Definition of "sustenance" [sus•te•nance]

• The act of sustaining. (noun)
• The condition of being sustained. (noun)
• The supporting of life or health; maintenance: "to deliver in every morning six beeves, forty sheep, and other victuals for my sustenance” ( Jonathan Swift). (noun)
• Something, especially food, that sustains life or health. (noun)
• Means of livelihood. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "Obama, however, seems to have drawn a kind of sustenance from the dinner."
• "In arid northern and western China, to depend on the land for sustenance is to be poor."
• "They start out as mindless drones whose only purpose seems to be to gain sustenance by consuming the living."