Commissioners of supply. See c 
mittee of Supply, the British Hous 
supply 
The rivers [of Bengal] afford an inexhaustible supply of 
flsh. Macaulay, Lord Clive. 
3. In polit. econ., the amount or quantity of any 
commodity that is on the market and is avail- 
able for purchase. Supply, as the correlative of de- 
mand, involves two factors the possession of a commod- 
ity in quantity, and the offer of it for sale or exchange. 
I would, therefore, define . . . supply as the desire for 
general purchasing power, seeking its end by an offer of 
specific commodities or services. 
Cairnes, Pol. Econ., I. ii. 2. 
4. pi. Necessaries collected and held for dis- 
tribution and use ; stores: as, the army was cut 
off from its supplies. 
Each [bee], provident of cold, in summer flies 
Through fields and woods, to seek for new supplies. 
Addiion, tr. of Virgil's Georgics, iv. 
5. pi. A grant of money provided by a national 
legislature to meet the expenses of government. 
The right of voting supplies in Great Britain is vested in 
the House of Commons ; but a grant from the Commons 
is not effectual in law without the ultimate assent of the 
House of Lords and of the sovereign. 
6t. Additional troops; reinforcements; suc- 
cors. 
The great supply 
That was expected by the Dauphin here 
Are wreck'd three nights ago on Goodwin Sands. 
Shak., K. John, v. 3. 9. 
There we found the last Supply were all sicke, the rest 
some lame, some bruised. 
Quoted in Capt. John Smith's Works, I. 180. 
7. A person who temporarily takes the place 
of another ; a substitute ; specifically, a clergy- 
man who officiates in a vacant charge, or in the 
temporary absence of the pastor. 
Supply after supply filled his pulpit, but the people 
found them all unsatisfactory when they remembered 
his preaching. HoweUs, Annie Eilburn, xxx. 
z commissioner. Com- 
use of Commons in com- 
mittee, charged with the duty of discussing in detail the 
estimates for the public service. Its deliberations and 
decisions form the basis of the Appropriation Bill. De- 
mand and supply. See demand, and def. a Glands 
Of supply, glands which furnish a secretion used in the 
body. Stated supply, a clergyman engaged to supply a 
pulpit for a definite time, but not regularly settled. [U. S. ] 
Supply departments (milit.), the departments that 
furnish all the supplies of an array. In the United States 
army these are (1) the ordnance department, to provide 
ordnance and ordnance stores ; (2) the engineer corps, to 
furnish portable military bridges, pontoons, intrenching- 
tools, torpedoes, and torpedo-supplies ; (3) the quartermas- 
ter's department, which furnishes clothing, fuel, forage, 
quarters, transportation, and camp and garrison equipage ; 
(4) the subsistence department, which furnishes the pro- 
visions ; and (5) the medical department, which provides 
medicines, medical and hospital stores, etc. 
supplymentt (su-pli'ment), . [< supply + 
-ment.] Continuance of supply or relief. 
I will never fail 
Beginning nor supplyment. 
Shak., Cymbeline, iii. 4. 182. 
supply-roller (su-pU'ro'ler), . In printing, 
the inking-roller near the ink-trough which 
supplies ink to the other rollers. 
supply-train (su-pli'tran), n. A train of wag- 
ons carrying provisions and warlike stores re- 
quired for an army in the field. 
supponet, v. t. [= Sp. suponer = Pg. suppdr 
= It. supponere, < L. supponere, subponere, put 
under, substitute, subjoin, < sub, under, + po- 
nere, put: see ponent. Cf. suppose.] To put 
under. Cotgrave. 
support (su-porf), v. [< ME. supporten, < OF. 
supporter, F. supporter = Sp. suportar =Pg. sup- 
portar = It. supportare, sopportare, < L. suppor- 
tare, subportare, carry, bring, convey, < sub, un- 
der, + portare, bear or carry along, < / por, 
go: see ports.] I. trans. 1. To bear; prop up; 
bear the weight of; uphold; sustain; keep from 
falling or sinking. 
[The temple] hath in it an lie made Arch-wise, sup- 
ported with foure hundred Pillars. 
Purchas, Pilgrimage, p. 270. 
When a mass is poised in the hand, certain muscles are 
strained to the degree required to support the mass plus 
the arm. B. Spencer, Prin. of Psychol., 92. 
We left the earth, at the end of the second creative 
seon, with a solid crust supporting a universal ocean. 
Dawson, Nature and the Bible, p. 97. 
2. To endure without being overcome; bear; 
undergo ; also, to tolerate. 
I a heavy interim shall support 
By his dear absence. Shak., Othello, i. 3. 259. 
These things his high spirit could not support. 
Evelyn, Diary, July 25, 1673. 
