Crossword Genius

Support woman torn apart by decade attached to church (10)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

sustenance

I'm a little stuck... Click here to teach me more about this clue!

'support woman' is the definition.
'sustenance' can be an answer for 'support' (thesaurus). I am not certain of the 'woman' bit.

'torn apart by decade attached to church' is the wordplay.
'torn apart by' means one lot of letters goes inside another (some letters tear an opening in others).
'decade' becomes 'ten' (synonyms).
'attached to' becomes 'susan' (I am not sure about this - if you are sure you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'church' becomes 'CE' (abbreviation for Church of England).
'ten' placed inside 'susan' is 'sustenan'.
'sustenan'+'ce'='SUSTENANCE'

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for sustenance that I've seen before include "Food and drink" , "Nutriment" , "cooking provides this?" , "Nourishment" .)

I've seen this clue in The Times.
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