Subsist \Sub*sist"\, v. i. [imp. & p. p. {Subsisted}; p. pr. & vb. n. {Subsisting}.] [L. subsistere to stand still, stay, remain alive; sub under + sistere to stand, to cause to stand, from stare to stand: cf. F. subsister. See {Stand}.] 1. To be; to have existence; to inhere.
And makes what happiness we justly call, Subsist not in the good of one, but all. --Pope.
2. To continue; to retain a certain state.
Firm we subsist, yet possible to swerve. --Milton.
3. To be maintained with food and clothing; to be supported; to live. --Milton.
To subsist on other men's charity. --Atterbury.
Subsist \Sub*sist"\, v. t. To support with provisions; to feed; to maintain; as, to subsist one's family.
He laid waste the adjacent country in order to render it more difficult for the enemy to subsist their army. --Robertson.
Sixteen years after his father walked out, Snyder quit a lucrative job as a Madison Avenue headhunter and left his own wife and two sons to subsist on welfare and food stamps.
He and the others said they were paid nothing and had to subsist largely on banana shoots and other food they could forage in the jungle.
They are most likely to subsist on fast-food, frozen dinners and carry-out pizza.
They subsist on hunting and fishing and precarious agriculture.