maintenance
(ˈmeɪntɪnəns)
Forms: 4–5 meyn-, meintenaunce, -ance, meyntynaunce, menteynaunce, 4–6 mayntenaunce, -ance, 5 mayntenanse, mayntnaunce, mantenans, 5–6 maynetenaunce, 6 maintaynance, main-, mayntenans, -tennance, -tennence, mantei(g)nance, 6–7 mantenance, 6–8 maintainance, 4– maintenance.
[a. F. maintenance, f. maintenir: see maintain v. and -ance. Cf. Pr. mantenensa, Sp. mantenencia, Pg. manten{cced}a, It. mantenenza.]
† 1. Bearing, deportment, demeanour, behaviour.
| c 1369 Chaucer Dethe Blaunche 834 She had so stedfaste countenaunce, So noble porte and meyntenaunce. 1430–40 Lydg. Bochas viii. (1494) D v b, Where there be summe that wrongly it werrey, Holde therageyne by frowarde maynte[n]aunce. 1579 Spenser Sheph. Cal. Sept. 169 For all their craft is in their countenaunce, They bene so graue and full of mayntenaunce. 1596 Shakes. 1 Hen. IV, v. iv. 22, I saw him hold Lord Percy at the point, With lustier maintenance then I did looke for Of such an vngrowne Warriour. |
2. The action of upholding or keeping in being (a cause, right, state of things, government, etc.); the state or fact of being upheld or sustained; † that which upholds, means of sustentation.
| 1413 Pilgr. Sowle (Caxton 1483) iv. xxxii. 81 Neither of them shalle be the lift hand to mayntenaunce of wrong. 1529 More Dyaloge i. Wks. 109/1 For the maintenaunce of theyr authorite. 1538 Starkey England i. i. 25 To apply and indeuur myselfe to the mayntennance and setting forward of the true commyn wele. 1548–9 (Mar.) Bk. Com. Prayer, Communion, The maintenaunce of Goddes true religion and vertue. 1570 Homilies ii. Agst. Rebellion iv. (1640) 302 So hath a frantick Religion need of such furious maintenances as is Rebellion. 1579 Lyly Euphues (Arb.) 111 Idlenesse is..ye sole maintenaunce of youthful affection. 1591 Spenser Teares of Muses 338 So every where they rule and tyrannize, For their usurped kingdomes maintenaunce. 1681 Addr. fr. Helstone in Lond. Gaz. No. 1629/7 Whatever we can do for and towards the Support, Preservation, and maintainance of the just Rights and Prerogative of Your Majesty. 1871 Earle Philol. Eng. Tongue §88 Where there is a central literature, there is a constant provision for the maintenance of uniformity even though words are changing their sense. |
3. The action of keeping in effective condition, in working order, in repair, etc.; the keeping up of (a building, light, institution, body of troops, etc.) by the supply of funds or needful provision; the state or fact of being so kept up; means or provision for keeping up. Freq. attrib.
| c 1460 Fortescue Abs. & Lim. Mon. vi. (1885) 120 It is necessarie that the kynge be alway riche, wich may not be withowt he haue revenues sufficiant for the yerely mayntenance of his estate. 1481–90 Howard Househ. Bks. (Roxb.) 149 For the mayntenanse of the lampe..spent xiiij. quartes of oyle iij.d. ob. 1546 Mem. Ripon (Surtees) III. 23 Certen landes belongynge..to the Maynetenaunce of divers and syndrye Chauntriez in the same Churche. 1587 Fleming Contn. Holinshed III. 1537/1 That which was doone..made an excellent rode or harborough for the time it continued, and had maintenance. 1611 Bible Transl. Pref. ¶2 Against Church-maintenance and allowance, in such sort, as the Embassadors and messengers of the great King of Kings should be furnished. 1616 Surfl. & Markh. Country Farm 10 Your House..will be..of greatest maintenance, preseruation, and safetie, if you enuiron it round about with water. 1665 Bunyan Holy Citie 250 Having thus shewed us this City..he now comes to shew us her Provision and Maintenance, wherewith she is kept in safety, life, peace and comfort. 1775 Burke Concil. Amer. Wks. III. 100 Secondly, that they had acted legally and laudably in their grants of money, and their maintenance of troops. 1844 H. H. Wilson Brit. India III. 407 A further sequestration was subsequently authorised, in order to ensure the maintenance of the contingent horse, which the Gaekwar was bound by treaty to keep up for the service of the British Government. 1861 M. Pattison Ess. (1889) I. 47 The maintenance and repair of the northern gate, Bishopsgate, was assigned to them. 1884 List of Subscribers (London & Globe Telephone Co.), In case of unsatisfactory service..send complaint in writing..to London and Globe Telephone and Maintenance Company, Limited. 1942 Aeronautics May 40/1 The public does not hear very much about the Maintenance Command of the Royal Air Force. 1957 Ann. Reg. 1956 67 A prolonged ban on overtime working by the maintenance men. 1958 Listener 23 Oct. 650/1 Maintenance engineers at London Airport vote unanimously to continue their strike. 1970 E. Afr. Standard (Nairobi) 23 Jan. 18/2 (Advt.), Applicants..should have at least five years' experience, either in a supervisory capacity or as a maintenance engineer in sole charge of a plant. 1974 Times 7 Mar. 1/1 Maintenance workers will be allowed into the pits during the weekend. |
† 4. The carrying on (of a war) by furnishing supplies. Obs.
