mailaid 
mailaidt, [< Gael. milci<l, a bag, < mala, a 
bag: see win!*.] A hunting-hag. [Scotch.] 
mail-bag (mal'bag), n. A bag in which the 
public mail is carried. In the United States postal 
service the canv:is buys used for papers and parcels are 
called mail-sack^, the locked leather bags mail-pouches. 
Mall-bag receiver and discharger. See mail-catcher. 
mail-box (mal'boks), n. A box placed in some 
public place, as at a street corner, for the de- 
posit of letters to be gathered by the postman. 
mail-car (mal'lciir), . A railroad-car for car- 
rying the mails. When fitted up with post-office fa- 
cilities for distributing and stamping letters, etc. , on the 
journey, such a car is called a postal car, poet-office car, or 
railroad post-office. 
mail-carrier (markar"i-er), . A person em- 
ployed in carrying the mail between post-of- 
fices, or over a specified mail-route. 
mail-cart (mal'kart), n. A cart in which the 
public mail is carried. 
In another minute matt-carte are seen rushing along 
from the Post Office and sidling up to the different mails 
with their reeking horses. 
Quoted in first Year of a Silken Reign, p. 135. 
mail-catcher (inarkach"er), n. A device at- 
tached to a mail-car, designed to catch up mail- 
bags while the train is in motion. It consists of 
a hinged iron bar fixed at the door of the car, in such a 
way as to catch the bag, which is suspended by hooks or 
light strings from a gallows-frame beside the track. The 
catcher engages the middle of the bag, just where it is tied 
into the smallest possible compass, and holds it securely 
until it is drawn in at the door. 
mail-Cheeked (mal'chekt), a. Having the 
cheeks mailed, as a fish, by the extension of 
certain suborbital bones, especially the third 
suborbital, to articulate with the preopercle; 
sclerogenous : specifically said of the cottoids. 
mail-clad (mal'klad), a. 1. Clad with a coat 
of mail. 
The peer of our day ... is in less danger going about 
weaponless than was the mail-clad knight with lance and 
sword. II. Spettcer, Study of Sociol., p. 257. 
2. By extension, in modern usage, defensively 
armed ; clad in armor. 
mail-coach (mal'koch), . A coach that con- 
veys the public mails. 
Mail-coaches, which come to others, come not to me. 
Hannah More, To H. Walpole, 1788. 
mail-coif (mal'koif), . Same as coif, 3 (a). 
mailed (maid), a. [< main + -R] If. Spot- 
ted; speckled. 
As for these our Hawkes, they bee not white, but white 
and mayled. Hakluyt's Voyagex, I. 303. 
2. In zool., loricate; lepidote; cataphracted; 
provided with scales, plates, shields, bucklers, 
or the like, which serve for defensive armor like 
a coat of mail. See lorica, loricate, Loricata. 
Mailed bullheads, the fishes of the family Agonidce. 
mailed-cheeks (mald'cheks), n.pl. In ichth., 
the gurnards or cottoids: a term translating 
Sclerogenidai anAjoues cuirassees. 
mailer (ma'ler), H. Same as addressing-machine. 
mail-guard (mal'gard), n. An officer having 
charge of mail under conveyance. 
mail-hood (mal'hud), . In armor, a hood like 
the camail, attached to the hauberk and drawn 
at pleasure over the head and steel cap, worn 
by the Persians during the third and fourth cen- 
turies after Christ. A similar hood was worn 
by the Circassians up to the time of their sub- 
jugation by the Russians. 
mail-hose (mal'hoz), n. pi, Chausses of mail. 
mailing 1 (ma'ling), n. [< mail 1 + -0i.] 1. 
Linked mail in general. 2. The conventional 
device adopted, as in early monuments of art, 
to give the idea of a garment of mail. 
mailing' 2 (ma'ling), n. [< mail 3 , 2, + -inr/.'] A 
piece of land for which rent or feu-duty is paid; 
a farm. [Scotch.] 
mailing-machine (ma'ling-ma-shen"), . Same 
as addressing-machine. 
mailing-table (ma'ling-ta'bl), n. A table used 
in a post-office in sorting or distributing let- 
ters for various routes or stations, it is fitted 
with tiers of boxes, each box being provided with facilities 
for attaching a mail-bag to the rear so that letters will 
fall from the box into the bag. 
maillt, maillet, . See maifi. 
Mailly (ma'lye), . [F.] A still wine made 
from a very black grape, of the quality of the 
so-called gray wine of Champagne, resembling 
the still Sillery. 
mail-master (mal'mas'ter), n. An officer who 
has charge of the mail. 
mail-matter (mfil'mat'er), . Matter, as let- 
ters and packages of various kinds, carried in 
the mail ; such material as may be transmitted 
through the post-office. 
mail-net (mal'net), n, A form of loom-made 
net. It is a combination in the same fabric of common 
3582 
gauze and whip-net, and presents the appearance of a con- 
tinuous succession of right-angled triangles. E. H. Knight. 
mail-pilliont (mal'pil'yon), n. A stuffed lea- 
thern cushion behind a servant who attended 
his master in a journey, to carry luggage upon ; 
also, a mail-saddle, or saddle for carrying lug- 
gage upon. Halliwell. 
mail-pouch (mal'pouch), n. See mail-bay. 
mail-quilt (mal'kwilt), n. A garment of fence 
made of textile material, stuffed and quilted. 
