mainstay
(ˈmeɪnsteɪ)
[See main a. 8, 10.]
1. Naut. The stay which extends from the main-top to the foot of the foremast.
| 1485 Naval Acc. Hen. VII (1896) 37 Cablettes for the mayne stay. 1626 Capt. Smith Accid. Yng. Seamen 14 The tacklings are the fore stay, the maine stay. 1709 Lond. Gaz. No. 4521/2 Having..our Shrouds and Back-stays cut to pieces; as also our Main and False-stay. |
b. attrib.: mainstaysail, a storm-sail set on the mainstay.
| 1742 Woodroofe in Hanway's Trav. (1762) I. ii. xxiii. 100 We furled the foresail, and lay to under a mainstaysail. 1867 Smyth Sailor's Word-bk., Main-staysail. |
2. Chief support; that on which one mainly relies.
| 1787 Jefferson Writ. (1859) II. 163 The points of contact and connection with this country, which I consider as our surest mainstay under every event. 1839–40 W. Irving Wolfert's R. (1855) 207 This maxim, which has been pretty much my mainstay throughout life. 1861 Hughes Tom Brown at Oxf. iv. (1889) 30 The host..was one of the main⁓stays of the College boat-club. 1865 Tylor Early Hist. Man. vii. 150 Direct record is the mainstay of History. 1867 Freeman Norm. Conq. (1876) I. vi. 458 The Norman Duke was the mainstay of the French kingdom. |