mainly
Pronunciation
  • (British) IPA: /ˈmeɪnli/
Adverb

mainly (not comparable)

  1. (obsolete) Forcefully, vigorously. [13th-17th c.]
    • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Qveene. […], London: Printed [by John Wolfe] for VVilliam Ponsonbie, OCLC 960102938 ↗, book III, canto I:
      Mainly they all attonce vpon him laid, / And sore beset on euery side around {{...}
  2. (obsolete) Of the production of a sound: loudly, powerfully. [14th-19th c.]
    • 1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 31, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes, […], book II, printed at London: By Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], OCLC 946730821 ↗:
      But in the end, mainly crying out, he fell to raling and wringing his master, upbraiding him that he was not a true Philosopher […].
  3. (obsolete) To a great degree; very much. [15th-19th c.]
  4. Chiefly; for the most part. [from 17th c.]
Synonyms Translations


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