Main vs Drain - What's the difference?

main | drain | Related terms |

Main is a related term of drain.

As nouns the difference between main and drain

is that main is while drain is a conduit allowing liquid to flow out of an otherwise contained volume.

As a verb drain is

to lose liquid.

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 ----

drain

English

Noun

(en noun)

A conduit allowing liquid to flow out of an otherwise contained volume.

* {{quote-magazine, date=2013-03, volume=101, issue=2, page=114, magazine=(American Scientist)

, author=Frank Fish, George Lauder , title= Not Just Going with the Flow , passage=An extreme version of vorticity is a vortex . The vortex is a spinning, cyclonic mass of fluid, which can be observed in the rotation of water going down a drain , as well as in smoke rings, tornados and hurricanes.}}

An access point or conduit for rainwater that drains directly downstream in a (drainage) basin without going through sewers or water treatment in order to prevent or belay floods.

Something consuming resources and providing nothing in return.

(label) An act of urination.

(label) The name of one terminal of a field effect transistor (FET).

Derived terms

* circle the drain * down the drain * drain fly

Verb

(en verb)

To lose liquid.

The clogged sink drained slowly.

To flow gradually.

The water of low ground drains off.

(ergative) To cause liquid to flow out of.

Please drain the sink. It's full of dirty water.

(ergative) To convert a perennially wet place into a dry one.

They had to drain the swampy land before the parking lot could be built.

To deplete of energy or resources.

The stress of this job is really draining me.

To draw off by degrees; to cause to flow gradually out or off; hence, to exhaust.

* Francis Bacon

Fountains drain the water from the ground adjacent.

* Motley

But it was not alone that he drained their treasure and hampered their industry.

(obsolete) To filter.

* Francis Bacon

Salt water, drained through twenty vessels of earth, hath become fresh.

(pinball) To fall off the bottom of the playfield.

* 1990 , Steven A. Schwartz, Compute's Nintendo Secrets

When a ball finally drains , it's gulped down by a giant gator beneath the set of flippers.

Derived terms

* drainage * drain the lizard (vulgar)