subsist
Americanverb (used without object)
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to exist; continue in existence.
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to remain alive; live, as on food, resources, etc.
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to have existence in, or by reason of, something.
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to reside, lie, or consist (usually followed byin ).
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Philosophy.
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to have timeless or abstract existence, as a number, relation, etc.
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to have existence, especially independent existence.
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verb (used with object)
verb
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(often foll by on) to be sustained; manage to live
to subsist on milk
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to continue in existence
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(foll by in) to lie or reside by virtue (of); consist
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philosophy
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to exist as a concept or relation rather than a fact
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to be conceivable
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obsolete (tr) to provide with support
Other Word Forms
- presubsist verb (used without object)
- self-subsisting adjective
- subsistent adjective
- subsister noun
- subsistingly adverb
- supersubsist verb (used without object)
Etymology
Origin of subsist
1540–50; < Latin subsistere to remain, equivalent to sub- sub- + sistere to stand, make stand; stand
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Even Oliver, a man who long subsisted on dips, has nothing bad to say.
From Salon
The men ran out of food, subsisting on what they scrounged up: vitamins pills and pancake mix.
From Los Angeles Times
Back before California was settled by Europeans and others, the Miwok and Nisenan subsisted on a hunter-gatherer diet of acorns, venison, salmon, pine nuts, elderberries, and other berries and plants.
From Los Angeles Times
The only survivor is his younger sister, Nezuko, who has been turned into an oni, a carnivorous demon who usually subsists on a diet of humans and is averse to sunlight.
From Los Angeles Times
Yet the text’s unhurried recollections reflect its content: “Homework” feels leisurely as if to reflect the functional, socialist-adjacent government that allows its characters to subsist.
From Los Angeles Times
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
