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  1. sustenance love

Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. n. The act of sustaining.
  2. n. The condition of being sustained.
  3. n. The supporting of life or health; maintenance: "to deliver in every morning six beeves, forty sheep, and other victuals for my sustenance” ( Jonathan Swift).
  4. n. Something, especially food, that sustains life or health.
  5. n. Means of livelihood.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  1. n. An upholding; the act of bearing.
  2. n. The act of sustaining; support; maintenance; subsistence: as, the sustenance of life.
  3. n. That which supports life; food; provisions; means of living.
  4. n. Synonyms Subsistence, etc. See living.

Wiktionary

  1. n. Something that provides support or nourishment.

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. n. The act of sustaining; support; maintenance; subsistence.
  2. n. That which supports life; food; victuals; provisions; means of living.

WordNet 3.0

  1. n. a source of materials to nourish the body
  2. n. the financial means whereby one lives
  3. n. the act of sustaining life by food or providing a means of subsistence

Etymologies

  1. Middle English, from Old French, from sustenir (14c), from Latin sustenire. (Wiktionary)
  2. Middle English, from Old French, from sustenir, to sustain; see sustain. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)

Examples

  • “Obama, however, seems to have drawn a kind of sustenance from the dinner.”

    Teacher and Apprentice

  • “In arid northern and western China, to depend on the land for sustenance is to be poor.”

    Village Dreamers

  • “They start out as mindless drones whose only purpose seems to be to gain sustenance by consuming the living.”

    Book Review – Patient Zero: A Joe Ledger Novel

  • “The prospect of cannibalism as a means of sustenance is always disturbing.”

    Rabid Reads: "Blanket of White" by Amy Grech

  • “And anyone who would seek to keep you from this love, this light, this source of sustenance, is NEVER thinking about your well-being.”

    Books Are The Love Of Strangers

  • “The world itself is decribed as a mudball which is dependant on the ships to gain sustenance and even what could loosely be conceived of as weather.”

    Fiction Review: Jason Sanford's "The Ships Like Clouds Risen by Their Rain"

  • “Although the speakers reaffirmed their love and loyalty to the sovereignty and integrity of the state of Israel and the high Judaic standards it should be anchored on, Elik and Yonaton asked Americans to divest themselves of corporations which benefitthe Israeli militaryand put pressure on their elected officials not to cave in under AIPAC pressure, as the assessed such support to counterproductive to long-term sustenance of the State of Israel.”

    Former Iraeli Pilots Share Peace Vision with Palestinian Counterparts

  • “Anyone here enjoy The Destroyer novels by Sapir and Murphy as much as me? gobble gobble gobble Steak is the stuff you can bite into, chew, swallow, and gain sustenance from.”

    January 2007

  • “In this essay the author champions the idea that educational researchers can gain sustenance and perspective by drawing explicitly on humanism and the arts in their search for knowledge and understanding.”

    June « 2006 « Bill Ayers

  • “It seems paradoxical to me that people spend their lives dreaming of living full time in a sunny paradise drawing sustenance from the shmoo and with no obligations to fulfill save those voluntarily undertaken and then seem to get pissed off because, having dreamt of this achievement for so long, they find disappointment in attaining the actual goal.”

    We Have Met the Enemy and He is Us

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synonyms (10)

Words with the same meaning

  1. support
  2. maintenance
  1. subsistence
  2. food
  1. victuals
  2. provisions
  1. aid
  2. continuation
  1. endurance
  2. suffering

hypernyms (1)

Words that are more generic or abstract

  1. support

same context (24)

Words that are found in similar contexts

  1. nourishment
  2. subsistence
  3. refreshment
  4. nutriment
  1. livelihood
  2. well-being
  3. consolation
  4. recreation
  1. succour
  2. comfort
  3. solace
  4. accommodation
  1. preservation
  2. encouragement
  3. advancement
  4. necessaries
  1. companionship
  2. repast
  3. nutrition
  4. victuals
  1. gratification
  2. cleanliness
  3. leisure
  4. inspiration

reverse dictionary (49)

Words that contain this word in their definition

  1. maintenance
  2. subsistence
  3. living
  4. sustinance
  5. exhibition
  6. estovers
  7. inhospitable
  8. corody
  9. boscage
  1. malnutrition
  2. pollen-paste
  3. pollinigerous
  4. soul
  5. companage
  6. fend
  7. food-stuff
  8. lifelode
  9. sustentation
  1. withered
  2. air plant
  3. aliment
  4. bread
  5. foster
  6. alimentation
  7. provide
  8. stark
  9. supply
  1. umbilical cord
  2. sustenance
  3. nurture
  4. suckle
  5. ply
  6. bare
  7. barren
  8. bleak
  9. cater
  1. desolate
  2. naked
  3. support
  4. sustentacle
  5. victual
  6. victuals
  7. basket
  8. bield
  9. feed
  1. food
  2. nourishment
  3. succulent
  4. phyllophyte

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  • mikepurvis I love in Legally Blonde when Reese bounces into the library with that big picnic basket, and announces to Viv and Warner's study group that she "brought sustenance." Dec 21, 2006

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‘sustenance’ has been looked up 3685 times, loved by 1 person, added to 30 lists, commented on 1 time, and has a Scrabble score of 12.