Sample Sentences for
sustain
grouped by contextual meaning
(editor-reviewed)

sustain as in:  sustained by her faith

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We sustained ourselves on bread and water.
sustained = supported
Show 3 more with this contextual meaning
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    The donation will sustain our efforts to help the homeless.
    sustain = support
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    The court sustained the motion
    sustained = supported
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    This, I figured, could sustain me for three or four more days if need be, but then what would I do?  (source)
    sustain = support (provide necessities for)
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Show 10 more with 9 word variations
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    Such ecological diversity sustained an astonishing diversity of plant and animal life.  (source)
    sustained = supported
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    They fell off sideways as the girl veered with them and could no longer sustain their weight.  (source)
    sustain = support
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    That the Career Tributes who survive the bloodbath will divide up most of these life-sustaining spoils.  (source)
    sustaining = supporting
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    That which sustains the universe beyond thought and language, and that which is at the core of us and struggles for expression, is the same thing.  (source)
    sustains = supports
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    Fanny combined with the attractions of her youth and beauty, a certain weight of self-sustainment as if she had been married twenty years.†  (source)
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    I told her, I said, 'Celia, you have to be a League member or a sustainer to participate.†  (source)
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    ...from Charlotte Bronte. "The more solitary, the more friendless, the more unsustained I am, the more I will respect myself."  (source)
    unsustained = not supported
    standard prefix: 'The prefix "un-" in unsustained means not and reverses the meaning of sustained. This is the same pattern you see in words like unhappy, unknown, and unlucky.'
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    Her hand sustain'd a bow;  (source)
    sustain'd = provided
    unconventional spelling: More commonly, this is spelled sustained.
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    With slow, deliberate strokes, I start typing the newsletter: Sarah Shelby to marry Robert Pryor; please attend a baby-clothes showing by Mary Katherine Simpson; a tea in honor of our loyal sustainers.†  (source)
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    Sustained by her aunt's visit, Kit was able to face the morrow with less panic.  (source)
    Sustained = supported
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sustain as in:  sustained through the ages

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For twenty years, the company has sustained its leading position in creating special effects for films.
sustained = maintained through time
Show 3 more with this contextual meaning
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    She started the project with optimism, but she did not sustain the effort required to complete it.
    sustain = continue
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    We sustained the diplomatic negotiations as long as possible
    sustained = continued through time
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    My boy Leo built a good ship, but it won't sustain that kind of stress.  (source)
    sustain = continue to survive (with)
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Show 10 more with 7 word variations
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    He sustained a perfect 4.0 grade-point average through high school and college.  (source)
    sustained = maintained through time
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    Unsustainable.†  (source)
    standard prefix: The prefix "un-" in unsustainable means not and reverses the meaning of sustainable. This is the same pattern you see in words like unhappy, unknown, and unlucky.
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    Renewable energy, sustainable resources, a fixed population.  (source)
    sustainable = capable of continuing through time
    standard suffix: The suffix "-able" means able to be. This is the same pattern you see in words like breakable, understandable, and comfortable.
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    I'd pop free for a first down now and again, but we couldn't sustain anything.  (source)
    sustain = continue through time
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    On the one hand, there were ladies no less important than the two Miss Gunns, the wine merchant's daughters from Lytherly, dressed in the height of fashion, with the tightest skirts and the shortest waists, and gazed at by Miss Ladbrook (of the Old Pastures) with a shyness not unsustained by inward criticism.†  (source)
    standard prefix: The prefix "un-" in unsustained means not and reverses the meaning of sustained. This is the same pattern you see in words like unhappy, unknown, and unlucky.
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    We can spend sixty-eight thousand dollars per tb patient in New York City, but if you start giving watches or radios to patients here, suddenly the international health community jumps on you for creating nonsustainable projects.†  (source)
    standard prefix: The prefix "non-" in nonsustainable means not and reverses the meaning of sustainable. This is the same pattern you see in words like nonfat, nonfiction, and nonprofit.
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    His lungs dilated and sank as if he were inhaling a warm moist unsustaining air and he smelt again the moist warm air which hung in the bath in Clongowes above the sluggish turf-coloured water.†  (source)
    standard prefix: The prefix "un-" in unsustaining means not and reverses the meaning of sustaining. This is the same pattern you see in words like unhappy, unknown, and unlucky.
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    The playful romance we had sustained in the cave has disappeared out in the open, under the hot sun, with the threat of Cato looming over us.  (source)
    sustained = maintained or continued
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    The situation is unsustainable, Zombie.†  (source)
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    Those who remained continued to work the land, but the out-migration of African Americans combined with other factors to make traditional agriculture less sustainable as the economic base of the region.  (source)
    sustainable = able to continue through time
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sustain as in:  sustained wounds

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Every building within two miles of the center of the earthquake sustained damage.
sustained = suffered
Show 3 more with this contextual meaning
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    She sustained a wound in the left arm, but she is expected to recover quickly.
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    I could hardly sustain the multitude of feelings that crowded into my mind.  (source)
    sustain = endure (suffer through)
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    It was the Führer's chin that sustained the blow.  (source)
    sustained = suffered from
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Show 10 more with 6 word variations
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    It's based on small family farms like Salatin's, which practice true sustainable farming.†  (source)
    standard suffix: The suffix "-able" means able to be. This is the same pattern you see in words like breakable, understandable, and comfortable.
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    With this just-sustain'd note I announce myself to you, This gentle call is for you my love, for you.†  (source)
    unconventional spelling: This is more commonly spelled sustained.
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    One bomber sustained seventeen hits from friendly planes, or possibly from its own waist guns.  (source)
    sustained = suffered
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    They're doing great, but the available farmland isn't enough for sustainability.†  (source)
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    How did you sustain those injuries?  (source)
    sustain = get (suffer)
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    The practical examination took place in the afternoon on the lawn on the edge of the Forbidden Forest, where students were required to ... feed and clean out a Fire Crab without sustaining serious burns;  (source)
    sustaining = suffering
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    A point will come when the cover isn't sustainable.†  (source)
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    —Ourself, by monthly course, With reservation of an hundred knights, By you to be sustain'd, shall our abode Make with you by due turns.†  (source)
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    Later the doctors would speculate that when Dad, Luke and Benjamin had wrestled Shawn to the ground—and he'd sustained a concussion—he was already in critical condition.  (source)
    sustained = suffered
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    He had worked on debt sustainability at the IMF for a few years.†  (source)
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meaning too rare to warrant focus

Show 3 with this contextual meaning
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    BRIGGS: Objection. JUDGE: Sustained.  (source)
    Sustained = an objection is upheld by a judge
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    Sustained.  (source)
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    Sustained.  (source)
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Show 4 more
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    Sustained!  (source)
    Sustained = an objection is upheld by a judge
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    Sustained!  (source)
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    Sustained.  (source)
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    Sustained.  (source)
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