sustain

Formssustains, sustaining, sustained

Pluralsustains

1. 1
   verbtransitive

   To keep something in existence or keep it going over a period of time.

   Careful budgeting allowed the family to sustain their business through the recession.

   Regular rainfall sustains the wetlands that countless species depend on.

   Similarmaintain, preserve, keep, support, prolong

   Oppositeend, abandon

   Note

   Much of this sense's work is done by its participle: a sustained attack is one kept up without a break. With abstract objects it means holding something steady against the pull of time. A lecturer may struggle to sustain students' interest to the end. In Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949), a whole culture is built to sustain the mystique of the Party.

2. 2
   verbtransitive

   To undergo or suffer something harmful, such as an injury or a loss.

   Soldiers can sustain serious wounds even when wearing armor.

   The driver sustained minor injuries in the collision.

   Similarsuffer, receive, incur

   Note

   Here the subject is the one that suffers, not the one that acts: a building sustains damage, and a driver sustains injuries. Don't read it as the "keep going" meaning. A sustained injury was received, not prolonged. Older writers stretched the word to anything endured. Dryden's Virgil (1697) has Turnus sustain "endless Toil," and Shakespeare and Fletcher threaten "new disgraces."

3. 3
   verbtransitive

   To provide someone or something with food and other things needed to stay alive.

   Aid shipments helped sustain refugees during the famine.

   A balanced diet sustains the body and keeps it strong.

   Similarnourish, feed, support

   Oppositestarve

   Note

   Food and supplies are the usual means, and the construction is often passive. In The Road to Oxiana (1937), Robert Byron rides all day "sustained by a single bowl of curds." The King James Bible of 1611 uses it of providence keeping a people fed and clothed for forty years in the wilderness. Unlike the "keep going" meaning, the object here is a living body or group.

4. 4
   verbtransitive

   To hold something up or bear its weight, keeping it from falling.

   Massive pillars sustain the cathedral's vaulted ceiling.

   The foundation was built to sustain the entire structure.

   Similarsupport, bear, carry, hold

   Note

   The literal sense, and the one the Latin spells out. Sustinēre, from sub- "from below, up" and tenēre "to hold," came into Middle English through Old French. A foundation holds a building from underneath, but the word has outgrown its prefix. A rope sustains a weight from above, and an animal sustains a load on its back. What matters is bearing the weight, not the direction it comes from.

5. 5
   verbtransitive

   To confirm or back up a claim, showing it to be true or valid.

   The data sustains the theory that the climate is warming.

   Independent studies sustain his earlier conclusions about the disease.

   Similarconfirm, corroborate, support, substantiate, validate

   Oppositecontradict, refute, disprove

   Note

   Its home is formal argument and procedure. One sustains a charge, an accusation or a proposition. In Henry Martyn Robert's Pocket Manual of Rules of Order (1876), the decision of the Chair is "sustained, or reversed" after a vote, and reverse is the natural opposite. The Latin sustinere, "to uphold," survives almost literally here. Keep it apart from accepting an objection as valid: this sense says a claim holds up, not that a motion is let through.

6. 6
   verbtransitive

   To accept or uphold an objection, motion, or claim as valid, especially in a court of law.

   Appellate judges may sustain the lower court's ruling.

   The court sustained the defense's motion to dismiss the case.

   Similaruphold, affirm, grant

   Oppositeoverrule

   Note

   A judge's word, familiar from the two-word ruling "Objection sustained," which means the objection stands. Its opposite is "overruled." The judge is always the subject, and objections, motions and claims are what get sustained. Appellate courts use it the same way when they let a lower court's decision stand.

7. 7
   verbtransitive

   To give someone aid, comfort, and relief, helping them through a difficult time.

   Faith sustained the prisoners through years of hardship.

   Friends gathered to sustain the grieving widow with their presence.

   Similarcomfort, support, strengthen, console

   Note

   Shakespeare and Dryden show the word's older warmth: standing by someone who needs help. In King Lear, a speaker is forbidden to "speak of him, entreat for him, nor any way sustain him," which means taking an outcast's part. In Dryden's Virgil, the sons "seek the Tyrant to sustain." There it means backing a person or cause, close to vindicating them.

8. 8
   verbtransitive

   To encourage or give approval to something, allowing it to continue or grow.

   Public enthusiasm helped sustain the reform movement.

   Government grants sustained the arts festival for another decade.

   Similarsupport, encourage, foster, nurture, bolster

   Oppositeundermine, discourage

9. 9
   nouncountable

   A control or pedal on an instrument that holds a note, keeping it sounding after the key is released.

   The pianist kept her foot on the sustain through the entire chord.

   He released the sustain to keep the staccato notes crisp.

   Note

   Musicians use the noun for both the device and its effect. The pedal or control keeps a note ringing after the key is released; on a piano, the right pedal lifts the dampers off the strings. The word also names the held sound itself. In Rock and Roll Always Forgets (2011), Chuck Eddy praises "the extended sax sustains," and no pedal is involved there.

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