n. The act of maintaining, keeping up, supporting, or upholding; preservation; sustentation; vindication: as, the maintenance of a family; the maintenance of right.n. That which maintains or supports; means of livelihood.n. Bearing; behavior.n. In lawn. An officious intermeddling in a suit in which the meddler has no interest, by assisting either party with means to prosecute or defend it. This is a punishable offense at common law.n. Formerly, a like intermeddling with the controversy of others, as to land, by wrongfully taking or holding possession in aid of one party.n. In a more general sense, an interfering with the due course of justice.n. Synonyms Justification, preservation.—2. Subsistence, Livelihood, etc. See living.