| 1496–7 Act 12 Hen. VII, c. 12 §6 The seid xvme..shalbe..levyed and paied for mayntenance of the same Werre. 1543–4 Act 35 Hen. VIII, c. 12 Inestimable costes charges and expences..for the maintenaunce of his warres. |
† 5. The action of giving aid, countenance, or support to (a person in what he does). Obs.
| 13.. E.E. Allit. P. B. 186 For marryng of maryagez & mayntnaunce of schrewez. 1377 Langl. P. Pl. B. v. 253 Lentestow euere lordes for loue of her mayntenaunce? c 1425 Eng. Conq. Irel. 20 Al oure enemy..hath I-broght vnked folk vp-on vs, that the harme wich he had no power to don vs hym-self, throgh helpe of ham & mayntenaunce, the better myght brynge to end. 1592 Greene Upst. Courtier E, Sildome was there any pleas put in before that vpstart veluet breeches, for his maintaynance inuented strange controuersies. a 1600 Montgomerie Misc. Poems xxv. 14 And I sall be thy seruand, in sik sort To merit thy mantenance, if I may. |
6. The action of wrongfully aiding and abetting litigation; spec. sustentation of a suit or suitor at law by a party who has no interest in the proceedings or who acts from any improper motive. (Cf. maintain v. 2 d.)
| [1321–2 Rolls of Parlt. I. 398/2 Q'il voille enquerre coment {pbar} la mayntenaunce le dit Conte ele pert son Manoir.] 1389 in Eng. Gilds (1870) 39 Þei shullen makyn no meyntenaunce ne confideracie ageyn þe kyngis right ne þe comoun lawe. 1399 Rolls of Parlt. III. 452/2 Some men..have taken mych more by extorsion..and by mayntenance of quereles. c 1420 Lydg. Assembly of Gods 659 Hoordam, Bawdry, False Mayntenaunce, Treson, Abusion, & Pety Brybry. c 1430 Freemasonry 254 That for no mon, No fals mantenans he take hym apon. 1447 Rolls of Parlt. V. 130/1 By grete might, mayntenaunce, and other undue meones. 1460 Ibid. 374/2 In an action of mayntenaunce. 1467 in Eng. Gilds (1870) 400 Alle the attorners..truly to execute ther office as the lawe requirith w{supt}out mayntenaunce, or champertye, or conseilynge ther cliaunto{supr}s to vse eny fals accyons. 1591 Lambarde Archeion (1635) 127 That he shall not by himselfe, or by any other, commit Maintenance, or other thing, which may disturbe the course of the Common Law. 1628 Coke On Litt. 368 b, Maintenance..signifieth in Law, a taking in hand, bearing vp or vpholding of quarrels and sides, to the disturbance or hindrance of common right. 1787 Bentham Def. Usury xii. 118 Champerty is but a particular modification of this sin of Maintenance. 1836 Bingham's New Cases Comm. Pleas II. 639 If the Defendant was not privy to the publication of the libel, he was a stranger to the action brought against the Plaintiff, and in undertaking to indemnify the Plaintiff against the costs was guilty of maintenance. 1875 Poste Gaius iv. (ed. 2) 611 Unless the assignment savour of Maintenance, i.e. be made with the design of fomenting litigation. 1883 Law Rep., 11 Q.B.D. 1 Bradlaugh v. Newdegate... The action was for maintenance. 1886 Law Rep., 17 Q.B.D. 504 The action was brought to recover damages occasioned to the plaintiff by reason of the defendant's ‘maintenance’ of one Nailer in an action which he had brought against the plaintiff. 1901 Sir F. Pollock Law of Torts 321 The wrong of maintenance, or aiding a party in litigation without either interest in the suit, or lawful cause of kindred, affection, or charity for aiding him, is..akin to malicious prosecution and other abuses of legal process... Actions for maintenance are in modern times rare though possible. |
7. a. The action of providing (a person) with the requisites of life; the fact or state of being so provided. Also, that which supports or maintains a person with livelihood, means of subsistence; the amount provided for a person's livelihood.
