max

Pluralmaxes

Formsmaxes, maxing, maxed

1. 1
   nouncolloquialcountable or uncountableabbreviationclipping

   Short for maximum.

   The oven's max is 500 degrees, which isn't hot enough for this pizza.

   The function reaches its max at x = 2 and falls off on either side.

   Note

   The clipping does the full word's work in informal settings, from an oven's highest setting to the greatest value of a function, and its plural is maxes. In darts, a max is a score of 180 with three darts. In careful writing, maximum is still the word to spell out.

2. 2
   verbtransitive or intransitive

   To reach the limit or the highest possible level, usually followed by out.

   Don't max out your credit card on things you don't really need.

   Engine power maxes out just before the needle hits the red line.

   Similarpeak

3. 3
   adverbcolloquial

   At the most; placed after an amount to set an upper limit on it.

   The drive to the airport takes forty minutes, max, if traffic is light.

   We can spend two hundred dollars max on the party.

   Similartops

4. 4
   adjectivecolloquial

   Greatest or highest possible; maximum.

   The ride was running at max speed when the power went out.

   Set the blender to max power and blend for thirty seconds.

   Similartop, full, peak

   Oppositeminimum, min

5. 5
   nouncolloquialusually singular

   An extreme or a great extent, usually in the phrase to the max.

   The team trained to the max all summer, and it showed in the first game.

   They decorated the house to the max for Halloween, with lights in every window.

   Similarlimit, extreme, hilt

6. 6
   verbcolloquialintransitive

   To relax; to take it easy.

   We spent the whole weekend maxing by the pool with our phones switched off.

   After finals, all I want to do is chill, max, and relax for a week.

   Similarrelax, chill, unwind, lounge

   Note

   The verb lives mostly in its -ing form, maxing, and it is informal enough to sound out of place outside casual talk. It points the opposite way from pushing to the limit, so the context has to show that someone maxing by the pool is unwinding rather than going all out.

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