the profit or lucre a person reaps from his trade, employment, or industry. Some derive the word from the German gewinn: whereof the Italians had made guadagno; the French and English gain.

There are legal and reputable gains, as well as fordid and infamous ones. What is gained by gaming is of the latter description. Such gains are not acknowledged by law, so that the payment is not legally binding on the loser.

in Architecture, is the workman's term for the bevelling shoulder of a joist or other timber. It is used also for the lapping of the end of the joist, &c. upon a trimmer or girder; and then the thickness of the shoulder is cut into the trimmer; also bevelling upwards, that it may just receive the gain; and so the joist and trimmer lie even and level with the surface. This way of working is used in floors and hearths.

To GAIN the Wind, in sea language, is to arrive on the weather side or to windward of some other vessel in sight, when both are plying to windward, or sailing as near the wind as possible.