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Maintenance
//ˈmeɪnt(ə)nəns// noun, slang
Definitions
Noun
- 1 Actions performed to keep some machine or system functioning or in service. uncountable, usually
"They are all preventable by proper maintenance, but non-safety critical maintenance has to be evaluated, so failures are an accepted penalty for keeping maintenance costs down."
- 2 activity involved in maintaining something in good working order wordnet
- 3 A tort and (in some jurisdictions) an offence committed when a third party who does not have a bona fide interest in a lawsuit provides help or acquires an interest to a litigant's lawsuit. uncountable, usually
- 4 the unauthorized interference in a legal action by a person having no interest in it (as by helping one party with money or otherwise to continue the action) so as to obstruct justice or promote unnecessary litigation or unsettle the peace of the community wordnet
- 5 Alimony, a periodical payment or a lump sum made or ordered to be made to a spouse after a divorce. UK, uncountable, usually
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- 6 the act of sustaining life by food or providing a means of subsistence wordnet
- 7 Child support. uncountable, usually
- 8 court-ordered support paid by one spouse to another after they are separated wordnet
- 9 Money required or spent to provide for the needs of a person or a family. uncountable, usually
"From Pond to Pond he roamed, from moor to moor; / Housing, with God's good help, by choice or chance: / And in this way he gained an honest maintenance."
- 10 means of maintenance of a family or group wordnet
- 11 The natural process which keeps an organism alive. uncountable, usually
- 12 Ellipsis of maintenance medicine. Philippines, abbreviation, alt-of, colloquial, ellipsis, uncountable, usually
- 13 Software updates that fix bugs and improve stability rather than adding new features. attributive, uncountable, usually
"a maintenance release; a maintenance version"
Etymology
From Middle English mayntenaunce, from Old French maintenance, from maintenir, from Latin manus tenēre (“to hold in the hand”). By surface analysis, maintain + -ance. Note that maintain has undergone a sound and spelling change, hence is spelt with -tain-, rather than the -ten- still found in maintenance.
See also for "maintenance"
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