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Words, grammatical forms and meanings linked to the ontology.

life support en · NOUN

Pronunciation

  • (Southern-England) audio

Meanings

  1. (uncountable) An artificial system designed to provide oxygen and other conditions necessary for human life in an inhospitable environment.
    • 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. 2017, BioWare, Mass Effect: Andromeda (Science Fiction), Redwood City: Electronic Arts, →OCLC, PC, scene: Engineer's Report:
  2. (uncountable) The maintenance of vital functions of a critically ill or comatose person or a person undergoing surgery.
  3. (uncountable) The equipment and special procedures used for life support.
  4. (figuratively, uncountable) 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.
    • As we've seen, Belarus is a Soviet time capsule that continues only because Russia is keeping it on life support. 2011, Francis Tapon, The Hidden Europe: What Eastern Europeans Can Teach Us, page 135:
    • In a war of words that has broken out between Khan and Secretary of State for Transport Grant Shapps, the Mayor was accused of sending revenue-raising proposals to Shapps some three weeks late, giving him little choice but to extend negotiations. Khan countered this by alleging that 'unfair' conditions, such as raising council tax, are being attached to any new funding deal that would "punish Londoners" for the effect the pandemic has had on passenger numbers. He added: "These short-term deals are trapping TfL on life support rather than putting it on the path to long-term sustainability." 2022 January 12, “Network News: Further extension to Transport for London emergency funding”, in RAIL, number 948, page 8:

Translations (17)

fi elintoimintojen ylläpitäminen (equipment and procedures) · de lebenserhaltende Apparate (equipment and procedures) · cmn 生命維持系統 /生命维持系统 (system for providing oxygen) · cmn 生命支持設備 /生命支持设备 (system for providing oxygen) · cmn 人工維持 /人工维持 (figurative: means of sustaining existence) · fi happilaitteisto (system for providing oxygen) · fi hengityskone (figurative: means of sustaining existence) · fi elintoimintojen ylläpitäminen (maintenance of vital functions) · cmn 維生 /维生 (maintenance of vital functions) · de Tropf (figurative: means of sustaining existence) · de lebenserhaltende Ausrüstung (equipment and procedures) · de lebenserhaltende Maßnahmen (maintenance of vital functions) · cmn 人工生命維持系統 /人工生命维持系统 (system for providing oxygen) · ru жизнеобеспе́че́ние (system for providing oxygen) · cmn 維生設備 /维生设备 (equipment and procedures) · de Sauerstoffversorgung (system for providing oxygen) · cmn 生命支持系統 /生命支持系统 (system for providing oxygen)