High vs Main - What's the difference?
high | main | Synonyms |
Elevated in position or status; above many things.
* , chapter=4
, title= * {{quote-book, year=1922, author=(Ben Travers), title=(A Cuckoo in the Nest)
, chapter=1 Tall, lofty, at a great distance above the ground (at high altitude).
* {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-07, author=David Simpson
, volume=188, issue=26, page=36, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly)
, title= (figuratively) Noble, especially of motives, intentions, etc.
(slang) Under the psychological effects of a mood-affecting drug, especially marijuana, or (less common) alcohol.
Of a quantity or value, great or large.
* {{quote-magazine, year=2013, month=July-August, author=
, title= (acoustics) Of greater frequency, i.e. with more rapid wave oscillations.
(of a, body of water) With tall waves.
*
(of meat, especially venison) Strong-scented; slightly tainted/spoiled; beginning to decompose.
Of great strength, force, importance, etc.; mighty; powerful; sometimes, triumphant; victorious; majestic, etc.
* Bible, Psalms lxxxix. 13
* Dryden
* Thackeray
Arrogant; lofty; boastful; proud.
* Bible, Proverbs xxi. 4
* Clarendon
Very abstract; difficult to comprehend or surmount.
* Shakespeare
* Wordsworth
(phonetics) Made with a high position of some part of the tongue in relation to the palate.
Possessing a characteristic quality in a supreme or superior degree.
* Spenser
* Baker
In or to an elevated position.
In or at a great value.
In a pitch of great frequency.
A period of euphoria, from excitement or from an intake of drugs.
* 2013 , Daniel Taylor, Chelsea's Branislav Ivanovic climbs highest to sink Benfica'' (in ''The Guardian , 15 May 2013)[http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2013/may/15/benfica-chelsea-europa-league]
A drug that gives such a high.
* {{quote-magazine, date=2013-08-10, volume=408, issue=8848, magazine=(The Economist)
, title= (informal) A large area of elevated atmospheric pressure; an anticyclone.
The maximum atmospheric temperature recorded at a particular location, especially during one 24-hour period.
An elevated place; a superior region; a height; the sky; heaven.
(card games) The highest card dealt or drawn.
(label) Great in size or degree; vast; strong; powerful; important.
* (Samuel Daniel) (1562-1619)
Principal; prime; chief; leading; of chief or principal importance.
* (John Tillotson) (1630-1694)
* , chapter=7
, title= *{{quote-book, year=1935, author=
, title=Death on the Centre Court, chapter=5
, passage=By one o'clock the place was choc-a-bloc. […] The restaurant was packed, and the promenade between the two main courts and the subsidiary courts was thronged with healthy-looking youngish people, drawn to the Mecca of tennis from all parts of the country.}}
Principal or chief in size or extent; largest; consisting of the largest part; most important by reason or size or strength.
* (John Milton) (1608-1674)
* {{quote-magazine, date=2013-08-03, volume=408, issue=8847, magazine=(The Economist)
, title= Full; undivided; sheer (of strength, force etc.).
* 1817 , (Walter Scott), , XII:
(label) Belonging to or connected with the principal mast in a vessel.
(label) Big; angry.
Very; very much; greatly; mightily; extremely; exceedingly.
* 1799 , Samuel Foote, The works of Samuel Foote :
* 1840 , Richard Brinsley Sheridan, Leigh Hunt, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, The dramatic works of Richard Brinsley Sheridan :
* Spenser
That which is chief or principal; the chief or main portion; the gross; the bulk; the greater part.
* Francis Bacon
* 1858 , Humphrey Prideaux, James Talboys Wheeler, An historical connection of the Old and New Testaments :
* Francis Bacon
* 1624 , John Smith, Generall Historie , in Kupperman 1988, page 90:
* 1624 , John Donne, Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions, and severall steps in my Sicknes (Meditation XVII):
* 1851 , Herman Melville, Moby-Dick :
* Dryden
A large pipe or cable providing utility service to a building or area, such as water main or electric main.
(label) The mainsail.
A hand or match in a game of dice.
A stake played for at dice.
* Shakespeare, The First Park of King Henry IV
The largest throw in a match at dice; a throw at dice within given limits, as in the game of hazard.
A match at cockfighting.
* Thackeray
A main-hamper, or fruit basket.
