[-ING1.] The action of the vb. SUBSIST; SUBSISTENCE.
1597. Hooker, Eccl. Pol., V. lii. § 3. By taking only the nature of man he still continueth one person, and changeth but the maner of his subsisting.
1603. in Moryson Itin. (1617), II. 276. The danger of his [sc. Tyrone’s] subsisting as he doth, is … to maintaine still a loose head of Rebellion.
1690. Locke, Hum. Und., II. xxiii. § 3, note. Your lordship has the idea of subsisting by itself.
1706. Lond. Gaz., No. 4195/1. His Majesty had received a … Supply of Money…, for the paying and subsisting … of his … troops.
1719. De Foe, Crusoe, I. (Globe), 63. I had a tolerable View of subsisting, without any Want as long as I liv’d.
b. attrib. in subsisting diet, = subsistence diet (see SUBSISTENCE 11).
1865. L. Playfair, Food of Man, 8. In looking for a purely subsisting diet, we naturally turn to the experience of hospitals having convalescent patients unable still to take exercise.
