Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun The act of maintaining or the state of being maintained.
  • noun The work of keeping something in proper condition; upkeep.
  • noun Provision of support or livelihood.
  • noun Means of support or livelihood.
  • noun Law The wrongful aiding of another in the pursuit or defense of a lawsuit, especially in jurisdictions where nonparties are legally prohibited to provide financial assistance.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The act of maintaining, keeping up, supporting, or upholding; preservation; sustentation; vindication: as, the maintenance of a family; the maintenance of right.
  • noun That which maintains or supports; means of livelihood.
  • noun Bearing; behavior.
  • noun In law
  • noun An officious intermeddling in a suit in which the meddler has no interest, by assisting either party with means to prosecute or defend it. This is a punishable offense at common law.
  • noun Formerly, a like intermeddling with the controversy of others, as to land, by wrongfully taking or holding possession in aid of one party.
  • noun In a more general sense, an interfering with the due course of justice.
  • noun Synonyms Justification, preservation.—2. Subsistence, Livelihood, etc. See living.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun The act of maintaining; sustenance; support; defense; vindication.
  • noun That which maintains or supports; means of sustenance; supply of necessaries and conveniences.
  • noun (Crim. Law) An officious or unlawful intermeddling in a cause depending between others, by assisting either party with money or means to carry it on. See Champerty.
  • noun Those actions required for the care of machinery, a building, etc., to keep it clean and in proper functioning condition, and to prevent or forestall damage due to normal use.
  • noun Payments, such as child support or alimony, to a dependent child not living with one or to a divorced wife.
  • noun See under Cap.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun Actions performed to keep some machine or system functioning or in service
  • noun law A tort 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.
  • noun law A provision ordered to be made by way of periodical payments or a lump sum, as after a divorce for a spouse.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun the act of sustaining life by food or providing a means of subsistence
  • noun court-ordered support paid by one spouse to another after they are separated
  • noun means of maintenance of a family or group
  • noun the unauthorized interference in a legal action by a person having no interest in it (as by helping one party with money or otherwise to continue the action) so as to obstruct justice or promote unnecessary litigation or unsettle the peace of the community
  • noun activity involved in maintaining something in good working order

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English maintenaunce, from Old French maintenance, from maintenir, to maintain; see maintain.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English mayntenaunce, from Old French maintenance, from maintenir, from Latin manus tenere ("to hold in the hand").

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Examples

  • I was making $16.21 an hour, because I did some networking on the inside with a family friend who told me what I would need to learn in order to become a maintenance person, or what they called a maintenance technician, which is really just a janitor, but laughs that's a good title for it.

    Tom Matlack: Life After Prison: How One Man Found Redemption Through Fatherhood Tom Matlack 2010

  • I ` m doing what they call maintenance chemo, a user-friendly chemo agent.

    CNN Transcript Sep 13, 2007 2007

  • The square open-air cloister, like many other areas of the church, had forgotten the meaning of the word maintenance.

    Esperanza’s Box of Saints María Amparo Escandón 1999

  • Roberts, one of the members of the Committee, is only anxious for what he calls the maintenance of liturgical tradition; he says that there is a science of liturgy, and that it is of the utmost importance to keep in touch with it.

    The Upton Letters Arthur Christopher Benson 1893

  • Manage the development of annual and short term maintenance plans developed by the Portfolio Managers and ensure all associated work orders are designed and constructed in compliance with all City and State codes;

    News - chicagotribune.com 2011

  • I think how we want to think about on a fiscal year basis is, in terms of just what we call the maintenance and compliance CapEx, we're still thinking we're probably running about around a $400 million type of number there for the fiscal year.

    unknown title 2012

  • "We have an industry out there that supports the myth that after six months, you'll reach what they call the maintenance stage, where everything will be in order and you don't have to pay any special attention to what you're doing," says Rodgers, whose findings appear in the

    canada.com Top Stories 2010

  • "Right now, we are entering what we call the maintenance phase, where we leave some absorbent pads out there and keep the vessel boomed off," Pierre said.

    The Facts: News 2009

  • "Right now, we are entering what we call the maintenance phase, where we leave some absorbent pads out there and keep the vessel boomed off," Pierre said.

    The Facts: News 2009

  • It was a little larger on the underground side but you can see that on our underground business we have quicker pricing power on the aftermarket that we do in the surface business, surface carries a number of long-term, what we call maintenance to repair contracts.

    unknown title 2008

Comments

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  • "Maintenance is the bugbear of anything, including oneself."

    - Wendy Whiteley, interview with Andrew Denton on 'Enough Rope', 8 Dec 2008.

    December 8, 2008