To hold, preserve or keep in any particular state or condition; to support; to sustain; not to suffer to fail or decline; as, to maintain a certain degree of heat in a furnace; to maintain the digestive process or powers of the stomach; to maintain the fertility of soil; to maintain present character or reputation.

To hold; to keep; not to lose or surrender; as, to maintain a place or post.

To continue; not to suffer to cease; as, to maintain a conversation.

To keep up; to uphold; to support the expense of; as, to maintain state or equipage. What maintains one vice would bring up two children.

To support with food, clothing and other conveniences; as, to maintain a family by trade or labor.

To support by intellectual powers, or by force of reason; as, to maintain an argument.

To support; to defend; to vindicate; to justify; to prove to be just; as, to maintain one’s right or cause.

To support by assertion or argument; to affirm. In tragedy and satire, I maintain that this age and the last have excelled the ancients.