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Main vs Brain - What's the difference?

main | brain |

As nouns the difference between main and brain

is that main is strength; power; force; violent effort while brain is the control center of the central nervous system of an animal located in the skull which is responsible for perception, cognition, attention, memory, emotion, and action.

As an adjective main

is great in size or degree; vast; strong; powerful; important.

As an adverb main

is very; very much; greatly; mightily; extremely; exceedingly.

As a proper noun Main

is a river in southern Germany, flowing from Bavaria to the Rhine.

As a verb brain is

to dash out the brains of; to kill by smashing the skull.

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 ----

    brain

    English

    Noun

    (wikipedia brain) (en noun)
  • The control center of the central nervous system of an animal located in the skull which is responsible for perception, cognition, attention, memory, emotion, and action.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-07-19, author= Ian Sample
    • , volume=189, issue=6, page=34, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly) , title= Irregular bedtimes may affect children's brains , passage=Irregular bedtimes may disrupt healthy brain development in young children, according to a study of intelligence and sleeping habits.  ¶ Going to bed at a different time each night affected girls more than boys, but both fared worse on mental tasks than children who had a set bedtime, researchers found.}}
  • (informal) An intelligent person.
  • (UK, plurale tantum) A person who provides the intelligence required for something.
  • (in the plural) Intellect.
  • * 2008 Quaker Action (magazine) Rights trampled in rush to deport immigrant workers , Fall 2008, Vol. 89, No. 3, p. 8:
    • "We provided a lot of brains and a lot of heart to the response when it was needed," says Sandra Sanchez, director of AFSC's Immigrants' Voice Program in Des Moines.
  • By analogy with a human brain, the part of a machine or computer that performs calculations.
  • oral sex
  • * 2012 , (Mack Maine) featuring Turk and Mystikal, I'm On It
  • *:You said I got brain from your dame in the range
  • *:In the passing lane
  • *:But you really ain't got no proof

    • Synonyms

    * * See also * See also

    Derived terms

    * beat someone's brains out * brainbox * brain bucket * brain candy * braincase * brain cell * brainchild * brain coral * brain cramp * brain damage * brain dead * brain death * brain disease * brain disorder * brain doctor * brain drain * brain fag * brain farm * brain fever * brain fingerprinting * brain food * brain freeze * brainiac * brainish * brainless * brain mushroom * brainpan * brainpower * brain science * brainsick * brain stem / brainstem * brainstorm * brain sugar * brain surgeon * brain surgery * brain-teaser * brain truster * brain tumor / brain tumour * brainwash * brainwave * brainworker * brainy * forebrain * left brain * microbrain * no-brainer * on the brain * organic brain syndrome * pick someone's brain * rack one's brain or rack one's brains * right brain * split brain * water on the brain * yellow brain fungus

    See also

    *

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To dash out the brains of; to kill by smashing the skull.
  • (slang) To strike (someone) on the head.
  • (figurative) To destroy; to put an end to.
  • * Shakespeare
    • There thou mayst brain him.
  • * Shakespeare
    • It was the swift celerity of the death That brained my purpose.
  • To conceive in the mind; to understand.
  • * Shakespeare
    • 'Tis still a dream, or else such stuff as madmen / Tongue, and brain not.

    Quotations

    * (English Citations of "brain")

    Anagrams

    * (l) * (l) * (l), (l) * (l) ----