| 释义 |
sustenance|ˈsʌstɪnəns|
Forms: 3–4 sustynance, 3–6 -tinaunce, 4 sust-, sostnaunce, sostinonce, -tenaunse, sustenauns, 4–5 -tiena(u)nce, 4–6 -ten-, -tynaunce, 5 -tinens, -tenence, -tenaunse, 5–6 -tinance, 6 -tynans, -tenans, -teynaunce, -tainance, 7–8 sustinence, 3– sustenance.
[a. AF. sustenaunce, OF. sos-, soustenance, mod.F. soutenance (= Pr. sostenensa, It. sostenenza, OPg. sustinencia; cf. late L. sustinentia), f. sostenir to sustain: see -ance.]
1. Means of living or subsistence; livelihood; † phr. to find sustenance, win (a) sustenance.
1297R. Glouc. (Rolls) 975 Hii..swonke & tylede hor liflode..Hii founde hom sustenance inou & liuede þus vorþ. 1303R. Brunne Handl. Synne 1326 Ȝyf þou þurgh wykked ordynaunce Fordost pore mannys sustynaunce Þat aftyrward he may nat lyue. 13..Coer de L. 3757 Kyng Richard gaff castels and touns, To hys eerlys and to barouns, To have therinne her sustynaunce. 13..Sir Beues (A.) 3916 Iosian eueriche a day Ȝede aboute þe cite wiþ inne, Here sostenaunse for to winne. c1385Chaucer L.G.W. 2041 (Ariadne), And for myn sustenaunce, yet wil I swynk. c1400Mandeville (Roxb.) vii. 24 In þis deserte I dwell and gase to gete my sustinaunce. c1460Fortescue Abs. & Lim. Mon. xviii. (1885) 154 Þe clarkes off is chapell..[shall] be rewarded with pencions..ffor þer rewardes or sustenance. 1568Grafton Chron. II. 350 To haue sufficient for their necessarie sustenance. 1687A. Lovell tr. Thevenot's Trav. i. 243 There is..all that is necessary for the Service of the Church, and the sorry sustenance of the Religious. 1710Prideaux Orig. Tithes i. 30 They reap from them a sustenance in Earthly things. 1836W. Irving Astoria I. 2 It was the fur trade..which gave early sustenance and vitality to the great Canadian provinces. 1864Tennyson En. Ard. 258 She..Gain'd for her own a scanty sustenance.
2. Means of sustaining life; food, victuals.
c1290St. Francis 229 in S. Eng. Leg. 60 Miseyse huy hadden þare i-novȝ..For defaute of heore sustinaunce and for defaute of bokes. 13..Gaw & Gr. Knt. 1095 Nauþer of sostnaunce ne of slepe, soþly I knowe. 1377Langl. P. Pl. B. xx. 7 To clothes and to sustenance. 1390Gower Conf. II. 83 The cornes and the wynes Ben sustenance to mankinde. 1470–85Malory Arthur vii. xxvi. 253 Many..merueilled that he desyred his sustenaunce for a twelf monethe. c1491Chast. Goddes Chyld. 13 It is nedeful to take bodily sustenaunce..in resonable manere. 1549Latimer Ploughers (Arb.) 25 If the ploughemen..were..negligente..we shoulde not longe lyue for lacke of sustinaunce. 1626Bacon Sylva §360 [The Chameleon] feedeth not onely vpon Aire, (though that be his principall Sustenance;) For sometimes hee taketh Flies. 1691Ray Creation i. (1692) 71 Water is one part, and that not the least of our Sustenance. 1760–72H. Brooke Fool of Qual. (1809) II. 144 Having sold all our moveables..for sustenance. 1808Scott in Lockhart Life I. i. 47, I had all the appetite of a growing boy, but was prohibited any sustenance beyond what was absolutely necessary for the support of nature. 1864Tennyson En. Ard. 550 No want was there of human sustenance, Soft fruitage, mighty nuts, and nourishing roots. 1873Browning Red Cotton Night-Cap Country ii. 1103 Now dying and in want of sustenance!
