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SUSTENANCE
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I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
The act of sustaining life by food or providing a means of subsistence
Example:
fishing was their main sustainment
Synonyms:
maintenance; sustainment; sustenance; sustentation; upkeep
Classified under:
Nouns denoting acts or actions
Hypernyms ("sustenance" is a kind of...):
support (the activity of providing for or maintaining by supplying with money or necessities)
Derivation:
sustain (lengthen or extend in duration or space)
Sense 2
Meaning:
A source of materials to nourish the body
Synonyms:
aliment; alimentation; nourishment; nutriment; nutrition; sustenance; victuals
Classified under:
Nouns denoting foods and drinks
Hypernyms ("sustenance" is a kind of...):
food; nutrient (any substance that can be metabolized by an animal to give energy and build tissue)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "sustenance"):
vitamin (any of a group of organic substances essential in small quantities to normal metabolism)
wheat germ (embryo of the wheat kernel; removed before milling and eaten as a source of vitamins)
stodge (heavy and filling (and usually starchy) food)
puree (food prepared by cooking and straining or processed in a blender)
mince (food chopped into small bits)
mess (soft semiliquid food)
meal; repast (the food served and eaten at one time)
kosher (food that fulfills the requirements of Jewish dietary law)
ingesta (solid and liquid nourishment taken into the body through the mouth)
finger food (food to be eaten with the fingers)
fast food (inexpensive food (hamburgers or chicken or milkshakes) prepared and served quickly)
dish (a particular item of prepared food)
dainty; delicacy; goody; kickshaw; treat (something considered choice to eat)
course (part of a meal served at one time)
milk (produced by mammary glands of female mammals for feeding their young)
Derivation:
sustain (provide with nourishment)
Sense 3
Meaning:
The financial means whereby one lives
Example:
he could no longer earn his own livelihood
Synonyms:
bread and butter; keep; livelihood; living; support; sustenance
Classified under:
Nouns denoting possession and transfer of possession
Hypernyms ("sustenance" is a kind of...):
resource (available source of wealth; a new or reserve supply that can be drawn upon when needed)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "sustenance"):
amenities; comforts; conveniences; creature comforts (things that make you comfortable and at ease)
maintenance (means of maintenance of a family or group)
meal ticket (a source of income or livelihood)
subsistence (minimal (or marginal) resources for subsisting)
Derivation:
sustain (supply with necessities and support)
Context examples:
God has given us, in a measure, the power to make our own fate; and when our energies seem to demand a sustenance they cannot get—when our will strains after a path we may not follow—we need neither starve from inanition, nor stand still in despair: we have but to seek another nourishment for the mind, as strong as the forbidden food it longed to taste—and perhaps purer; and to hew out for the adventurous foot a road as direct and broad as the one Fortune has blocked up against us, if rougher than it.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
In the midst of these consultations, several officers of the army went to the door of the great council-chamber, and two of them being admitted, gave an account of my behaviour to the six criminals above-mentioned; which made so favourable an impression in the breast of his majesty and the whole board, in my behalf, that an imperial commission was issued out, obliging all the villages, nine hundred yards round the city, to deliver in every morning six beeves, forty sheep, and other victuals for my sustenance; together with a proportionable quantity of bread, and wine, and other liquors; for the due payment of which, his majesty gave assignments upon his treasury:—for this prince lives chiefly upon his own demesnes; seldom, except upon great occasions, raising any subsidies upon his subjects, who are bound to attend him in his wars at their own expense.
(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)
