maintenance
nouncommon in dialogue
- //ˈmeɪnt(ə)nəns//
Actions performed to keep some machine or system functioning or in service.
noun
- 1
Actions performed to keep some machine or system functioning or in service.
They are all preventable by proper maintenance, but non-safety critical maintenance has to be evaluated, so failures are an accepted penalty for keeping maintenance costs down.
- 2
A tort and (in some jurisdictions) an offence committed when a third party who does not have a bona fide interest in a lawsuit provides help or acquires an interest to a litigant's lawsuit.
- 3
Alimony, a periodical payment or a lump sum made or ordered to be made to a spouse after a divorce.
- 4
Child support.
- 5
Money required or spent to provide for the needs of a person or a family.
From Pond to Pond he roamed, from moor to moor; / Housing, with God's good help, by choice or chance: / And in this way he gained an honest maintenance.
- 6
The natural process which keeps an organism alive.
- 7
Software updates that fix bugs and improve stability rather than adding new features.
a maintenance release; a maintenance version
- 8
Variant of maintenance medicineEllipsis of maintenance medicine.
Etymology
From Middle English mayntenaunce, from Old French maintenance, from maintenir, from Latin manus tenēre (“to hold in the hand”). By surface analysis, maintain + -ance. Note that maintain has undergone a sound and spelling change, hence is spelt with -tain-, rather than the -ten- still found in maintenance.
Forms
- plural
- maintenances
maintenance · Actions performed to keep some machine or system functioning or in service.
majestic · Having qualities of splendor or royalty.majesty · The quality of being impressive, great, dignified, powerful,…Majesty · a term of address for royalty and imperiality