Citations:amain

English citations of amain

			1678		1851
ME «	15th c.	16th c.	17th c.	18th c.	19th c.	20th c.	21st c.

1. (archaic, literary) With all of one's might; mightily; forcefully, violently. [from 16th c.]
   • 1678, John Bunyan, “The Author’s Apology for His Book”, in The Pilgrim’s Progress from This World, to That which is to Come: […], London: […] Nath[aniel] Ponder […], →OCLC; reprinted in The Pilgrim’s Progress (The Noel Douglas Replicas), London: Noel Douglas, […], 1928, →OCLC:

     It [this book] ſhews too, who ſets out for life amain, / As if the laſting Crown they would attain: / Here alſo you may ſee the reaſon why / They looſe their labour, and like Fools do die.

   • 1678, John Bunyan, The Pilgrim’s Progress from This World, to That which is to Come: […], London: […] Nath[aniel] Ponder […], →OCLC; reprinted in The Pilgrim’s Progress (The Noel Douglas Replicas), London: Noel Douglas, […], 1928, →OCLC, page 72:

     […] Apollyon wounded him in his head, his hand and foot; this made Chriſtian give a little back: Apollyon therefore followed his work amain, and Chriſtian again took courage, and reſiſted as manfully as he could.

   • 1851 November 14, Herman Melville, “The Albatross”, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC, page 263:

     But as the strange captain, leaning over the pallid bulwarks, was in the act of putting his trumpet to his mouth, it somehow fell from his hand into the sea; and the wind now rising amain, he in vain strove to make himself heard without it.

2. (archaic) At full speed; also, in great haste. [from 16th c.]
   • 1678, John Bunyan, The Pilgrim’s Progress from This World, to That which is to Come: […], London: […] Nath[aniel] Ponder […], →OCLC; reprinted in The Pilgrim’s Progress (The Noel Douglas Replicas), London: Noel Douglas, […], 1928, →OCLC, page 44:

     Now when he was got up to the top of the Hill, there came two Men running againſt him amain; the name of the one was Timorous, and of the other Miſtruſt. To whom Chriſtian ſaid, Sirs, what's the matter you run the wrong way?