Compare gambeson and coat-of -fence, 
Here clasping greaves, and plated mail-quilt* strong, 
The long-bows here, and rattling quivers hung. 
ttickle, tr. of Camoens's Lusiad, i. 
mail-route (mal'rot), n. A route over which 
mails are regularly conveyed. 
mail-sack (mal'sak), n. See miiil-bag. 
mail-shell (mal'shel), n. A kind of mollusk: 
same as chiton, 2 (6). 
mail-stage (mal'staj), . A mail-coach. [U.S.] 
mail-train (mal'tran), w. A railroad-train by 
which mails are carried. 
maim (mam), v. t. [Also, obs. or dial., main; < 
ME. mnimeit, maijmen, mayhcmen, mainen, may- 
ncn,<. OF. mehaigner, mahaigner = Pr. maganhar 
= It. mayagnarc (ML. mahemiare, mahaiiare, ma- 
lieniiai'e, iehaig>tarc),m&im', cf. Bret. nmcAaffff, 
mutilate, machan, mutilation, prob. from the 
OF. ; ulterior origin uncertain.] To disable by 
wounding or mutilation ; deprive of, or of the 
nse of, a necessary constituent part, as of the 
body, or, figuratively, of anything; in old laic, 
to deprive of the use of a limb, so as to render a 
person less able to defend himself in fighting, or 
to annoy his adversary; mutilate. See mayhem. 
The pore and the maymot for to clothe and fede. 
Chnn. VUodun, p. 31. (HattiweU.) 
You maim'd the jurisdiction of all bishops. 
Shak., Hen. VIII., Hi. 2. 312. 
By the ancient law of England, he that maimed any 
man, whereby he lost any part of his body, was sentenced 
to lose the like part. Blackstone, Com., IV. xv. 
= 8yn. Mangle, etc. See mutilate. 
maim (mam), H. [Also mayhem (as technically 
used in law), formerly mahim; < ME. maim, 
maym,maihem, mayhem, < OF. mehaing, mehain, 
mahain (ML. mahamiiim, mahaiguium, mahai- 
niinn), a maim, bodily defect through injury, 
= It. magagna, a defect, blemish : see maim, .] 
1. A disabling wound or mutilation; the de- 
privation of a necessary part, or of the use of it, 
as a limb ; a crippling, or that which cripples ; 
in old law, deprivation by injury or removal of 
the use of some member serviceable in fight or 
for self-protection. 
Your father's sickness is a maim to us 
A perilous gash, a very limb lopp'd off. 
Shale., 1 Hen. IV., iv. 1. 42. 
The law of England, and all laws, hold these degrees of 
injury to the person, slander, battery, maim, and death. 
Bacon, Charge concerning Duels, 1613, Works, XI. 406. 
2. See the quotation, and mayhem. 
The word maim is not, according to the better use, a 
synonym for mayhem, which is a particular sort of aggra- 
vated maim. But, like mayhem, it implies a permanent 
injury or crippling, certainly when employed with refer- 
ence to cattle. And such appears to be its general legal 
meaning. Bishop. 
Hence 3. A hurt or wound in general; an 
injury. [Now rare.] 
Now God vs deflende fro deth this day and fro mayme, 
ffor now I se well that we be alle in pereile of deth, for I 
se yonder comynge the baner of the man that moat is 
dredde of his enmyes thourgh the worlde. 
Merlin (E. E. T. S.), ii. 161. 
Shrewd maims! your clothes are wounded desperately ! 
B. J omon, Magnetick Lady, ill. 3. 
4f. A defect or blemish. 
A noble author esteems it to be a maim in history that 
the acts of parliament should not be recited. 
Sir J. Hayward. 
In a minister, ignorance and disability to teach is a 
maim; nor is it held a thing allowable to ordain such. 
Booker, Eccles. Polity, vii. 24. 
maimedly (ma'med-li), adv. In a maimed or 
defective manner. 
I rather leaue it out altogether then presume to doe it 
maymedly. Hakluyfs Voyages, I. 614. 
maimedness (ma'med-nes), n. The condition 
of being maimed. 
Maimonidean (mi-mon-i-de'an), a. [< Maimo- 
nides (see def.) + -ax.] Relating to Maimoni- 
des (1135-1204), a Spanish-Hebrew theologian 
and philosopher, noted as a reformer of Jewish 
traditions, or to his opinions. 
The Maimonidean controversy. Encyc. Brit., XX. 283. 
