The principal or most important spring in a piece of mechanism, especially the moving spring of a watch or clock or the spring in a gunlock which impels the hammer. The chief or most powerful motive; the efficient cause of action; as, the mainspring of action.

The stay extending from the foot of the foremast to the maintop.

TO place (a student) in regular school classes; -- used especially of mentally or physically handicapped children.

Placed in regular school classes; -- of the handicapped.

To swear falsely.

To hold or keep in any particular state or condition; to support; to sustain; to uphold; to keep up; not to suffer to fail or decline; as, to maintain a certain degree of heat in a furnace; to maintain a fence or a railroad; to maintain the digestive process or powers of the stomach; to maintain the fertility of soil; to maintain present reputation.

That may be maintained.

One who maintains.

One who, not being interested, maintains a cause depending between others, by furnishing money, etc., to either party.

The act of maintaining; sustenance; support; defense; vindication.

A worker, usually in an enterprise or apartment building, whose job is to repair damaged parts of a building or its fixtures, and sometimes to make improvements or other changes to the building.

Those persons in a business responsible for maintaining the physical plant in good condition.

The platform about the head of the mainmast in square-rigged vessels.

Of or pertaining to the genus Maia, or family Maiadeae.

Principal; chief.

Mistress.

Mastery; superiority; art. See Mastery.

Same as Maghet.

A headwaiter.

A large species of American grass of the genus Zea (Zea Mays), widely cultivated as a forage and food plant; Indian corn, commonly called corn. Also, its seed, growing on cobs, and used as food for men and animals.

A large European spider crab.

A shrubby tree (Hibiscus tiliaceus) widely distributed along tropical shores, which yields a light tough wood used for canoe outriggers and a fiber used for cordage and caulk; it is often cultivated for ornament.

Majestic.

Possessing or exhibiting majesty; of august dignity, stateliness, or imposing grandeur; lofty; noble; grand.

Majestic.

The quality or state of being majestic.

The dignity and authority of sovereign power; quality or state which inspires awe or reverence; grandeur; exalted dignity, whether proceeding from rank, character, or bearing; imposing loftiness; stateliness; -- usually applied to the rank and dignity of sovereigns.

A natural family comprising the spider crabs.

A kind of pottery, with opaque glazing and showy decoration, which reached its greatest perfection in Italy in the 16th century.

An officer next in rank above a captain and next below a lieutenant colonel; the lowest field officer.

The greater axis of a geometrical figure. the longest axis of an ellipse or ellipsoid, which passes through the two foci. See Focus, n., 2.

The natural diatonic scale, which has semitones between the third and fourth, and seventh and eighth notes, and whole tones between the other notes; the scale of the major mode, of which the third is major; also called major scale. See Scale, and Diatonic.

Any of the parts of speech of traditional grammar.

The most important league{2} in any sport (especially baseball); contrasted with minor league. Its teams are more competent, its members are paid more, and its games attract more interest and publicity, than those of a minor league.

Of or pertaining to a major league; as, major-league football rules.

A member of a major-league baseball team.

A nation powerful enough to influence events throughout the world.

That premise of a syllogism that contains the major term (which is the predicate of the conclusion). Contrasted to minor premise.

A suit of playing cards which has higher scoring value; specifically, either spades or hearts. Contrasted with a minor suit, being either diamonds or clubs.

That term of a syllogism which forms the predicate of the conclusion.

A man who has authority to act, within certain limits, as master of the house; a steward; also, a chief minister or officer.

A sports team that plays in a major league.

A small genus of herbs usually included in the genus Origanum.

The right of succession to property according to age; -- so termed in some of the countries of continental Europe.

To augment; to increase.

Increase; enlargement.

Of or pertaining to Majorca. A native or inhabitant of Majorca.

The quality or condition of being major or greater; superiority. The military rank of a major. The condition of being of full age, or authorized by law to manage one's own affairs.

The leader of the majority party in a legislature. Compare minority leader.

The rule or doctrine that the numerical majority{2} of an organized group can make decisions binding on the whole group; as, our club makes decisions by majority rule.. Contrasted with unanimous consent, or decision by a decree of a single person or small committee forming part of an organization.

The teams in the major leagues.

The office of major.

See Madjoun.

Capital letters, as found in manuscripts of the sixth century and earlier.

A capital letter; especially, one used in ancient manuscripts. See Majusculae.

