a. and sb. rare. [ad. L. substans, -ant-, pr. pple. of substāre (see SUBSTANCE).]

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  A.  adj. 1. Substantial; subsistent.

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1660.  Stanley, Hist. Philos., IX. ii. (1687), 571/1. The Pythagoreans reduce all Beings, subsistent or substant, immediatly to Idæa’s which truly are.

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1838.  J. E. Reade, Italy, I. xxv. A substant and eternal memory.

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  2.  Underlying.

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1883.  Century Mag., XXVII. 146/1. Its [sc. a glacier’s] substant ice curls freely, molds, and breaks itself like water.

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  † B.  sb. A subsisting thing. Obs.

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1597.  J. Payne, Royal Exch., 24. The substants of bodie and soule have nothinge commune with this spirituall mariage.

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