master-springn.
/ˈmɑːstəˌsprɪŋ/, /ˈmastəˌsprɪŋ/, U.S. /ˈmæstərˌsprɪŋ/ Chiefly poetic and literary (now rare).
= mainspring n. 2.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > will > motivation > [noun] > motive > general or fundamental
principle?1533
principe?1566
master-springa1586
basea1616
mainspring1695
a1586 Sir P. Sidney Arcadia (1590) iii. iv. sig. Ll1v Knowing them [sc. his men] to be the..master-spring (as it were) which makes all the rest to stir.
1654 R. Aylett Divine & Moral Speculations 40 She's like the Master-spring that first gives notion To ev'ry wheel that in the Clock hath motion.
1683 J. Dryden & N. Lee Duke of Guise v. i. 69 You are the Master-spring that moves our Fabrick.
1785 W. Cowper Task iv. 203 The slope of faces,..(As if one master-spring controll'd them all) Relax'd into a universal grin.
1816 F. H. Naylor Hist. Germany I. i. ix. 348 Religion undoubtedly formed the master-spring of all his actions.
1835 J. H. Newman Parochial Serm. (1837) I. xxii. 331 The one master spring of their whole course of life for the future.
1927–9 H. Wheeler Waverley Children's Dict. IV. 2697/2 The master-spring..of a piece of mechanism is the chief spring which sets in motion or regulates the whole.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2001; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.a1586