†b. A kind or a quantity of food; pl. eatables.
c1450Mirk's Festial 254 Þay..toke no hede what þat þay haden but a sympull sustenaunce. 1528Paynel Salerne's Regim. D iij, Nothynge more dangerous than to myngle diuers sustinances to gether. 1615G. Sandys Trav. 89 Fortie saile of ships..by the trading whereof they bring in that sustenance which the soile affordeth not. 1677in Ray's Corr. (1848) 128, I am apt to believe that water cannot be a competent sustenance for them.
c. gen. and fig. Nourishment.
c1489Caxton Sonnes of Aymon xix. 437 They ete all a lityll therof, whiche gauf theim grete sustenaunse. 1577Googe tr. Heresbach's Husb. i. (1586) 18 b, Those [thinges] that require more sustenaunce, are sowen in richer ground. 1671Milton P.R. i. 429 Lying is thy sustenance, thy food. 1686W. Hopkins tr. Ratramnus Dissert. v. (1688) 93 This Spiritual virtue [of the Sacrament]..ministering to it the sustenance of Eternal Life. 1742Young Nt. Th. v. 466 Some reject this sustenance divine. 1830Herschel Study Nat. Phil. 65 That dry bones could be a magazine of nutriment,..ready to yield up their sustenance in the form best adapted to the support of life. a1831A. Knox Rem. (1844) I. 66 The taste once revived, its due sustenance would not be difficult to find. 1849Helps Friends in C. ii. iv. 95 The plants draw most of their sustenance from the air.
3. The action of sustaining life by food; the action of supporting with the means of subsistence; the fact or state of being so sustained.
Tends to merge in sense 2.
c1386Chaucer Pars. T. ⁋298 Euery tyme that a man eteth or drynketh moore than suffiseth to the sustenaunce of his body. 1389in Eng. Gilds (1870) 46 Ilke broþer and sistir shal ȝeuen..j.d to his sustenauns and releuyinge. c1400Brut i. 11 Brut..done mow medes for sustinaunce of hym & of his peple. a1513Fabyan Chron. vi. (1533) 101/2 Other viii. houres he spent in his natural reste, sustinaunce of his body, & the nedes of the realme. 1538Starkey England (1878) 74 When ther ys of vytayl ouerlytyl for the necessary sustenans and maynteynyng of the same. 1586B. Young Guazzo's Civ. Conv. iv. 224 They take but small refection, a thing most natural for sustainance of life. 1719De Foe Crusoe i. (Globe) 78 That it was so directed purely for my Sustenance on that wild miserable Place. 1842Combe Digestion 249 Only two-thirds of the quantity now ascertained to be requisite for human sustenance. 1870Yeats Nat. Hist. Comm. 117 In Europe large spaces are covered with food-grasses and other plants, for the sustenance of the inhabitants. 1913Act 3 & 4 Geo. V, c. 20 §74 Payment..to the bankrupt..of such sum out of the estate as they shall think proper for sustenance.
†4. Endurance. Obs.
1390Gower Conf. II. 131 It is to kinde no plesance That man above his sustienance Unto the gold schal serve and bowe. 1393Langl. P. Pl. C. iv. 208 Vnsyttynge suffraunce [v.r. sustienance]. a1677Barrow Serm. Wks. 1716 I. 350 The willing susception and the cheerful sustenance of the cross.
†5. The action of sustaining, supporting, or upholding. Obs.
c1400Love Bonavent. Mirr. xliii. (1908) 238 So hongeth oure lorde onely by thoo two nayles..with outen sustenaunce of the body. c1460Fortescue Abs. & Lim. Mon. xiv. (1885) 144 Savynge to hym selff sufficiant ffor the sustenance off his estate. 1836J. Gilbert Chr. Atonem. iv. (1852) 99 Upheld not merely by unreasoning instinct, but by a sustenance of their understandings.
6. Something that sustains, supports, or upholds; a means or source of support.
c1400tr. Secr. Secr., Gov. Lordsh. 53 Þe maners and þe goodis sustinancez of vertues er to guerdon olde trauailles, to reles wrongys, [etc.]. 1526Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W. 1531) 137 b, Whiche two that is grace & the Sacrament..be all our sustenaunce and supportacyon. 1571Golding Calvin on Ps. l. 13 Meate and drinke, which are but sustenances of mans infirmitie. a1613Overbury A Wife, etc. (1638) 70 The sustenance of his discourse is Newes. 1871Smiles Charac. i. (1876) 6 Simple honesty of purpose..gives him strength and sustenance.
b. Applied to a person.
c1400Beryn 1176 He toke hir in his armys..And seyd, ‘myne ertly Ioy..my lyvis sustenaunce!’ a1450Knt. de la Tour xcv, The childe that God gaue me..whiche was alle my ioye and sustenaunce.
7. attrib.: sustenance diet = subsistence diet (subsistence 11); sustenance money = subsistence money 2. (rare.)
1886C. Scott Sheep-farming 59 The system of carrying on animals to a certain age on merely sustenance diet, before commencing to fatten them. 1905Edin. Rev. Oct. 468 The sustenance-money which was allowed to many émigrés.
Hence ˈsustenanceless a., devoid of sustenance or food.
1630R. Johnson's Kingd. & Commw. 87 You have sauce and no sustenance; and so mich God dich you with your sustenancelesse sauce. |