MAXIM

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does Maxim mean? 

• MAXIM (noun)
  The noun MAXIM has 2 senses:

1. a saying that is widely accepted on its own merits

2. English inventor (born in the United States) who invented the Maxim gun that was used in World War I (1840-1916)

  Familiarity information: MAXIM used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• MAXIM (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A saying that is widely accepted on its own merits

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Synonyms:

axiom; maxim

Hypernyms ("maxim" is a kind of...):

expression; locution; saying (a word or phrase that particular people use in particular situations)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "maxim"):

aphorism; apophthegm; apothegm (a short pithy instructive saying)

gnome (a short pithy saying expressing a general truth)

moralism (a moral maxim)

Sense 2

Meaning:

English inventor (born in the United States) who invented the Maxim gun that was used in World War I (1840-1916)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

Maxim; Sir Hiram Stevens Maxim

Instance hypernyms:

artificer; discoverer; inventor (someone who is the first to think of or make something)

 Context examples 

“My poor papa's maxim,” Mrs. Micawber observed.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

I was afraid of the bias of those worldly maxims, which she has been too much used to hear.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

She was born to discover the falsehood of her own opinions, and to counteract, by her conduct, her most favourite maxims.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

That sounds a dangerous maxim, sir; because one can see at once that it is liable to abuse.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

No man could more verify the truth of these two maxims, “That nature is very easily satisfied;” and, “That necessity is the mother of invention.”

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

It is an old maxim of mine that when you have excluded the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I had fifty minds to buy it myself, for it is one of my maxims always to buy a good horse when I meet with one; but it would not answer my purpose, it would not do for the field.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

But he applied that maxim to our marriage, my dear; and that was so far prematurely entered into, in consequence, that I never recovered the expense.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

I shall say nothing of those remote nations where Yahoos preside; among which the least corrupted are the Brobdingnagians; whose wise maxims in morality and government it would be our happiness to observe.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

I shall understand all your ways in time; but, coming down with the true London maxim, that everything is to be got with money, I was a little embarrassed at first by the sturdy independence of your country customs.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)