Support

Support

As a verb, furnishing funds or means for maintenance; to maintain; to provide for; to enable to continue; to carry on. To provide a means of livelihood. To vindicate, to maintain, to defend, to uphold with aid or countenance.

As a noun, that which furnishes a livelihood; a source or means of living; subsistence, sustenance, maintenance, or living.

Support includes all sources of living that enable a person to live in a degree of comfort suitable and befitting her station in life. Support encompasses housing, food, clothing, health, nursing, and medical needs, along with adequate recreation expenses. Most states impose a legal duty on an individual to support his or her spouse and children.

Cross-references

Child Support.

West's Encyclopedia of American Law, edition 2. Copyright 2008 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.

SUPPORT. The right of support is an easement which one man, either by contract or prescription, enjoys, to rest the joists or timbers of his house upon the wall of an adjoining building, owned by another person. 3 Kent, Com. 435. Vide Lois des Bat. part. 1, c. 3, s. a. 1, Sec. T; Party wall.

A Law Dictionary, Adapted to the Constitution and Laws of the United States. By John Bouvier. Published 1856.