How to Use sustain in a Sentence

sustain

1 of 2 verb
Definition of sustainnext
Synonyms for sustainnext
  • The roof, unable to sustain the weight of all the snow, collapsed.
  • The army sustained heavy losses.
  • Hope sustained us during that difficult time.
  • He sustained serious injuries in the accident.
  • The Kia sustained heavy damage and was towed from the scene.
    — Elise Takahama, BostonGlobe.com, 27 Apr. 2018
  • This thing that had sustained me now felt like a prison.
    — Lyz Lenz, Glamour, 26 Nov. 2018
  • That box store gave the town a sales tax base that could sustain a school.
    — al, 21 Dec. 2022
  • The girls sustained head trauma and died from stab wounds.
    — James Ellroy, Vanities, 7 Oct. 2017
  • The car sustained damage to its front grill area and caused the hood to crumple.
    — Robert Avery, Houston Chronicle, 25 Apr. 2018
  • The concept of a cheat day sustains a culture of guilt and shame around food.
    — Jennifer Still, Bon Appetit, 19 June 2018
  • But Howard sustained an ankle injury on the play and missed the rest of the game.
    — Mark Inabinett, AL.com, 19 Dec. 2017
  • The Ravens can’t open holes at the point of attack and sustain them for long.
    — Mike Preston, baltimoresun.com, 12 Oct. 2021
  • Both offenses were able to sustain long drives for most of the game.
    — cleveland, 23 Nov. 2019
  • None of the people on the boat sustained any injuries, the news release said.
    — Julianne McShane, NBC News, 30 Aug. 2023
  • How mutable and how solid does the world have to be to sustain you and me?
    — Yiyun Li, Harper’s Magazine , 28 Sep. 2022
  • And for now, the big oil exporters cannot sustain very low oil prices for long.
    — The Economist, 18 Jan. 2018
  • Tebow had one season as a starter but didn’t sustain it and was out of the league in three years.
    — Doug Lesmerises, cleveland, 22 Apr. 2021
  • Our job now is to sustain it, leverage it, and build on it.
    — Jill Filipovic, Marie Claire, 7 Nov. 2018
  • May that fact help sustain your strength and your effort.
    — Star Tribune, 28 Aug. 2020
  • The Rockets would have to sustain their best to score a knockout.
    — Jonathan Feigen, Houston Chronicle, 4 Jan. 2018
  • Not to mention the economies, cultures and past-times that sustain us.
    — Lydia Strohl, CNN, 22 Oct. 2022
  • And that is very sustaining for me because that is what life is.
    — Maggie Maloney, Town & Country, 17 June 2019
  • The two cars sustained the brunt of the damage in the 12-car wreck.
    — Ellen J. Horrow, USA TODAY, 27 Apr. 2018
  • The next step will be to sustain and build on what the Spartans did all season.
    — Chris Solari, Detroit Free Press, 31 Dec. 2021
  • Spice Kraft’s lunch bowls are apt to sustain you through the dinner hour.
    — Washington Post, 5 Mar. 2021
  • The two injured men each sustained at least one gunshot wound.
    — S. Dev, CBS News, 24 Dec. 2023
  • So far, one worker has died from injuries sustained at the plant.
    — Dan Kaufman, The New Yorker, 28 Oct. 2023
  • The man appeared to have sustained trauma to his head, police said.
    — Michelle Iracheta, Houston Chronicle, 12 Nov. 2019
  • Some people sustained gunshot wounds to the chest, stomach and leg.
    — Fox News, 24 Jan. 2020
  • At the current pace of job growth, if sustained, this problem is set to get much worse.
    — Waverly Colville, WSJ, 5 July 2018
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sustain

