mainspring
Americannoun
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the principal spring in a mechanism, as in a watch.
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the chief motive power; the impelling cause.
noun
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the principal power spring of a mechanism, esp in a watch or clock
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the chief cause or motive of something
Etymology
Origin of mainspring
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
The Fountain’s tradition of extending a wide communal embrace, welcoming underrepresented voices and addressing urgent social concerns, is clearly going to be a mainspring of Caldwell’s leadership.
From Los Angeles Times • Sep. 24, 2025
The mainspring of this imagined future clash is not race and slavery, but science and the environment.
From Washington Post • Apr. 3, 2017
The movie’s ingenious mainspring is the problem of authorship.
From The New Yorker • Mar. 18, 2016
If true, Bicep’s detection of gravitational waves would confirm a theory that the universe began with a violent outward antigravitational swoosh known as inflation, the mainspring of Big Bang theorizing for the last three decades.
From New York Times • Sep. 22, 2014
“It’s how my father taught me. If I don’t wind it consistently, it won’t keep time as well. And if I overwind it, the mainspring might break.”
From "The City Beautiful" by Aden Polydoros
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
