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mainstay

UK/ˈmeɪn.steɪ/US/ˈmeɪn.steɪ/
nounC1Rare in speech; mostly a word you read · #13,089 of 15,258mostly written

Other forms: mainstays

A mainstay is the thing everything else depends on. The mainstay of the economy, remains the mainstay, a mainstay of the team.

The word is nautical: the mainstay is the great rope holding the mainmast forward, and losing it brings the mast down. That is why the figurative sense means not merely important but load-bearing.

Definitions of mainstay

  1. 1nounmainstayThe thing everything else depends on.C1

    “Fishing has long been the mainstay of the island's economy.”

mainstay is a support.

Where it comes from

Main plus stay, from the rope supporting the mainmast of a ship.

  1. Middle English

    main stai

  2. English, today

    mainstay

From Middle English main stai, equivalent to main + stay.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practise this word

mainstay in the wild

  • The album features cameos from longtime Goss collaborators Josh Homme and Josh Freese, as well as desert rock mainstay Dave Catching.

    Goon Moon

  • Fantasy has been a mainstay of fiction for centuries, but burgeoned in the late 1930s and early 1940s, spurred by authors such as C.

    Fantasy comics

  • Arcade Comics was a short-lived independent comic book company founded by former Image Comics mainstay Rob Liefeld and Jimmy Jay of Jay Company Comics in 2002.

    Arcade Comics

  • The small-boat inshore fishery was the economic mainstay of the area until the late 1800s when did men went work on the schooners operating from Grand Bank.

    Frenchman's Cove, Newfoundland and Labrador

  • The series was written by Jason Aaron, writing his first ongoing series starring Wolverine after writing several one-shots and limited series featuring the Marvel mainstay character.

    Wolverine: Weapon X

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.