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To keep from falling; to bear; to uphold; to support; as, a foundation sustains the superstructure; a beast sustains a load; a rope sustains a weight. Every pillar the temple to sustain. Chaucer.

Capable of being sustained or maintained; as, the action is not sustainable.

Held up to a certain pitch, degree, or level; uniform; as, sustained pasion; a sustained style of writing; a sustained note in music.

One who, or that which, sustains. Waterland.

The act of sustaining; maintenance; support. Milton. Lowell.

To endure; to sustain; to submit to. [Thou] shalt abide her judgment on it. Tennyson.

h; particularly, the expulsion of the human fetus prematurely, or before it is capable of sustaining life; miscarriage.

terfeit; to simulate. With acted fear the villain thus pursued. Dryden. To act a part, to sustain the part of one of the characters in a play; hence, to simulate; to dissemble. -- To act the part of, to take the character of; to fulfill the duties of.

A plane or arched surface for sustaining bodies by its movement through the air; a spread wing, as of a bird.

The science that treats of the equilibrium of elastic fluids, or that of bodies sustained in them. Hence it includes aëronautics.

Actingpatient, or sustaining, action. [Archaic] "The body agent." Bacon.

r plate of iron having one or more angles, used for forming the corners, or connecting or sustaining the sides of an iron structure to which it is riveted. -- Angle leaf (Arch.), a detail in the form of a leaf, more or less conventionalized, used to decorate and sometimes to strengthen an angle. -- Angle meter, an in…

Incombustible; capable of sustaining a strong heat without alteration of form or properties.

Iron bars or framing employed for the consolidation of a building, as in sustaining slender columns, holding up canopies, etc. Oxf. Gloss.

One who sustains a great burden.

s, to arrange them so as to cause the ship to move astern. -- To back up, to support; to sustain; as, to back up one's friends. -- To back a warrant (Law), is for a justice of the peace, in the county where the warrant is to be executed, to sign or indorse a warrant, issued in another county, to apprehend an offender…

The column of bones in the back which sustains and gives firmness to the frame; the spine; the vertebral or spinal column.

less properly, any belt. [Also spelt bawdrick.] A radiant baldric o'er his shoulder tied Sustained the sword that glittered at his side. Pope.

To support or sustain; to hold up.

One who, or that which, bears, sustains, or carries. "Bearers of burdens." 2 Chron. ii. 18. "The bearer of unhappy news." Dryden.