Subsistence

3 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Subsistence \Sub*sist"ence\, n. [Cf. F. subsistance, L.
     subsistentia.]
     1. Real being; existence.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              Not only the things had subsistence, but the very


              images were of some creatures existing.
                                                    --Stillingfleet.
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     2. Inherency; as, the subsistence of qualities in bodies.
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     3. That which furnishes support to animal life; means of
        support; provisions, or that which produces provisions;
        livelihood; as, a meager subsistence.
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              His viceroy could only propose to himself a
              comfortable subsistence out of the plunder of his
              province.                             --Addison.
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     4. (Theol.) Same as {Hypostasis}, 2. --Hooker.
        [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  subsistence
       n 1: minimal (or marginal) resources for subsisting; "social
            security provided only a bare subsistence"
       2: a means of surviving; "farming is a hard means of
          subsistence"
       3: the state of existing in reality; having substance

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  101 Moby Thesaurus words for "subsistence":
     Lenten, Spartan, TLC, abstemious, accommodation, accommodations,
     aliment, alimentation, alimony, ascetic, austere, bed,
     bed and board, being, board, board and room, bread,
     bread and butter, care, daily bread, dwarfed, dwarfish,
     economic support, endowment, ens, entity, esse, essence, exiguous,
     existence, facilities, food, frugal, impoverished, jejune, keep,
     lean, life, limited, livelihood, living, lodgings, maintenance,
     manna, materiality, meager, mean, meat, miserly, mothering, narrow,
     niggardly, nourishment, nurture, nutriment, occurrence, paltry,
     parsimonious, poor, presence, price support, provision, puny,
     rations, salt, scant, scanty, scrawny, scrimp, scrimpy, skimp,
     skimpy, slender, slight, slim, small, spare, sparing, starvation,
     stingy, stinted, straitened, stunted, subsidization, subsidy,
     subsisting, substantiality, subvention, support, survival,
     sustainment, sustenance, sustentation, tender loving care, thin,
     unnourishing, unnutritious, upkeep, victuals, watered, watery