Meanings
- not comparableobsoleteObsolete spelling of amain.
So likewiſe turnde the Prince vpon the Knight, / And layd at him amaine with all his will and might.
1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book VI, Canto VI”, in The Faerie Queene. […], part II (books IV–VI), London: […] [Richard Field] for William Ponsonby, →OCLC, stanza 27, page 4304 more examples
[T]hey bid vs amaine Engliſh dogs, and came vpon our quarter ſtar-boord: and giuing vs fiue caſt pieces out of her prowe, they ſought to lay vs aboord: but wee ſo galled them with our muſkets, that we put them from our quarter.
1600, Richard Hakluyt, “A Relation of a Memorable Fight Made the 13. of Iune 1591. against Certaine Spanish Ships & Gallies in the West Indies, by 3. Ships of the Honorable Sir George Carey Knight, then Marshall of Her Maiesties Houshold, and Captaine of the Ile of Wight, now Lord Hunsdon, Lord Chamberlaine, and Captaine of the Honourable Band of Her Maiesties Pensioners”, in The Third and Last Volume of the Voyages, Nauigations, Traffiques, and Discoueries of the English Nation, […], 2nd edition, London: […] George Bishop, Ralfe Newberie, and Robert Barker, →OCLC, page 566[T]he Queene o'th Skie [ i.e., Juno], / Whoſe watry Arch, and meſſenger, am I. / Bids thee leaue theſe, & with her ſoueraigne grace, / Here on this graſſe-plot, in this very place / To come, and ſport: here [i.e., her] Peacocks flye amaine: / Approach, rich Ceres, her to entertaine.
1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene i], page 14, column 2For they both ſay and beleeue that this picture hath ſo great vertue, as alſo that of Padua, whereof I haue before ſpoken, that whenſoeuer it is carried abroad in a ſolemne proceſſion in the time of a great drougth, it will cauſe raine to deſcend from heauen either before it is brought backe into the Church, or very ſhortly after. […] I cannot be induced to attribute ſo much to the vertue of a picture, as the Venetians do, except I had ſeene ſome notable miracle wrought by the ſame. For it brought no drops at all with it: onely about two dayes after it rained (I muſt needes confeſſe) amaine. But I hope they are not ſo ſuperſtitious to aſcribe that to the vertue of the picture.
1611, Thomas Coryate [i.e., Thomas Coryat], “My Obseruations of the Most Glorious, Peerelesse, and Mayden Citie of Venice: […]”, in Coryats Crudities Hastily Gobled Vp in Five Moneths Trauells […], London: […] W[illiam] S[tansby for the author], →OCLC, pages 214–215And rearing Lindis [a river] backward pressed / Shook all her trembling bankes amaine; / Then madly at the eygre's breast / Flung uppe her weltring walls again.
1863, Jean Ingelow, “The High Tide on the Coast of Lincolnshire. (1571.)”, in Poems, London: Longmans, Green, Reader, & Dyer, →OCLC, page 167
Rhymes & wordplay
Anagrams
Cite this entry
amaine. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/amaine
“amaine.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/amaine. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “amaine,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/amaine.
Source: amaine on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.