[ad. L. sustentāculum (whence OF. su(b)stentacle, It. sostentacolo, etc.): see SUSTENTACULUM.]

1

  † 1.  That which sustains or upholds; a support.

2

1432–50.  trans. Higden (Rolls), II. 219. Bestes and other creatures, whiche were create to the solace of man, to the sustentacle of recreacion.

3

c. 1450.  Capgrave, Life St. Gilbert, vi. Whan he slept his hed hing down with-outen sustentacle and touchid sumtyme his brest.

4

1545.  Bale, Image Both Ch., I. x. (1550), K vij. Strong sustentacles and sure stayes hath God made the vpholders of his true churche.

5

1642.  H. More, Song of Soul, II. i. III. xxv. That God ’s the sustentacle of all Natures. Ibid. (1653), Conject. Cabbal. (1713), 189. It will be ἔδρα and ὐποβάθρα,… and, being thus a Sustentacle or Foundation, be fitly represented by the term Earth.

6

  2.  = SUSTENTACULUM.

7

In recent Dicts.

8