maintenance

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   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

   unlike champerty, criminal maintenance does not necessarily involve personal profit

2. 2
   noun

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

   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.

3. 3
   noun

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

   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.

4. 4
   noun

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

   a maintenance release; a maintenance version

5. 5
   noun

   activity involved in maintaining something in good working order

6. 6
   noun

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

7. 7
   noun

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

8. 8
   noun

   means of maintenance of a family or group

Etymology

From Middle English mayntenaunce, from Old French maintenance, from maintenir, from Latin manus tenēre (“to hold in the hand”). By surface analysis, maintain + -ance. Note that maintain has undergone a sound and spelling change, hence is spelt with -tain-, rather than the -ten- still found in maintenance.