Hale

What hope, O Pantheus! whither can we run? Where make a stand? and what may yet be done? Dryden. While merchants make long voyages by sea To get estates, he cuts a shorter way. Dryden. To what end did Ulysses make that journey? Æneas undertook it by the commandment of his father's ghost. Dryden.

He that will make a good use of any part of his life, must allow a large portion of it to recreation. Locie.

Make some request, and I, Whate'er it be, with that request comply.

Addison.

Were it permitted, he should make the tour of the whole system of the sun. Arbuth. and Popt. 8. To cause to have any quality.

She may give so much credit to her own laws, as to make their sentence weightier than any bare and naked conceit to the contrary. Hooker. I will make your cities waste. Leviticus. Her husband hath utterly made them void on the day he heard them. Numbers. When he had made a convenient room, he set it in a wall, and made it fast with iron.

Wisdom of Solomon.

He made the water wine.

John.

He was the more inflamed with the desire of battle with Waller to make even all accounts. Clarendon.

I bred you up to arms, rais'd you to power, Permitted you to fight for this usurper; All to make sure the vengeance of this day, Which even this day has ruin'd.

Dryden. In respect of actions within the reach of such a power in him, a man secms as free as it is possible for freedom to make him. Locke. 9. To bring into any state or condition. I have made thee a god to Pharaoh. Exodus. Joseph made ready his charriot, and went up to meet Israel. Genesis.

Who made thee a prince and a judge over us?
Exodus.

Ye have troubled me to make me stink among the inhabitants. Genesis. He made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant. Philippians.

the more.

He should be made manifest to Israel. bn. Though I be free from all men, yet have I made myself servant unto all, that I might gain 1 Corinthians. He hath made me a by-word of the people. Job. Mate ye him drunken; for he magnified himself against the Lord. Jeremiah. Joseph was not willing to make her a publick example. Mattber.

By the assistance of this faculty we have all those ideas in our understandings, which, though we do not actually contemplate, yet we can bring in sight, and make appear again, and be the objects of our thoughts. Locke.

The Lacedemonians trained up their children to hate drankenness by bringing a drunken man into their company, and shewing them what a beast he made of himself.

Watts.

He may ask this civil question,-Friend! What dost thou make a shipboard? to what end? Dryden. Gomez; what mak'st thou here with a whole brotherhood of city-bailiffs? Dryden. 17. To raise as profit from any thing. He's in for a commodity of brown pepper; of which he made five marks ready money. Shaks. Did i make a gain of you by any of them I sent? 2 Corinthians. If Auletes, a negligent prince, made so much, what must now the Romans make, who govern it so wisely? Arbuthnot,

It it is meant of the value of the purchase, it was very high? it being hardly possible to make, so much of land, unless it was reckoned at a very low price. Arbuthnot. 18. To reach; to tend to; to arrive at : a kind of sea term.

Acosta recordeth, they that sail in the middle can make no land of either side.

Brown.

I've made the port already, And laugh securely at the lazy storm. Dryden. They ply their shatter'd oars, To nearest land, and make the Libyan shoars. Dryden,

Did I but purpose to embark with thee, While gentle zephyrs play in prosp'rous gales; But would forsake the ship, and make the shoår, When the winds whistle, and the tempests roar

19. To gain.

Prior.

The wind came about, and settled in the west for many days, so as we could make little or no way. Bacon. I have made way To some Philistian lords, with whom they treat. Milton,

Now mark a little why Virgil is so much con cerned to make this marriage; it was to make way for the divorce which he intended after Dryden.

wards.

20. To force; to gain by force.
Rugged rocks are interpos'd in vain;
He makes his way o'er mountains, and contemns
Unruly torrents and unforded streams. Dryden.

The stone wall which divides China from Tartary, is reckoned nine hundred miles long, running over rocks, and making way for rivers through mighty arches." Temple.

21. To exhibit.

When thou makest a dinner, call not thy friends but the poor.

22. To pay; to give.

Luke.

He shall make amends for the harm that he hath done.

23. To put; to place.

Leviticus.

