different between sustain vs relieve

English

Etymology

From Middle English susteinen, sustenen, from Old French sustenir (French soutenir), from Latin sustine?, sustin?re (“to uphold”), from sub- (“from below, up”) + tene? (“hold”, verb).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /s??ste?n/
• Hyphenation: sus?tain
• Rhymes: -e?n

Verb

sustain (third-person singular simple present sustains, present participle sustaining, simple past and past participle sustained)

1. (transitive) To maintain, or keep in existence.

   The professor had trouble sustaining students’ interest until the end of her lectures.

   The city came under sustained attack by enemy forces.

   • 1949, George Orwell, Nineteen Eighty-Four, Part Two, Chapter 9,^[1]

     All the beliefs, habits, tastes, emotions, mental attitudes that characterize our time are really designed to sustain the mystique of the Party and prevent the true nature of present-day society from being perceived.

2. (transitive) To provide for or nourish.

   provisions to sustain an army

   • 1611, King James Version of the Bible, Nehemiah 9:21,^[2]

     Yea, forty years didst thou sustain them in the wilderness, so that they lacked nothing; their clothes waxed not old, and their feet swelled not.

   • 1937, Robert Byron, The Road to Oxiana, London: Macmillan, Part 2, p. 59,^[3]

     We rode five farsakhs today, sustained by a single bowl of curds and tortured by the wooden saddles.

3. (transitive) To encourage or sanction (something). (The addition of quotations indicative of this usage is being sought:)
4. (transitive) To experience or suffer (an injury, etc.).

   The building sustained major damage in the earthquake.

   • c. 1612, William Shakespeare and John Fletcher, Henry VIII, Act III, Scene 2,^[4]

     […] if you omit

     The offer of this time, I cannot promise

     But that you shall sustain moe new disgraces,

     With these you bear already.

   • 1697, John Dryden (translator), The Aeneid, Book 7, lines 592-593, in The Works of Virgil, London: Jacob Tonson, p. 418,^[5]

     Shall Turnus then such endless Toil sustain,

     In fighting Fields, and conquer Towns in vain:

5. (transitive) To confirm, prove, or corroborate; to uphold.

   to sustain a charge, an accusation, or a proposition

   • 1876, Henry Martyn Robert, Pocket Manual of Rules of Order for Deliberative Assemblies, Chicago: Griggs, 1885, Section 61 (e), p. 167,^[6]

     After the vote is taken, the Chairman states that the decision of the Chair is sustained, or reversed, as the case may be.

6. To keep from falling; to bear; to uphold; to support.

   A foundation sustains the superstructure; an animal sustains a load; a rope sustains a weight.

7. To aid, comfort, or relieve; to vindicate.
   • c. 1605, William Shakespeare, King Lear, Act III, Scene 3,^[7]

     When I desir’d their leave that I might pity him, they took from me the use of mine own house, charg’d me on pain of perpetual displeasure neither to speak of him, entreat for him, nor any way sustain him.

   • 1697, John Dryden (translator), The Aeneid, Book 6, lines 1122-1123, in The Works of Virgil, London: Jacob Tonson, p. 395,^[8]

     His Sons, who seek the Tyrant to sustain,

     And long for Arbitrary Lords again,

Derived terms

• sustainable
• sustainedly
• sustaining

Related terms

Translations

Noun

sustain (plural sustains)

1. (music) A mechanism which can be used to hold a note, as the right pedal on a piano.
   • 2011, Chuck Eddy, Rock and Roll Always Forgets (page 265)

     To call this music bland is to ignore the down-the-drain vocal fade-aways, the extended sax sustains […]

Anagrams

• issuant

English

Etymology

From Old French relever, specifically from the conjugated forms such as (jeo) relieve (“I lift up”), and its source, Latin relevo (“to lift up, lighten, relieve, alleviate”), combined form of re- (“back”) + levo (“to lift”). Compare levant, levity, etc.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /???li?v/
• Rhymes: -i?v

Verb

relieve (third-person singular simple present relieves, present participle relieving, simple past and past participle relieved)

1. (transitive) To ease (a person, person's thoughts etc.) from mental distress; to stop (someone) feeling anxious or worried, to alleviate the distress of. [from 14th c.]
2. (transitive) To ease (someone, a part of the body etc.) or give relief from physical pain or discomfort. [from 14th c.]
3. (transitive) To alleviate (pain, distress, mental discomfort etc.). [from 14th c.]
4. (transitive) To provide comfort or assistance to (someone in need, especially in poverty). [from 14th c.]
5. (obsolete) To lift up; to raise again. [15th-17th c.]
6. (now rare) To raise (someone) out of danger or from (a specified difficulty etc.). [from 15th c.]
7. (law) To free (someone) from debt or legal obligations; to give legal relief to. [from 15th c.]

   This shall not relieve either Party of any obligations.

8. To bring military help to (a besieged town); to lift the siege on. [from 16th c.]
9. To release (someone) from or of a difficulty, unwanted task, responsibility etc. [from 16th c.]
10. (military, job) To free (someone) from their post, task etc. by taking their place. [from 16th c.]
11. (now rare) To make (something) stand out; to make prominent, bring into relief. [from 18th c.]
    • 1819, Lord Byron, Don Juan, III.76:

      The henna should be deeply dyed to make / The skin relieved appear more fairly fair […]

    • 1927, Countee Cullen, From the Dark Tower:

      The night whose sable breast relieves the stark / White stars is no less lovely being dark

12. (reflexive) To go to the toilet; to defecate or urinate. [from 20th c.]

Synonyms

• (to alleviate pain, ease): liss

Derived terms

• relieve oneself

Related terms

Translations

Further reading

• relieve in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• relieve in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

Spanish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /re?ljebe/, [re?lje.??e]

Noun

relieve m (plural relieves)

1. relief (protrusion)

Derived terms

Further reading

• “relieve” in Diccionario de la lengua española, Vigésima tercera edición, Real Academia Española, 2014.