Maintenance - Definition

n 1: activity involved in maintaining something in good working
order; "he wrote the manual on car care" [syn: care,
maintenance, upkeep]
2: means of maintenance of a family or group
3: court-ordered support paid by one spouse to another after
they are separated [syn: alimony, maintenance]
4: the act of sustaining life by food or providing a means of
subsistence; "they were in want of sustenance"; "fishing was
their main sustainment" [syn: sustenance, sustentation,
sustainment, maintenance, upkeep]
5: the unauthorized interference in a legal action by a person
having no interest in it (as by helping one party with money
or otherwise to continue the action) so as to obstruct
justice or promote unnecessary litigation or unsettle the
peace of the community; "unlike champerty, criminal
maintenance does not necessarily involve personal profit"
[syn: maintenance, criminal maintenance]