ppl. a. [f. SUSTAIN v. + -ED1.]
1. Kept up without intermission or flagging; maintained through successive stages or over a long period; kept up or maintained at a uniform (esp. a high) pitch or level.
1796. Burke, Regic. Peace, i. Wks. 1907, VI. 144. A vehement and sustained spirit of fortitude.
1816. Scott, Old Mort., xxxii. His marksmen, commencing upon the pass a fire as well aimed as it was sustained and regular.
1837. Carlyle, Fr. Rev., I. IV. iv. Next day, with sustained pomp, they are … installed in their Salle des Menus.
1853. Lytton, My Novel, XII. xxxiii. Harley’s compassion vanished before this sustained hypocrisy.
1860. All Year Round, No. 67. 396/1. Mr. Hyde Clarke is the only man who has attempted a sustained biography of him [Trevithick].
1873. Symonds, Grk. Poets, v. 126. The Dorian poets, inspired by a graver and more sustained imagination, composed long and complex odes.
2. Of a note or tone: a. Maintained at the same pitch. rare.
1775. T. Sheridan, Art Reading, I. 197. That interruption ought to make no change in the proper manner of delivering it, which should be in a sustained note.
b. Mus. Maintained (in its full force) through its whole length; see also quot. 1876.
1801. Busby, Dict. Mus., s.v., Notes are said to be sustained when their sound is continued through their whole power, or length.
1845. G. Dodd, Brit. Manuf., IV. 156. Unless … it were possible to obtain the sustained tones of the organ.
1876. Stainer & Barrett, Dict. Mus. Terms, Sustained note, a name given to prolonged notes which partake of the character of a pedal-point by their immunity from ordinary harmonic rules, but which cannot with propriety be called pedal-points owing to their occurrence in the middle or upper part.
3. Endured, borne.
1819. Byron, Mazeppa, ii. This [horse] too sinks after many a league Of well sustain’d but vain fatigue.
4. Her. (See quot.)
1882. Cussans, Her., 130. Sustained: Usually applied to a Chief or Fess, when a narrow fillet or fimbriation occupies the base of the Charge. This term is seldom used in modern Armory, nor … is it necessary.
Hence Sustainedly adv., in a sustained manner.
1842. E. FitzGerald, Lett. (1889), I. 219. I think Beethoven is rather spasmodically, than sustainedly, grand.
1857. Spencer, Ess. (1858), I. 376. More consistently, more unitedly, and more sustainedly.
