Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Email
Answers.com

maintain

 
Dictionary: main·tain   (mān-tān') pronunciation
tr.v., -tained, -tain·ing, -tains.
  1. To keep up or carry on; continue: maintain good relations.
  2. To keep in an existing state; preserve or retain: maintain one's composure.
  3. To keep in a condition of good repair or efficiency: maintain two cars.
    1. To provide for; support: maintain a family.
    2. To keep in existence; sustain: enough food to maintain life.
  4. To defend or hold against criticism or attack: maintained his stand on taxes.
  5. To declare to be true; affirm: maintained her innocence.
  6. To adhere or conform to; keep: maintain a busy schedule.

[Middle English maintainen, from Old French maintenir, from Medieval Latin manutenēre, from Latin manū tenēre, to hold in the hand : manū, ablative of manus, hand + tenēre, to hold.]

maintainability main·tain'a·bil'i·ty n.
maintainable main·tain'a·ble adj.
maintainer main·tain'er n.

Search unanswered questions...
Enter a question here...
Search: All sources Community Q&A Reference topics
Thesaurus: maintain
Top

verb

  1. To persevere in some condition, action, or belief: keep, retain, stay with. See continue/stop/pause.
  2. To keep in a condition of good repair, efficiency, or use: keep up, preserve, sustain. See keep/release.
  3. To supply with the necessities of life: keep, provide for, support. Idioms: take care of. See care for/neglect.
  4. To support against arguments, attack, or criticism: apologize, defend, justify, vindicate. Idioms: speak up for, stand up for, stick up for. See support/oppose.
  5. To put into words positively and with conviction: affirm, allege, argue, assert, asseverate, aver, avouch, avow, claim, contend, declare, hold, say, state. Idioms: have it. See affirm/deny/argue.

Antonyms: maintain
Top

v

Definition: assert, claim; argue for
Antonyms: condemn, deny, desert, discard, forget

v

Definition: care for, keep up
Antonyms: ignore, neglect


v. 1. hold (a position) in the face of attack or competition: the objective to maintain the position until reinforcements arrive.

2. keep (a military unit) supplied with equipment and other requirements.

maintainability n. maintainable adj.

See the Introduction, Abbreviations and Pronunciation for further details.

Law Dictionary: Maintain
Top

To continue, to support, to sustain, 192 N.Y.S. 2d 342, 344; to hold or keep in any particular state or condition, 243 F. 2d 927, 931; in terms of "maintaining" a nuisance, includes both knowledge of the nuisance and preserving and continuing its existence by some positive act or by acquiescence. 256 N.Y.S. 2d 467, 469. Compare maintenance.

Military Dictionary: maintain
Top

(DOD) When used in the context of deliberate planning, the directed command will keep the referenced operation plan, operation plan in concept format, or concept summary, and any associated Joint Operation Planning and Execution System (JOPES) automated data processing files active in accordance with applicable tasking documents describing the type and level of update or maintenance to be performed. General guidance is contained in JOPES, Volumes I and II. See also archive; retain.

Word Tutor: maintain
Top
pronunciation

IN BRIEF: To hold or preserve in any particular state or condition.

pronunciation Today . . . we know that all living beings who strive to maintain life and who long to be spared pain — all living beings on earth — are our neighbors. — Albert Schweitzer (1875-1965)

Wikipedia: Maintainability
Top

In software engineering, the ease with which a software product can be modified in order to:

  • correct defects
  • meet new requirements
  • make future maintenance easier, or
  • cope with a changed environment;

these activities are known as software maintenance (cf. ISO 9126).


Maintainability Index is calculated with certain formulae from lines-of-code measures, McCabe measures and Halstead measures.

The measurment and track maintainability are intended to help reduce or reverse a system's tendency toward "code entropy" or degraded integrity, and to indicate when it becomes cheaper and less risky to rewrite the code instead to change it.


In telecommunication and several other engineering fields, the term maintainability has the following meanings:

  1. A characteristic of design and installation, expressed as the probability that an item will be retained in or restored to a specified condition within a given period of time, when the maintenance is performed in accordance with prescribed procedures and resources.
  2. The ease with which maintenance of a functional unit can be performed in accordance with prescribed requirements.

