sustain

present singular third person sustains · participle present sustaining · participle past sustained · past sustained

1. transitiveTo maintain, or keep in existence.

   The city came under sustained attack by enemy forces.

   3 more examples

   The professor had trouble sustaining students’ interest until the end of her lectures.

   Sam managed to sustain his erection for two straight hours.

   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.

   1949 June 8, George Orwell [pseudonym; Eric Arthur Blair], chapter 9, in Nineteen Eighty-Four: A Novel, London: Secker & Warburg, →OCLC; republished [Australia]: Project Gutenberg of Australia, August 2001

2. transitiveTo provide for or nourish.

   provisions to sustain an army

   2 more examples

   Yea, forty years didst thou sustain them in the wilderness, so that they lacked nothing; their clothes waxed not old, and their feet swelled not.

   1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Nehemiah 9:21

   We rode five farsakhs today, sustained by a single bowl of curds and tortured by the wooden saddles.

   1937, Robert Byron, The Road to Oxiana, London: Macmillan, Part 2, page 59

   Synonyms: hold

3. transitiveTo encourage or sanction (something).
4. transitiveTo experience or suffer (an injury, etc.).

   The building sustained major damage in the earthquake.

   2 more examples

   […] if you omit The offer of this time, I cannot promise But that you shall sustain moe new disgraces, With these you bear already.

   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[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene ii]

   Shall Turnus then such endless Toil sustain, In fighting Fields, and conquer Towns in vain:

   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

5. transitiveTo confirm, prove, or corroborate; to uphold.

   to sustain a charge, an accusation, or a proposition

   1 more example

   After the vote is taken, the Chairman states that the decision of the Chair is sustained, or reversed, as the case may be.

   1876, Henry Martyn Robert, Pocket Manual of Rules of Order for Deliberative Assemblies, Chicago: Griggs, published 1885, Section 61 (e), page 167

6. lawTo allow, accept, or admit (e.g. an objection or motion) as valid.

   J: Objection! There's no foundation for any of this. / B: Sustained. The jury will disregard Ms. Melnick's last remark.

   1995 November 8, Ed Zuckerman, Morgan Gendel, “Hot Pursuit” (33:16 from the start), in Law & Order, season 6, episode 5, spoken by Executive ADA Jack McCoy and Judge Herman Mooney (Sam Waterston and Ben Hammer)

   Antonyms: overrule

7. 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.

8. To aid, comfort, or relieve; to vindicate.

   His Sons, who seek the Tyrant to sustain, And long for Arbitrary Lords again,

   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

   1 more example

   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.

   c. 1603–1606, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of King Lear”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene iii]

9. entertainmentTo be a long-lasting sound.

   I like how long that drum sustains.

plural sustains

1. entertainmentA mechanism which can be used to hold a note, as the right pedal on a piano.

   To call this music bland is to ignore the down-the-drain vocal fade-aways, the extended sax sustains […]

   2011, Chuck Eddy, Rock and Roll Always Forgets, page 265

2. abbreviationclippingvideo gamesClipping of sustainability.