in the main

Hello, you have come here looking for the meaning of the word in the main. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word in the main, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say in the main in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word in the main you have here. The definition of the word in the main will help you to be more precise and correct when speaking or writing your texts. Knowing the definition ofin the main, as well as those of other words, enriches your vocabulary and provides you with more and better linguistic resources.

English

Alternative forms

Prepositional phrase

in the main

  1. Principally; on the whole; for the most part.
    • 1814 July, [Jane Austen], chapter I, in Mansfield Park: , volume I, London: T Egerton, , →OCLC, page 8:
      […] I entirely agree with you in the main as to the propriety of doing everything one could by way of providing for a child one had in a manner taken into one's own hands; […]
    • 1869 August, Charles Dickens, “On Mr. Fechter's Acting”, in The Atlantic Monthly:
      Mr. Fechter has been in the main more accustomed to speak French than to speak English.
    • 1914 June, James Joyce, “The Dead”, in Dubliners, London: Grant Richards, →OCLC:
      "A new generation is growing up in our midst . . . and its enthusiasm, even when it is misdirected, is, I believe, in the main sincere."
    • 2011 February 28, John Cloud, “Sex Addiction: A Disease or a Convenient Excuse?”, in Time, retrieved 13 August 2013:
      Bill Clinton's philandering was regarded as a moral failing or a joke — but not, in the main, as an illness.
    • 2023 November 15, Christian Wolmar, “Ministers should carry the can for ticket office fiasco”, in RAIL, number 996, page 47:
      Now, I hold no candle for the train operators, and I think that in the main they have been far too craven about any government proposals. But in this instance, they have been badly traduced, led up the hill, and then chucked back down it.

Synonyms

References

Wikious
Boobota
Sagapedia