SUSTAIN • E-FREE TRANSLATION.COM • Definition of Sustain

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/səstˈeɪn/ Listen

verb

Sustain v. t. (past & past part. sustained; pres. part. sustaining)

1.

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. "Every pillar the temple to sustain."

2.

Hence, to keep from sinking, as in despondence, or the like; to support. "No comfortable expectations of another life to sustain him under the evils in this world."

3.

To maintain; to keep alive; to support; to subsist; to nourish; as, provisions to sustain an army.

4.

To aid, comfort, or relieve; to vindicate. "His sons, who seek the tyrant to sustain."

5.

To endure without failing or yielding; to bear up under; as, to sustain defeat and disappointment.

6.

To suffer; to bear; to undergo. "Shall Turnus, then, such endless toil sustain?" "You shall sustain more new disgraces."

7.

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.

8.

To prove; to establish by evidence; to corroborate or confirm; to be conclusive of; as, to sustain a charge, an accusation, or a proposition.

Synonyms: To support; uphold; subsist; assist; relieve; suffer; undergo.

noun

Sustain n. One who, or that which, upholds or sustains; a sustainer. (Obs.) "I waked again, for my sustain was the Lord."

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Etymology of 'Sustain'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Sustain" Quotes from Famous Books

... the rigidity of the fibres. The flesh of young animals is best roasted. Fried and broiled meats are difficult to be digested, though they are very nourishing: weak stomachs had better avoid them. Meat pies and puddings cannot be recommended, but strong stomachs may sustain but little inconvenience from them. It is a confined mode of cookery, and the meat therefore is not at all purified of its grossness. When meat pies and puddings are used, they should be moderately seasoned. Baking ...

— The Cook and Housekeeper's Complete and Universal Dictionary; Including a System of Modern Cookery, in all Its Various Branches, • Mary Eaton

... were poison to the Dives, and made them melancholy."[3] You pity them, and they will sneer at you. But what have we here?—"Characters of Imagination—Juliet—Viola;" are these romantic young ladies the pillars which are to sustain your moral edifice? Are they to serve as examples or as warnings for the youth of this ...

— Characteristics of Women - Moral, Poetical, and Historical • Anna Jameson

... often been extremely valuable even though erroneous. Of the Ptolemaic system he says, "We can hardly imagine that Astronomy could, in its outset, have made so great a progress under any other form." It served to connect men's thoughts on the subject and to sustain their interest in working it out; by successive corrections "to save appearances," it attained at last to a descriptive sort of truth, which was of great practical utility; it also occasioned the invention of technical terms, and, in general digested the whole body of observations ...

— Logic - Deductive and Inductive • Carveth Read

... the child's performance is very likely to cause embarrassment. If the child is alone with the examiner, he is more at ease from the mere fact that he does not feel that there is a reputation to sustain. The praise so lavishly bestowed upon him by the friendly and sympathetic examiner lends to ...

— The Measurement of Intelligence • Lewis Madison Terman

... mother to fetch her to their select evening parties, that Mrs. Lindsay ceased to feel chagrined at the sacrifice made to affection. Emma was not long in learning by what pretty names she was called; and with this knowledge came the strong desire to sustain a reputation for wit and beauty. Dora saw the canker-worm at the root of that precious plant for whose perfection she had ...

— Be Courteous • Mrs. M. H. Maxwell

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