These words are concerned with protection or assistance given in the face of difficulty or hostility. Uphold specifically suggests an active attempt to prevent something from giving way or from falling into dander or neglect: an innate pride that upheld her during the worst of the crisis; upholding the school’s tradition of good sportsmanship. Back (or back up ) can also apply to the protection of principles or ideas, but it is very often used in a more personal way, suggesting that one person stands behind or subscribes to the efforts of another who has exposed himself to danger or disapproval. The word can therefore suggest a more passive role than uphol d: careless of the risk in upholding the cause because he was confident that others in the community would silently back him up . Back may also specifically suggest the choosing of sides in a contest: voters who had backed the less popular candidate. Back has also a special sense of making a financial investment on some favoured animal in a race: I backed four winners at Randwick on Saturday.

Defend and champion suggest action in the face of hostility. Defend is more restricted in scope than champion, stressing the protection of a challenged right or position. The extent of the action taken, however, may be slight or great: defending her reputation with a well-placed word or two; defending his friends from injury by throwing himself on the falling grenade. Champion specifically stresses a more active, offensive role and may suggest taking the place of someone less able to act. It may suggest also a single-handed offence, as opposed to most of these other words which imply that many could conceivably co-operate in protection or assistance: the only newspaper that insistently championed the right of teenagers to have their say.

Support and sustain are like back in suggesting the assistance of something that is in an exposed or endangered position. Whereas back suggests more determination than either of these words in themselves, support states the mere fact of aid or favour, without any implications of resoluteness or permanent commitment: supporting the candidate in the pre-selection ballot but not in the election campaign. Unlike back and support, sustain cannot apply to the choosing of sides in a contest. It can go beyond support in other situations to suggest a continuing loyalty: sustaining his interest in their plight over more than a decade. In another use, it can suggest the granting of a point or the giving of peripheral aid, without taking sides on larger issues: asking the judge to sustain his objection concerning the tactics of his opponent; friends who helped to sustain his morale during exam week by popping in often with coffee and sandwiches.

Maintain may suggest resoluteness in the context of advocacy: maintaining that he boy’s confession had been coerced. In other situations, it may suggest continuing support that may be minimal or less than adequate: The absent father maintained the payments over many years, but they were never enough to sustain the whole family.