Maimonist (ml'mon-ist), n. [< Maimon(ides) 
(see Maimonidean) + -ist.~\ An adherent of 
Maimonides. 
main 1 (man), n. [Early mod. E. also maine, 
maync; < ME. main, maytt, < AS. mirgai, power, 
main 
strength (= OS. meyin = OHG. iiicf/in = Icel. 
megiii, magn, power, might, the main part of a 
thing), <m'g, pret.pres. of "intigtin, have power: 
see muyl. Cf. might 1 , from the same source. Cf. 
also main 2 , to which some of the uses commonly 
referred to main! (defs. 2, 3, etc.) are in part 
due.] 1. Strength; force; violent effort : now 
used chiefly in the phrase with might and main. 
God schulde be worschipide ouer al thing ; 
do rijjtwijsnes with merci with al thi maj/n. 
Ill/mm to Virgin, etc. (E. E. T. S ), p. 37. 
But th* Adamantine shield which he did beare 
So well was tempred, that for ail his maine 
It would no passage yeeld unto his purpose vaine. 
Spenser, F. Q., V. xi. 10. 
2. That which is chief or principal ; the chief 
or main portion; the gross; the bulk; the 
greater part. [Obsolete or archaic.] 
He himself with the main of his Army was entered far 
into the Country. Milton, Hist. Eng., v. 
Main of my studies. Bp. Parker, Flatonick Philos., p. 2. 
The main of them may be reduced to language, and an 
improvement in wisdom. Locke. 
Hence 3f. The principal point ; that which is 
of most importance ; the chief or principal ob- 
ject, aim, or effort. 
Let's make haste away, and look unto the main. 
Shak., 2 Hen. VI., L 1. 208. 
Let it therefore be the maine of our assembly to survay 
our old lawes, and punish their transgressions. 
Marston, The Fawne, v. 
4. A broad expanse, as of space or light; un- 
broken extent ; full sweep or stretch. [Rare in 
this general sense.] 
Nativity, once in the main of light, 
Crawls to maturity. Shak., Sonnets, Ix. 
To found a path 
Over this main from hell to that new world. 
Milton, P. L., x. 258. 
Now, specifically (a) The expanse of ocean; the open 
ocean ; the high sea. 
I cannot, 'twixt the heaven and the main, 
Descry a sail. Shak., Othello, ii. 1. 3. 
(6) A continental stretch of land ; a continent ; the main- 
land, as distinguished from islands. 
Travelling the maine of poore Slavonia, ... he came 
to Orates in Steria. Capt. John Smith, True Travels, I. 7. 
Almost fourteen months before Columbus in his third 
voyage came in sight of the main, ... he [John Cabot] 
discovered the western continent. 
Bancroft, Hist U. S., I. 9. 
5. A principal duct, channel, pipe, or electri- 
cal conductor, as a water- or gas-pipe running 
along a street in a town, or the largest con- 
ductor in a system of electric lights. 
The fillet should be at least 2 inches wide in the case of 
the mains. Elect. Rev. (Amer.), II. 2. 
6. The thick part of meat. Halliwell. [Prov. 
Eng. ] For the main, in the main-for the most part ; 
in the greatest part; on the whole. Hydraulic main. 
See hydraulic. With might and main See mightl. 
main' 2 (man), a. [< ME. "main, mayn, (a) partly 
< Icel. meginn, megn, main, strong, mighty (= 
Dan. megen, much), associated with the noun 
megin, might, main, = AS. maegen = E. main 1 
(there is no like adj. in AS.) (see main 1 ) ; (6) 
partly < OF. maine, maigne, magne, chief, great, 
= Sp. magno = Pg. magno, manho = It. magno, 
great, < L. magnus, great, akin to Gr. ntyat; (p.e- 
ya/U), great, AS. micel, great, E. micMe, much: 
see mickle, much. From L. magnus are also E. 
magnum, magnify, magnitude, etc.] If. Great 
in size or degree ; vast ; hence, strong; power- 
ful; important. 
Tin * Meesangers met with a mayn knight, 
A derf mon to dem, & Delon his nome. 
Destruction of Troy (E. E. T. S.), 1. 7833. 
I may seem 
At first to make a main offence in manners. 
B. Jonson, Volpone, iii. 1. 
How dare you, sirrah, 'gainst so main a person, 
A man of so much noble note and honour. 
Put up this base complaint ? 
Fletcher and Rowley, Maid in the Mill, iii. 2. 
Lastly, the use of all unlawful arts is maine abuse. 
Lord Brooke, Human Learning. 
Themselves invaded next, and on then- heads 
Main promontories flung. Milton, P. L., vi. 664. 
2. Principal; prime; chief; leading; of chief 
or principal importance: as, his main effort 
was to please. 
To maintaine the maine chance, they use the benefits of 
then* wives or friends. Greene, Conny Catching (1591). 
Count Olivares is the main Man who sways all. 
Howell, Letters, I. iii. 11. 
Men who set their Minds on tnain Matters, and suffi- 
ciently urge them, in these most dittk-ult times, I find not 
many. Milton, Free Commonwealth. 
The extinction of his [the king's] influence in Parliament 
was the 'ittain end to be attained. 
Lecky, Eng. in 18th Cent,, xv. 
