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Webster 1913 Edition


amain

a-main′

,
Verb.
I.
(Naut.)
To lower the topsail, in token of surrender; to yield.

Webster 1828 Edition


Amain

AMA'IN

, adv.
With force, strength or violence; violently; furiously; suddenly; at once.
What, when we fled amain.
Let go amain, in seamen's language or strike amain, is to let fall or lower at once.

Definition 2024


amain

amain

English

Pronunciation

  • (UK) IPA(key): /əˈmeɪn/
  • Rhymes: -eɪn

Adverb

amain (comparative more amain, superlative most amain)

  1. (archaic) With full force; forcefully, violently. [from 16th c.]
    • 1596, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, VI.6:
      So likewise turnde the Prince upon the Knight, / And layd at him amaine with all his will and might.
    • Milton
      They on the hill, which were not yet come to blows, perceiving the fewness of their enemies, came down amain.
    • 1793, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Christabel, line 87
      They spurred amain, their steeds were white:
  2. (archaic) At full speed; in great haste. [from 16th c.]
    • Holinshed
      They fled amain.
    • Dante Gabriel Rosetti, Chimes, VII, lines 5-6
      The heavy rain it hurries amain
      And heaven and the hurricane.
  3. (Britain dialectal) Out of control.
    • 1790, Felling/Heworth, Errington:
      two waggons coming after me amain [...]
Translations

Etymology 2

French amener.

Verb

amain (third-person singular simple present amains, present participle amaining, simple past and past participle amained)

  1. (nautical) To lower the topsail, in token of surrender; to yield.

Anagrams


Norman

Etymology

Borrowing from Old Norse almanna (for everyone).

Adjective

amain m

  1. (Jersey) of easy use