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definitions

maintenance

[meyn-tuh-nuh ns]
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SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR maintenance ON THESAURUS.COM

noun

adjective

Pharmacology, Psychiatry. administered to sustain a desired physiological or mental condition: maintenance dose.

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RELATED WORDS

supply, conservation, upkeep, preservation, care, aliment, continuation, bacon, livelihood, alimony, living, alimentation, resources, food, subsistence, provision, bread, continuance, wherewithal, keeping

Origin of maintenance

1275–1325; Middle English maintenaunce < Middle French maintenance. See maintain, -ance
Related formsnon·main·te·nance, nounpre·main·te·nance, nounself-main·te·nance, noun

Synonym study

4. See living.
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for maintenance

Contemporary Examples of maintenance

Historical Examples of maintenance

  • The maximum that could be drawn for maintenance was not less than seventy per cent.

    Freeland

    Theodor Hertzka

  • As it is, I look to the Excise scheme as a certainty of maintenance; a maintenance!

  • Sergeant Walters and the rest of the maintenance crew were standing there.

    Dogfight--1973

    Dallas McCord Reynolds

  • And if I am to estimate the penalty fairly, I should say that maintenance in the Prytaneum is the just return.

    Apology

    Plato

  • The Phenicians were very much in earnest about the maintenance of state and of religion.

    History of Religion

    Allan Menzies

British Dictionary definitions for maintenance

maintenance

noun

the act of maintaining or the state of being maintained
a means of support; livelihood
(modifier) of or relating to the maintaining of buildings, machinery, etcmaintenance man
law (formerly unlawful) the interference in a legal action by a person having no interest in it, as by providing funds to continue the actionSee also champerty
law a provision ordered to be made by way of periodical payments or a lump sum, as after a divorce for a spouse
computing
  1. the correction or prevention of faults in hardware by a programme of inspection and the replacement of parts
  2. the removal of existing faults and the modification of software in response to changes in specification or environment

Word Origin for maintenance

C14: from Old French; see maintain
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Word Origin and History for maintenance
n.

mid-14c., "bearing, deportment," from Old French maintenance "upkeep; shelter, protection,: from maintenir (see maintain). Meaning "action of upholding or keeping in being" is from early 15c. "Action of providing a person with the necessities of life" is from late 14c.

Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
Medicine definitions for maintenance

maintenance

[mān′tə-nəns]

n.

The extent to which a patient continues good health practices without professional supervision, as distinguished from adherence or compliance.
The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.