mainstay
/ˈmeɪn.steɪ/
mainstay noun: a chief support.
Noun
mainstay (plural mainstays)
- A chief support.
- Agriculture is the mainstay of this country’s economy.
- At the other extreme, we have that true maid-of-all-work type, the 0-6-0, the mainstay of goods, shunting, and often of passenger work right from the earliest days to the present time.1945 November and December, H. C. Casserley, “Random Reflections on British Locomotive Types—1”, in Railway Magazine, page 319
- Someone or something that can be depended on to make a regular contribution.
- On the Bishops Stortford line, the crisis now seems to be over; the units designed for this service are the mainstay of the workings once again and although some of the inner suburban sets are still seen, very few L.T.S. Line units are noticeable.1963 January, “Motive power miscellany”, in Modern Railways, page 65
- Afternoon TV mainstays like Leila Benitez and Bobby Ledesma of Darigold Jamboree gradually gave way to teenage loveteams Vi and Bot and Guy and Pip who had legions of fans watching their shows and movies and listening to their records.2002, Pia B. Gutierrez, The changing face of the Filipino, page 35
- A stabilising rope from high on the mainmast to the base of the foremast.
mainstay meaning in Tamil, Marathi, Urdu and Malayalam
mainstay in Tamil
- முதன்மை அங்கம்
mainstay in Marathi
- a mainstay, cornerstone, or principal source of strength or support
- आधारस्तंभ ādhārastambha
mainstay in Urdu
- آس, آسرا, اہم حمایت, بنیادی سہارا
mainstay in Malayalam
- central figure, central component, centerpiece
- ആധാരം, മുഖ്യാധാരം, പ്രധാനമറുകാൽ, ഊന്നു്, പ്രധാനതാങ്ങ്, അക്ഷകീലം
More languagesFewer languages
- mainstay in Kannada
- ಪ್ರಧಾನ ಆಧಾರ, ಮೂಲಾಧಾರ, ಮುಖ್ಯಾಧಾರ, ಮೂಲಸ್ತಂಭ
Examples of mainstay in a sentence
- As with most other railways, freight revenue is the mainstay of the balance sheet.1959 November, J. N. Westwood, “The Railways of Canada”, in Trains Illustrated, page 555:
- Oil is the mainstay of Nigeria's economy.2000, Jedrzej George Frynas, Oil in Nigeria, →ISBN:
- Conventional radiography has a major role in, and remains the mainstay of, initial evaluation and follow-up of rheumatologic disease.2014, Marc C. Hochberg, Alan J. Silman, Josef S. Smolen, Rheumatology, →ISBN, page 307:
- The marina was a mainstay of the neighborhood, and Mr.2007 January 7, Alex Mindlin, “For a Shuttered Marina, Some Regret, Some Relief”, in The New York Times, archived from the original on 11...
Forms of mainstay
| plural | mainstays |
|---|
Origin of mainstay
From Middle English main stai, equivalent to main + stay (“rope”).
Questions about mainstay
- What does mainstay mean?
- Mainstay means a chief support.
- What is mainstay in Tamil?
- Mainstay in Tamil is முதன்மை அங்கம். See Mainstay meaning in Tamil.
- How do you use mainstay in a sentence?
- As with most other railways, freight revenue is the mainstay of the balance sheet.
- What part of speech is mainstay?
- Mainstay is a noun.
- How do you pronounce mainstay?
- Mainstay is pronounced /ˈmeɪn.steɪ/.
- What is the plural of mainstay?
- The plural of mainstay is mainstays.
Words near mainstay in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: mainstay (page history and authors); mainstay (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); आधारस्तंभ (Marathi) (page history and authors); mainstay (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); mainstay (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); mainstay (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-mainstay.wav.
Cite this entry: “mainstay.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/mainstay. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.