sustain
suh-STAYNverbMeaning to keep something going; to support it over time
Memory hook SOUP-STAIN: the soup keeps them going. Their jackets have soup stains, but the hot soup keeps the hikers going all the way up the mountain. Food that keeps you going sustains you.
Hot soup sustained the hikers on the long, cold climb.
In context The little theater could not sustain itself on ticket sales alone, so neighbors held bake sales every month to keep its doors open.
Similar maintain, keep up, prolong, uphold
Opposite abandon, end, halt
From Latin sustinere, “to hold up from below”: sub (under) + tenere (to hold).