| 释义 |
sustainment|səˈsteɪnmənt|
Also 5 sustene-.
[In earliest quot. a. OF. sus-, sostenement, f. sostenir to sustain; later f. sustain v. + -ment.]
1. Means of support; chiefly = sustenance 1, 2.
c1450Merlin xxix. 591 Whan Arthur hadde slain Magloras the kinge that was the sustenement of the saisnes. 1588Parke tr. Mendoza's Hist. China 351 They haue no other sustainment, but onely that which this tree yeeldeth. 1670Milton Hist. Eng. iii. Wks. 1851 V. 104 They betook them to the Woods, and liv'd by hunting, which was thir only sustainment.
2. The action of sustaining; esp. maintenance in being or activity, in a certain condition or at a certain level; sustentation. (Cf. sustenance 3.)
1568Hacket tr. Thevet's New found World lxxxii. 135 b, They began to..till the earth, for to receiue the fruits therof for the sustainment of their liues. a1680Charnock Attrib. God (1834) I. 459 God..not..receiving from any place any thing for his preservation or sustainment. 1816Q. Rev. XV. 70 An unnatural and artificial sustainment of the language and imagery. 1833J. Martineau Misc. (1852) 45 In Priestley's case there was not merely a sustainment—but a positive advancement of character in later years. 1857Dickens Lett. (1880) II. 16 In an impossible attitude for the sustainment of its weight. 1876Lowell Among my Bks. Ser. ii. 50 The Hebrew forerunners, in whose society his soul sought consolation and sustainment. |