Sustain
[sə'steɪn] or [sə'sten]
Definition
(verb.) admit as valid; 'The court sustained the motion'.
(verb.) supply with necessities and support; 'She alone sustained her family'; 'The money will sustain our good cause'; 'There's little to earn and many to keep'.
Checker: Olga--From WordNet
Definition
(v. t.) To keep from falling; to bear; to uphold; to support; as, a foundation sustains the superstructure; a beast sustains a load; a rope sustains a weight.
(v. t.) Hence, to keep from sinking, as in despondence, or the like; to support.
(v. t.) To maintain; to keep alive; to support; to subsist; to nourish; as, provisions to sustain an army.
(v. t.) To aid, comfort, or relieve; to vindicate.
(v. t.) To endure without failing or yielding; to bear up under; as, to sustain defeat and disappointment.
(v. t.) To suffer; to bear; to undergo.
(v. t.) To allow the prosecution of; to admit as valid; to sanction; to continue; not to dismiss or abate; as, the court sustained the action or suit.
(v. t.) To prove; to establish by evidence; to corroborate or confirm; to be conclusive of; as, to sustain a charge, an accusation, or a proposition.
(n.) One who, or that which, upholds or sustains; a sustainer.
Typed by Eugenia
Synonyms and Synonymous
v. a. [1]. Bear, support, uphold, preserve, hold up, keep from falling.[2]. Nourish, maintain, subsist, keep alive, supply with food.[3]. Suffer, undergo, endure.[4]. Sanction, approve, confirm, ratify.[5]. Justify, prove, establish, confirm.
Editor: Randolph
Synonyms and Antonyms
[See SUPPORT]
Editor: Miles
Definition
v.t. to hold up: to bear: to maintain: to relieve: to prove: to sanction: to prolong.—adjs. Sustain′able that may be sustained; Sustained′ kept up at one uniform pitch.—ns. Sustain′er one who or that which sustains; Sustain′ment act of sustaining sustenance; Sus′tenance that which sustains: maintenance: provisions.—adj. Sustentac′ular supporting pertaining to a Sustentac′ulum a support or sustaining tissue esp. an inferior spine of the tarsus in spiders of the genus Epeira.—v.t. Sus′tentāte to sustain.—n. Sustentā′tion that which sustains: support: maintenance.—adj. Susten′tative sustaining.—ns. Sus′tentātor a sustaining part or structure; Susten′tion the act of sustaining; Susten′tor one of two posterior projections of a butterfly-chrysalis.—Sustentation Fund the scheme by which the ministers of the Free Church of Scotland are supported by voluntary contributions not local or congregational but with a national altruism or solidarity paid into a great central fund out of which equal stipends are paid to all alike.
Inputed by Camille
Examples
- Mutual confidence will sustain us to the end! Charles Dickens. David Copperfield.
- Earnestness is what that Somebody must look for, to sustain him and improve him, Trot. Charles Dickens. David Copperfield.
- The greater part of goods, besides, are more perishable than money, and he may frequently sustain a much greater loss by keeping them. Adam Smith. An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations.
- The Lady Rowena, he said, possesses not the language in which to reply to your courtesy, or to sustain her part in your festival. Walter Scott. Ivanhoe.
- You should sustain yourself better. Charles Dickens. Bleak House.
- But the French Admiralty refused to sustain him, one old admiral saying, Thank God, France still fights her battles on the surface, not beneath it. Various. The Wonder Book of Knowledge.
- Dear, bequeath me that great patience Which has power to sustain A cheerful, uncomplaining spirit In its prison-house of pain. Louisa May Alcott. Little Women.
- This Ph?nician alliance sustained him, and was the essential element in the greatness of his son Solomon. H. G. Wells. The Outline of History_Being a Plain History of Life and Mankind.
- Now I wept: Helen Burns was not here; nothing sustained me; left to myself I abandoned myself, and my tears watered the boards. Charlotte Bronte. Jane Eyre.
- The patent was infringed and assailed, but finally sustained by the highest courts of England. William Henry Doolittle. Inventions in the Century.
- A sort of renewed youth glowed in his eye and colour, and an invigorated hope and settled purpose sustained his bearing. Charlotte Bronte. Shirley.
- The heaviest loss sustained by the enemy was in front of these two divisions. Ulysses S. Grant. Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant.
- This unity is like the sun in the heavens, the light by which all things are seen, the being by which they are created and sustained. Plato. The Republic.
- Sir Richard Webster, now Chief-Justice of England, was my counsel, and sustained all of my patents in England for many years. Frank Lewis Dyer. Edison, His Life and Inventions.
- He was so strong, so sustaining, and he could not be opposed. D. H. Lawrence. Women in Love .
- Always, this flame had burned in his heart, sustaining him through everything, the welfare of the people. D. H. Lawrence. Women in Love .
- This new life of the Doctor's was an anxious life, no doubt; still, the sagacious Mr. Lorry saw that there was a new sustaining pride in it. Charles Dickens. A Tale of Two Cities.
- It weighed fifty-eight pounds, had an engine of between two and a half and three horse-p ower, and a sustaining surface of sixty-six square feet. Walter Libby. An Introduction to the History of Science.
- If it is in the way of school,' said Bradley, always sustaining his dark look at the other, and speaking in his suppressed voice, 'you may. Charles Dickens. Our Mutual Friend.
- I had had no purpose, no sustaining soul within me, anywhere. Charles Dickens. David Copperfield.
- He himself called this a strong measure, but observed that his health was less capable of sustaining excitement than he had imagined. George Eliot. Middlemarch.
- We do not yet understand what causes the heat of the sun or what sustains that undying fire. H. G. Wells. The Outline of History_Being a Plain History of Life and Mankind.
- If called upon to name the most important of all factors of human existence, that which underlies and sustains all others, even to life itself, everyone must agree that it is _food_. Edward W. Byrn. The Progress of Invention in the Nineteenth Century.
- Certainly, the exemplary Mrs. Garth had her droll aspects, but her character sustained her oddities, as a very fine wine sustains a flavor of skin. George Eliot. Middlemarch.
- And I believe I know (indeed, not to make any ridiculous pretence about it, I know I know) who sustains you in it, Mr Merdle. Charles Dickens. Little Dorrit.
- The building in which I found myself contained the machinery which produces that artificial atmosphere which sustains life on Mars. Edgar Rice Burroughs. A Princess of Mars.
Checker: Percy