remain

English

Etymology

From Middle English remainen, borrowed from Old French remain-, stressed stem of remanoir, from Latin remaneō, maneō, from Proto-Indo-European *men- (“to stay”).

Displaced native Middle English beliven, bliven (“to remain”) (from Old English belīfan (“to remain, stay”)) due to confluence with related Middle English beleven (“to leave behind”), with which it merged. More at beleave and belive.

Pronunciation
  • IPA(key): /ɹɪˈmeɪn/
  • Audio (US)(file)
  • Rhymes: -eɪn
  • Hyphenation: re‧main

Noun

remain (plural remains)

  1. (chiefly in the plural) That which is left; relic; remainder.
  2. (in the plural) That which is left of a human being after the life is gone; relics; a dead body.
  3. Posthumous works or productions, especially literary works.
  4. (obsolete) State of remaining; stay.

Translations
That which is left of a being after its life is gone — see remains
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout#Translations.
Translations to be checked

Verb

remain (third-person singular simple present remains, present participle remaining, simple past and past participle remained)

  1. To stay behind while others withdraw; to be left after others have been removed or destroyed; to be left after a number or quantity has been subtracted or cut off; to be left as not included or comprised.
  2. To continue unchanged in place, form, or condition, or undiminished in quantity; to abide; to stay; to endure; to last.
    There was no food in the house, so I had to remain hungry.
    • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), imprinted at London: By Robert Barker, […], OCLC 964384981, Genesis 38:11:
      Remain a widow at thy father's house.
    • 1898, Winston Churchill, chapter 5, in The Celebrity:
      We made an odd party before the arrival of the Ten, particularly when the Celebrity dropped in for lunch or dinner. He could not be induced to remain permanently at Mohair because Miss Trevor was at Asquith, but he appropriated a Hempstead cart from the Mohair stables and made the trip sometimes twice in a day.
    • 2013 June 28, Joris Luyendijk, “Our banks are out of control”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 3, page 21:
      Seeing the British establishment struggle with the financial sector is like watching an alcoholic […].  Until 2008 there was denial over what finance had become. […]  But the scandals kept coming, […]. A broad section of the political class now recognises the need for change but remains unable to see the necessity of a fundamental overhaul. Instead it offers fixes and patches.
  3. To await; to be left to.
  4. (copulative) To continue in a state of being.
    The light remained red for two full minutes.

Synonyms

Derived terms

Translations
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout#Translations.
Translations to be checked

Anagrams
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