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A tract, which may be capable of sustaining a population, but has been left unoccupied and uncultivated; a wilderness; a solitary place. He will make her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the Lord. Is. li. 3.

ameters. The hoisting rope winds upon one part as it unwinds from the other, and a pulley sustaining the weight to be lifted hangs in the bight of the rope. It is an ancient example of a differential motion.

, sometimes bell-shaped, in which men may descend and work under water, respiration being sustained by the compressed air at the top, by fresh air pumped in through a tube from above. -- Diving dress. See Submarine armor, under Submarine. -- Diving stone, a kind of jasper.

Of uncertain issue or event. We . . . have sustained one day in doubtful fight. Milton. The strife between the two principles had been long, fierce, and doubtful. Macaulay.

Doubleness of heart or speech; insincerity; a sustained form of deception which consists in entertaining or pretending to entertain one of feelings, and acting as if influenced by another; bad faith. Far from the duplicity wickedly charged on him, he acted his part with alacrity and resolution. Burke.…

To remain firm under; to sustain; to undergo; to support without breaking or yielding; as, metals endure a certain degree of heat without melting; to endure wind and weather. Both were of shining steel, and wrought so pure, As might the strokes of two such arms endure. Dryden.

One who, or that which, endures or lasts; one who bears, suffers, or sustains.

That can be sustained or made available or effective in a court of equity, or upon principles of equity jurisprudence; as, an equitable estate; equitable assets, assignment, mortgage, etc. Abbott.

bject exterior to a man, opposed to what is within, or in his mind. Without exterior help sustained. Milton.

carry on, or wage, as a conflict, or battle; to win or gain by struggle, as one's way; to sustain by fighting, as a cause. He had to fight his way through the world. Macaulay. I have fought a good fight. 2 Tim. iv. 7.

furnace, steam boiler, etc., for the fire. -- Fire brick, a refractory brick, capable of sustaining intense heat without fusion, usually made of fire clay or of siliceous material, with some cementing substance, and used for lining fire boxes, etc. -- Fire brigade, an organized body of men for extinguished fires. --…

Anything which floats or rests on the surface of a fluid, as to sustain weight, or to indicate the height of the surface, or mark the place of, something. Specifically:

To cherish; to promote the growth of; to encourage; to sustain and promote; as, to foster genius.

That by which a lever is sustained, or about which it turns in lifting or moving a body.

chain attached at one end to a fixed point, and having the other passed over a pulley and sustaining a weight, while one or more other weights are suspended from the cord at points between the fixed support and the pulley. -- Funicular polygon (Mech.), the polygonal figure assumed by a cord fastened at its extremities…

e exerted by earth or similar substance. Geostatic arch, an arch having a form adapted to sustain pressure similar to that exerted by earth. Rankine.

f natural love and affection. Blackstone. (b) A valuable consideration, or one which will sustain a contract. -- Good fellow, a person of companionable qualities. [Familiar] -- Good folk, or Good people, fairies; brownies; pixies, etc. [Colloq. Eng. & Scot.] -- Good for nothing. (a) Of no value; useless; worthless. (b…

Grotesque action, speech, or manners; grotesque doings. "The sustained grotesquery of Feather-top." K. L. Bates.

Adapted for sustaining a hanging object; as, the hanging post of a gate, the post which holds the hinges. Hanging compass, a compass suspended so that the card may be read from beneath. -- Hanging garden, a garden sustained at an artificial elevation by any means, as by the terraces at Babylon. -- Hanging indentation…

A nerve or tendon, supposed to brace and sustain the heart. Shak. Sobbing, as if a hearstring broke. Moore.