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Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
subsist
verb
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ He subsisted on welfare, on charity and on casual labour.
▪ If I can subsist on mussels in place of meat, why not these greens in place of lettuce?
▪ Indeed, many top athletes and even body-builders subsist on a vegetarian diet.
▪ The islanders inhabit the coastal strip only, and subsist almost entirely on royalties from the mining.
▪ They subsisted, from all appearances, on roots and insects; a live gecko made a fine repast.
▪ They must subsist, he said, on one small portion of government-rationed meat per week.
▪ Thus many primitive animals retain an ancient form and subsist to the present day.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Subsist

Subsist \Sub*sist"\, v. i. [imp. & p. p. Subsisted; p. pr. & vb. n. Subsisting.] [L. subsistere to stand still, stay, remain alive; sub under + sistere to stand, to cause to stand, from stare to stand: cf. F. subsister. See Stand.]

  1. To be; to have existence; to inhere.

    And makes what happiness we justly call, Subsist not in the good of one, but all.
    --Pope.

  2. To continue; to retain a certain state.

    Firm we subsist, yet possible to swerve.
    --Milton.

  3. To be maintained with food and clothing; to be supported; to live.
    --Milton.

    To subsist on other men's charity.
    --Atterbury.

Subsist

Subsist \Sub*sist"\, v. t. To support with provisions; to feed; to maintain; as, to subsist one's family.

He laid waste the adjacent country in order to render it more difficult for the enemy to subsist their army.
--Robertson.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
subsist

1540s, "to exist;" c.1600, "retain the existing state," from Middle French subsister and directly from Latin subsistere "to stand still or firm, take a stand, take position; abide, hold out," from sub "under, up to" (see sub-) + sistere "to assume a standing position, stand still, remain; set, place, cause to stand still" (see assist (v.)). Meaning "to support oneself" (in a certain way) is from 1640s. Related: Subsisted; subsisting.

Wiktionary
subsist

vb. 1 To survive on a minimum of resources. 2 (context mostly philosophy English) To have ontological reality; to exist. 3 To continue; to retain a certain state.

WordNet
subsist

v. support oneself; "he could barely exist on such a low wage"; "Can you live on $2000 a month in New York City?"; "Many people in the world have to subsist on $1 a day" [syn: exist, survive, live]

Usage examples of "subsist".

He was apprized of the relationship that subsisted between his friend and the Dudleys.

The Intellect subsisting in the totality is a provider for the particular intellects, is the potentiality of them: it involves them as members of its universality, while they in turn involve the universal Intellect in their particularity, just as the particular science involves science the total.

You may be Miss Blank, subsisting in a bed-sitting-room without very much to live for or many people to care whether you live or not, but for a pound or two a year you can battle for lost causes, sail beyond Ultima Thule, ascend into the stratosphere, love and be courted, adorn a glittering throng with your glamorous presence, tumble over a corpse on the mat, probe the mystery of the Poisoned Penwiper, and never have a dull moment.

Before the rapid increase of population had forced governments to study political economy and to investigate the means of subsisting a people, statesmen had contented themselves by attributing to political causes these predial disturbances, and by recommending for them political remedies.

Even now she knew that language would stand for or even contain some order, an order that could not possibly subsist in anything she had come across so farthat shadow driving across a colourless wall, cars queueing in their tracks, the haphazard murmur of the air which gave pain when you tried to follow it with your mind .

A great number of different funds for annuities, established at different times and by different acts, subsisted at this period, SO that it I was necessary to keep many different accounts, which could not be regulated without considerable trouble and expense, for the removal of which the bill was calculated.

Scrofula may be the consequence of insufficient nourishment, resulting from subsisting upon poor food, or a too exclusively vegetable diet, with little or no animal food.

If, on the other hand, we recollect the universal toleration of Polytheism, as it was invariably maintained by the faith of the people, the incredulity of philosophers, and the policy of the Roman senate and emperors, we are at a loss to discover what new offence the Christians had committed, what new provocation could exasperate the mild indifference of antiquity, and what new motives could urge the Roman princes, who beheld without concern a thousand forms of religion subsisting in peace under their gentle sway, to inflict a severe punishment on any part of their subjects, who had chosen for themselves a singular but an inoffensive mode of faith and worship.

And even this act may be fairly justified by the example of Odoacer, the rights of conquest, the true interest of the Italians, and the sacred duty of subsisting a whole people, who, on the faith of his promises, had transported themselves into a distant land.

Britannic majesty with such succours as he could demand, by virtue of the treaties subsisting between the two powers.

It described the political connexions subsisting between the different powers in Europe.

He said, the trivial disputes still subsisting between this nation and the Spaniards, or French, would soon be terminated amicably, and could never affect the general tranquillity of Europe, which was to be established upon a firm alliance between his majesty and such a confederacy upon the continent, as would be an over-match for the house of Bourbon.

British ministry, who were afraid of giving umbrage to the French, and partly by the jealousies and divisions subsisting between the different colonies of Great Britain.

He complained of these encroachments, as well as of the injuries done to the subjects of Great Britain, in open violation of the law of nations, and of the treaties actually subsisting between the two crowns.

Prussian majesty, of an offensive alliance against him, subsisting between herself and the empress of Russia, together with the circumstances and pretended stipulations of that alliance, were absolutely false and forged, for no such treaty did exist, or ever had existed.