sustain

sus·tain

1. To keep in existence; maintain.
2. To supply with necessities or nourishment; provide for.
3. To support from below; keep from falling or sinking; prop.
4. To support the spirits, vitality, or resolution of; encourage.
5. To bear up under; withstand: can't sustain the blistering heat.
6. To experience or suffer: sustained a fatal injury.
7. To affirm the validity of: The judge has sustained the prosecutor's objection.
8. To prove or corroborate; confirm.
9. To keep up (a joke or assumed role, for example) competently.

Origin: Middle English sustenen, from Old French sustenir, from Latin sustinēre : sub-, from below; see sub-  + tenēre, to hold; see ten- in Indo-European roots.

Related Forms:

• sustainability sus·tainˌa·bilˈi·ty noun

• sustainable sus·tainˈa·ble adjective

• sustainer sus·tainˈer noun

• sustainment sus·tainˈment noun