Sentence Examples:
It fell over on the lee side dragging with it the fore mainstay and crippling the rigging to such an extent that Captain Snipes began to fear he could not get his vessel out of the harbor.
Evils thickened, entirely unexpected, which brought out what was greatest in the character and genius of Washington; for he now was the mainstay of hope.
On the other hand the most unproductive of all sorts of business, the traffic in money and the farming of the revenue, formed the true mainstay and stronghold of the Roman economy.
To this end he committed the nation to a policy of scrupulous financial honesty, which has helped to make it ever since the mainstay of sound American finance.
He echoes the pet prejudices of his readers as the props and mainstays of his thesis, and boldly laughs away misgivings of which they are likely to be half ashamed.
This draft I bestowed in a silver phial, graven with strange signs, and I kept it ever close and secret, for it was my chief mainstay.
The mere fact of coincidence or of dissent on such a question is of less importance than the principle accepted by either student as the groundwork of his theory, the mainstay of his opinion.
About the room, but not near enough to intrude upon the sacred grief of the stricken mother and husband, sat several of the good women whose friendship had been the mainstay of the three.
His army was the mainstay of his country: on its utter dissolution his master might have found it very difficult to form another; but while it remained perfect in its organization, the patriotic population of the empire were sure to fill up readily every vacancy in its ranks.
Electric incandescent lamps are the present mainstay of electric illumination and, it might be stated, of progress in lighting.
The incandescent burner was widely employed, and until the use of electricity became common the lime-light was the mainstay for the stage and for the projection of lantern slides.
This kind of nutritious, high vitamin, low calorie meal that features breast meat is a mainstay for Frank and me, and it has been for him for a long time.
Hilda's right hand and the mainstay in the supervision of the kitchen, housework, and laundry, and even in the management of the Mission's farm.
She had been their mainstay, their guide, the best part of their youth, of that happy portion of their lives which had vanished; she had been the bond that united them to existence, the mother, the mamma, the creative flesh, the tie that bound them to their ancestors.
The president of the League looked inquiringly at his mainstay, the silent Bob, and, in answer to his unspoken question, the other nodded.
He died, and for a time she was broken-hearted; but gradually she came to prove the reality and comfort of her religion, and then, taking up the interests of those around her, she had cheerfully buried her own sorrow, and became the mainstay of her aunt and her household.
Always in preaching the parson had looked for the face of his friend; always it had been his mainstay, interpreter, steadfast advocate in every plea for perfection of life.
Finally, Russia, our great hope and mainstay for the future, was inspiring the utmost hope and encouragement amongst the Allies by the splendid deeds with which she heralded the close of the year.
To those regions settlers came in groups, often a whole community migrating to the new land, taking with them ministers, priests and teachers; and wherever they settled, however wild and desolate the land, they had with them those two mainstays of civilization.
To a woman for whom religion in its forms as well as in its meaning was the mainstay of life on earth and the hope of life to come, the sacrilege of the crime seemed supernatural.
A stray shot at that moment might have influenced greatly modern history, for, as events were soon to show, Washington was the mainstay of the American cause.
In both her consummate art, or rather natural gift of the art of narrative, is the mainstay of the fabric her imagination has reared.
Hence, driftwood is generally a poor mainstay unless there is plenty of it on the spot; but driftwood on the sea coast is good fuel.
Most of the sovereigns joined in a determined attack against the Jesuits, the enthusiastic and devoted priests who had become the mainstay of the papal power.
These were the centurions, who were the mainstay of the discipline and efficiency of the troops, and from whose ranks many advanced to an equestrian career.
For twelve miles about any village or town center the people come walking in every Sunday evening, to attend rehearsals for practice in sacred music, hymns and chorals being their mainstay.
Commonly the mainstay of every meal was game of our own killing, usually antelope or deer, sometimes grouse or ducks, and occasionally, in the earlier days, buffalo or elk.
He was the chief citizen of the republic at the close of the war, and when Lincoln was assassinated he was the mainstay of the republic.
At one period, it will be remembered, the cultivation of hemp was expected to be the mainstay of the country's prosperity.
Her slightest wish is a command which he obeys with cheerfulness and alacrity, and the quiet and composure of his presence is, I know, her secret pride and mainstay.
He has ever since contributed liberally to the support of the institution, and indeed has been its mainstay in a financial point of view.
Sagacious, deliberate in thought and character, tolerant, a man of peace and compromise, he became the mainstay of the Queen's government and the most influential man in State affairs.
Every member struggled to be "top-sawyer;" every artist, down to the little doctor who played the triangle regarded himself as the mainstay, sole prop, and presiding genius of the society.
Some other fears closely resemble that of new clothes insomuch as they involve an unpleasant transformation of a familiar object, the human figure, the mainstay of a child's trust.
Catherine was therefore doubly attentive and insinuating to her father-in-law, understanding that he was her sole mainstay.
Her courage, enthusiasm, and womanly care for the sick and suffering were a mainstay of the colony, all through what has well been called its heroic age.
Growing up to manhood, and becoming master of a moderate share of science and action, he invariably lifted his opponents from the ground, and carried them off with the outside stroke; his principal mainstay, however, being his great height and immense weight.