Capable of being made.

A mountain in Nepal and Tibet, 27,824 feet high.

See Macaroon, 2.

To cause to exist; to bring into being; to form; to produce; to frame; to fashion; to create. To form of materials; to cause to exist in a certain form; to construct; to fabricate.

Structure, texture, constitution of parts; construction; shape; form.

To reveal; to disclose; as, the congressman made known his interest in the company only after he voted on the bill.

To leak.

A feigning to believe; make believe.

A feigning to believe, as in the play of children; a mere pretense; a fiction; an invention.

Feigned; insincere.

An object of ridicule; a butt.

A peacemaker.

The way in which the parts of anything are put together.

Active work of litle value, such as assignments given by teachers to students to keep them busy while the teacher performs other tasks, or chores performed to while away time; also called busywork.

One who excites contentions and quarrels.

Made.

Matchless.

One who makes, forms, or molds; a manufacturer; specifically, the Creator.

The final preparation and adjustments.

That with which one makes shift; a temporary expedient, with implication of inferiority to the more usual object or means.

That which is thrown into a scale to make weight; something of little account added to supply a deficiency or fill a gap.

A lemur. See Lemur.

The act of one who makes; workmanship; fabrication; construction; as, this is cloth of your own making; the making of peace or war was in his power.

A tool somewhat like a chisel with a groove in it, used by calkers of ships to finish the seams after the oakum has been driven in.

The act of bringing spirits to a certain degree of strength, called proof.

Same as mako shark.

A powerful and fierce mackerel shark of the Atlantic and Pacific, of the family Lamidae.

A graceful deciduous shrub or small tree (Aristotelia serrata) having attractive foliage and small red berries that turn black at maturity and are used for making wine.

A type of reflecting telescope in which the aberration of the concave mirror is reduced by a meniscus lens.

Motion sickness experienced while traveling on water; seasickness.

Evils; wrongs; offenses against right and law.

A region in the western part of the Peninsula of India, between the mountains and the sea.

The reddish or black juice or resin from certain trees of the genus Pterocarpus, used in medicine and tanning etc.

A natural family of short-headed marine fishes which are often brightly colored.

See Melocoton.

A town and district upon the seacoast of the Malay Peninsula.

A walking cane made from the stem of a species of palm of the genus Calamus (Calamus Scipionum), and of a brown color, often mottled. The plant is a native of Cochin China, Sumatra, and Malays.

Native hydrous carbonate of copper, usually occurring in green mammillary masses with concentric fibrous structure.

Softening; relaxing.

The act of making soft or supple.

A genus of nemertean worms, parasitic in the gill cavity of clams and other bivalves. They have a large posterior sucker, like that of a leech. See Illust. of Bdellomorpha.

One of a tribe of beetles (Malacodermata), with a soft and flexible body, as the fireflies.

A variety of pyroxene.

One versed in the science of malacology.

The science which relates to the structure and habits of mollusks.

A class of air-breathing Arthropoda; -- called also Protracheata, and Onychophora.

One of the Malacopterygii.

An order of fishes in which the fin rays, except the anterior ray of the pectoral and dorsal fins, are closely jointed, and not spiny. It includes the carp, pike, salmon, shad, etc. Called also Malacopteri.

Belonging to the Malacopterygii.

A peculiar disease of the bones, in consequence of which they become softened and capable of being bent without breaking.

Having soft jaws without teeth, as certain fishes.

A subclass of Crustacea, including Arthrostraca and Thoracostraca, or all those higher than the Entomostraca.

One of the Malacostraca.

That branch of Zoological science which relates to the crustaceans; -- called also carcinology.

Belonging to the Malacostraca.

See Melocoton.

An extensive group of Invertebrata, including the Mollusca, Brachiopoda, and Bryozoa. Called also Malacozoaria.

Of or pertaining to the Malacozoa.

Bad address; an awkward, tactless, or offensive way of accosting one or talking with one.

A bad adjustment.

Bad administration; bad management of any business, especially of public affairs.

Of a quality opposed to adroitness; clumsy; awkward; unskillful.

Any disease of the human body; a distemper, disorder, or indisposition, proceeding from impaired, defective, or morbid organic functions; especially, a lingering or deep-seated disorder.

A city and a province of Spain, on the Mediterranean. Hence, Malaga grapes, Malaga raisins, Malaga wines.

Same as Malagasy.