Dictionary

sustaining en · ADJ

Meanings

1. That sustains, supports or provides sustenance.
   • […] I was thirsty & went to sit in the shade of the tea-terrace. The tea, served impractically in a glass, was refreshing, somehow muddy & more sustaining than tea I am used to. 1988, Alan Hollinghurst, chapter 8, in The Swimming-Pool Library, paperback edition, London: Penguin Books, →ISBN:
   • They laughed and chattered, and passed each other sustaining bits of chocolate in torn silver paper. 1929, Josephine Tey, chapter 1, in The Man in the Queue, New York: Pocket Book, published 1977, page 5:
   • […] eternall life, the end of all our wearisome labours, and all our sustaining hopes. 1641, John Milton, Of Prelatical Episcopacy, London: Thomas Underhill, page 24:
   • Sometimes, I had proceeded restlessly from place to place, stopping nowhere; sometimes, I had lingered long in one spot. I had had no purpose, no sustaining soul within me, anywhere. 1849 May – 1850 November, Charles Dickens, chapter 58, in The Personal History of David Copperfield, London: Bradbury & Evans, […], published 1850, →OCLC:
   • 1771, Elizabeth Griffith, The History of Lady Barton, London: T. Davies & T. Cadell, Volume 2, Letter 31, p. 21, I turned quick to look for him, and saw him coming towards me, with another gentleman—But I saw no more, my senses forsook me; in spite of Maria’s sustaining arm, I fell motionless on the ground.

Forms

Deriveds

unsustaining · sustaining program · self-sustaining · sustainingly · sustaining programme · nonsustaining

Translations (4)

bg потвърждаващ (that sustains, supports or provides sustenance) · bg подкрепящ (that sustains, supports or provides sustenance) · ga cothabhálach (that sustains, supports or provides sustenance) · mi whakamanapou (that sustains, supports or provides sustenance)

sustaining en · NOUN

Meanings

1. The process by which something is sustained or upheld.
   • Beginnings are very different from sustainings; the irregular, often violent, and improvised actions of the founder hero must be succeeded by the regular election of leaders according to law. 2012, Alan Ryan, On Politics:

Forms

sustaining en · VERB

Meanings

1. (form-of, gerund, participle, present) present participle and gerund of sustain
   form of sustain
   • Tony's face expressed relief, and Nettie sat silent for a moment until the vicar said “It was a generous impulse, but it may have been a momentary one, while in the case of monk and crusader there must have been a sustaining purpose, and possibly a great abnegation, a leaving of lands and possessions.” 1907 January, Harold Bindloss, chapter 20, in The Dust of Conflict, 1st Canadian edition, Toronto, Ont.: McLeod & Allen, →OCLC: