Main Line

(mān′)

A group of suburbs of southeast Pennsylvania. The fashionable area was named after the chief railroad line traveling west from Philadelphia.

main line

1. A principal section of a railroad line.

2. Slang A principal and easily accessible vein, usually in the arm or leg, into which a drug can be injected.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

main line

1. (Railways) railways

a. the trunk route between two points, usually fed by branch lines

b. (as modifier): a main-line station.

2. (Automotive Engineering) US a main road

(Recreational Drugs) (intr) slang to inject a drug into a vein

adj

having an important position, esp having responsibility for the main areas of activity

ˈmainˌliner n

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

main′ line′

1. a principal highway or railway line.

2. Slang. an accessible vein that can be used to inject a narcotic.

[1835–45]

main•line

(ˈmeɪnˌlaɪn, -ˈlaɪn)

v. -lined, -lin•ing,
adj. v.i.

1. Slang. to inject a narcotic directly into a vein.

v.t.

2. Slang. to inject (a narcotic) directly into a vein.

adj.

3. having a principal, established, or widely accepted position.

[1935–40, Amer.]

main′lin`er, n.

Main Line

- The principal line of a railway (1841), it also has the meaning "affluent area of residence" (1930s), originally that of Philadelphia, from the "main line" of the Pennsylvania Railroad, which added local stops to a string of backwater towns west of the city in late 19th century that helped turn them into fashionable suburbs.

main line

n (Rail) → linea principale

Collins Italian Dictionary 1st Edition © HarperCollins Publishers 1995

Mentioned in

References in classic literature

Formerly one was obliged to travel in India by the old cumbrous methods of going on foot or on horseback, in palanquins or unwieldly coaches; now fast steamboats ply on the Indus and the Ganges, and a great railway, with branch lines joining the main line at many points on its route, traverses the peninsula from Bombay to Calcutta in three days.

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It was in the midst of the great bulk of the Negro population, and was rather secluded, being five miles from the main line of railroad, with which it was connected by a short line.

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The other main line, namely, that of the Portillo, is of a totally different formation: it consists chiefly of grand bare pinnacles of a red potash-granite, which low down on the western flank are covered by a sandstone, converted by the former heat into a quartz-rock.

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Thomas's Hospital, and through the immense tunnel that passes under the South-Western main line at Vauxhall.

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Some remote fragment of Main Line to somewhere else, there was, which was going to ruin the Money Market if it failed, and Church and State if it succeeded, and (of course), the Constitution, whether or no; but even that had already so unsettled Cloisterham traffic, that the traffic, deserting the high road, came sneaking in from an unprecedented part of the country by a back stable-way, for many years labelled at the corner: 'Beware of the Dog.'

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A little to the south, through an opening in the woods, we could see a section of the main line from London to Brighton.

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As, in the serious style, Homer is pre-eminent among poets, for he alone combined dramatic form with excellence of imitation, so he too first laid down the main lines of Comedy, by dramatising the ludicrous instead of writing personal satire.

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He added: "Alliance has supplied a significant amount of supporting information to the ORR in respect of this application and it is now down to the industry to work collaboratively to ensure the significant investment made in upgrading the West Coast Main Line can benefit the maximum number of people."

Firm vows to fight for direct London trains

OPPONENTS of a high speed rail line between London and Birmingham attacked the case for a new service as "fatally flawed" after it emerged that some inter-city trains on the West Coast Main Line are only half full - even at peak times.

HALF EMPTY TRAINS HIT HS2 CASE ? OPPONENTS; Lack of capacity argument 'flawed'

Karen Thomas fully expects Main Line Health to be in compliance with Stage 1 requirements for meaningful use of health information technology this year.

Meaningful use funding: when should you apply? Hospitals weigh the pros and cons of waiting to seek incentive dollars

She offers a photographic history of the Main Line, the region to the west of Philadelphia which began with the establishment of the Philadelphia and Columbia Railway in 1832.

Historic photos of the Main Line