Dictionary entry

Support (2)

Webster's Dictionary 1913

Sup‐port″ (?), n. 1. The act, state, or operation of supporting, upholding, or sustaining.

2. That which upholds, sustains, or keeps from falling, as a prop, a pillar, or a foundation of any kind.

3. That which maintains or preserves from being overcome, falling, yielding, sinking, giving way, or the like; subsistence; maintenance; assistance; reënforcement; as, he gave his family a good support, the support of national credit; the assaulting column had the support of a battery.

Points of support(Arch.), the horizontal area of the solids of a building, walls, piers, and the like, as compared with the open or vacant spaces. — Right of support(Law), an easement or servitude by which the owner of a house has a right to rest his timber on the walls of his neighbor's house. Kent.

Syn. — Stay; prop; maintenance; subsistence; assistance; favor; countenance; encouragement; patronage; aid; help; succor; nutriment; sustenance; food.