2 of 2 noun
  • That’s why guys like that sustain for this long in this league.
    — Dan Wiederer, chicagotribune.com, 11 Dec. 2021
  • To be able sustain and get better week in and week out.
    — Tom Green | Tgreen@al.com, al, 11 Nov. 2020
  • Can the championship holdovers and the new blood sustain the greatness?
    — Gabe Lacques, USA TODAY, 18 Aug. 2020
  • This feeding helps the lawn sustain a deep green color through the winter.
    — Chris McKeown, The Enquirer, 3 Sep. 2022
  • That's a tough standard to sustain, of course, and Woods hasn't done so.
    — Eamon Lynch, USA TODAY, 15 July 2022
  • As the kinds of labor that sustain life have grown deadlier, women have taken on more of the risk.
    — Nora Caplan-Bricker, The New Yorker, 10 Aug. 2020
  • There was no league championship for which to play, no great record to sustain, nothing much to prove.
    — Gordon Monson, The Salt Lake Tribune, 27 Oct. 2020
  • Could the Fuel sustain this issue for the remainder of the season and find success?
    — Sean Collins, Dallas News, 4 Aug. 2020
  • The grants from the program can help customers catch up with past-due bills and sustain utility services.
    — Karl Schneider, The Indianapolis Star, 10 Nov. 2022
  • Coral reefs, which sustain fisheries for large swaths of the globe, will suffer more frequent mass die-offs.
    — New York Times, 9 Aug. 2021
  • This means greenery and facades shouldn't require much stress or strain to access or sustain.
    — Nafeesah Allen, Better Homes & Gardens, 15 June 2021
  • Dancers with the stamina and grace to sustain slowly become agents of astonishment.
    — Los Angeles Times, 19 Mar. 2022
  • But now the job is to continue to build momentum and get better and sustain and not lose momentum.
    — James Boyd, The Indianapolis Star, 24 Feb. 2022
  • This team has been at its best this season when the bottom of the order is getting two-out hits to either start or sustain rallies.
    — Mark Gonzales, chicagotribune.com, 26 Aug. 2020
  • Now those firms are retooling to sustain growth even as shoppers venture back to bricks-and-mortar stores.
    — Angus Loten, WSJ, 14 Feb. 2022
  • The Ducks should be able to keep the ball in front of them all night and the Bears will have to be mistake free and sustain drives in order to be productive.
    — James Crepea | The Oregonian/oregonlive, oregonlive, 15 Oct. 2021
  • Pizza Hut hopes the new menu items sustain last year's growth, a trend that's likely to continue.
    — Jordan Valinsky, CNN, 30 Jan. 2021
  • The movie is filled with stunning landscapes, and the sleek lions are part of an arid but beautiful terrain that both sustains and threatens.
    — Erin Blakemore, Washington Post, 8 July 2018
  • And that sense of belonging can go a long way toward helping sustain students’ mental health.
    — Megan Leonhardt, Fortune, 30 July 2022
  • Our intelligence and capacities as a species require a brain far too large to sustain in utero.
    — USA Today, 9 June 2022
  • The researchers are interested in adding a vascular system that could help the skin sustain itself, grow nails and even sweat.
    — Ashley Strickland, CNN, 11 June 2022
  • The schedule toughened in the second half of the season, and Texas Tech didn't have the front-line talent and depth to sustain success.
    — Jeremy Cluff, The Arizona Republic, 21 Dec. 2021
  • That includes the fingers, toes, face, and ears, some of which might be exposed during cold weather and sustain damage.
    — Chris Smith, BGR, 21 Feb. 2022
  • Can this caustic comment-fest sustain itself for seven episodes?
    — David L. Coddon, San Diego Union-Tribune, 21 Jan. 2021
  • Drug busts for heroin and methamphetamine sustain a humming cottage industry of lawyers and bail bonds services.
    — New York Times, 30 Apr. 2021
  • That has helped generate, and sustain, impressive job gains.
    — John Harwood, CNN, 1 Apr. 2022
  • Some argue that the trade deficit is helping sustain economies abroad during a delicate moment for the global economy.
    — New York Times, 1 Mar. 2021
  • Some smaller companies are also counting on more routine tourism to sustain sales.
    — BostonGlobe.com, 20 Apr. 2021
  • Naturalized species are nonnative species that are introduced and able to self-sustain and even spread.
    — Karen Kwon, Scientific American, 5 Aug. 2020
  • As economies around the world reopen, legions of small businesses that help define and sustain neighborhoods are struggling.
    — Adam Geller, The Denver Post, 14 July 2020

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'sustain.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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