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Amain
Definitions
- 1 With all of one's might; mightily; forcefully, violently. archaic, literary
"And in beholding how he [the cyclops Polyphemus] fed and belked vp againe His bloody vittels at his mouth, and vttred out amayne The clottred gobbets mixt with wyne, I [Odysseus] thus ſurmyſde: like lot Hangs ouer my head now, and I muſt alſo go to pot."
- 2 At full speed; also, in great haste. archaic
"At length the Danes beeing aſſayled on eche ſide, both a front before, and on their backes behinde, oppreſſed as it were wyth multitude, they threwe downe theyr weapons and fled amain."
- 3 Out of control. British, dialectal
"The waggonway lay near the Windmill Hills and went down the north side of the hills to the Rivir Tine, and at the Coal steath [= staithe] Mathew Gray lived. I was about hauf way down the bank when thur was two Waggons Coming after me Amain [= broken loose and running away]."
- 4 Exceedingly; overmuch. obsolete
"Riches are mine, Fortune is in my hand; They whom I favour thrive in wealth amain, While Virtue, Valour, Wiſdom ſit in want."
- 1 with all your strength wordnet
- 2 at full speed; with great haste wordnet
- 1 To lower (the sail of a ship, particularly the topsail). obsolete, transitive
- 2 To decrease or reduce (something). figuratively, obsolete, transitive
- 3 To lower the topsail in token of surrender; to yield. intransitive, obsolete
Etymology
From a- (prefix with the sense ‘at; in; on; with’, used to show a state, condition, or manner) + main (“force, power, strength”). Main is derived from Middle English mayn (“strength”), from Old English mæġen (“strength”), from Proto-Germanic *maginą (“might, power, strength”), *maginaz (“strong”), from Proto-Indo-European *megʰ- (“to be able”).
Borrowed from Spanish amainar (“to reef a sail (take in part of a sail to adapt its size to the force of the wind); to abate, die down, subside; to ease off, let up; of a person: to calm down, control one’s anger”); further etymology uncertain, probably from a regional Italian (Naples) word (compare Italian ammainare (“to lower or reef (a flag, sail, etc.)”)), from Vulgar Latin *invagīnare (“to sheathe (a sword); to put away, stow”), from Latin in- (prefix meaning ‘in, inside, within’) + vāgīna (“scabbard, sheath; covering, holder; vagina”) (possibly ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *weh₂ǵ- (“to cover; sheath”)); this would make it a doublet of invaginate.
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