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”, in 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 February 28, John Cloud, “Sex Addiction: A Disease or a Convenient Excuse?”, in 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.

   • 2023 November 15, Christian Wolmar, “Ministers should carry the can for ticket office fiasco”, in RAIL, number 996, page 47:

     Now, I hold no candle for the train operators, and I think that in the main they have been far too craven about any government proposals. But in this instance, they have been badly traduced, led up the hill, and then chucked back down it.

Synonyms

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

References

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