In obsolete terms the difference between high and main
is that high is to rise while main is great in size or degree; vast; strong; powerful; important.As a verb high
is to rise.As a proper noun Main is
a river in southern Germany, flowing from Bavaria to the Rhine.high
English
(wikipedia high)Etymology 1
From (etyl) . Related to (l).Etymology 2
From (etyl) high, heigh, heih, from (etyl) .Alternative forms
* hi (informal)Adjective
(er)Mr. Pratt's Patients, passage=I told him about everything I could think of; and what I couldn't think of he did. He asked about six questions during my yarn, but every question had a point to it. At the end he bowed and thanked me once more. As a thanker he was main-truck high ; I never see anybody so polite.}}
citation, passage=She was like a Beardsley Salome , he had said. And indeed she had the narrow eyes and the high cheekbone of that creature, and as nearly the sinuosity as is compatible with human symmetry. His wooing had been brief but incisive.}}
Fantasy of navigation, passage=Like most human activities, ballooning has sponsored heroes and hucksters and a good deal in between. For every dedicated scientist patiently recording atmospheric pressure and wind speed while shivering at high altitudes, there is a carnival barker with a bevy of pretty girls willing to dangle from a basket or parachute down to earth.}}
Fenella Saunders, magazine=(American Scientist)
Tiny Lenses See the Big Picture, passage=The single-imaging optic of the mammalian eye offers some distinct visual advantages. Such lenses can take in photons from a wide range of angles, increasing light sensitivity. They also have high spatial resolution, resolving incoming images in minute detail.}}
- Epicures do not cook game before it is high .
- a high''' wind; '''high passions
- Strong is thy hand, and high is thy right hand.
- Can heavenly minds such high resentment show?
- with rather a high manner
- An high look and a proud heart is sin.
- His forces, after all the high discourses, amounted really but to eighteen hundred foot.
- to hear and answer such high things
- Plain living and high thinking are no more.
- high''' (i.e. intense) heat; '''high''' (i.e. full or quite) noon; '''high''' (i.e. rich or spicy) seasoning; '''high''' (i.e. complete) pleasure; '''high''' (i.e. deep or vivid) colour; '''high (i.e. extensive, thorough) scholarship
- High time it is this war now ended were.
- High sauces and spices are fetched from the Indies.
Antonyms
* lowDerived terms
* at the high port * fly high * get high * high altar * high as a kite * high and dry * high and low * high and mighty * high-beam * high blood pressure * high-born * high C * high card * high chair * high-class * high concept * high cotton * high country * high court * high-definition * high-density * high-end * high-energy * high explosive * high fantasy * high fashion * high fidelity * high five/high-five * high-frequency * High German * high-handed * high-hanging * high-hat * high heels * high hopes/have high hopes * high horse/on one's high horse * high island * high jinks * high jump * high-level * high line * high-maintenance * High Mass * high-minded * high-mindedly * high nelly * high-octane * high on the hog * high-pitch * high-pitched * high-powered * high pressure/high-pressure * high priest * high profile * high-ranking * high relief * high-rise * high-risk * high road * high roller * high school * high sea * high season * high-sounding * high-speed * high-spirited * high spirits * high-stick * high street * high-strung * high tackle * high tea * high-tech * high tension * high-test * high tide * high time * high-toned * high touch * high treason * high water * high yaller * highfalutin * highlight * highly * highness/Highness * highway * in high dudgeon * junior high * knee-high * Mile High Club * Most High * on high * sky-high * ultra-high * thigh-high * waist-high (high)See also
* mightyAdverb
(er)- How high above land did you fly?
- Costs have grown higher this year again.
- I certainly can't sing that high .
Usage notes
* The adverb high' and the adverb ' highly shouldn't be confused. *: He hung the picture high on the wall. *: ''As a politician, he isn't esteemed too highly .Noun
(en noun)- They will have to reflect on a seventh successive defeat in a European final while Chelsea try to make sense of an eccentric season rife with controversy and bad feeling but once again one finishing on an exhilarating high .
A new prescription, passage=No sooner has a [synthetic] drug been blacklisted than chemists adjust their recipe and start churning out a subtly different one. These “legal highs ” are sold for the few months it takes the authorities to identify and ban them, and then the cycle begins again.}}
See also
* crashEtymology 3
See hie.Statistics
* 1000 English basic wordsmain
English
Etymology 1
From (etyl) (m), (m), (m), partly from (etyl) . More at (may).Adjective
(-)The Mirror and the Lamp, passage=With some of it on the south and more of it on the north of the great main thoroughfare that connects Aldgate and the East India Docks, St. Bede's at this period of its history was perhaps the poorest and most miserable parish in the East End of London.}}
George Goodchild
Yesterday’s fuel, passage=The dawn of the oil age was fairly recent. Although the stuff was used to waterproof boats in the Middle East 6,000 years ago, extracting it in earnest began only in 1859 after an oil strike in Pennsylvania.
Derived terms
* main drag * main roadAdverb
(en adverb)Etymology 2
From (etyl) , later also taking senses from the adjective.Noun
(en noun)Quotations
* (English Citations of "main")Derived terms
{{der3, (large pipe or cable) gas main, mains (qualifier), water main , in the main , main brace , main drag , maincrop , mainframe , mainland , mainline, main line , mainmast , mainplane , mainsail , mainsheet , mainspring , mainstreet, main street , maintop , maintopmast}}Etymology 3
; compare (manual).Noun
(en noun)- (Prior)
- (Thackeray)
- (Ainsworth)