Search the Dictionary

Sustenance. [Obs.] Dr. H. More.

Supporting; sustaining; as, a sustentacular tissue.

To sustain. [R.] C. Reade.

ns by which a living organism is maintained in a normal condition of weight and growth. Sustentation fund (Eccl.), a fund of a religious body for support of its ministers, chapels, etc.; as, the sustentation fund of the Free Church of Scotland.

Adapted to sustain, strengthen, or corroborate; as, sustentative citations or quotations. Sustentative functions (Physiol.), those functions of the body which affect its material composition and thus determine its mass.

Sustentation. [R. or Colloq.] In fine images, in sustention, in irony, they surpass anything that Burke ever wrote. J. Morley.

Contrary or repugnant; discordant; inconsistent; -- followed by to. "Injudicious profanation, so abhorrent to our stricter principles." Gibbon.

Loosed from, or unconnected by, dependence on any other being; self-existent; self-sufficing.

Contrary to reason or propriety; obviously and fiatly opposed to manifest truth; inconsistent with the plain dictates of common sense; logically contradictory; nonsensical; ridiculous; as, an absurd person, an absurd opinion; an absurd dream. This proffer is absurd and reasonless. Shak. 'This phrase absurd to call a vi…

The quality of being absurd or inconsistent with obvious truth, reason, or sound judgment. "The absurdity of the actual idea of an infinite number." Locke.

A making actual or really existent. [R.] Emerson.

To be consistent or coherent; to be in accordance; to agree. "Nor time nor place did then adhere." Every thing adheres together." Shak.

opinion, statement, or action; to be in unison or concord; to be or become united or consistent; to concur; as, all parties agree in the expediency of the law. If music and sweet poetry agree. Shak. Their witness agreed not together. Mark xiv. 56. The more you agree together, the less hurt can your enemies do you. Sir…

In accordance; suitably; consistently; conformably; -- followed by to and rarely by with. See Agreeable, 4. The effect of which is, that marriages grow less frequent, agreeably to the maxim above laid down. Paley.

To expose for the sake of public notice; to display ostentatiously; as, to air one's opinion. Airing a snowy hand and signet gem. Tennyson.

Wholly different in nature; foreign; adverse; inconsistent (with); incongruous; -- followed by from or sometimes by to; as, principles alien from our religion. An alien sound of melancholy. Wordsworth. Alien enemy (Law), one who owes allegiance to a government at war with ours. Abbott.

In a state of action; in force or operation; unextinguished; unexpired; existent; as, to keep the fire alive; to keep the affections alive.

outhern United States, having a serpentlike form, but with four minute limbs and two persistent gill openings; the Congo snake.

the common rule; an irregularity; anything anomalous. We are enabled to unite into a consistent whole the various anomalies and contending principles that are found in the minds and affairs of men. Burke. As Professor Owen has remarked, there is no greater anomaly in nature than a bird that can not fly. Darwin.…

Performed with constant diligence or attention; unremitting; persistent; as, assiduous labor. To weary him with my assiduous cries. Milton.