The AI-powered English dictionary
usually uncountable, plural maintenances
Actions performed to keep some machine or system functioning or in service. quotations examples
They are all preventable by proper maintenance, but non-safety critical maintenance has to be evaluated, so failures are an accepted penalty for keeping maintenance costs down.
2019 October, Ian Walmsley, “Cleaning up”, in Modern Railways, page 42
(law) A tort and (in some jurisdictions) an offence 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. examples
(law, UK) Alimony, a periodical payment or a lump sum made or ordered to be made to a spouse after a divorce. examples
(law) Child support. examples
Money required or spent to provide for the needs of a person or a family. quotations examples
From Pond to Pond he roamed, from moor to moor; / Housing, with God's good help, by choice or chance: / And in this way he gained an honest maintenance.
1815 , William Wordsworth, Resolution and Independence
(biology) The natural process which keeps an organism alive.