Meaning & use
lifeline
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Meanings
nouncountablefigurative
Something or someone that gives vital help to a person or group in a desperate situation, often the only means of survival.
Grammar: Often used with an or the and a following of: a lifeline for farmers.
Patterns
- a lifeline for someone
- throw someone a lifeline
- a lifeline to something
The emergency loan was a lifeline for the failing bakery.
For many elderly people, the weekly phone call is a lifeline.
The ferry is the island's only lifeline to the mainland.
nouncountable
A rope or cable used to save someone in water or to stop a climber or worker from falling.
Grammar: A physical object: He grabbed the lifeline.
Patterns
- throw a lifeline
- cling to a lifeline
The sailor threw a lifeline to the swimmer.
Workers on the roof clipped themselves to a lifeline.
He gripped the lifeline until the rescue boat arrived.
nouncountableinformal
In a quiz show or game, a chance to get help with a question, such as asking a friend.
Grammar: Usually plural in game talk: using up your lifelines.
Patterns
- use a lifeline
- have a lifeline left
She used her last lifeline to ask a friend about the capital of Peru.
The contestant had no lifelines left for the final question.
You may use each lifeline only once.
Word forms
| plural | lifelines |
|---|
Common combinations
- throw someone a lifeline
- The bank threw the struggling firm a lifeline.
- economic lifeline
- Tourism is the village's economic lifeline.
- vital lifeline
- The helpline is a vital lifeline for lonely teenagers.
- cling to a lifeline
- He clung to the lifeline of his friend's advice.
- cut the lifeline
- Closing the only road would cut the town's lifeline.
Synonyms and how they differ
- lifesaver
- Lifesaver is more casual and may mean a person or thing that rescues you from a small problem, while lifeline suggests a continuing source of support in serious trouble.
- salvation
- Salvation is a stronger, more formal word for rescue from ruin or sin, and is less physical than lifeline.
- support
- Support is a general word for help and does not carry the urgent sense of survival that lifeline does.
- rope
- Rope names only the physical object, while lifeline also covers the figurative idea of rescue.
Opposites
Word family
Commonly confused: lifeline or lifelike?
lifeline vs lifelike
Lifelike means looking real or alive, not helping someone survive.
Practice
After the factory closed, the training program became a ______ for many workers looking for a new career.
Choose one answer.
Lifeline means a vital source of help in a difficult time, which matches the program. A deadline is a time limit and a bottleneck is a blockage.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “lifeline”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.