Whose fierce demeanour and whose insolence 
The patience of a God could not support. 
Dryden, Spanish Friar, ii. 1. 
3. To uphold by aid, encouragement, or coun- 
tenance; keep from shrinking, sinking, fail- 
ing, or fainting: as, to support the courage or 
spirits. 
6074 
He who is quiet and equal in all his behaviour is sup- 
ported in that deportment by what we may call true 
courage. Steele, Spectator, No. 350. 
The moral sense is always supported by the permanent 
interest of the parties. 
Emerson, West Indian Emancipation. 
4. Theat.: (a) To represent in acting on or as 
on the stage; keep up; act: as, to support the 
part assigned. 
Psha ! you know, mamma, I hate militia officers, . . . 
clowns in military masquerade, wearing the dress with- 
out supporting the character. 
Sheridan, St. Patrick's Day, i. 2. 
(b) To act with, accompany, or second a lead- 
ing actor or actress. 
As Ophelia, in New York and elsewhere, she supported 
the elder Booth. Harper's Mag., LXXLX. 871. 
5. In music, to perform an accompaniment or 
subordinate part to. 6. To keep up; carry on; 
maintain : as, to support a contest. 
I would fain have persuaded her to defer any conversa- 
tion which, in her present state, she might not be equal 
to support. Barham, Ingoldsby Legends, I. 189. 
7. To supply funds or means for : as, to support 
the expenses of government ; maintain with the 
necessary means of living ; furnish with a live- 
lihood : as, to support a family. 
And they have lived in that wood 
Full many a year and day, 
And were supported from time to time 
By what he made of prey. 
Young Hastings the Groom (Child's Ballads, I. 190). 
8. To keep from failing or fainting by means 
of food; sustain: as, to support life; to sup- 
port the strength by nourishment. 
The culinary expedients with which three medical stu- 
dents might be supported for a whole week on a single 
loin of mutton by a brandered chop served up one day, a 
fried steak another. Forster, Goldsmith, I. iv. 
9. To keep up in reputation ; maintain : as, to 
support a good character; sustain; substantiate; 
verify: as, the testimony fails to support the 
charges. 
And his man Reynold, with fine counterfesaunce, 
Supports his credite and his countenaunce. 
Spenser, Mother Hub. Tale, 1. 668. 
My train are men of choice and rarest parts, . . . 
And in the most exact regard support 
The worships of their name. Shak., Lear, i. 4. 287. 
10. To assist in general; help; second; further; 
forward : as, to support a friend, a party, or a 
policy; specifically, milit., to aid by being in 
line and ready to take part with in attack or 
defense : as, the regiment supported a battery. 
He [Walpole] knew that it would have been very bad 
policy in him to give the world to understand that more 
was to be got by thwarting his measures than by support- 
ing them. Macaulay, William Pitt. 
11. To vindicate; defend successfully : as, to 
support a verdict or judgment. 
That God is perfectly benevolent is a maxim of popu- 
lar Christianity, and it may be supported by Biblical texts. 
J. R. Seeley, Nat. Religion, p. 13. 
12. To accompany or attend as an honorary 
coadjutor or aid; act as the aid or attendant 
of: as, the chairman was supported by . . . 
13. To speak in support or advocacy of, as a 
motion at a public meeting. 14. In her., to 
accompany or be grouped with (an escutcheon) 
as one of the supporters. [Bare.] TO support 
arms (milit.), to carry the rifle vertically at the left shoul- 
der. = 8yn. 10. To countenance, patronize, back, abet. See 
support, n. 
II. intrans. To live ; get a livelihood. [Lo- 
cal, U. S.] 
We have plenty of property; he'll have that to sup- 
port on in his preachin'. 
W. M. Baiter, New Timothy, p. 232. 
support (su-port'), n. [< ME. support; < sup- 
port, v.] 1. The act or operation of support- 
ing, upholding, sustaining, or keeping from fall- 
ing; sustaining power or effect. 
Two massy pillars, 
That to the arched roof gave main support. 
Union, S. A., 1. 1634. 
2. That which upholds, sustains, or keeps from 
falling; that on which another thing is placed 
or rests ; a prop, pillar, base, or basis ; a foun- 
dation of any kind. 
We are so unremittingly subjected to that great power 
[gravity], and so much occupied in counteracting it, that 
the providing of sufficiency of Support on every needful 
occasion is our foremost solicitude. 
A. Bain, Emotions and Will, p. 231. 
It [the choir of the abbey-church of St. Remi, Rheims] 
is, however, in advance of Paris as regards attenuation of 
supports and general lightness of construction. 
C. H. Moore, Gothic Architecture, p. 96. 
3. That which maintains life; subsistence; 
sustenance. 
supportation 
Yours be the produce of the soil ; 
O may it still reward your toil ! 
