English

Alternative forms

• manful

Adjective

mainful ‎(comparative more mainful, superlative most mainful)

1. (obsolete or archaic) powerful; mighty
   • 1844, The wars of Jehovah, in Heaven, earth and ****:

     [...] And others, the rebellious cast down / Upon them : thus the mainful main was isled / From the disruption'd heaven ; but the Lord / Present commands his saints [...]

   • 1866, Thomas Oswald Cockayne, Seinte Marherete the meiden ant martyr, in Old English:

     I Sorrow and leiks (bodys) sore I is health of souls. I But believe ye, I rode (advise) you, I on the loving God, I mighty and mainful I and full of every good, I who heareth them that to him clepe I and openeth heavens gates.

   • 1906, Clarkson College of Technology, Clarkson College of Technology Bulletin - Volume 3:

     [...] to make some nook of God's creation a little more fruitful, better, more worthy of God; to make some human hearts a little wiser, more manful, happier, more blessed, less accursed.

   • 2016, David C. Fowler, The Bible in Middle English Literature:

     Right as the mainful [mighty] moon doth rise / Ere thence the day-gleam drive all down, [...]