English Explanatory Dictionary

mainspring

English dictionary entry

Meanings

noun
  1. The principal spring of a clockwork mechanism, which drives it by uncoiling.
  2. The most important reason for, or element of, something.

Word forms

mainspring mainsprings

Etymology

From main + spring. For figurative sense, compare spring (“source, origin”).

This entry uses open data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA/GFDL). Word forms are used for search and are not indexed as separate pages.
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