Life support
noun
noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
Noun
- 1 An artificial system designed to provide oxygen and other conditions necessary for human life in an inhospitable environment. uncountable
"The more immediate concern is the life support systems. Those units are fifty years old—a conservative estimate. If the air scrubbers stop working, we die. If the pressure regulators stop working, we die. Artificial gravity fails? We die. You get the picture."
- 2 medical equipment that assists or replaces important bodily functions and so enables a patient to live who otherwise might not survive wordnet
- 3 The maintenance of vital functions of a critically ill or comatose person or a person undergoing surgery. uncountable
- 4 equipment that makes life possible in otherwise deadly environmental conditions wordnet
- 5 The equipment and special procedures used for life support. uncountable
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- 6 A means of sustaining existence or continuation of something, usually in an artificial manner when it should have changed or terminated in its natural environment. figuratively, uncountable
"As we've seen, Belarus is a Soviet time capsule that continues only because Russia is keeping it on life support."
Synonyms
All synonymsExample
More examples"The more immediate concern is the life support systems. Those units are fifty years old—a conservative estimate. If the air scrubbers stop working, we die. If the pressure regulators stop working, we die. Artificial gravity fails? We die. You get the picture."