Every pillar the temple to sustain. --Chaucer.
2. Hence, to keep from sinking, as in despondence, or the
like; to support.
No comfortable expectations of another life to
sustain him under the evils in this world.
--Tillotson.
3. To maintain; to keep alive; to support; to subsist; to
nourish; as, provisions to sustain an army.
4. To aid, comfort, or relieve; to vindicate. --Shak.
His sons, who seek the tyrant to sustain. --Dryden.
5. To endure without failing or yielding; to bear up under;
as, to sustain defeat and disappointment.
6. To suffer; to bear; to undergo.
Shall Turnus, then, such endless toil sustain?
--Dryden.
You shall sustain more new disgraces. --Shak.
7. To allow the prosecution of; to admit as valid; to
sanction; to continue; not to dismiss or abate; as, the
court sustained the action or suit.
8. To prove; to establish by evidence; to corroborate or
confirm; to be conclusive of; as, to sustain a charge, an
accusation, or a proposition.
Syn: To support; uphold; subsist; assist; relieve; suffer;
undergo.