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The act of sustaining; support; maintenance; subsistence; as, the sustenance of the body; the sustenance of life.

A plant deriving its sustenance from the air alone; an aërophyte.

feeds or adds to a substance in natural growth. Hence: The necessaries of life generally: sustenance; means of support. Aliments of theiBacon.

Food or sustenance for cattle, obtained from bushes and trees; also, a tax on wood.

Food; sustenance; support of life, in general. Give us this day our daily bread. Matt. vi. 11

allowance of meat, drink, or clothing due from an abbey or other religious house for the sustenance of such of the king's servants as he may designate to receive it. [Written also corrody.]

on out of an estate or other thing for support; as of wood to a tenant for life, etc., of sustenance to a man confined for felony of his estate, or alimony to a woman divorced out of her husband's estate. Blackstone. Common of estovers. See under Common, n.

Sustenance; maintenance; allowance, esp. for meat and drink; pension. Specifically: (Eng. Univ.) Private benefaction for the maintenance of scholars. What maintenance he from his friends receives, Like exhibition thou shalt have from me. Shak. I have given more exhibitions to scholars, in my days, than to the priests.…

t the person so called stands in the relation of parent, child, brother, etc., as regards sustenance and nurture, but not by tie of blood. Foster babe, or child, an infant of child nursed by a woman not its mother, or bred by a man not its father. -- Foster brother, Foster sister, one who is, or has been, nursed at th…

Affording no shelter or sustenance; barren; desert; bleak; cheerless; wild. "Inhospitable wastes." Blair. -- In*hos"pi*ta*ble*mess, n. -- In*hos"pi*ta*bly, adv.

Means of subsistence; sustenance; estate. She can spin for her living. Shak. He divided unto them his living. Luke xv. 12.

The act of maintaining; sustenance; support; defense; vindication. Whatsoever is granted to the church for God's honor and the maintenance of his service, is granted to God. South.

Unprovided with needful or desirable accessories, means of sustenance, etc.; destitute; unaided; bare. Patriots who had exposed themselves for the public, and whom they say now left naked. Milton.

To afford suitable sustenance. [Obs.] Warner.

To wander on foot; to ramble idly or leisurely; to rove. These mothers stroll to beg sustenance for their helpless infants. Swift.

To furnish with the means of sustenance or livelihood; to maintain; to provide for; as, to support a family; to support the ministers of the gospel.

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

e act of sustaining, or the state of being sustained; preservation from falling; support; sustenance; maintenance.

To fit together; to adjust; to accomodate. Thy sustenance . . . serving to the appetite of the eater, tempered itself to every man's liking. Wisdom xvi. 21.

To supply with provisions for subsistence; to provide with food; to store with sustenance; as, to victual an army; to victual a ship. I must go victual Orleans forthwith. Shak.