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subsist

[suhb-sist]

Example Sentences

verb (used without object)

to exist; continue in existence.

to remain alive; live, as on food, resources, etc.

to have existence in, or by reason of, something.

to reside, lie, or consist (usually followed by in).

Philosophy.

to have timeless or abstract existence, as a number, relation, etc.

to have existence, especially independent existence.

verb (used with object)

to provide sustenance or support for; maintain.

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Subsist is one of our favorite verbs.

So is lollygag. Does it mean:

to spend time idly; loaf.

to bark; yelp.

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Origin:
1540–50; < Latin subsistere to remain, equivalent to sub- sub- + sistere to stand, make stand; see stand

Related forms

sub·sist·ing·ly, adverb

pre·sub·sist, verb (used without object)

self-sub·sist·ing, adjective

su·per·sub·sist, verb (used without object)

Can be confused: subside, subsist.

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
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Link To subsist

Example Sentences

These adjuncts, despite their limited hours, make enough to subsist on while writing that book or building up that cv.

The family must subsist on a single income while still paying the taxes that finance public schools.

Cicadas in the nymph stage subsist on sap from tree roots.

EXPAND

These adjuncts, despite their limited hours, make enough to subsist on while writing that book or building up that cv.

The family must subsist on a single income while still paying the taxes that finance public schools.

Cicadas in the nymph stage subsist on sap from tree roots.

It's fascinating to think a spider might be able to subsist on plant material.

Most of the resulting corn is fed to livestock who didn't evolve to subsist entirely on corn.

They proposed to live in the open air, and subsist upon potatoes to be dug with the shovel.

With such a level of income one could barely subsist.

As long as tadpoles and young bullfrogs have enough algae and insects to eat, adult bullfrogs can subsist on the younger frogs.

Chimpanzees generally subsist on fruits, but they will hunt on occasion.

Let's see you subsist on nothing but beer, light or not, and stay sober.

On landing, a plant or two only may be found which can manage to subsist where soil does not exist.

If it was too wet to light a fire, they had to subsist on hardtack biscuits and cold sowbelly doused in vinegar.

These archetypal eerie animals are the only mammals that subsist solely on blood.

England is more than ever compelled to subsist on foreign-grown food.

These farmers barely subsist on crowded and overworked land.

People there subsist on fishing and have no sewage treatment facilities.

They figured that the demons would not be able to subsist by themselves.

They dwell in crude thatched huts in forest depths and subsist by hunting and fishing and gathering plants and berries.

The celebrations and the food of old will come and go, but nobody will be asked to subsist on seal or whale.

The hours are long and the pay barely enough to subsist.

Able-bodied immigrants cannot subsist on welfare handouts, so they work.

If those operations cannot subsist on their own, they will fail.

Some subsist in cramped quarters for years awaiting resettlement in another country.

Hereafter, as far as practinable, the troops of this command will subsist upon the country in which their operations are carried.

Microorganisms in their guts may help the endangered animals to subsist on plants.

They subsist on a rain-dependent crop and on raising a few scrawny donkeys, which they sell for cash or slaughter for meat.

It's the editor's lot, alas, to subsist on reflected glory.

Non-owners will have to find a way to subsist some way and they will probably demand a share of the free production from robots.

Higher up the food chain, penguins, seals and winged birds depend on animals that subsist on plankton-eaters.

Hyenas have an undeserved reputation as thieves and scavengers that subsist on the leavings of the larger predator.

Regardless of how well the operations are managed, the pigs subsist in inherently hostile settings.

Native plants and trees are adapted to the local environment and are often able to subsist on rainfall alone.

Because of the crisis, villagers who subsist on bushmeat are often suspicious of outsiders who come to talk about the practice.

Fletcher is one of those lucky individuals who seems to subsist quite comfortably on nothing.

Tenants often subsist on meals of rice porridge, dried fruit and restaurant leftovers.

Some students would subsist on little more than lettuce flavored with calorie-free spray butter flavoring.

Most cable channels still subsist largely on so-called reality shows.

He could subsist on meals, sometimes for days, of peanut butter and bread.

Carthusians subsist on a frugal diet of bread, cheese, eggs and vegetables but no meat.

COLLAPSE

Collins

World English Dictionary

subsist (səbˈsɪst)

—vb
1.	(often foll by on) to be sustained; manage to live: to subsist on milk
2.	to continue in existence
3.	(foll by in) to lie or reside by virtue (of); consist
4.	philosophy
	a. to exist as a concept or relation rather than a fact
	b. to be conceivable
5.	obsolete (tr) to provide with support

[C16: from Latin subsistere to stand firm, from sub- up + sistere to make a stand]

sub'sistent

—*adj*

sub'sister

—n

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
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Matching Quote

"It is, I fear, but a vain show of fulfilling the heathen precept, "Know thyself," and too often leads to a self-estimate which will subsist in the absence of that fruit by which alone the quality of the tree is made evident."

-George Eliot

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