Sustain vs Maintain - What's the difference?
sustain | maintain |
(music) A mechanism which can be used to hold a note, as the right pedal on a piano.
To maintain, or keep in existence.
To provide for or nourish.
To encourage (something ).
To experience or suffer (an injury, etc. ).
* Dryden
* Shakespeare
To confirm, prove, or corroborate.
To keep from falling; to bear; to uphold; to support.
To aid, comfort, or relieve; to vindicate.
* Dryden
(obsolete) To support (someone), to back up or assist (someone) in an action.
*:
*:And thenne he asked leue & wente oute of his heremytage for to mayntene his neuewe ageynst the myghty Erle / and so hit happed that this man that lyeth here dede dyd so moche by his wysedome and hardynes that the Erle was take and thre of his lordes by force of this dede man
To keep up; to preserve; to uphold (a state, condition etc.).
*, chapter=17
, title= *{{quote-news, year=2011, date=November 5, author=Phil Dawkes, work=BBC Sport
, title= *{{quote-magazine, date=2013-03, author=Nancy Langston, volume=101, issue=2, page=98
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, title= To declare or affirm (a clause) to be true; to assert.
* {{quote-news, year=2012, date=April 19, author=Josh Halliday, work=the Guardian
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As verbs the difference between sustain and maintain
is that sustain is to maintain, or keep in existence while maintain is to support (someone), to back up or assist (someone) in an action.As a noun sustain
is a mechanism which can be used to hold a note, as the right pedal on a piano.sustain
English
Noun
(wikipedia sustain) (en noun)Verb
(en verb)- provisions to sustain an army
- Shall Turnus, then, such endless toil sustain ?
- You shall sustain more new disgraces.
- to sustain a charge, an accusation, or a proposition
- A foundation sustains''' the superstructure; an animal '''sustains''' a load; a rope '''sustains a weight.
- (Shakespeare)
- his sons, who seek the tyrant to sustain
Derived terms
* sustainable * sustainedlyAnagrams
* English transitive verbsmaintain
English
Verb
(en verb)The Mirror and the Lamp, passage=This time was most dreadful for Lilian. Thrown on her own resources and almost penniless, she maintained herself and paid the rent of a wretched room near the hospital by working as a charwoman, sempstress, anything. In a moment she had dropped to the level of a casual labourer.}}
QPR 2-3 Man City, passage=Mancini's men were far from their best but dug in to earn a 10th win in 11 league games and an eighth successive victory in all competitions to maintain their five-point lead at the top of the table.}}
Mining the Boreal North, passage=Reindeer are well suited to the taiga’s frigid winters. They can maintain a thermogradient between body core and the environment of up to 100 degrees, in part because of insulation provided by their fur, and in part because of counter-current vascular heat exchange systems in their legs and nasal passages.}}
Free speech haven or lawless cesspool – can the internet be civilised?, passage=She maintains that the internet should face similar curbs to TV because young people are increasingly living online. "It's totally different, someone at Google watching the video from the comfort of their office in San Francisco to someone from a council house in London, where this video is happening right outside their front door."}}