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Use mainstay in a sentence

Definition of mainstay:

  • (noun) a prominent supporter;
  • (noun) a central cohesive source of support and stability;
  • (noun) the forestay that braces the mainmast

Sentence Examples:

In the beginning man's struggle was for life and the mainstay of life was food.

You have just lost an amiable companion who has been your mainstay in a foreign land.

Unfortunately, politics has long been the mainstay for our newspapers.

For over two years you've been the mainstay an' support of your mother.


When bread has been short potatoes have been the mainstay in every country.

He had saved the state in war, and he remained in peace-time its principal mainstay.


People who don't know when they're well are the mainstay of my profession.

Sometimes a ball or other form of valve is used, but the water is the mainstay.

Conscience, Celeste, is our treasure, our strength, our mainstay.

Rosalie and Albert had their engagements, Rosalie being the mainstay of the family.

The mainstay of the establishment, she was not aware of her usefulness.

After her father's death Mary was the mainstay of the home.

At this stage, religion is the mainstay of law and government.

The Jameson raid is, of course, the mainstay of the delegates' argument.

Do I look like the mainstay of a family?

He is one of our mainstays at bat and in the field.

Tea is the great mainstay on service, just as it was on maneuvers.

He was a mainstay on the baseball team, where he had pitched many a game to victory.

I've helped you a little, maybe, and you've been my mainstay.

It was an arrest; their mainstay was being taken from them.

This mainstay and foundation being rotten, the fabric cannot be secure.

"I've been the mainstay of our football eleven ever since it was organized!"

He was the prop and mainstay of the town.

"Sergeant What's-his-name" has always been one of the mainstays of the Army.

The working people of any community are the mainstay and backbone of that community.


The conception of civil aviation as the mainstay of air power as a whole is right.

Prejudice is often found to be the mainstay of its proofs.

Northern capital was a mainstay of its agriculture.

Some of these, when the storm broke, became the mainstay of the national force.



You may call the Cree half-breed the mainstay of all the northern fur trade.

Thus began the industry that has become the mainstay of prosperity in South Wales.

Death at last took her from me, and I lost the mainstay of my existence.

It only happens to be the mainstay of all jurisprudence.

A loyal military aristocracy like the Junkers is the mainstay of a national monarchy.

This man was important, for the horses are the mainstay of logging operations.

And, then, you have in your literary art a mainstay, which I lost long ago.

Besides, you have a mainstay in your art which I lost long ago.

Shave was my mainstay in many a dark hour.

They were a strong mainstay of the strike.

His mainstay is illustrative action appropriate to his characters, real or fictitious.

Within a short time Abel is the mainstay of the family.

Would you like him to have a frame of iron, with muscles as tough as a mainstay?

The horses must rest, however; for these formed the mainstay of the little expedition.

At present wheat is your mainstay.

Isn't it the mainstay of the best constitution in the world?

Roebuck's hopeful nature was his mainstay throughout.

He is getting better, and we are glad, for he is the mainstay in the family.

"Porter was our mainstay before he got put off by Hamilton's influence."

The fisheries are the principal mainstay of the people.

Gladstone was at once their most powerful antagonist and their mainstay.

Maize, vines, and plums are the mainstay of national food and drink.

To the true teacher the pupils may be counted upon as the mainstay in such an undertaking.

For more than a dozen years he had been the mainstay of the team.

You know as well as I do that he is the mainstay of the Giant team.

During that decade he had been the mainstay of the Giant team.

It is curious that he should come to be regretted as the mainstay of Conservatism.

The only son and mainstay of a widowed mother fast going to ruin.

They missed the two mainstays of their domestic system.

She was my mainstay, my constant friend and faithful companion.

Discipline has always been, and must continue to be, the mainstay of any public service.

It became the mainstay of Bonaparte; and it is due to him to say that he also held it.

Books, for so long my mainstay and support, were now useless to me.

I fancy that eldest daughter is really a good girl and the mainstay of the family.

Bathurst, who was really the mainstay of the society.

The land revenue belonged to and was the mainstay of the State.

Mason had of late been the mainstay of his enterprise.

To act as a sheet anchor to a man is to be his mainstay or chief dependence.

For one thing, you're the mainstay of your mother's business.

This is quite typical of a certain kind of prisoner who is the mainstay of the prisons.

Farming became the mainstay and hunting became the side line.

Potatoes were the principal mainstay, though the cheese and butter were quite good.

She was his mainstay in the world.

I am the mainstay of the music shops.

James, the oldest son, a young man of twenty-three, was the mainstay of the family.

We have fallen into the habit of looking to the mother as the mainstay of the family.

In the third place, the study of fossils is a mainstay of the theory of evolution.

In my opinion it was the little girls who were the mainstay of the concern.

He had been the life and mainstay of the colony, the firm rock upon which it was founded.

Here is a mainstay of life, a pillar and prop of civilization.

In her home she was the mainstay of the household.

He grabbed the mainstay, pulled himself up on the apron and lay on his back.

At present the mainstay of the state is beef-production.

I felt that in a crisis, or the storm that was approaching, he would be my mainstay.

Boiled potatoes were the mainstay.

This weapon was the mainstay both in attack and defense, and the glory of the Saxon army.


He and Julian became my two chief mainstays when I felt in need of society.

A father ought to be dearer to you than myself; become both the mainstays of his old age.

However, no mistake will be made in using the whole wheat products as the starch mainstay.

"The mainstay of my quiet house," he added, with his vague and dreamy smile.

She was the mainstay here.

Gladstone still remained and became the mainstay of the magazine.

This is of course the comedy of situation and finds its mainstay in mistaken identity.