main
- noun
- /meɪn/
- Archaic
- Sailing for adventure on the bounding main
Examples
-
The sailors navigated carefully across the vast expanse of the main during their journey.
-
So I suppose you just climbed aboard that yacht... ...hoisted the blue peter and set sail on the bounding main?
-
"How about the Spanish Main?"
Fiction book (1997) -
More than one sea captain had retired inland after a career on the bounding main.
Fiction book (1999) -
And you will be positively the most fearsome pirates in the Spanish Main.
-
"And here were built the long, low luggers that plowed the Spanish main."
-
They often set out to fish in the main, where the waves were the strongest.
-
The storm caused the ships to sway dangerously on the open main as the winds howled.
Synonyms
A very large area of salt water covering most of the Earth's surface
Idioms
Compounds
- Literature
The people and life of small towns, often seen as traditional and focused on money
- Specialized
A large underground pipe that carries dirty water from buildings to a treatment plant
- Specialized
A large set of spinning blades on a helicopter that lifts it into the air
- Specialized
A large cable or line that carries electricity from a power station to homes
A large city in central Germany that is an important banking and trade centre
- Specialized
The line of numbers in a square table from the top left to the bottom right
A strong front light on a car used when no other cars come because it can blind drivers
- Specialized
A vertical pipe in a building that carries water or gas to different floors
How Big
Surface Forms
Etymology
Main meaning the open sea comes from an old sense of main meaning 'great' or 'wide', so the main is the large, open ocean far from land.