lifeboat

[lahyf-boht]

noun

1. a double-ended ship's boat, constructed, mounted, and provisioned so as to be readily able to rescue and maintain persons from a sinking vessel.

2. a similarly constructed boat used by shore-based rescue services.

lifeboat

/ ˈlaɪfˌbəʊt /

noun

1. a boat, propelled by oars or a motor, used for rescuing people at sea, escaping from a sinking ship, etc

2. informal,  a fund set up by the dealers in a market to rescue any member who may become insolvent as a result of a collapse in market prices

Word History and Origins

Origin of lifeboat¹

First recorded in 1795–1805; life + boat

Example Sentences

Most of the Housatonic’s 155 crewmembers saved themselves by launching lifeboats or by climbing into the ship’s rigging, which towered safely above the harbor’s shallow twenty-seven-foot depth.

Read more on Literature

But the GOP also has an opening to start building lifeboats from ObamaCare.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

“There’s not many of us left that did lighthouses or lifeboat stations, guys — mostly guys, almost exclusively — like me.”

Read more on Los Angeles Times

The 1884 death of a cabin boy in a lifeboat was no accident.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

Of the 1,065 people on board, 30 died when two lifeboats were pulled into the ship's propellers.

Read more on BBC

Related Words

• barge 
• canoe 
• catamaran 
• craft 
• dinghy 
• gondola 
• raft 
• sailboat 
• schooner 
• ship 
• yacht