1 [usuallysing.] ~ (of sth) (written) the most important part of sth; the most important influence on sth:
Small companies are the mainspring of the British economy. * Her Christian faith was the mainspring of her life.
2 the most important spring in a watch, clock, etc.
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About this entry
This is a English–English dictionary entry.
Sourced from Main Dictionary in Lughet's collection.
This word also appears under other sources in Lughet's collection — see the list below.
Where does this definition of mainspring come from?
This entry for mainspring is sourced from Main Dictionary, one of the dictionaries and corpora merged into Lughet.
Is mainspring a noun, verb, or something else?
In this entry, mainspring is tagged as noun.
Does mainspring appear elsewhere on Lughet?
Yes — mainspring appears under other sources or language pairs in Lughet's collection. See the list below.
What is Lughet?
Lughet is a free trilingual dictionary covering nearly five million entries across Uyghur, Chinese, and English, drawn from more than ten source dictionaries and corpora.