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View synonyms for lifeboat

lifeboat

[ lahyf-boht ]

noun

  1. a double-ended ship's boat, constructed, mounted, and provisioned so as to be readily able to rescue and maintain persons from a sinking vessel.
  2. a similarly constructed boat used by shore-based rescue services.


lifeboat

/ ˈlaɪfˌbəʊt /

noun

  1. a boat, propelled by oars or a motor, used for rescuing people at sea, escaping from a sinking ship, etc
  2. informal.
    a fund set up by the dealers in a market to rescue any member who may become insolvent as a result of a collapse in market prices
“Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged” 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012


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Word History and Origins

Origin of lifeboat1

First recorded in 1795–1805; life + boat
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Example Sentences

There was a kind of everyone-swimming-to-the-last-lifeboat, and it turned out to not be the last lifeboat.

Within a short while, it became clear that he was, in fact, joining the Cruz family women and children in the closest available lifeboat.

We’ve patched together a little lifeboat in this vast sea of students, spread over the world.

So I’m riding out this storm in the lifeboat of my living group.

We’ve patched together a little lifeboat in this vast sea of students, spread out over the world.

Once we were discussing Lifeboat, a Hitchcock film that takes place almost entirely in a small boat adrift at sea.

A rising tide lifts all boats…but a lifeboat carrying a few, surrounded by many treading water, risks capsizing.

But the pirates sabotage the deal and make off in a lifeboat with Phillips, along with $30,000 in cash.

After an incredibly suspenseful standoff, the marksmen take out the pirates in the lifeboat, saving Phillips.

Like when Smith and his family managed to crowd onto a lifeboat—which then failed to deploy.

Often, far too often, all the force of lifeboat service on that coast is insufficient to meet the demands on it.

The drama, as far as the Gull-Light was concerned, ended that night with the disappearance of the tug and lifeboat.

This is the east pier watch-house; the marine residence, if we may so express it, of the coxswain of the lifeboat and his men.

Without her powerful engines to tow it to windward of the wrecks the lifeboat would be much, very much, less useful than it is.

Slipping the cable once more, the lifeboat gallantly dashed into the thickest of the fight, and soon got within hail of the wreck.

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