🍽️ The main dish ⛵ A ship's sail

main course

28 1.3

The main dish served after a starter and before dessert

noun
/meɪn kɔrs/

: plato principal

After the salad, we enjoyed the main course, which was a delicious roast chicken.
main course and dessert
appetizer and main course
main course dish

But we had to stop ourselves because the main courses are here.

Examples

A meal where the main course is a really good steak with assorted vegetables.

Blog text (15)
What's your main course today?

Punchline (1988)
And now, it's time for the main course.

In Other Words (2020)
Or save room for the main course?

Now You See Me 2 (2016)
And now for the main course:

Scooby-Doo (2002)
This is the main course.

Mercy Streets (2000)
Let's get to the main course.

Cinderella Man (2005)
Who's ready for the main course?

Scary Movie 2 (2001)
You have your starters, your main course, and your desserts.
As we were finishing the main course, a stocky man got up at the head table.

Fiction book (2001)

Synonyms

entree

vsmain course

34 4.0

The main dish of a meal served in a restaurant

is the principal and most substantial dish served in general meals

main

vsmain course

3 2.5

The largest or most important dish in a meal

refers to the same dish but with a fuller two word phrase

Antonyms

dessert

431 1.0

A sweet dish eaten at the end of a meal

appetizer

103 2.6

A small food or drink served before a main meal to make you hungry

How Substantial

main course

28 1.3

side dish

19 1.0

starter

9 1.9

a bite of

25 1.0

Surface Forms

main course singular

main courses plural

Morphology

main + course

The given meaning is a specialised nautical/historical sense where 'course' denotes a type of square sail on the mainmast, not the common senses ('dish', 'path', etc.). A B1 learner who knows the ordinary meanings of 'main' and 'course' would not infer 'a principal square sail', so the phrase is not compositionally transparent in this sense.

Etymology

Main course comes from the idea that a meal has several courses, and the main course was the largest dish served after the starter and before dessert. That's why it means the 'principal' dish of a meal.