Definition of "sustainer"

[…] But thy selfe, hast a sustainer beneOf much affliction in my cause: […]

c. 1611, George Chapman, transl., The Iliads of Homer‎, London: Nathaniell Butter, Book 23, p. 320

[…] not One in Fifty, of our Men of Fashion, or of Quality, as they call themselves, has an Understanding that is able to go alone. They are forc’d, therefore, to wait ’till they have their Sustainer’s Opinion to lean against, before they dare venture upon the Praise, even of what they are inclinable to think favourably of […]

1724, Aaron Hill and William Bond, The Plain Dealer, No. 36, 24 July, 1724, London: S. Richardson & A. Wilde, p. 296

[Bread] constitutes of itself a complete life sustainer, the gluten, starch and sugar which it contains representing ozotized and hydro-carbonated nutrients, and combining the sustaining powers of the animal and vegetable kingdoms in one product.

1887, Fanny Lemira Gillette, Hugo Ziemann, The White House Cook Book‎, page 238

What a good lot of people they all were, I was betrayed by their applause and too many pink gins into thinking, the red-jowled sustainers of a great empire and their ladies, quaffers and yarners and players of deck games.

1980, Anthony Burgess, chapter 33, in Earthly Powers, Penguin, published 1981, page 226

21st time this year a sponsor gave the nod to a sustainer: from now on Let’s Pretend, a CBS sustainer for 13 years, will pretend for Cream of Wheat.

1943 September 6, “Wallflowers Join the Dance”, in Time‎, archived from the original on 26 August 2013