mains

• (British) IPA^(key): /meɪnz/
• Rhymes: -eɪnz

• Audio (Southern England):

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mains

1. plural of main

mains (uncountable)

1. (chiefly British) The domestic electrical power supply, especially as connected to a network or grid.

   I plugged it into the mains and it blew up!

   We don't have mains power out here, only a generator.

   mains electricity, mains voltage

2. (chiefly British) A large-scale network or grid supplying any of various other services, such as water, gas or sewerage, to properties.

   We have gas heating, but it's bottled gas, not mains gas.

   The properties formerly relied on a well, but are now connected to the mains water supply.

3. The main course of a meal.

• water main

mains

1. third-person singular simple present indicative of main

Related to manse.

mains (plural mains)

1. (Scotland) The farm attached to a mansion house.
   • 1902, John Buchan, The Outgoing of the Tide:

     Though no minister would visit the Skerburnfoot, or, if he went, departed quicker than he came, the girl Ailie attended regular at the catechising at the mains of Sker.

• Davidson's Mains

• Concise Scots Dictionary, 2nd edition
• “mains”, in The Dictionary of the Scots Language, Edinburgh: Scottish Language Dictionaries, 2004–present, →OCLC.

• Imans, M'sian, Mansi, Msian, Naims, Nasim, amins, imans, manis, minas, nsima

• IPA^(key): /mɛ̃/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Homophones: main, maint, maints
• Hyphenation: mains

mains f

1. plural of main

• minas

From Latin minus.

• Audio (Jersey):

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mains m (plural mains)

1. (Jersey, mathematics) minus sign