Sustain transitive verb [ imperfect & past participle Sustained ; present participle & verbal noun Sustaining .] [ Middle English sustenen , susteinen , Old French sustenir , sostenir , French soutenir (the French prefix is properly from Latin subtus below, from sub under), Latin sustinere ; prefix sus- (see Sub- ) + tenere to hold. See Tenable , and confer Sustenance .]
1. To keep from falling; to bear; to uphold; to support; as, a foundation sustains the superstructure; a beast sustains a load; a rope sustains a weight.

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.

Sustain noun One who, or that which, upholds or sustains; a sustainer. [ Obsolete]

I waked again, for my sustain was the Lord.

Milton.

Sustainable adjective [ Confer French soutenable , Old French soustenable .] Capable of being sustained or maintained; as, the action is not sustainable .

Sustained adjective Held up to a certain pitch, degree, or level; uniform; as, sustained pasion; a sustained style of writing; a sustained note in music.

Sustainer noun One who, or that which, sustains. Waterland.

Sustainment noun The act of sustaining; maintenance; support. Milton. Lowell.

Sustaltic adjective [ Greek ... contractile, from ... to draw together, to moderate; ... together + ... to place.] Mournful; -- said of a species of music among the ancient Greeks. Busby.

Sustenance noun [ Old French sustenance , sostenance , soustenance : confer Latin sustenentia endurance. See Sustain .]
1. The act of sustaining; support; maintenance; subsistence; as, the sustenance of the body; the sustenance of life.

2. That which supports life; food; victuals; provisions; means of living; as, the city has ample sustenance . "A man of little sustenance ." Chaucer.

For lying is thy sustenance , thy food.

Milton.

Sustentacle noun [ Latin sustentaculum . See Sustentation .] Sustenance. [ Obsolete] Dr. H. More.

Sustentacular adjective [ See Sustenance .] (Anat.) Supporting; sustaining; as, a sustentacular tissue.

Sustentate transitive verb To sustain. [ R.] C. Reade.

Sustentation noun [ Latin sustentatio sustenance, maintenance, from sustentare to support, maintain, v. intens. from sustinere to sustain: confer French sustentation . See Sustain .]
1. The act of sustaining, or the state of being sustained; preservation from falling; support; sustenance; maintenance.

2. (Physiol.) The aggregate of the functions by which a living organism is maintained in a normal condition of weight and growth.

Sustentation fund (Eccl.) , a fund of a religious body for support of its ministers, chapels, etc.; as, the sustentation fund of the Free Church of Scotland.

Sustentative adjective Adapted to sustain, strengthen, or corroborate; as, sustentative citations or quotations.

Sustentative functions (Physiol.) , those functions of the body which affect its material composition and thus determine its mass.

Sustention noun Sustentation. [ R. or Colloq.]

In fine images, in sustention , in irony, they surpass anything that Burke ever wrote.

J. Morley.

Suster, Sustre noun ; plural Susters Sustres , or Sustren Sister. [ Obsolete] Chaucer.

There are seven sustren , that serve truth ever.

Piers Plowman.

Susu noun (Zoology) See Soosoo .

Susurrant adjective [ Latin susurrans , present participle from susurrare to whisper.] Whispering. [ R.] "The soft susurrant sigh." Poetry of Anti-Jacobin.

Susurration noun [ Latin susurratio , from susurrare to whisper: confer French susurration .] A whispering; a soft murmur. "Soft susurrations of the trees." Howell.

Susurringly adverb In the manner of a whisper. [ Obsolete]

Susurrous adjective [ Latin susurrus .] Whispering; rustling; full of whispering sounds. [ R.]

Susurrus noun [ Latin ] The act of whispering; a whisper; a murmur. De Quincey.

The soft susurrus and sighs of the branches.

Longfellow.

Sutile adjective [ Latin sutilis , from suere to sew: confer French sutile .] Done by stitching. [ R.] Boswell.

Sutler noun [ Dutch zoetelaar , OD. soetelaar , a small trader, especially in camps, from soetelen to undertake low offices; confer German sudeln to do dirty work, to sully, soil, English suds .] A person who follows an army, and sells to the troops provisions, liquors, and the like.

Sutlership noun The condition or occupation of a sutler.

Sutling adjective Belonging to sutlers; engaged in the occupation of a sutler. Addison.

Sutor noun A kind of sirup made by the Indians of Arizona from the fruit of some cactaceous plant (probably the Cereus giganteus ).

Sutra noun ; plural Sutras . [ Sanskrit s...tra a thread, a string of rules; an aphorism; from siv to sew.]
1. (a) A precept; an aphorism; a brief rule. (b) A collection of such aphorisms.

2. plural A body of Hindoo literature containing aphorisms on grammar, meter, law, and philosophy, and forming a connecting link between the Vedic and later Sanscrit literature. Balfour (Cyc. of India).

Suttee noun [ Sanskrit satī a faithful wife, fem. of sant existing, real, true, good, present participle of as to be. Confer Sooth .]
1. A Hindoo widow who immolates herself, or is immolated, on the funeral pile of her husband; -- so called because this act of self-immolation is regarded as envincing excellence of wifely character. [ India]

2. The act of burning a widow on the funeral pile of her husband. [ India]

» The practice, though abolished in British India law in 1829, is not wholly prevented.

