See Also: Maintenance(medicine)
Maintenance Fee(money)
Maintenance(money)
in-maintenance(dictionary)
maintenance(dictionary)
MAINTENANCE(finance)
Maintenance fee(finance)
MAINTENANCE(law)
maintenance(dictionary)
Maintenance call(finance)

maintenance (iou)



maintenance noun. ME.
[Old & mod. French, from maintenir MAINTAIN + -ANCE.]
Law (now Hist.). The action of aiding a party in litigation without lawful cause. ME.
T. H. White The lawyers were as busy as bees, issuing writs for..maintenance.
The action of giving aid, countenance, or support to a person in a course of action. LME-L16.
Bearing, deportment, demeanour, behaviour. LME-L16.
Shakespeare 1 Henry IV I saw him hold Lord Percy at the point With lustier maintenance than I did look for.
The action of upholding or preserving a cause, state of affairs, etc.; the state or fact of being upheld or sustained. LME.
Book of Common Prayer The maintenaunce of Goddes true religion and vertue.
The action of keeping something in working order, in repair, etc.; the keeping up of a building, garrison, etc., by providing means for equipment etc.; the state or fact of being so kept up; means or provision for upkeep. LME.
Burke They had acted legally..in their grants of money, and their maintenance of troops. Cornwall Review The equipment is simplicity itself, requiring no maintenance. attrib.: Listener Maintenance engineers at London Airport.
a. The action of providing oneself, one's family, etc., with means of subsistence or the necessaries of life; the fact or state of being so provided. Also, enough to support life; means of subsistence; the amount provided for a person's livelihood. LME.
W. Law The parish allowance to such people, is very seldom a comfortable maintenance. Ld Macaulay The civil servants were clearly entitled to a maintenance out of the revenue.
b. In full separate maintenance. An allowance made to a woman (occas. to a man) by a (former) spouse after divorce or legal separation or during proceedings for these. Cf. ALIMONY 2. E18.
R. Macaulay All those poor unmarried fathers, ruined by maintenance. P. Mortimer I suppose your previous husbands pay a bit of maintenance and so on?
The act of supporting or upholding in speech or argument; assertion of the truth or validity of an opinion, a tenet, etc. M16.
H. R. Reynolds He..appealed..to the authority of Paul in maintenance of his own peculiar opinions.
Phrases etc.: cap of maintenance: see CAP noun1. care-and-maintenance: see CARE noun. RESALE price maintenance. retail price maintenance: see RETAIL noun 1. separate maintenance: see sense 6b above.
Comb.: maintenance dose a periodic dose of a drug sufficient to sustain its effect on the body; maintenance order a court order directing payment of a regular fixed sum for maintenance (sense 6b above) to be paid; maintenance worker: employed to keep equipment etc. in repair.