subsist

verb4

1. •
   To survive on a minimum of resources.
2. •
   To retain a certain state; to continue.
3. •
   To have ontological reality; to exist.

   • Remember Man! "the Universal Cause / Acts not by partial, but by gen’ral Laws ; / And makes what Happiness we justly call / Subsist not in the Good of one, but all. — 1734
4. •
   (no longer used) To supply sustenance or subsistence to or for.

   • With mutual toil, and intuitive dexterity, we built our commodious habitation in the hollow of a mango tree, that the fruit, which was then in blossom, might subsist our young. — 1769