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 two cars sustained the brunt of the damage in the 12-car wreck.
    — Ellen J. Horrow, USA TODAY, 27 Apr. 2018
  • The Kia sustained heavy damage and was towed from the scene.
    — Elise Takahama, BostonGlobe.com, 27 Apr. 2018
  • The Ravens can’t open holes at the point of attack and sustain them for long.
    — Mike Preston, baltimoresun.com, 12 Oct. 2021
  • But Howard sustained an ankle injury on the play and missed the rest of the game.
    — Mark Inabinett, AL.com, 19 Dec. 2017
  • That box store gave the town a sales tax base that could sustain a school.
    — al, 21 Dec. 2022
  • The car sustained damage to its front grill area and caused the hood to crumple.
    — Robert Avery, Houston Chronicle, 25 Apr. 2018
  • This thing that had sustained me now felt like a prison.
    — Lyz Lenz, Glamour, 26 Nov. 2018
  • The girls sustained head trauma and died from stab wounds.
    — James Ellroy, Vanities, 7 Oct. 2017
  • The Rockets would have to sustain their best to score a knockout.
    — Jonathan Feigen, Houston Chronicle, 4 Jan. 2018
  • None of the people on the boat sustained any injuries, the news release said.
    — Julianne McShane, NBC News, 30 Aug. 2023
  • 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
  • Spice Kraft’s lunch bowls are apt to sustain you through the dinner hour.
    — Washington Post, 5 Mar. 2021
  • The concept of a cheat day sustains a culture of guilt and shame around food.
    — Jennifer Still, Bon Appetit, 19 June 2018
  • At $8 a dog, the profits are enough to sustain her and her three children.
    — Los Angeles Times, 9 Dec. 2022
  • Not to mention the economies, cultures and past-times that sustain us.
    — Lydia Strohl, CNN, 22 Oct. 2022
  • And for now, the big oil exporters cannot sustain very low oil prices for long.
    — The Economist, 18 Jan. 2018
  • The Jayhawks need to come out strong, sustain it, and not let the crowd influence the game.
    — Shreyas Laddha, Kansas City Star, 27 Jan. 2024
  • The next step will be to sustain and build on what the Spartans did all season.
    — Chris Solari, Detroit Free Press, 31 Dec. 2021
  • Both offenses were able to sustain long drives for most of the game.
    — cleveland, 23 Nov. 2019
  • How mutable and how solid does the world have to be to sustain you and me?
    — Yiyun Li, Harper’s Magazine , 28 Sep. 2022
  • Nassar was stabbed twice in the neck, twice in the back and six times in the chest, and also sustained a collapsed lung.
    — Erik Ortiz, NBC News, 12 July 2023
  • May that fact help sustain your strength and your effort.
    — Star Tribune, 28 Aug. 2020
  • At the current pace of job growth, if sustained, this problem is set to get much worse.
    — Waverly Colville, WSJ, 5 July 2018
  • But even Musselman knows the initial burst of a new era means so much for a program that has never quite been able to sustain the energy.
    — Ryan Kartje, Los Angeles Times, 5 Apr. 2024
  • After a quick health check to make sure no injuries were sustained during the journey, the turtles, 33 Kemp’s ridley sea turtles and one green sea turtle -- were walked out to knee-deep water by crew members, Overmeyer said.
    — Julia Jacobo, ABC News, 4 Apr. 2024
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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
  • That's a tough standard to sustain, of course, and Woods hasn't done so.
    — Eamon Lynch, USA TODAY, 15 July 2022
  • To be able sustain and get better week in and week out.
    — Tom Green | [email protected], al, 11 Nov. 2020
  • Can the championship holdovers and the new blood sustain the greatness?
    — Gabe Lacques, USA TODAY, 18 Aug. 2020
  • And not only did golf see a boom, but courses have seen that sustain through the first half of 2021 as well.
    — Jim Owczarski, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 7 Aug. 2021
  • This feeding helps the lawn sustain a deep green color through the winter.
    — Chris McKeown, The Enquirer, 3 Sep. 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
  • 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
  • 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
  • Coral reefs, which sustain fisheries for large swaths of the globe, will suffer more frequent mass die-offs.
    — New York Times, 9 Aug. 2021
  • 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
  • Could the Fuel sustain this issue for the remainder of the season and find success?
    — Sean Collins, Dallas News, 4 Aug. 2020
  • 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 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
  • This means greenery and facades shouldn't require much stress or strain to access or sustain.
    — Nafeesah Allen, Better Homes & Gardens, 15 June 2021
  • 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
  • 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
  • Now those firms are retooling to sustain growth even as shoppers venture back to bricks-and-mortar stores.
    — Angus Loten, WSJ, 14 Feb. 2022
  • Running game:Can the Colts offense sustain two high-volume running backs?
    — Scott Horner, The Indianapolis Star, 17 Sep. 2021
  • His efficiency is helping the TCU offense sustain drives and give the defense rest.
    — Matt Jennings, ajc, 24 Sep. 2017
  • 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
  • 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 gap, the distance between these hardly-corns and the flush, fleshy ears that sustain nations, is where the old story of agriculture’s origins starts to break down.
    — Sarah Laskow, The Atlantic, 1 Oct. 2022
  • Dancers with the stamina and grace to sustain slowly become agents of astonishment.
    — Los Angeles Times, 19 Mar. 2022
  • While bridal is viewed, more often than not, as the stepchild to the fashion world, Piccoli's Haute Couture range might just be a nod to the lifeblood that could stand to sustain fashion's most historic and high-end realm.
    — Carrie Goldberg, Harper's BAZAAR, 21 July 2020
  • The town plans to put $3 million toward replacing the 24 tennis courts at Conard and Hall high schools, which Ledwith said sustain heavy use from students and from the public.
    — Don Stacom, courant.com, 8 Mar. 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 aim is to understand these works in the context of their own cultures, exploring the customs and beliefs that the works were—and among some groups still are—created to sustain.
    — Susan Delson, WSJ, 18 Mar. 2022
  • Regardless of whether the state approves the $47 million request, Williams said the city will require more funding to sustain improvements in the future.
    — Anjali Huynh and Leah Asmelash, CNN, 5 Mar. 2021
  • However, wide receiver Tre Mosley said Thorne’s physical limitations aren’t the biggest concerns for an offense that has struggled to run the ball and sustain drives for much of the season.
    — Chris Solari, Detroit Free Press, 11 Oct. 2022

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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