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Definitions

mainspring

[mayn-spring] / ˈmeɪnˌsprɪŋ /












Example Sentences

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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

That’s the mainspring tension of this six-month baseball thing.

From Washington Post ● Aug. 14, 2019

It is the emotional mainspring of extraordinary reserves.

From New York Times ● Oct. 14, 2015

For Mailer, the mainspring of connection was personal, was face time; for all his intellectual energy and imaginative invention, Mailer was the bard of immediacy.

From The New Yorker ● Dec. 10, 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


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