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{%type%} Definitions

WordNet 3.0Copyright Princeton University
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Short "hint"

n. - The most important coil in a mechanical device (especially a clock or watch).

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Usage examples (34)
  • The teacher who can break a mainspring first and keep it from getting mended, is often the most esteemed in the community.
  • Journalism of which the mainspring is the gaining of pleasure may easily degenerate into something akin to the comic actor's function.
  • Our "mainspring" not only has run down, but is broken.
  • "The system of which you have been speaking might be called the mainspring of our society.
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The Open Dictionary of English is a collaborative project, based on Open Source materials, LearnThat resources, and partner APIs.
We give special thanks to our LearnThat volunteers, as well as Princeton University and Wiktionary for their Open Source word data. We're also grateful for the support given by Google, Wordnik.com, Dictionary.com, Stands4.com and YouTube, OEDILF.com, Kylescholz.com, Best-Practice.com, Forvo.com, as well as the generous Creative Commons community.