| 1389 in Eng. Gilds (1870) 4 He schal ȝeue somwhat in maintenance of þe bretherhede. a 1400–50 Alexander 1179 Rather to thole Þe mayntenance of the Messedoyns & of þe meri Grekis, Þan þaim of Persy to pay. 1540 Act 32 Hen. VIII, c. 14 The nauy..is..the maintenaunce of many masters mariners and sea men. 1581 Mulcaster Positions xxxvii. (1887) 148 Will ye haue the multitude waxe, where the maintenance waines? 1591 Shakes. Two Gent. i. iii. 68 What maintenance he from his friends receiues, Like exhibition thou shalt haue from me. 1592 Babington Notes Genesis i. Wks. (1622) 6 The pride of some, who cannot abide to haue any..come neere them in any circumstance of life or maintenance. 1600 Hakluyt Voy. (1810) III. 555 This Maiz is the greatest maintenance which the Indian hath. 1612 Woodall Surg. Mate Wks. (1653) Ep. Salut. 2, I was forced for my maintenance to follow the practice of the cure of the Plague. 1645 Featly Dippers Dipt (1646) 133 Some lands, profits, and emoluments..assigned for the maintenance of the Ministry. c 1701 Cibber Love Makes a Man ii. i. 22 Enough to give him Books, and a moderate Maintainance. 1709 Swift Adv. Relig., They are not under a necessity of making learning their maintenance. 1732 Law Serious C. viii. (ed. 2) 114 The parish allowance to such people, is very seldom a comfortable maintenance. 1818 Cruise Digest (ed. 2) VI. 117 In case he should have any children by her, to provide for their maintenance. 1840 Macaulay Ess., Clive (1887) 560 The civil servants were clearly entitled to a maintenance out of the revenue. 1863 M. Howitt F. Bremer's Greece II. xxi. 297 The Greek convent-houses are chiefly houses of maintenance for poor men and women. |
b. separate maintenance: support given by a husband to a wife when the parties are separated. maintenance order: a court order, in the case of a broken marriage, compelling the husband to pay the wife a regular fixed sum for her maintenance.
| 1722 De Foe Col. Jack (1840) 211 She demanded a separate maintenance. 1777 Sheridan Sch. Scand. i. i, She has been the cause of six matches being broken off,..nine separate maintenances, and two divorces. 1803 G. Colman John Bull iv. 42 I'll settle a separate maintenance upon ould mother Brulgruddery [sc. his wife]. 1866 Act 29 & 30 Vict. c. 32 §1 It shall be lawful for the Court to make an order on the husband for payment to the wife during their joint lives of such monthly or weekly sums for her maintenance..as the Court may think reasonable. 1907 Act 7 Edw. VII c. 12 §1 The court may..make an order on the husband for payment to the wife..for her maintenance. 1920 Act 10 & 11 Geo. V c. 33 §10 The expression ‘maintenance order’ means an order other than an order of affiliation for the periodical payment of sums of money towards the maintenance of the wife or other dependants of the person against whom the order is made. 1960 M. Spark Bachelors vi. 88 But there's usually a question of maintenance orders. I distinctly recall his being described as a bachelor. 1971 Reader's Digest Family Guide to Law 265/2 In many cases a wife will be left, after a separation, with insufficient money for her own day-to-day expenses. Her need for maintenance will be even more urgent if she is taking care of any children of the marriage... She can apply to the local magistrates' court or to a divorce court for a maintenance order. 1973 Times 14 Mar. 20/4 To qualify for maintenance a wife does not have to ask for a divorce. |
c. The action of providing (a person) over a period of time with doses of a drug sufficient to maintain its effect on the body while usu. being less than the dose given initially; usu. attrib., as maintenance dose.
| 1936 Stedman Med. Dict. (ed. 13) 319/2 Maintenance dose, the dose given in a protracted case of illness, to keep the patient under the influence of the drug after this has been attained by the initial dosage. 1963 Brit. Pharmaceutical Codex 683 Dose [of propylthiouracil]. Controlling dose, 200 to 600 milligrams daily; maintenance dose, 50 to 200 milligrams daily. 1965 Jrnl. Amer. Med. Assoc. 23 Aug. 648/1 Addicts coming to a maintenance program usually fear that physicians will not prescribe enough medication. 1971 Nature 29 Jan. 290/2 The committee believes that the British system of maintenance, in which an addict is supplied with daily doses of heroin, and the methadone maintenance treatment,..both have their advantages and drawbacks. |
8. The act of supporting or upholding in speech or argument; assertion of the truth or validity of (an opinion, plea, tenet).
