SUBSIST

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does subsist mean? 

• SUBSIST (verb)
  The verb SUBSIST has 1 sense:

1. support oneself

  Familiarity information: SUBSIST used as a verb is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• SUBSIST (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they subsist    ... he / she / it subsists   
Past simple: subsisted   
Past participle: subsisted   
-ing form: subsisting   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Support oneself

Classified under:

Verbs of being, having, spatial relations

Synonyms:

exist; live; subsist; survive

Context example:

Many people in the world have to subsist on $1 a day

Verb group:

endure; go; hold out; hold up; last; live; live on; survive (continue to live and avoid dying)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "subsist"):

breathe (be alive)

drift; freewheel (live unhurriedly, irresponsibly, or freely)

Sentence frames:

Something ----s
Somebody ----s
Somebody ----s on something
Somebody ----s PP

Derivation:

subsistence (a means of surviving)

subsister (one who lives through affliction)

 Context examples 

Between the two eldest and herself especially, there subsisted a particular regard.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

Have you considered what it is to undermine the confidence that should subsist between my daughter and myself?

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

A process that encompasses the viability of a cell and its ability to subsist and maintain the integrity of cellular processes.

(Cell Survival, NCI Thesaurus)

Harmony was the soul of our companionship, and the diversity and contrast that subsisted in our characters drew us nearer together.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

I should be very sorry that such a friendship as has subsisted between him and Captain Benwick should be destroyed, or even wounded, by a circumstance of this sort.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

Had he not struck a bargain with the doctor, he and his mutineers, deserted by the ship, must have been driven to subsist on clear water and the proceeds of their hunting.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

They settled in town, received very liberal assistance from Mrs. Ferrars, were on the best terms imaginable with the Dashwoods; and setting aside the jealousies and ill-will continually subsisting between Fanny and Lucy, in which their husbands of course took a part, as well as the frequent domestic disagreements between Robert and Lucy themselves, nothing could exceed the harmony in which they all lived together.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

I was more agile than they and could subsist upon coarser diet; I bore the extremes of heat and cold with less injury to my frame; my stature far exceeded theirs.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

Between Elizabeth and Charlotte there was a restraint which kept them mutually silent on the subject; and Elizabeth felt persuaded that no real confidence could ever subsist between them again.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

I made no effort to conceal from myself, now, that I loved her, that I was devoted to her; but I brought the assurance home to myself, that it was now too late, and that our long-subsisting relation must be undisturbed.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)