1the action or fact of maintaining or supporting oneself at a minimum level:the minimum income needed for subsistence
the means of doing this:the garden provided not only subsistence but a little cash cropthe agricultural working class were deprived of a subsistence
[as modifier] denoting or relating to production at a level sufficient only for one’s own use or consumption, without any surplus for trade:subsistence agriculture
2chiefly Law the state of remaining in force or effect:rights of occupation normally only continue during the subsistence of the marriage
