life buoy

noun

any of variously formed buoyant devices for supporting a person fallen into the water.

Nearby words

life and death, life annuity, life arrow, life assurance, life belt, life buoy, life car, life coach, life cycle, life estate, life expectancy

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for life buoy

The life-buoy lies unnoticed on the shelf above the berth as long as the sea is calm and everything goes well.
Expositions of Holy Scripture|Alexander Maclaren
The last words seemed to present themselves to him as a sort of life-buoy.
Bella Donna|Robert Hichens
If he was clinging to the life-buoy he might be all right, but where that was, was the question.
Sunshine Bill|W H G Kingston
But one had thrown him a life-buoy, and on this he floated until daylight, when an outbound tug picked him up.
The Boy Scouts Book of Stories|Various

I realized that if this continued my life-buoy would be destroyed; but I was helpless.
Harper's Round Table, June 11, 1895|Various

British Dictionary definitions for life buoy

life buoy

noun

any of various kinds of buoyant device for keeping people afloat in an emergency

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