- Agriculture was the mainstay of the community, although most other rural crafts had disappeared.
- Cloth - mainly wool and linen - was the mainstay of this trade.
- In terms of the size of the contribution, then, it is the informal sector which is the mainstay of community care.
- Inflections, positions, and signpost words are the mainstay of syntax.
- Middle class women, once the mainstay of all volunteer endeavors, are no longer an unlimited resource.
- Milk products typical of nomadic pastoralists formed the mainstay of their diet.
- Newsome is the mainstay of our central defence and worth all your Ibrox millions and more.
- What we once regarded as the mainstay of our society has become the exception and not the rule.
mainstaymain‧stay /ˈmeɪnsteɪ/ noun 
the mainstay of something a)an important part of something that makes it possible for it to work properly or continue to exist: 
Agriculture is still the mainstay of the country’s economy. b)someone who does most of the important work for a group or organization: She was the mainstay of the team.
the mainstay of something a)an important part of something that makes it possible for it to work properly or continue to exist: Agriculture is still the mainstay of the country’s economy. b)someone who does most of the important work for a group or organization: She was the mainstay of the team.