PD-icon.svg This article incorporates public domain material from the General Services Administration document "Federal Standard 1037C" (in support of MIL-STD-188).

See also

Further reading

  • Blanchard S. B., Maintainability: A Key to Effective Serviceability and Maintenance Management, John Wiley & Sons Inc., NewYork 1995
  • Ebeling C. E., An Introduction to Reliability and Maintainability Engineering, McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., Boston 1997.
  • Patton J. D., Maintanability and Maintenance Management, Instrument Society of America, Research Triangle Park, North Carolina 1988.

External links


Translations: Maintain
Top

Dansk (Danish)
v. tr. - vedligeholde, opretholde, bevare

idioms:

  • well maintained    godt vedligeholdt

Nederlands (Dutch)
in stand houden, handhaven, beweren, verdedigen, onderhouden, volhouden

Français (French)
v. tr. - maintenir, subvenir aux besoins de, entretenir (une armée), garder (un mode de vie), entretenir (qch), continuer à affirmer, soutenir que

idioms:

  • well maintained    bien entretenu

Deutsch (German)
v. - wahren, aufrechterhalten, unterhalten, behaupten, instand halten, unterstützen

idioms:

  • well maintained    in gutem Zustand, auf aktuellem Stand

Ελληνική (Greek)
v. - διατηρώ, συντηρώ, διατρέφω, τρέφω, κρατώ, διατείνομαι, ισχυρίζομαι, υποστηρίζω

idioms:

  • well maintained    καλοσυντηρημένος, καλοδιατηρημένος

Italiano (Italian)
mantenere, asserire, insistere, continuare

Português (Portuguese)
v. - manter, afirmar

idioms:

  • well maintained    bem conservado

Русский (Russian)
поддерживать, сохранять, обслуживать

idioms:

  • well maintained    содержащийся в образцовом порядке

Español (Spanish)
v. tr. - mantener, conservar, afirmar, sostener, cuidar, guardar, persistir en, continuar con

idioms:

  • well maintained    en buen estado, bien conservado

Svenska (Swedish)
v. - upprätthålla, underhålla, försvara, försörja, vidhålla

中文(简体)(Chinese (Simplified))
维持, 使继续, 保持, 维修, 保养

idioms:

  • well maintained    保养得好

中文(繁體)(Chinese (Traditional))
v. tr. - 維持, 使繼續, 保持, 維修, 保養

idioms:

  • well maintained    保養得好

한국어 (Korean)
v. tr. - 유지하다, 지속하다, 주장하다, 지키다, 부양하다

idioms:

  • well maintained    잘 유지된

日本語 (Japanese)
v. - 維持する, 保全する, 主張する, 養う, 守る, 継続する, 支持する

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(فعل) يحافظ‏

עברית (Hebrew)
v. tr. - ‮המשיך, תחזק, פרנס, תמך, שמר, החזיק, התמיד, טען, עמד על דעתו‬


Shopping: maintain
Top
 
 

 

Copyrights:

Dictionary. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.  Read more
Thesaurus. Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary Copyright © 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.  Read more
Answers Corporation Antonyms. © 1999-2009 by Answers Corporation. All rights reserved.  Read more
US Military Dictionary. The Oxford Essential Dictionary of the U.S. Military. Copyright © 2001, 2002 by Oxford University Press, Inc. All rights reserved.  Read more
Law Dictionary. Law Dictionary. Copyright © 2003 by Barron's Educational Series, Inc. All rights reserved.  Read more
Military Dictionary. US Department of Defense Dictionary of Military and Associated Words, 2003.  Read more
Word Tutor. Copyright © 2004-present by eSpindle Learning, a 501(c) nonprofit organization. All rights reserved.
eSpindle provides personalized spelling and vocabulary tutoring online; free trial Read more
Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Maintainability" Read more
Translations. Copyright © 2007, WizCom Technologies Ltd. All rights reserved.  Read more