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Main vs Blank - What's the difference?

main | blank |

As a noun main

is .

As a verb blank is

.

main

English

Etymology 1

From (etyl) (m), (m), (m), partly from (etyl) . More at (may).

Adjective

(-)
  • (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= 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.}}
  • *{{quote-book, year=1935, author= George Goodchild
    • , 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= 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.
  • 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.
    • Derived terms
    * main drag * main road

    Adverb

    (en adverb)
  • 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 :

    • Etymology 2

    From (etyl) , later also taking senses from the adjective.

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • * 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.
    • 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)
  • A hand or match in a game of dice.
    • (Prior)
    (Thackeray)
  • 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.
    • (Ainsworth)

    Statistics

    *

    Anagrams

    *

    External links

    * 1000 English basic words ----

    blank

    English

    Adjective

    (en-adj)
  • (archaic) White or pale; without colour.
  • * Milton
    • To the blank moon / Her office they prescribed.
  • Free from writing, printing, or marks; having an empty space to be filled in; as, blank paper; a blank check; a blank ballot.
  • * {{quote-news, year=2011
    • , date=December 27 , author=Mike Henson , title=Norwich 0 - 2 Tottenham , work=BBC Sport citation , page= , passage=Referee Michael Oliver failed to detect a foul in a crowded box and the Canaries escaped down the tunnel with the scoreline still blank .}}
  • (figurative) Lacking characteristics which give variety; uniform.
    • a blank''' desert; a '''blank''' wall; '''blank unconsciousness
  • Absolute; downright; unmixed; sheer.
    • blank terror
  • Without expression.
    • Failing to understand the question, he gave me a blank stare.
  • Utterly confounded or discomfited.
  • * Milton
    • Adam astonied stood, and blank .
  • Empty; void; without result; fruitless.
    • a blank day
  • Devoid of thoughts, memory, or inspiration. (rfex)

    • Descendants

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A cartridge that is designed to simulate the noise and smoke of real gunfire without actually firing a projectile.
  • An empty space; a void, as on a paper, or in one's memory.
  • * Jonathan Swift
    • I cannot write a paper full, I used to do; and yet I will not forgive a blank of half an inch from you.
  • * Hallam
    • From this time there ensues a long blank in the history of French legislation.
  • * George Eliot
    • I was ill. I can't tell how long — it was a blank .
  • A space to be filled in on a form or template.
  • A paper without marks or characters, or with space left for writing; a ballot, form, contract, etc. that has not yet been filled in.
  • * Palfrey
    • The freemen signified their approbation by an inscribed vote, and their dissent by a blank .
  • A lot by which nothing is gained; a ticket in a lottery on which no prize is indicated.
  • * Dryden
    • In Fortune's lottery lies / A heap of blanks , like this, for one small prize.
  • (archaic) A kind of base silver money, first coined in England by Henry V., and worth about 8 pence; also, a French coin of the seventeenth century, worth about 4 pence.
    • (Nares)
  • (engineering) A piece of metal prepared to be made into something by a further operation, as a coin, screw, nuts.
  • (dominoes) A piece or division of a piece, without spots; as, the double blank"; the six blank." In blank, with an essential portion to be supplied by another; as, to make out a check in blank.
  • The space character; the character resulting from pressing the space-bar on a keyboard.
  • The point aimed at in a target, marked with a white spot; hence, the object to which anything is directed.
  • * Shakespeare
    • Let me still remain / The true blank of thine eye.
  • Aim; shot; range.
  • * Shakespeare
    • I have stood within the blank of his displeasure / For my free speech.
  • (chemistry) A sample for a control experiment that does not contain any of the analyte of interest, in order to deliberately produce a non-detection to verify that a detection is distinguishable from it.

    • Synonyms

    * (sense, bullet that doesn't harm) blank cartridge, blank bullet

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To make void; to erase.
    • I blanked out my previous entry.
  • (slang) To ignore.
    • She blanked me for no reason.
  • To prevent from scoring, as in a sporting event.
    • The team was blanked .
  • To become blank.

    • Usage notes

    * Almost any sense of this can occur with (out). See (blank out).

    Derived terms

    * blank canvas * blank check * blank end * blankly * blankness * blank out * blank verse ----