sustain
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: ipa: /səˈsteɪn/
ipa: /səˈstæɪn/
rhymes: -eɪn
Forms: form: sustains
form: sustaining
form: sustained
form: sustained
Etymology: From Middle English susteinen, sustenen, from Old French sustenir (French soutenir), from Latin sustineō, sustinēre (“to uphold”), from sub- (“from below, up”) + teneō (“hold”, verb).
Senses: examples: text: The professor had trouble sustaining students’ interest until the end of her lectures.
text: The city came under sustained attack by enemy forces.
text: Sam managed to sustain his erection for two straight hours.
text: All the beliefs, habits, tastes, emotions, mental attitudes that characterize our time are really designed to sustain the mystique of the Party and prevent the true nature of present-day society from being perceived.
ref: 1949 June 8, George Orwell [pseudonym; Eric Arthur Blair], chapter 9, in Nineteen Eighty-Four: A Novel, London: Secker & Warburg, →OCLC; republished [Australia]: Project Gutenberg of Australia, August 2001:
glosses: To maintain, or keep in existence.
examples: text: provisions to sustain an army
text: Yea, forty years didst thou sustain them in the wilderness, so that they lacked nothing; their clothes waxed not old, and their feet swelled not.
ref: 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Nehemiah 9:21:
text: We rode five farsakhs today, sustained by a single bowl of curds and tortured by the wooden saddles.
ref: 1937, Robert Byron, The Road to Oxiana, London: Macmillan, Part 2, page 59:
synonyms: hold
glosses: To provide for or nourish.
glosses: To encourage or sanction (something).
examples: text: The building sustained major damage in the earthquake.
text: […] if you omit
The offer of this time, I cannot promise
But that you shall sustain moe new disgraces,
With these you bear already.
ref: 1613 (date written), William Shakespeare, [John Fletcher], “The Famous History of the Life of King Henry the Eight”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene ii]:
text: Shall Turnus then such endless Toil sustain,
In fighting Fields, and conquer Towns in vain:
ref: 1697, Virgil, “The Seventh Book of the Æneis”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC, lines 592-593:
coordinate_terms: incur
glosses: To experience or suffer (an injury, etc.).
examples: text: to sustain a charge, an accusation, or a proposition
text: After the vote is taken, the Chairman states that the decision of the Chair is sustained, or reversed, as the case may be.
ref: 1876, Henry Martyn Robert, Pocket Manual of Rules of Order for Deliberative Assemblies, Chicago: Griggs, published 1885, Section 61 (e), page 167:
glosses: To confirm, prove, or corroborate; to uphold.
topics: law
antonyms: overrule
glosses: To allow, accept, or admit (e.g. an objection or motion) as valid.
raw_tags: of a judge
examples: text: A foundation sustains the superstructure; an animal sustains a load; a rope sustains a weight.
glosses: To keep from falling; to bear; to uphold; to support.
examples: text: When I desir’d their leave that I might pity him, they took from me the use of mine own house, charg’d me on pain of perpetual displeasure neither to speak of him, entreat for him, nor any way sustain him.
ref: c. 1603–1606, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of King Lear”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene iii]:
text: His Sons, who seek the Tyrant to sustain,
And long for Arbitrary Lords again,
ref: 1697, Virgil, “The Sixth Book of the Æneis”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC, lines 1122-1123:
glosses: To aid, comfort, or relieve; to vindicate.
Derived terms: self-sustaining
sustainable
sustainedly
sustaining
sustaining program