You must make a great difference between Hercules's labours by land, and Jason's voyage by sea for the golden fleece.

24. To turn to some use.

25.

Whate'er they catch,

Their fury makes an instrument of war.

Bacon

Dryden.

To incline to; to dispose to. It is not requisite they should destroy our reason, that is, to make us rely on the strength of nature, when she is least able to relieve us.

26. To effect as an argument.

Brown.

Seeing they judge this to make nothing in the world for them. Hooker,

You conceive you have no more to do than having found the principal word in a concord ance, introduce as much of the verse as will serve your turn, though in reality it makes nothing for Swift,

you.

I'll find about the making of the bed. Shaksp. They mow fern green, and burning of them to ashes, make the ashes up into balls with a little Mortimer.

water.

31. To MAKE away. To kill; to destroy.

He will not let slip any advantage to make away him whose just title, ennobled by courage and goodness, may one day shake the seat of a never-secure tyranny. Sidney.

Clarence was, by practice of evil persons about the king his brother, called thence away, and soon after, by sinister means, was clean made away. Spenser on Ireland.

He may have a likely guess,

How these were they that made away his broShakspeare.

ther.

Trajan would say of the vain jealousy of princes that seek to make away those that aspire to their succession, that there was never king that did put to death his successor. Bacon.

My mother I slew at my very birth, and since have made away two of her brothers, and haply to make way for the purposes of others against myself.

Hayward.

Give poets leave to make themselves away.
Roscommon.

What multitude of infants have been made away by those who brought them into the world! Addison.

32. TO MAKE away, To transfer

Debtors,

When they never mean to pay, To some friend make all away.

Waller.

33. TO MAKE account. To reckon; to

believe.

Dunciad.

36. TO MAKE goed. To maintain; to defend; to justify.

The grand master, guarded with a company of most valiant knights, drove them cut again by force, and made good the place. Knolles.

When he comes to make good his confident undertaking, he is fain to say things that agree yery little with one another. Boyle.

I'll either die, or I'll make good the place.

As for this other argument, that by pursuing Dryden. one single theme they gain an advantage to express, and work up, the passions, I wish any example he could bring from them could make it good, Dryden.

Locke.

I will add what the same author subjoins to make good his foregoing remark. 37. TO MAKE good. To fulfil; to accomplish.

This letter doth make good the friar's words.

Shakspeare. 38. To MAKE light of. To consider as of no consequence.

They made light of it, and went their ways. Mattberv. 39. TO MAKE love. To court; to play the gallant.

How happy each of the sexes would be, if there was a window in the breast of every one that makes or receives love. Addison.

40.

41.

To MAKE merry; To feast; to par

take of an entertainment.

A hundred pound or two, to make merry withal? Shakspeare. The king went to Latham, to make merry with his mother and the earl. Bacon's Henry VII.

A gentleman and his wife will ride to make merry with his neighbour, and after a day those two go to a third; in which progress they encrease like snow-balls, till through their burthensome weight they break. Carew.

TO MAKE much of. To cherish; to foster.

The king hearing of their adventure, suddenly falls to take pride in making much of them, extolling them with infinite praises. Sidney.

The bird is dead

That we have made so much on! Shakspeare. It is good discretion not to make too much of any man at the first. Bacon's Essays. The easy and the lazy make much of the gout; and yet making much of themselves too, they take care to carry it presently to bed, and keep it Temple. 42. TO MAKE of. What to make of, is, how to understand.

warm.

That they should have knowledge of the languages and affairs of those that lie at such a distance from them, was a thing we could not tell what to make of. Bacon.

I past the summer here at Nimmeguen, without the least remembrance of what had hap pened to me in the spring, till about the end of September, and then I began to feel a pain I knew not what to make of, in the same joint of my other foot. There is another statue in brass of Apollo, Temple. with a modern inscription on the pedestal, which I know not what to make of. Addison,

it.

I desired he would let me see his book: he did so, smiling: I could not make any thing of Tatler. Upon one side were huge pieces of iron, cut into strange figures, which we knew not what to make of Swift. 43. TO MAKE of. To produce from; to

effect.