lengthen or extend in duration or space; "We sustained the diplomatic negotiations as long as possible"; "prolong the treatment of the patient"; "keep up the good work"
sustain
How to use sustain in a sentence. Example sentences and definitions for sustain.
Editorial note
How can they possibly sustain this kind of revenue growth?
Quick take
lengthen or extend in duration or space; "We sustained the diplomatic negotiations as long as possible"; "prolong the treatment of the patient"; "keep up the good work"
Meaning at a glance
The clearest senses and uses of sustain gathered in one view.
undergo (as of injuries and illnesses); "She suffered a fracture in the accident"; "He had an insulin shock after eating three candy bars"; "She got a bruise on her leg"; "He got his arm broken in the scuffle"
provide with nourishment; "We sustained ourselves on bread and water"; "This kind of food is not nourishing for young children"
Definitions
Core meanings and parts of speech for sustain.
verb
lengthen or extend in duration or space; "We sustained the diplomatic negotiations as long as possible"; "prolong the treatment of the patient"; "keep up the good work"
See also: prolong
verb
undergo (as of injuries and illnesses); "She suffered a fracture in the accident"; "He had an insulin shock after eating three candy bars"; "She got a bruise on her leg"; "He got his arm broken in the scuffle"
verb
provide with nourishment; "We sustained ourselves on bread and water"; "This kind of food is not nourishing for young children"
verb
supply with necessities and support; "She alone sustained her family"; "The money will sustain our good cause"; "There's little to earn and many to keep"
verb
be the physical support of; carry the weight of; "The beam holds up the roof"; "He supported me with one hand while I balanced on the beam"; "What's holding that mirror?"
verb
admit as valid; "The court sustained the motion"
verb
establish or strengthen as with new evidence or facts; "his story confirmed my doubts"; "The evidence supports the defendant"
See also: confirm, corroborate, substantiate, support, affirm
Example sentences
How can they possibly sustain this kind of revenue growth?
And each of those channels has a lot of raw bandwidth and can sustain a high transaction rate.
A trumpet can only play one note at a time, while a piano has very limited sustain.
How can you possible build a sustainable business by going from 0 to 8,000 employees in two years?
[c] It was a popular dot-com bubble plan to focus on market share with a free product at a sustained financial loss.
Their banks will hear "Internet merchant did not deliver as promised" and sustain the chargeback automatically.
"At some point you have to build a real business, generate real profits, sustain the company without the largess of investor’s capital, and start producing value the old fashioned way. "Exactly.
His machine, a Farnsworth fusor, should more appropriately be called a "reactor", because it can only sustain a fusion reaction, but it cannot generate power.
* Initiate or sustain joint efforts with people on other projects, so they don't stagnate every time developers get distracted by other commitments.
So how annoying it is when you're bootstrapping a company, you have your price-points carefully set, you're doing a cracker job at concentrating on 'how to sustain the company without investors capital' and then boom.
Here's my personal story, some may find interesting- I was finishing my masters in the UK and split up with my ex girlfriend, this meant I had to get a job quickly to sustain myself because I had nowhere to live and no money.
Of all the players in this terrible tragedy, the terrorists, the police, the news media, the administration, the politicians, the security-industrial complex and so forth -- it's in everybody's interest to create and sustain some huge public spectacle.
Notch strongly believes that the computer should stay a bastion of openness in order to sustain a indie game community--indeed, the majority of my own games I play today are small, independent games that provide a unique experience that I would hate to lose due to higher barriers to entry.
The world circa 1750 where everyone was a farmer and grew their own food and sewed their own clothes and generally did 95% of the activities necessary to sustain their lives, or the world circa 2013 where everyone does a hyper-specialized job and depends on the labor of thousands of other people doing hyper-specialized jobs to maintain their lifestyle?
Frequently asked questions
Short answers drawn from the clearest meanings and examples for this word.
How do you use sustain in a sentence?
How can they possibly sustain this kind of revenue growth?
What does sustain mean?
lengthen or extend in duration or space; "We sustained the diplomatic negotiations as long as possible"; "prolong the treatment of the patient"; "keep up the good work"
What part of speech is sustain?
sustain is commonly used as verb.