Nor ever the defenceless train 
Of clinging infants ask support in vain ! 
Shenstone, Ode to Duchess of Somerset, 1. 27. 
4. One who or that which maintains a person 
or family; means of subsistence or livelihood: 
as, fishing is their support; he is the only sup- 
port of his mother. 
The support of this place [Cyzicusl is a great export of 
white wine, which is very good, and passes for Alonia 
wine at Constantinople, to which city they carry it. 
Pococke, Description of the East, II. ii. 114. 
5. The act of upholding, maintaining, assist- 
ing, forwarding, etc. ; countenance; advocacy: 
as, to speak in support of a measure. 
The pious sovereign of England, the orator said, looked 
to the most Christian king, the eldest son of the Church, 
for support against a heretical nation. 
Macaulay, Hist. Eng., vi. 
There is no crime or enormity in morals which may not 
find the support of human example, often on an extended 
scale. Sumner, Orations, I. 50. 
6. The keeping up or sustaining of anything 
without suffering it to fail, decline, be exhaust- 
ed, or come to an end: as, the support of life 
or strength ; the support of credit. 
I look upon him as one to whom I owe my Life, and 
the Support of it. Steele, Conscious Lovers, ii. 1. 
There were none of those questions and contingencies 
with the future to be settled which wear away all other 
lives, and render them not worth having by the very pro- 
cess of providing for their support. 
Hawthorne, Seven Gables, xi. 
7. That which upholds or relieves ; aid ; help ; 
succor; relief; encouragement. 
apply myself to this Course. Howell, Letters, ] 
It is to us a comfort and support, pleasant to our spirits 
as the sweetest canes. 
Jer. Taylor, Works (ed. 1835), I. 339. 
8. Tlieat., an actor or actress who plays a sub- 
ordinate or minor part with a star; also, the 
whole company collectively as supporting the 
principal actors. 9. pi. Milit., the second line 
in a battle, either in the attack or in the defense. 
10. In music, an accompaniment; also, a sub- 
ordinate part. points of support, in arch. See 
pointl. Right of support, in law: (a) The right of a 
person to have his soil or buildings supported by his neigh- 
bor's house or land. (6) The reasonable supply of the 
necessaries and comforts of life : as, intoxication of a hus- 
band injuring the wife's rights of support. Support of 
the labruui, a small membranous or coriaceous piece just 
above the labrum in the Cerambycidse. Many entomolo- 
gists have regarded it as the epistoma, from which it ap- 
pears to be distinct. =Syn. 2. Stay, strmX brace, shore. 
3. Maintenance, etc. Seeliving. 5. Encouragement, pa- 
tronage, comfort. 
supportable (su-por'ta-bl), a. [== F. suppor- 
table = Sp. soportable = Pg. supportavel = It. 
sopportabile; as support + -able.] 1. Capable 
of being supported, upheld, sustained, main- 
tained, or defended. 2. Capable of being 
borne, endured, or tolerated ; bearable ; endur- 
able : as, the pain is not supportable ; patience 
renders injuries or insults supportable. 
Of all the species of pedants which I have mentioned, 
the book pedant is much the most supportable. 
Addison, Spectator, No. 105. 
The tyranny of an individual is far more supportable 
than the tyranny of a caste. Macaulay, Mirabeau. 
supportableness (su-por'ta-bl-nes), . The 
state of being supportable. Hammond. 
supportably (su-por'ta-bli), adv. In a support- 
able manner; so as to be supportable or en- 
durable. Imp. Diet. 
supportalt (su-por'tal), n. [< ME. supportayle, 
< OF. *supportaile,< supporter, support: see sup- 
port.] Support. 
And in mischief, whanne drede wolde us assayle, 
Thou arte oure schilde, thou arte oure supportayle. 
Lydgate. (HaUiwell.) 
No small hope that som nedefull supportal wold be for 
me (in due tyme) devysed. 
Dr. John Dee, in Ellis's Lit. Letters, p. 34. 
supportance (su-por'tans), n. [< support + 
-mice.] If. A support; upholding; mainte- 
nance. 
Give some supportance to the bending twigs. 
Shall., Rich. II., iii. 4. 32. 
Name and honour 
What are they ? a mere sound without supportance. 
Ford, .Fancies, i. 3. 
The tribute Rome receives from Asia is 
Her chief supportance. 
Massinger, Believe as you List, ii. 2. 
2. In Scots law, assistance enabling a person 
who is otherwise incapable to go to kirk or 
market, so as to render valid a conveyance of 
heritage made within sixty days before death, 
supportationt (sup-6r-ta'shon), n. [< L. sup- 
portatio(n-), endurance, bearing, < supportare, 
