- 1
The most important part of something that everything else depends on to stay stable or successful — like the mainstay of a country's economy, or a person who is the mainstay of their family or team.
主要支柱；中流砥柱
組成main (most important) + stay (an old word for a rope or support that holds something steady, like on a ship's mast) — literally "the main support."
同家族的字
- staymainstay comes from "stay," an old word for a rope or pole that holds something steady
原始詞典資料3 筆記錄
以下是外部詞典記錄的用法，原文照列，我們還沒有寫成教學內容。上面的說明才是我們自己寫的；有些用法可能上面已經講過了。
mainstaynoun/ˈmeɪn.steɪ/
- 1
A chief support.
- Agriculture is the mainstay of this country’s economy.
- At the other extreme, we have that true maid-of-all-work type, the 0-6-0, the mainstay of goods, shunting, and often of passenger work right from the earliest days to the present time.
- 2
Someone or something that can be depended on to make a regular contribution.
- On the Bishops Stortford line, the crisis now seems to be over; the units designed for this service are the mainstay of the workings once again and although some of the inner suburban sets are still seen, very few L.T.S. Line units are noticeable.
- Afternoon TV mainstays like Leila Benitez and Bobby Ledesma of Darigold Jamboree gradually gave way to teenage loveteams Vi and Bot and Guy and Pip who had legions of fans watching their shows and movies and listening to their records.
- 3
nauticaltransportA stabilising rope from high on the mainmast to the base of the foremast.
資料來源：英文維基詞典 English Wiktionary（CC BY-SA 4.0）。 原文照列，未經改寫。