in the main

English

Alternative forms

• for the main

Prepositional phrase

in the main

1. Principally; on the whole; for the most part.
   • 1814 May 9, [Jane Austen], chapter I, in Mansfield Park: […], volume I, London: […] [George Sidney] for T[homas] Egerton, […], →OCLC, page 8:

     […] I entirely agree with you in the main as to the propriety of doing everything one could by way of providing for a child one had in a manner taken into one's own hands; […]

   • 1869 August, Charles Dickens, "On Mr. Fechter's Acting", The Atlantic Monthly:

     Mr. Fechter has been in the main more accustomed to speak French than to speak English.

   • 1904–1907 (date written), James Joyce, “The Dead”, in Dubliners, London: Grant Richards, published June 1914, →OCLC:

     "A new generation is growing up in our midst . . . and its enthusiasm, even when it is misdirected, is, I believe, in the main sincere."

   • 2011 Feb. 28, John Cloud, "Sex Addiction: A Disease or a Convenient Excuse?," Time (retrieved 13 August 2013):

     Bill Clinton's philandering was regarded as a moral failing or a joke — but not, in the main, as an illness.

Synonyms

• all in all, mainly, mostly, usually; see also Thesaurus:mostly

References

• “in the main”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.