maintenance — English Dictionary

Noun

1. Actions performed to keep some machine or system functioning or in service.

   Usage

   • Uncountable
   • usually

   Examples

   More examples (1)

   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.

2. 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.

   Usage

   • Uncountable
   • usually

3. Alimony, a periodical payment or a lump sum made or ordered to be made to a spouse after a divorce.

   Usage

   • UK usage
   • Uncountable
   • usually

4. Child support.

   Usage

   • Uncountable
   • usually

5. Money required or spent to provide for the needs of a person or a family.

   Usage

   • Uncountable
   • usually

   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.

6. The natural process which keeps an organism alive.

   Usage

   • Uncountable
   • usually

7. Software updates that fix bugs and improve stability rather than adding new features.

   Usage

   • attributive
   • Uncountable
   • usually

   Examples

   a maintenance release; a maintenance version

Noun

1. activity involved in maintaining something in good working order

   Synonyms

   careupkeep

   Broader terms

   repairfixfixingfixturemendmendingreparation

   Examples

   he wrote the manual on car care

2. means of maintenance of a family or group

   Broader terms

   supportkeeplivelihoodlivingbread and buttersustenance

3. court-ordered support paid by one spouse to another after they are separated

   Synonyms

   alimony

   Broader terms

   support payment

4. the act of sustaining life by food or providing a means of subsistence

   Synonyms

   sustenancesustentationsustainmentupkeep

   Broader terms

   support

   Examples

   they were in want of sustenance

   fishing was their main sustainment

5. the unauthorized interference in a legal action by a person having no interest in it (as by helping one party with money or otherwise to continue the action) so as to obstruct justice or promote unnecessary litigation or unsettle the peace of the community

   Synonyms

   criminal maintenance

   Broader terms

   wrongdoingwrongful conductmisconductactus reus

   Examples

   unlike champerty, criminal maintenance does not necessarily involve personal profit