noun
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nautical the forestay that braces the mainmast
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a chief support
Etymology
Origin of mainstay
Explanation
A mainstay is something that acts as a source of support for a community. If your hometown's economy depends on tourists visiting every summer, you could say that tourism is the mainstay of your town. A mainstay holds everything together, whether it's your grandmother who acts as the anchor of your whole crazy family, a pillar that physically keeps a building from falling down, or the job that enables you to pay your rent every month. The noun mainstay is originally a nautical term meaning the rope that stabilizes two masts on a sailboat, and since the 1780s it's been used to mean "chief support."
Vocabulary lists containing mainstay
Beowulf
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This Week In Culture: October 5–11, 2019
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Miranda v. Arizona (1966)
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
The sketch-comedy mainstay remains a ratings juggernaut, and the version it recently exported to the United Kingdom was renewed Thursday for a second season.
From MarketWatch • May 7, 2026
It’s a public television mainstay that plays well with niche audiences too, as Twitch discovered when a nine-day marathon in 2015 proved to be enormously popular.
From Salon • May 2, 2026
Growth was driven by the mainstay cognac division, especially in the key Chinese market.
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 30, 2026
Field is also high on German armaments mainstay Rheinmetall, Morningstar’s top pick in a European defense sector that has counterintuitively declined as the U.S. depletes munitions in the Persian Gulf.
From Barron's • Apr. 30, 2026
Owners no longer had the economic clout of being a mainstay of the economy.
From "Sugar Changed the World: A Story of Magic, Spice, Slavery, Freedom, and Science" by Marc Aronson
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
