also 6–7 amayn(e, amaine. [f. A prep.1 in, on, at + MAIN, OE. mæʓn, power, force. Apparently not preceded by an earlier full on mæʓn, on main, but formed in 16th c. after words in a-, as afoot.]
1. lit. In, or with, full force; with main force, with all one’s might; vehemently, violently.
1540. Four P. P., in Hazl., Dodsl., I. 375. God save the devil, quoth I, amain.
1556. Abp. Parker, Psalter xliv. As sheepe we see, to slaughter driven awayne.
1611. Coryat, Crudities, 215. Two dayes after it rained amaine.
1678. Bunyan, Pilgr., I. 61. Apollyon therefore followed his work amain.
1743. Wesley, Wks., 1872, I. 417. The colliers … began shouting amain.
1829. Hood, E. Aram, xviii. But when I touch’d the lifeless clay The blood gush’d out amain.
1841. Longf., Hesperus, vii. Down came the storm, and smote amain the vessel.
b. In full force of numbers.
1601. Holland, Pliny (1634), I. 243. The Tunies to auoid it, goe alwaies amaine in whole flotes, toward the cape.
1663. Flagellum, O. Cromwell (1672), 22. New-England, a receptacle of the Puritans, who flocked thither amain.
2. Hence, with reference to motion. At full speed.
1563. B. Googe, Eglogs (Arb.), 82. He rounes amayne, to gase on Beauties cheare.
1587. Holinshed, Chron., I. 176/2. Then without respect of shame they fled amaine.
1636. Heylin, Hist. Sabbath, 54. Laban … pursued after him amayn.
1640. Bastwick, Lord Bishops, ix. I iiij b. The Tower of Babel went up a maine, till God confounded their worke.
1725. Pope, Odyss., XI. 150. But vengeance hastes amain.
1851. Longf., Gold. Leg., III. ii. Here comes a third who is spurring amain.
b. Without delay, in all haste; at once.
1600. Hakluyt, Voy., III. 568. The gentlemen came and repaired to the garden amaine.
1821. Joan. Baillie, Met. Leg., Calum., xxvi. 11. Housewives left amain Their broken tasks.
† A main gallop: at full gallop. Obs. See MAIN.
1553. Brende, Q. Curtius, IX. 57. Straightways the horsemen returned amaine gallop.
3. Exceedingly, greatly. (Cf. L. valde, f. valēre.)
1587. Turberville, Epit. & Sonn. (1837), 333. Who so doth runne a race, Shall surely sweate amaine.
1616. Surflet, Country Farm, 541. Too much drinesse doth disaduantage the husbandman amaine.
1671. Milton, P. R., II. 429. They whom I favour thrive in wealth amain.
1820. Keats, St. Agnes, xxi. The maiden’s chamber … Where Porphyro took covert, pleased amain.
