max

a printed punctuation mark (‽), available only in some typefaces, designed to combine the question mark (?) and the exclamation point (!), indicating a mixture of query and interjection, as after a rhetorical question.

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adverb

maximally.

Verb phrases

max out,

to reach a point at which no more improvement, profit, or benefit can occur; level off: In her last job she maxed out at $25,000 a year.

to reach the limit of one's capacity, endurance, etc.: The sales department has maxed out and needs more personnel to call on new clients.

Idioms

to the max, to the greatest or furthest degree; totally: That book is disgusting to the max.

Origin:
by shortening

Dictionary.com Unabridged

noun

a male given name, form of Maximilian.

Trademark.

Cinemax: a cable television channel.

maximum.

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2013.
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Link To Max

Collins

World English Dictionary

max (mæks)

—n
1.	the most significant, highest, furthest, or greatest thing
2.	to the max to the ultimate extent

max.

—*abbreviation for*
	maximum

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
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Etymonline

Word Origin & History

max

"to reach the maximum level," by 1986, colloquial, from maximize or related words.

Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
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Slang Dictionary

max definition

n.
the maximum. (See also to the max.) : I want the max. I'm hungry.

Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions by Richard A. Spears.Fourth Edition.
Copyright 2007. Published by McGraw Hill.
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American Heritage

Abbreviations & Acronyms

max
maximum

MAX
Cinemax

max.
maximum

Example sentences from the web

The woman is furious and asks for max, which is my secret agent lover man.

Sam feeds max and offers advice, though he steals his astrogation manuals.

Max learns that sam had tried to claim the deposit for himself.

The pressure is immense, but max succeeds and the ship returns to known space.

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Slang

grody to the max max out

maxed out to the max

Matching Quote

"How might one describe Max Beerbohm to someone who knows nothing about him? Well, for a start, one might imagine D.H. Lawrence. Picture the shagginess of Lawrence, his thick beard, his rough-cut clothes, his disdain for all the social and physical niceties. Recall his passionateness—his passion, so to say, for passion itself—his darkness, his gloom. Think back to his appeal to the primary instincts, his personal messianism, his refusal to deal with anything smaller than capital "D" Destiny. Do not neglect his humorlessness, his distaste for all that otherwise passed for being civilized, his blood theories and manifold roiling hatreds. Have you, then, D.H. Lawrence firmly in mind? Splendid. Now reverse all of Lawrence's qualities and you will have a fair beginning notion of Max Beerbohm, who, after allowing that Lawrence was a man of "unquestionable genius," felt it necessary to add, "he never realized, don't you know—he never suspected that to be stark, staring mad is somewhat of a handicap to a writer.""

-Joseph Epstein