amaine

Adverb

amain (comparative more amain, superlative most amain)

1. (archaic, literary) With all of one's might; mightily; forcefully, violently.
   • And in beholding how he [the cyclops Polyphemus] fed and belked vp againe
     His bloody vittels at his mouth, and vttred out amayne
     The clottred gobbets mixt with wyne, I [Odysseus] thus ſurmyſde: like lot
     Hangs ouer my head now, and I muſt alſo go to pot.1567, Ovid, “The Fourteenth Booke”, in Arthur Golding, transl., The XV. Bookes of P. Ouidius Naso, Entytuled Metamorphosis, […], London: […] Willyam Seres […], →OCLC, folio 176, recto
2. (archaic) At full speed; also, in great haste.
   • At length the Danes beeing aſſayled on eche ſide, both a front before, and on their backes behinde, oppreſſed as it were wyth multitude, they threwe downe theyr weapons and fled amain.1577, Raphaell Holinshed, “The Historie of Scotlande, […]”, in The Firste Volume of the Chronicles of England, Scotlande, and Irelande […], volume I, London: […] [Henry Bynneman] for Iohn Hunne...
3. (UK, dialectal) Out of control.
   • The waggonway lay near the Windmill Hills and went down the north side of the hills to the Rivir Tine, and at the Coal steath [= staithe] Mathew Gray lived. I was about hauf way down the bank when thur was two Waggons Coming after me Amain [= broken loose and running away].1820s (date written), Anthony Errington, “Saving Men on the Waggonway”, in P. E. H. Hair, editor, Coals on Rails: Or The Reason of My Wrighting: The Autobiography of Anthony Errington, a Tyneside...
4. (obsolete) Exceedingly; overmuch.
   • Riches are mine, Fortune is in my hand;
     They whom I favour thrive in wealth amain,
     While Virtue, Valour, Wiſdom ſit in want.1671, John Milton, “The Second Book”, in Paradise Regain’d. A Poem. In IV Books. To which is Added, Samson Agonistes, London: […] J[ohn] M[acock] for John Starkey […], →OCLC, pages 50–51, lines...

See all 7 meanings of amain