sustentation
Americannoun
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maintenance in being or activity; the sustaining of life through vital processes.
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provision with means or funds for upkeep.
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means of sustaining life; sustenance.
noun
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of sustentation
1350–1400; Middle English < Latin sustentātiōn- (stem of sustentātiō ) an upholding, equivalent to sustentāt ( us ) (past participle of sustentāre, frequentative of sustinēre to sustain ) + -iōn- -ion
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.
Soon Premier Mussolini ascended this mighty sustentation, planted himself on an imperial-seeming musnud.
From Time Magazine Archive
The Fishmongers had a grant of power to hold land "for the sustentation of the poor men and women of the said commonalty."
From Memorials of Old London Volume I by P. H. (Peter Hampson) Ditchfield
And any who were absent without lawful cause shall forfeit one pound of wax to the sustentation of the said great candle.
From The Thirteenth Greatest of Centuries by James J. (James Joseph) Walsh
Ideals act for good as well as for evil; if they cramp all progress, they nevertheless tend to the sustentation of a certain level of thought.
From The Soul of a People by H. (Harold) Fielding
We regard it as another law, that the distribution of the sustentation money entrusted to the Church should be a distribution, not discretionary, but fixed by definite enactment.
From Leading Articles on Various Subjects by John Davidson
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.
