v. [f. mod.L. substantiāt-, pa. ppl. stem of substantiāre, f. substantia SUBSTANCE: see -ATE3. Cf. It. sostanziare, Sp., Pg. substanciar.]
1. trans. To give substance or substantial existence to, make real or substantial.
1657. Trapp, Comm. Ps. xxviii. 7. Faith substantiateth things not yet seen.
1726. Ayliffe, Parergon, 148. The Accidental of any Act, is said to be whatever advenes to the Act itself already substantiated.
1812. Coleridge, Friend (1818), III. 187. Substantiating appearances into facts of science.
1863. Cowden Clarke, Shaks. Char., iv. 107. The creative power of the fancy is a blessed gift in itself; but he substantiates that gift who converts it into the ordinary occurrences of daily life.
1877. E. Caird, Philos. Kant, iii. 44. Human thought substantiates accidents, and treats the finite as if it were infinite.
2. To give solidity to, make firm, strengthen.
1792. V. Knox, Serm. (Isa. xlvii. 8), Wks. 1824, VI. 99. He would sweeten and substantiate them [their enjoyments] by giving them a better foundation.
1827. Hare, Guesses (1859), 242. Our lighter thoughts require the graver to substantiate them and keep them from evaporating.
1835. I. Taylor, Spir. Despot., II. 55. In this endeavour of the clergy to substantiate their honours and revenues.
1858. Froude, Hist. Eng., III. 450. To pass through France … in a manner so … confidential as … might contribute towards substantiating his relations with Francis.
3. To give substantial form to, embody, body forth.
1784. J. Barry, Lect. Painting, ii. (1848), 113. The difficulties of execution, which must embody and substantiate this conception.
1791. Boswell, Johnson, an. 1752. Particular qualities in the person he admires, the impressions of which are too … delicate to be substantiated in language.
c. 1811. Fuseli, Lect. Painting, iv. (1848), 448. That power which, in our days, substantiated humour in Sterne, comedy in Garrick.
1841. Emerson, Ess., Friendship, 196. As many thoughts in succession substantiate themselves.
4. To demonstrate or verify by proof or evidence; to make good.
1803. Malthus, Popul. (ed. 2), 140. In a tribe on the frontiers of Junapore,… the practice of destroying female infants has been fully substantiated.
1808. Wellington, in Gurw., Desp. (1835), IV. 165. If the Court should wish it, it can be substantiated by evidence.
1815. Kirby & Sp., Entomol. (1816), I. 55. That this substantiates the charge of cruelty against us I altogether deny.
1884. Contemp. Rev., Oct., 514. There is nothing to substantiate his integrity or competency.
Hence Substantiating vbl. sb. and ppl. a.; Substantiative a., serving to substantiate; Substantiator, one who substantiates.
1775. Ash, Substantiating, the act of making to exist.
1812. Coleridge, Friend (1818), III. 264. The substantiating principle of all true wisdom. Ibid. (c. 1814), in Lit. Rem. (1838), III. 71. The conscience is to the spirit or reason what the understanding is to the sense, a substantiative power.
1853. Ruskin, Stones Venice, III. iv. § 23. 183. The difference between the substantiating and the imaginative methods of finish.
1884. Pall Mall Gaz., 27 Oct., 4/1. The untrimmed skirt … with only a few substantiating tucks round the bottom.
1906. D. K. Broster, in Cornh. Mag., May, 663. What value he [Burnet] has is that of the substantiator of other accounts.
