sustain

Etymology

From Middle English susteinen, sustenen, from Old French sustenir (French soutenir), from Latin sustineō, sustinēre (“to uphold”), from sub- (“from below, up”) + teneō (“hold”, verb).

verb

1. (transitive) To maintain, or keep in existence.
   The professor had trouble sustaining students’ interest until the end of her lectures.
   The city came under sustained attack by enemy forces.
   Sam managed to sustain his erection for two straight hours.
2. (transitive) To provide for or nourish.
   provisions to sustain an army
   We rode five farsakhs today, sustained by a single bowl of curds and tortured by the wooden saddles. 1937, Robert Byron, The Road to Oxiana, London: Macmillan, Part 2, page 59
3. (transitive) To encourage or sanction (something).
4. (transitive) To experience or suffer (an injury, etc.).
   The building sustained major damage in the earthquake.
5. (transitive) To confirm, prove, or corroborate; to uphold.
   to sustain a charge, an accusation, or a proposition
   After the vote is taken, the Chairman states that the decision of the Chair is sustained, or reversed, as the case may be. 1876, Henry Martyn Robert, Pocket Manual of Rules of Order for Deliberative Assemblies, Chicago: Griggs, published 1885, Section 61 (e), page 167
6. (law, of a judge) To allow, accept, or admit (e.g. an objection or motion) as valid.
7. To keep from falling; to bear; to uphold; to support.
   A foundation sustains the superstructure; an animal sustains a load; a rope sustains a weight.
8. To aid, comfort, or relieve; to vindicate.

noun

1. (music) A mechanism which can be used to hold a note, as the right pedal on a piano.
   To call this music bland is to ignore the down-the-drain vocal fade-aways, the extended sax sustains […] 2011, Chuck Eddy, Rock and Roll Always Forgets, page 265