mains

Pluralmains (some meanings)

1. 1
   nounBritishuncountable

   The public electrical power supply delivered to homes, especially through a connected network or grid.

   The technician checked whether the appliance was drawing power from the mains.

   During the outage, the hospital switched from the mains to its backup generators.

   Similargrid

   Note

   A British word that looks plural but behaves as a mass noun: you plug something into the mains, never into a main. Much of its work is done in front of other nouns, as in mains power, mains electricity and mains voltage, where it marks the grid supply as against a generator. Other utilities are usually named outright, as with the water and gas networks.

2. 2
   noununcountable

   The principal dish of a meal, typically following the appetizer.

   The waiter cleared away the starters before bringing out the mains.

   Several diners complained that their mains arrived lukewarm.

3. 3
   nounBritishuncountable

   A large-scale network of pipes or channels that delivers services such as water, gas, or sewerage to buildings.

   Engineers shut off the mains while they replaced a cracked section of pipe.

   The flooding began when the mains beneath the road ruptured overnight.

   Note

   Here the network carries water, gas or sewage rather than current, and the word usually sits in front of the utility like a label: mains gas, mains water. It earns its keep in contrasts. Mains gas is set against bottled gas, and a mains connection against a well. The same British, mass-noun grammar as the electricity supply applies.

4. 4
   noun

   Plural of main.

   Two gas mains run directly beneath this junction.

   The mains carry water from the reservoir down to the town.

   Note

   An ordinary count plural, and the one to reach for when the pipes or cables can be numbered: two gas mains, the water mains under a street. The same spelling also names the supply as a whole, as in the household electricity supply, where no number fits. The singular main covers more than pipes, from a gamer's chief character to the poetic high seas, and each of those senses forms its plural the same way.

5. 5
   noundialectalScotland

   The home farm belonging to and attached to a mansion or estate house.

   The estate's mains provided grain and dairy for the entire household.

   A tenant managed the mains while the family was away in the city.

   Note

   A Scottish estate word from a different root altogether, related to manse rather than to main. It usually appears tied to a place name. John Buchan's The Outgoing of the Tide (1902) has a girl attending the catechising "at the mains of Sker." Despite the final -s, it names a single farm: the home farm of the big house.

6. 6
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present of main.

   She mains a support character in competitive play.

   He always mains the tank in their ranked games.

   Note

   The verb form gamers use for a habit: she mains a healer, he mains the tank. It always takes an object, which is the character, side or equipment played most. The same spelling serves a slang clipping of mainline, meaning to inject a drug into a vein, so context matters. An obsolete verb also once meant turning a road into a main road.

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