sus·te·nance

(sŭs′tə-nəns)

1. The supporting of life or health; maintenance or means of livelihood: The factory provides sustenance for half the town.

2. Something, especially food, that sustains life or health: looking for sustenance in the kitchen.

3. Something that sustains something else; essential support: researchers seeking financial sustenance.

[Middle English, from Old French, from sustenir, to sustain; see sustain.]

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

sustenance

(ˈsʌstənəns)

1. means of sustaining health or life; nourishment

2. means of maintenance; livelihood

3. Also: sustention the act or process of sustaining or the quality of being sustained

[C13: from Old French sostenance, from sustenir to sustain]

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

sus•te•nance

(ˈsʌs tə nəns)

n.

1. means of sustaining life; nourishment.

2. means of livelihood.

3. the process of sustaining.

4. the state of being sustained.

[1250–1300; < Anglo-French; Old French sostenance. See sustain, -ance]

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Noun	1.	sustenance - a source of materials to nourish the body aliment, alimentation, nourishment, nutriment, nutrition, victuals food, nutrient - any substance that can be metabolized by an animal to give energy and build tissue milk - produced by mammary glands of female mammals for feeding their young course - part of a meal served at one time; "she prepared a three course meal" dainty, goody, kickshaw, treat, delicacy - something considered choice to eat dish - a particular item of prepared food; "she prepared a special dish for dinner" fast food - inexpensive food (hamburgers or chicken or milkshakes) prepared and served quickly finger food - food to be eaten with the fingers ingesta - solid and liquid nourishment taken into the body through the mouth kosher - food that fulfills the requirements of Jewish dietary law meal, repast - the food served and eaten at one time mess - soft semiliquid food; "a mess of porridge" mince - food chopped into small bits; "a mince of mushrooms" puree - food prepared by cooking and straining or processed in a blender stodge - heavy and filling (and usually starchy) food wheat germ - embryo of the wheat kernel; removed before milling and eaten as a source of vitamins vitamin - any of a group of organic substances essential in small quantities to normal metabolism
	2.	sustenance - the financial means whereby one lives; "each child was expected to pay for their keep"; "he applied to the state for support"; "he could no longer earn his own livelihood" bread and butter, keep, livelihood, living, support resource - available source of wealth; a new or reserve supply that can be drawn upon when needed amenities, comforts, conveniences, creature comforts - things that make you comfortable and at ease; "all the comforts of home" maintenance - means of maintenance of a family or group meal ticket - a source of income or livelihood subsistence - minimal (or marginal) resources for subsisting; "social security provided only a bare subsistence"
	3.	sustenance - the act of sustaining life by food or providing a means of subsistence; "they were in want of sustenance"; "fishing was their main sustainment" sustainment, sustentation, upkeep, maintenance support - the activity of providing for or maintaining by supplying with money or necessities; "his support kept the family together"; "they gave him emotional support during difficult times"

sustenance

noun

1. nourishment, food, provisions, rations, refreshments, kai (N.Z. informal), daily bread, victuals, edibles, comestibles, provender, aliment, eatables, refection The state provided a basic quantity of food for daily sustenance.

2. support, maintenance, livelihood, subsistence everything that is necessary for the sustenance of the offspring

Collins Thesaurus of the English Language – Complete and Unabridged 2nd Edition. 2002 © HarperCollins Publishers 1995, 2002

sustenance

noun

1. Something fit to be eaten:

aliment, bread, comestible, diet, edible, esculent, fare, food, foodstuff, meat, nourishment, nurture, nutriment, nutrition, pabulum, pap, provender, provision (used in plural), victual.

Slang: chow, eats, grub.

2. That which sustains the mind or spirit:

aliment, bread, food, nourishment, nutriment, pabulum, pap.

3. The means needed to support life:

alimentation, alimony, bread, bread and butter, keep, livelihood, living, maintenance, subsistence, support, upkeep.

Translations

sustento

mezzi di sussistenza vitto

sustenance

[ˈsʌstɪnəns] N → sustento m
they depend for their sustenance on; they get their sustenance from → se sustentan or alimentan de

Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

sustenance

[ˈsʌstɪnəns] n (= nourishment) → nourriture f

Collins English/French Electronic Resource. © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

sustenance

n (= food and drink) → Nahrung f; (= nutritive quality) → Nährwert m; to get one’s sustenance from something → sich von etw ernähren

Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007

sustenance

[ˈsʌstɪnəns] n (food) → nutrimento; (livelihood) → mezzi mpl di sussistenza or di sostentamento
there's not much sustenance in it → non è molto nutriente

Collins Italian Dictionary 1st Edition © HarperCollins Publishers 1995

sus·te·nance

n. sustentación, sustento.

English-Spanish Medical Dictionary © Farlex 2012

Mentioned in

References in classic literature

Earlier, this had occupied my mind an hour; now I dismissed it in a moment; there was Eva, I must live for her; there must be ways of living at least a day or two without sustenance, and I must think of them.

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The women and children of a man's retinue may be likened to a military unit for which he is responsible in various ways, as in matters of instruction, discipline, sustenance, and the exigencies of their continual roamings and their unending strife with other communities and with the red Martians.

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In the same manner must a bliss, of which now they could have no conception, grow up within these children, and form a part of their sustenance for immortality.

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"Thou forgettest, however, Ben-Levi," replied Abel-Phittim, "that the Roman Pompey, who is now impiously besieging the city of the Most High, has no assurity that we apply not the lambs thus purchased for the altar, to the sustenance of the body, rather than of the spirit."

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It is not the occasional member of its species that is a man hunter--all are man hunters; but they do not confine their foraging to man alone, for there is no flesh or fish within Pellucidar that they will not eat with relish in the constant efforts which they make to furnish their huge carcasses with sufficient sustenance to maintain their mighty thews.

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"If you have fortunes, you are hereby rendered incapable of enjoying them; if you have none, you are disabled from acquiring any, nay almost of procuring your sustenance; for no persons of character will receive you into their houses.

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Beaufort had saved but a very small sum of money from the wreck of his fortunes, but it was sufficient to provide him with sustenance for some months, and in the meantime he hoped to procure some respectable employment in a merchant's house.

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Then might she hope with a real hope, for the fields would give her sustenance which she could gain by night, while by day she hid among the surrounding hills, and sometime, yes, sometime she knew, the searchers would come, for John Carter, Warlord of Barsoom, would never cease to search for his daughter until every square haad of the planet had been combed again and again.

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Then he would cast a glance of fear at the wolf-circle drawn expectantly about him, and like a blow the realisation would strike him that this wonderful body of his, this living flesh, was no more than so much meat, a quest of ravenous animals, to be torn and slashed by their hungry fangs, to be sustenance to them as the moose and the rabbit had often been sustenance to him.

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To say the truth, there was much need of professional assistance, not merely for Hester herself, but still more urgently for the child -- who, drawing its sustenance from the maternal bosom, seemed to have drank in with it all the turmoil, the anguish and despair, which pervaded the mother's system.

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However, it was necessary to mention this matter, lest the world should think it impossible that I could find sustenance for three years in such a country, and among such inhabitants.

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The snows, during a portion of the winter, were so deep that the poor animals could find but little sustenance. Here and there a tuft of grass would peer above the snow; but they were in general driven to browse the twigs and tender branches of the trees.

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