life-or-death
Americanadjective
Etymology
Origin of life-or-death
First recorded in 1680–90
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
That movie put Matt Damon alone on Mars and made the act of thinking through one life-or-death problem after another the engine of the story.
From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 19, 2026
But there’s a difference—and it’s a life-or-death difference now—between protest and incitement.
From The Wall Street Journal • Dec. 17, 2025
Treating life-or-death matters in an explicitly cartoonish manner is a graphic self-own.
From Salon • Nov. 1, 2025
A reimagining of Akira Kurosawa’s 1963 thriller “High and Low,” “Highest 2 Lowest” stars Washington as a wealthy music mogul whose livelihood is threatened by a life-or-death ransom demand.
From Los Angeles Times • Aug. 6, 2025
There were those who said that it was just a horrible accident, an inevitable by-product of the fact that police officers sometimes have to make life-or-death decisions in conditions of uncertainty.
From "Blink" by Malcolm Gladwell
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
