From Middle English susteinen, sustenen, from Old French sustenir (French soutenir), from Latin sustineō, from sub- + teneō.

• (RP, America) IPA: /səˈsteɪn/
• (Australia) IPA: /səˈstæɪn/

sustain (sustains, present participle sustaining; simple past and past participle sustained)

1. (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 [Australia]: 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.

2. (transitive) To provide for or nourish.

   provisions to sustain an army

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

     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.

3. (transitive) To encourage or sanction (something).
4. (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[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC ↗, [Act III, scene ii]:

     […] 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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     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:

5. (transitive) To confirm, prove, or corroborate; to uphold.

   to sustain a charge, an accusation, or a proposition

6. (law, of a judge) To allow, accept, or admit (e.g. an objection or motion) as valid.

   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.
   • 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]:

     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.

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     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,

• French: maintenir
• German: unterhalten, aufrechterhalten, beibehalten
• Portuguese: suster
• Russian: подде́рживать
• Spanish: sostener

• French: subvenir
• German: versorgen, unterhalten
• Portuguese: sustentar
• Russian: содержа́ть
• Spanish: sostener, sustentar

• German: zuziehen (reflexive), zugefügt werden, erleiden

• German: stützen, aufrechterhalten

• German: stattgeben

• German: stützen, tragen, aufrechterhalten, halten

• German: Kraft geben, unterstützen

sustain (plural sustains)

1. (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 […]