John, knowing himself to be the mainstay of his mother, and having resolved to be a planter, at first would not hear to this.
This was a scandalous thing; for the digging constituent outnumbered all the rest of the population put together, thus forming what he would call the backbone and mainstay of the colony.
Grave old gentlemen nodded approvingly when they spoke of him, and his uncle the cardinal regarded him as one of the mainstays of the clerical party.
Since that moment, however, a gaiety, serene and imperturbable, has been the mainstay of his happily constituted character.
I know that in a certain little room on the left I shall find the hostess, and that she, the mainstay and prop of the establishment, will spare no pains to assist a countryman.
In this terrible situation Paul Jones knew the chances for victory were against him, for he had thought his lower battery his mainstay in a broadside fight.
And here was no question merely of providing an attraction for the summer visitor: it meant conserving a mainstay of livelihood for hundreds of laboring men.
He was also a man of substance, and if that could be got with other things, the parish preferred it in an elder, and he gave liberally to the Free Kirk, of which, indeed, he was the mainstay.
As I grew older my responsibilities were allowed to increase proportionally so that I might feel some measure of the dignity of being a mainstay and a support of the family.
The women here alluded to are of the unobtrusive and orderly sort, the mainstay of whose occupation is to pass as respectable persons.
After the tea hour, the Casino begins to fill with the crowd that is its mainstay, the high-playing, heavily plunging, extravagant crowd, willing to buy excitement at any price, and some of the heaviest gambling is done in those hours just before the dinner.
Hot flour bread, made into the form of biscuits, and dipped in the "dope," or gravy, made by mixing flour and water with the grease extracted from the fried bacon, was our mainstay.
Craig, with no scent for sarcasm so delicate, pushed on with enthusiasm: "The safety-pin's the mainstay of bachelor life," said he rhetorically.
He knew that Arthur Cameron was likely to prove his mainstay in catering to the needs of these poor people who were in such distress.
He now appeared to her as the mainstay of her better life; she clung to his image as a devotee turns to a relic in the hour of need.
High Heaven, kindly favoring his sincere prayers and his most laudable intention, revealed to this excellent man the most approved form and mainstay of his invention.
Such is a brief sketch of the life and works of this estimable and ingenious mechanic, for so many years the mainstay of the Soho works.
The battering ships, with their supposed impregnable shields, were the mainstay of the enemy's hopes; but the use of red-hot shot by the garrison made them after a time perfectly useless.
His unselfish devotion led to his becoming the mainstay in the counsels of the family as they settled in the State of New York.
In marrying us you style us, 'the mistress of the house,' and if the elders of the citizens grow infirm, in this country it is not the sons but the daughters that must be their mainstay.
So, all conversation among the people is replete with references to this mainstay of life, and one comes, like them, to discuss the water question with an earnest regard for its problems.
He is "convinced that it is not a stimulant," and with many apologies he cautiously sanctions alcohol, which should often be the physician's mainstay.
It carried with it, now that it was no longer his mainstay, a power which was humiliating, because it was fear-inspiring.
Were a clergy of this description established, there could be no fears entertained of their teaching anything wrong; they would, on the contrary, from their knowledge and virtue, be the pillars of the state and the mainstays and ornaments of civilization.
This reign saw the commencement of cheap, good literature, which was to overrun the country and utterly abolish the chap book, which till then had been the literary mainstay of the country folk.
Battered and sore as he was, all other damage was forgotten as he tried to raise the precious right arm, his pitching arm, the mainstay of his fortunes on the Isthmus.
He even viewed the wonderful paper signed by K. of K. with due reverence; for like most of the soldiers fighting for King George and the cause of the Allies, he had come to believe Kitchener the mainstay of the whole war, and the one whose tactics would eventually win out.
Feuds are, undoubtedly, a great solace to ennui, and in the elder times of a hundred years or so ago they seem to have been the mainstay of society in West Cork.
The Irish are very fanatical, and have driven from their country many landlords formerly wealthy who were the support and mainstay of all the island.
She not only supports herself by her own labor, but is the mainstay of the society in which she exists, largely feeding and clothing it by her exertions.
The mainstay of the house was ready to support her, and though bound by his engagement, he would, had he been so inclined, have found it easy to dissolve it, or make it impracticable.
While agriculture is the mainstay of life, and the medieval tradition flourishes, the New England village reaches a pretty fair pitch of worldly perfection; and beneath all the superficial changes that affected it in the next century and a half, its sturdy framework held together remarkably well.
Time, that sweeps away everything, is for a while repelled; the oak will grow when the time we know is forgotten, and when felled will be the mainstay and safety of a generation in a future century.
He cast a reproachful glance at the painter, which said clearly, though without words: "I have opened my home to you and offered you what I had, yet in my old age you take away my mainstay."
With this maxim, which has been pretty much my mainstay throughout life, I fortified myself in my determination to attempt the law.
And as he looked back upon their childhood and realized that all the time, instead of being destitute and dependent orphans, they and their money had really been the mainstay of Hannah and the farm, the lad seemed to cast from him the long humiliation of years, to rise in stature and dignity.
Oil has supplanted forestry as the mainstay of the economy, providing about two-thirds of government revenues and exports.