Sutteeism noun The practice of self-immolation of widows in Hindostan.

Suttle noun [ Etymol. uncertain.] (Com.) The weight when the tare has been deducted, and tret is yet to be allowed. M...Culloch.

Suttle intransitive verb [ See Sutler .] To act as sutler; to supply provisions and other articles to troops.

Sutural adjective [ Confer French sutural , New Latin suturals .]
1. Of or pertaining to a suture, or seam.

2. (Botany) Taking place at a suture; as, a sutural de...iscence.

Suturally adverb In a sutural manner.

Suturated adjective Sewed or knit together; united by a suture; stitched.

Suture noun [ Latin sutura , from suere , sutum , to sew or stitch: confer French suture . See Sew to unite with thread.]
1. The act of sewing; also, the line along which two things or parts are sewed together, or are united so as to form a seam, or that which resembles a seam.

2. (Surg.) (a) The uniting of the parts of a wound by stitching. (b) The stitch by which the parts are united.

3. (Anat.) The line of union, or seam, in an immovable articulation, like those between the bones of the skull; also, such an articulation itself; synarthrosis. See Harmonic suture , under Harmonic .

4. (Botany) (a) The line, or seam, formed by the union of two margins in any part of a plant; as, the ventral suture of a legume. (b) A line resembling a seam; as, the dorsal suture of a legume, which really corresponds to a midrib.

5. (Zoology) (a) The line at which the elytra of a beetle meet and are sometimes confluent. (b) A seam, or impressed line, as between the segments of a crustacean, or between the whorls of a univalve shell.

Glover's suture , Harmonic suture , etc. See under Glover , Harmonic , etc.

Sutured adjective Having a suture or sutures; knit or united together. Pennant.

Suwarrow noun (Botany) The giant cactus ( Cereus giganteus ); -- so named by the Indians of Arizona. Called also saguaro .

Suzerain noun [ French, formed from sus above, Latin susum , sursum (fr. sub under + versum , past participle of vertere to turn), after the analogy of souverain , English sovereign . See Sub- , and Verse .] A superior lord, to whom fealty is due; a feudal lord; a lord paramount.

Suzerainty noun [ French suzeraineté .] The dominion or authority of a suzerain; paramount authority.

Swa (swä) adverb [ See So .] So. [ Obsolete] Chaucer.

Swab transitive verb [ imperfect & past participle Swabbed ; present participle & verbal noun Swabbing .] [ See Swabber , noun ] To clean with a mop or swab; to wipe when very wet, as after washing; as, to swab the desk of a ship. [ Spelt also swob .]

Swab noun [ Written also swob .]
1. A kind of mop for cleaning floors, the desks of vessels, etc., esp. one made of rope-yarns or threads.

2. A bit of sponge, cloth, or the like, fastened to a handle, for cleansing the mouth of a sick person, applying medicaments to deep-seated parts, etc.

3. (Nautical) An epaulet. [ Sailor's Slang] Marryat.

4. A cod, or pod, as of beans or pease. [ Obsolete] Bailey.

5. A sponge, or other suitable substance, attached to a long rod or handle, for cleaning the bore of a firearm.

Swabber transitive verb To swab. [ R.]

Swabber noun [ Dutch zwabber ; confer Dutch zwabberen to swab, German schwabbern , Danish svabre , Swedish svab a swab, svabla to swab.]
1. One who swabs a floor or desk. Shak.

2. (Nautical) Formerly, an interior officer on board of British ships of war, whose business it was to see that the ship was kept clean.

3. Same as Swobber , 2.

Swad noun [ Probably from Anglo-Saxon swe...ian to bind.] [ Written also swod .]
1. A cod, or pod, as of beans or pease. [ Prov. Eng.]

Swad , in the north, is a peascod shell -- thence used for an empty, shallow-headed fellow.

Blount.

2. A clown; a country bumpkin. [ Obsolete or Prov. Eng.] "Country swains, and silly swads ." Greene.

There was one busy fellow was their leader,
A blunt, squat swad , but lower than yourself.

B. Jonson.

3. A lump of mass; also, a crowd. [ Low, U.S.]

4. (Coal Mining) A thin layer of refuse at the bottom of a seam. Raymond.

Swaddle noun [ Anglo-Saxon swe...il , swe...el , from swe...ain to bind. See Swathe .] Anything used to swaddle with, as a cloth or band; a swaddling band.

They put me in bed in all my swaddles.

Addison.

Swaddle transitive verb [ imperfect & past participle Swaddled ; present participle & verbal noun Swaddling .]
1. To bind as with a bandage; to bind or warp tightly with clothes; to swathe; -- used esp. of infants; as, to swaddle a baby.

They swaddled me up in my nightgown with long pieces of linen.

Addison.

2. To beat; to cudgel. [ Obsolete] Hudibras.

Swaddlebill noun (Zoology) The shoveler. [ Local, U.S.]

Swaddler noun A term of contempt for an Irish Methodist. Shipley.

Swaddling adjective & noun from Swaddle , v.

Swaddling band , Swaddling cloth , or Swaddling clout , a band or cloth wrapped round an infant, especially round a newborn infant.

Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes , lying in a manger.

Luke ii. 12.