How to Use sustain in a Sentence

sustain

1 of 2 verb
  • 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.
  • That box store gave the town a sales tax base that could sustain a school.
    — al, 21 Dec. 2022
  • All of these come and go from time to time, but they aren’t sustained.
    — Aaron Portzline, New York Times, 9 Jan. 2026
  • God sustained her through grief and then college.
    — Jayme Fraser, USA Today, 30 Oct. 2025
  • Weighed against the structure, the claim is hard to sustain.
    — Zennon Kapron, Forbes.com, 28 May 2026
  • Free speech norms do not sustain themselves.
    — Jason Jewell, Sun Sentinel, 29 Apr. 2026
  • It will be sustained by copper.
    — IEEE Spectrum, 9 Oct. 2025
  • And for now, the big oil exporters cannot sustain very low oil prices for long.
    — The Economist, 18 Jan. 2018
  • This scene is sustained by locals.
    — Carla Vecchiola, The Conversation, 26 June 2026
  • And if things don’t change, Bungie may not be able to be sustained at all.
    — Paul Tassi, Forbes.com, 22 May 2026
  • Dreher says that only his faith in God sustained him.
    — Robert F. Worth, The Atlantic, 13 Feb. 2026
  • One job should be enough to be able to sustain a family.
    — Rachel Royster, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 6 Feb. 2026
  • And that is very sustaining for me because that is what life is.
    — Maggie Maloney, Town & Country, 17 June 2019
  • Can a team that has to score three or four goals per game sustain that over a full season?
    — Michelle Kaufman may 13, Miami Herald, 13 May 2026
  • Both offenses were able to sustain long drives for most of the game.
    — cleveland, 23 Nov. 2019
  • This earth can sustain anything.
    — Gillian Telling, PEOPLE, 8 Jan. 2026
  • Hawke has to sustain the rhythm and cadence of long speeches.
    — Anne Thompson, IndieWire, 30 Aug. 2025
  • 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 concept of a cheat day sustains a culture of guilt and shame around food.
    — Jennifer Still, Bon Appetit, 19 June 2018
  • Horn sustained a deep cut to his left hand, which required stitches.
    — Charlotte Observer, 18 Sep. 2025
  • Dried grass can only sustain cattle for so long.
    — Shi En Kim, AZCentral.com, 26 Mar. 2026
  • The car sustained damage to its front grill area and caused the hood to crumple.
    — Robert Avery, Houston Chronicle, 25 Apr. 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
  • Spice Kraft’s lunch bowls are apt to sustain you through the dinner hour.
    — Washington Post, 5 Mar. 2021
  • Dalis sustained minor burns to his face while battling the blaze.
    — Ryan Brennan, Miami Herald, 17 Apr. 2026
  • The two cars sustained the brunt of the damage in the 12-car wreck.
    — Ellen J. Horrow, USA TODAY, 27 Apr. 2018

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
  • This feeding helps the lawn sustain a deep green color through the winter.
    — Chris McKeown, The Enquirer, 3 Sep. 2022
  • Can the championship holdovers and the new blood sustain the greatness?
    — Gabe Lacques, USA TODAY, 18 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
  • 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
  • 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
  • Can this caustic comment-fest sustain itself for seven episodes?
    — David L. Coddon, San Diego Union-Tribune, 21 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
  • Now those firms are retooling to sustain growth even as shoppers venture back to bricks-and-mortar stores.
    — Angus Loten, WSJ, 14 Feb. 2022
  • 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
  • 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
  • And that sense of belonging can go a long way toward helping sustain students’ mental health.
    — Megan Leonhardt, Fortune, 30 July 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
  • 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
  • Dancers with the stamina and grace to sustain slowly become agents of astonishment.
    — Los Angeles Times, 19 Mar. 2022
  • Our intelligence and capacities as a species require a brain far too large to sustain in utero.
    — USA Today, 9 June 2022
  • Could the Fuel sustain this issue for the remainder of the season and find success?
    — Sean Collins, Dallas News, 4 Aug. 2020
  • Drug busts for heroin and methamphetamine sustain a humming cottage industry of lawyers and bail bonds services.
    — New York Times, 30 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
  • 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
  • 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
  • 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 argue that the trade deficit is helping sustain economies abroad during a delicate moment for the global economy.
    — New York Times, 1 Mar. 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
  • Lastly, keep a close pulse on your day-to-day mindset, and pay attention to the choices and patterns that either sustain you or drain you of energy.
    — Christina Villarreal, Forbes, 7 June 2021
  • 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
  • How does a company sustain higher the performance that landed in its lap in a situation such as Covid?
    — Christiane Lemieux, Wired, 23 June 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.

Last Updated: