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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
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English
Prepositional phrase
in the main
- Principally; on the whole; for the most part.
1814 May 9, [Jane Austen], chapter I, in Mansfield Park: , volume I, London: for 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.
1904–1907 (date written), James Joyce, “The Dead”, in Dubliners, London: Grant Richards, published June 1914, →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."
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.
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