| 1533 More Debell. Salem Wks. 990/2 For herein see I none other shyft for this good man, but for the maintenance of his matter to say, that in the common law [etc.]. 1560 J. Daus tr. Sleidane's Comm. 22 b, The Duke..aunswereth, that it was never his intent to defende Luthers doctrine by his maintenaunce. 1562 Child-Marriages 195 This deponent did colourably declare (for the maintenaunce of his matter) that he had sondry witnesses. 1691 T. H[ale] Acc. New Invent. 29 What has been severally offered and asserted..in Maintenance of their different Conceptions touching the Evil now enquired into. 1875 H. R. Reynolds in Expositor I. 308 He could never have appealed, as he did, to the authority of Paul in maintenance of his own peculiar opinions. |
9. a. cap (or † hat) of maintenance: a kind of hat or cap formerly worn as a symbol of official dignity or high rank, or carried before a sovereign or a high dignitary in processions.
The sense of maintenance here is obscure. Cf. the app. equivalent cap of estate, cap of dignity (see cap n. 4 g). In the earliest example (c 1485) the hat of maintenance is worn by the members of the Holborn Quest. Afterwards the cap of maintenance is mentioned by contemporaries as having been given by the Pope thrice to Henry VII and once to Henry VIII; in 1551 it is referred to as one of the insignia of a prince. In the 17th c. and later it appears chiefly as borne, together with the sword, before the Lord Mayor, and before the Sovereign at his coronation. A kind of cap, with two points like horns behind, borne in the arms of certain families either as a charge or in the place of a wreath, is described by heralds as a ‘cap of maintenance’: cf. quot. 1700.
| c 1485 Digby Myst. (1882) v. 727 (Stage direct.) Here entrithe vj. Iorours in a sute gownyde with hoodes a-bowte her nec[kes], hattes of mayntenaunce ther-vpone. 1489 Wriothesley Chron. (1875) I. 2 A capp of mayntenance brought from Rome to the Kinge. 1551 Robinson tr. More's Utop. ii. (1895) 233–4 Nor the prince hymselfe is not knowen from the other..by a crown or diademe or cappe of maintenaunce. 1577–87 Holinshed Chron. III. 1122/1 They had two caps of maintenance likewise borne before them: whereof the earle of Arundell bare the one, and the earle of Shrewesburie the other. 1614 R. Tailor Hog hath lost Pearl iii. E 3 b, As if a females fauour could not be obteyn'd by any, but he that weares the Cap of maintenance. 1622 J. Taylor (Water P.) Very Merry Wherry-Ferry Voy. Wks. (1630) ii. 13/2 A Sword, a Cap of maintenance, a Mace..Are borne before the Maior, and Aldermen. 1632 Massinger City Madam iv. i, I see Lord Mayor written on his forehead; The Cap of Maintenance and Citie Sword Born up in state before him. 1639 Mayne City Match i. iii, Think, man, how it may In time..raise thee To the sword and cap of maintenance. 1656 in Jewitt & Hope Corporation Plate (1895) I. p. lxxviii, [Cromwell granted to Salisbury that the Sword⁓bearer should bear a sword and] weare a Cap of Mayntenance before the Maior of the said Citie for the tyme being. 1698 Fryer Acc. E. India & P. 358 A high Red Velvet Cap, plaited at Top like a Cap of Maintenance. 1700 Congreve Way of World iii. xviii, They [a pair of horns] may prove a cap of maintenance to you still. 1714 Mandeville Fab. Bees (1725) I. 177 If my lord mayor had nothing to defend himself but his great two-handed sword, the huge cap of maintenance, and his gilded mace. 1736 Drake Eboracum i. vi. 223 The sword-bearer hath a hat of maintenance, which he wears only on Christmas day,..and on the high days of solemnity. 1808 Scott Marm. iv. vii, His cap of maintenance was graced With the proud heron's plume. 1875 Stubbs Const. Hist. III. xx. 434 It became the rule for a duke to be created by the girding on of the sword, the bestowal of a golden rod, and the imposition of a cap of maintenance and circlet of gold. [Under Edw. III; but the document cited has per impositionem cappæ.] |
† b. jocularly (with allusion to sense 7). Obs.
| 1597 1st Pt. Return fr. Parnass. i. i. 389 Take us with thee; for wee muste provide us a poore capp of mantenance. |