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sustain. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
sustain, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
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English
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).
Pronunciation
Verb
sustain (third-person singular simple present sustains, present participle sustaining, simple past and past participle sustained)
- (transitive) To maintain, or keep in existence.
The professor had trouble sustaining students’ interest until the end of her lectures.
The city came under sustained attack by enemy forces.
Sam managed to sustain his erection for two straight hours.
1949 June 8, George Orwell [pseudonym; Eric Arthur Blair], chapter 9, in Nineteen Eighty-Four: A Novel, London: Secker & Warburg, →OCLC; republished : Project Gutenberg of Australia, August 2001: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.
- (transitive) To provide for or nourish.
provisions to sustain an army
1937, Robert Byron, The Road to Oxiana, London: Macmillan, Part 2, page 59:We rode five farsakhs today, sustained by a single bowl of curds and tortured by the wooden saddles.
- (transitive) To encourage or sanction (something). (The addition of quotations indicative of this usage is being sought:)
- (transitive) To experience or suffer (an injury, etc.).
- Coordinate term: incur
The building sustained major damage in the earthquake.
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 Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, :[…] if you omit
The offer of this time, I cannot promise
But that you shall sustain moe new disgraces,
With these you bear already.
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url=http://name.umdl.umich.edu/A65112.0001.001
Please see Module:checkparams for help with this warning.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:Shall Turnus then such endless Toil sustain,
In fighting Fields, and conquer Towns in vain:
- (transitive) To confirm, prove, or corroborate; to uphold.
to sustain a charge, an accusation, or a proposition
- (law, of a judge) To allow, accept, or admit (e.g. an objection or motion) as valid.
- Antonym: overrule
- To keep from falling; to bear; to uphold; to support.
A foundation sustains the superstructure; an animal sustains a load; a rope sustains a weight.
- To aid, comfort, or relieve; to vindicate.
c. 1603–1606, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of King Lear”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, :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.
- The template Template:RQ:Dryden Aeneis does not use the parameter(s):
url=http://name.umdl.umich.edu/A65112.0001.001
Please see Module:checkparams for help with this warning.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:His Sons, who seek the Tyrant to sustain,
And long for Arbitrary Lords again,
Derived terms
Related terms
Translations
to provide for or nourish something
- Arabic: عَالَ (ʕāla), (imperfect) يَعُولُ (yaʕūlu)
- Bulgarian: издържам (bg) (izdǎržam)
- Chinese:
- Mandarin: 供养 (zh)
- Danish: forsørge, underholde
- Dutch: onderhouden (nl)
- Finnish: huoltaa (fi), ruokkia (fi), ravita (fi), pitää yllä, ylläpitää (fi)
- French: subvenir (fr)
- Galician: please add this translation if you can
- German: versorgen (de), unterhalten (de)
- Greek: please add this translation if you can
- Greenlandic: please add this translation if you can
- Hungarian: please add this translation if you can
- Icelandic: please add this translation if you can
- Irish: cothaigh
- Italian: please add this translation if you can
- Macedonian: и́здржи (ízdrži)
- Norwegian: please add this translation if you can
- Polish: podtrzymać (pl), utrzymywać (pl)
- Portuguese: sustentar (pt)
- Russian: содержа́ть (ru) impf (soderžátʹ), обеспе́чивать (ru) impf (obespéčivatʹ)
- Sanskrit: यच्छति (sa) (yacchati)
- Spanish: sostener (es), sustentar (es)
- Swedish: please add this translation if you can
- Welsh: please add this translation if you can
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to confirm, prove, or corroborate; to uphold
law: to allow, accept, or admit (e.g. an objection or motion) as valid
to keep from falling; to bear; to uphold; to support
to aid, comfort, or relieve; to vindicate
Noun
sustain (plural sustains)
- (music) A mechanism which can be used to hold a note, as the right pedal on a piano.
2011, Chuck Eddy, Rock and Roll Always Forgets, page 265:To call this music bland is to ignore the down-the-drain vocal fade-aways, the extended sax sustains […]
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