mainland

name

1. The largest island in the Orkney Islands council area, to the north of Scotland.
2. The largest island in the Shetland Islands council area, to the north of both Orkney and Scotland.
3. A historical region of British Columbia, British North America, British Empire.

noun

Etymology: From Middle English mayne londe; equivalent to main + land. Compare Scots mayn-land, magan-land, madin-land (“mainland”), Faroese meginland (“mainland”), Icelandic meginland (“mainland”).

1. The continent; the principal land, as distinguished from islands or a peninsula.

   “[…]I got to the mainland, where, to my great comfort, I clambered up the cliffs of the shore and sat me down upon the grass, free from danger and quite out of the reach of the water.”

   “You may have not realised when I was using the term mainland Europe, I was excluding the British Isles.”

2. The principal island of a group.
3. Great Britain.

   “All of the people I interviewed were from Protestant backgrounds, with proud British traditions. Yet when they set foot on the mainland, they were met at times with jeering, derision and othering from the very people with whom they were raised to believe they had the most in common.”