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sustain
[ suh-steyn ]
verb (used with object)
- to support, hold, or bear up from below; bear the weight of, as a structure.
Synonyms: carry
- to bear (a burden, charge, etc.).
- to undergo, experience, or suffer (injury, loss, etc.); endure without giving way or yielding.
Synonyms: bear
- to keep (a person, the mind, the spirits, etc.) from giving way, as under trial or affliction.
- to keep up or keep going, as an action or process:
to sustain a conversation.
Synonyms: maintain
- to supply with food, drink, and other necessities of life.
- to provide for (an institution or the like) by furnishing means or funds.
- to support (a cause or the like) by aid or approval.
- to uphold as valid, just, or correct, as a claim or the person making it:
The judge sustained the lawyer's objection.
- to confirm or corroborate, as a statement:
Further investigation sustained my suspicions.
sustain
/ səˈsteɪnɪdlɪ; səˈsteɪn /
verb
- to hold up under; withstand
to sustain great provocation
- to undergo (an injury, loss, etc); suffer
to sustain a broken arm
- to maintain or prolong
to sustain a discussion
- to support physically from below
- to provide for or give support to, esp by supplying necessities
to sustain a charity
to sustain one's family
- to keep up the vitality or courage of
- to uphold or affirm the justice or validity of
to sustain a decision
- to establish the truth of; confirm
noun
- music the prolongation of a note, by playing technique or electronics
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Derived Forms
- sustainedly, adverb
- susˈtained, adjective
- susˈtaining, adjective
- susˈtainment, noun
- susˈtainingly, adverb
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Other Words From
- sus·tain·a·ble adjective
- sus·tain·ing·ly adverb
- sus·tain·ment noun
- non·sus·tain·ing adjective
- un·sus·tain·ing adjective
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Word History and Origins
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Word History and Origins
Origin of sustain1
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Example Sentences
They took me in and helped sustain me in the days that followed.
A winning team may pack the stadium, but you need that packed stadium to get top recruits and sustain victories.
How long can they sustain this momentum without falling victim to the same pitfalls as nearly every other long-running series?
Those were the very ills that you wanted to defeat, not help sustain.
Duhozanye has the land and the need, but lacks the $300,000 it will cost to build and sustain.
She was therefore prepared to sustain her part in the drama Routemberg was bringing on the tapis.
The ability to sustain the tone for a long time will increase, and with it the power of the muscles exercised.
Whenever a marriage can be set aside for some illegality, and is not, it will sustain her dower on his death.
Previous to this hour the Girondists had wished to sustain the throne, and merely to surround it with free institutions.
Those required to sustain life and preserve decency, besides other things to maintain her in her social condition.
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