From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishthe mainlandthe mainlandSGthe main area of land that forms a country, as compared to islands near it that are also part of that country flights between a Greek island and the mainlandon the mainland terrorist attacks both in Northern Ireland and on the mainland → mainland
Examples from the Corpus
on the mainland• Sepulchers face the sea, as on the mainland, but on this tiny island death seems everywhere.• Back on the mainland she was again struck by the beauty of the scene.• Grace's brothers were usually there too, but that night they were in Bamburgh, on the mainland.• It was another still island day and I could hear the sounds of a motorbike and chainsaw on the mainland.• And that those who may otherwise have left the province in search of employment on the mainland are being forced to think again.• He was asked to determine by investigation whether a given place was on an island or on the mainland.• It is now the only town on the mainland to be left with trams.• Some are relict populations of forms which, on the mainland, have long since succumbed in the struggle for survival. 