By main force

Also found in: Idioms.

Related to By main force: water main, force majeure

by mere force or sheer force; by violent effort; as, to subdue insurrection by main force.

See also: Main

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, published 1913 by G. & C. Merriam Co.

References in classic literature ?

Nor was it merely the stranger who noticed this, because there was a native organization in Coketown itself, whose members were to be heard of in the House of Commons every session, indignantly petitioning for acts of parliament that should make these people religious by main force. Then came the Teetotal Society, who complained that these same people would get drunk, and showed in tabular statements that they did get drunk, and proved at tea parties that no inducement, human or Divine (except a medal), would induce them to forego their custom of getting drunk.

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"If I hold you by main force," she said, "you shall stop and hear me.

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At length, obliged to beat a retreat before superior numbers, they formed an intrenchment behind the large table, which they raised by main force; whilst the two others, arming themselves each with a trestle, and using it like a great sledge-hammer, knocked down at a blow eight sailors upon whose heads they had brought their monstrous catapult in play.