How to Use subsist on in a Sentence

subsist on

verb
  • The industry subsists on fresh ideas brought by new talent.
    — Katie Kilkenny, HollywoodReporter, 4 Sep. 2025
  • Aguilar, who has two young daughters, says his family is subsisting on food banks and relies on donations for rent.
    — Naisha Roy, ProPublica, 29 Apr. 2026
  • Ave, a bubbly woman in her mid-twenties, was the youngest of 12 kids from a farming family that subsisted on rice and greens.
    — Natalia Paradies, Rolling Stone, 31 Oct. 2025
  • In many ways YouTube is creating the cultural diet that the globe is beginning to subsist on.
    — Belinda Luscombe, Time, 4 Dec. 2025
  • In any case, the tree in question is drought-tolerant and will easily subsist on a single weekly soaking or less when its shallow roots are covered with mulch.
    — Joshua Siskin, Oc Register, 31 Jan. 2026
  • Dru Borden subsisted on this diet throughout his 20s and 30s.
    — Yasmin Tayag, The Atlantic, 17 Oct. 2025
  • Emotional clarity and mutual understanding may also be premature at this time, even if there’s a lot of good vibes to subsist on.
    — Steph Koyfman, Condé Nast Traveler, 29 Jan. 2026
  • The acquisition is a boon for the small startup, which has subsisted on $60 million over the last five years and previously struggled to stay afloat.
    — Elaine Chen, STAT, 24 Apr. 2026
  • The acquisition is a boon for the small startup, which has subsisted on $60 million over the last five years and previously struggled to stay afloat.
    — Allison Deangelis, STAT, 20 Apr. 2026
  • Most Koreans were forced to subsist on low-quality cereals imported from Manchuria instead of their own rice.
    — Encyclopedia Britannica, 23 Mar. 2026
  • Poverty, existential fears, alcoholism were part of the daily life of many families in Lobitos who tried to subsist on fishing or farming.
    — Sabrina Weiss, The Dial, 23 Sep. 2025
  • Many Pacific Northwest tribes have subsisted on the fish for millennia and have woven them into their religions and languages.
    — Katherine J. Wu, The Atlantic, 7 Jan. 2026
  • Barnes-Lentz opted to study nutrition in college after subsisting on a diet of Pop-Tarts and Toaster Strudel.
    — David Oliver, USA Today, 26 Apr. 2026
  • The British government planned to develop the region’s economy by employing convict laborers on government farms, while former convicts would subsist on their own small plots.
    — Britannica Editors, Encyclopedia Britannica, 19 Mar. 2026
  • The roundtable discussion and mini-rally came one day after the tax filing deadline, and as delivery drivers, who often subsist on tips, face increasing gas prices in the wake of the energy disruption that followed the start of the war.
    — James Powel, USA Today, 17 Apr. 2026
  • Freshly unemployed and subsisting on selling plants to trust fund kids, Dell impulsively starts a 24-hour livestream under the username mademoiselle_dell to fundraise for private life support for Daisy.
    — Danielle Parker, CBS News, 27 Jan. 2026
  • Freshly unemployed and subsisting on selling plants to trust fund kids, Dell impulsively starts a 24-hour livestream under the username mademoiselle_dell to fundraise for private life support for Daisy.
    — Danielle Parker, CBS News, 20 Jan. 2026
  • In Philadelphia, impoverished people often subsisted on bread.
    — Carolyn Zola, The Conversation, 11 June 2026
  • From land use to insurance coverage to trash pickup to security, since 1954, the fair has subsisted on a vast network of handshakes, verbal agreements, mutual favors and institutional memory.
    — Jared Kaufman, Twin Cities, 28 Sep. 2025
  • Vonnegut’s novel is a gem from a simpler era of possible space exploration, complete with the dumbest Martian invasion in literature, kitelike beings that subsist on Mercury’s vibrations, and, of course, Vonnegut’s perennial alien characters, the Tralfamadorians.
    — Brianne Kane, Scientific American, 12 June 2026

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'subsist on.' 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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