survive

[ser-vahyv]

See more synonyms for survive on Thesaurus.com

verb (used without object), sur·vived, sur·viv·ing.

to remain alive after the death of someone, the cessation of something, or the occurrence of some event; continue to live: Few survived after the holocaust.
to remain or continue in existence or use: Ancient farming methods still survive in the Middle East.
to get along or remain healthy, happy, and unaffected in spite of some occurrence: She's surviving after the divorce.

verb (used with object), sur·vived, sur·viv·ing.

to continue to live or exist after the death, cessation, or occurrence of: His wife survived him. He survived the operation.
to endure or live through (an affliction, adversity, misery, etc.): She's survived two divorces.

Origin of survive

1425–75; late Middle English < Middle French survivre < Latin supervīvere, equivalent to super- super- + vīvere to live; see sur-¹, vivid

Related formsself-sur·viv·ing, adjectiveun·sur·vived, adjectiveun·sur·viv·ing, adjective

Synonyms for survive

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1. persist, succeed. Survive, outlive refer to remaining alive longer than someone else or after some event. Survive usually means to succeed in keeping alive against odds, to live after some event that has threatened one: to survive an automobile accident. It is also used of living longer than another person (usually a relative), but, today, mainly in the passive, as in the fixed expression: The deceased is survived by his wife and children. Outlive stresses capacity for endurance, the time element, and sometimes a sense of competition: He outlived all his enemies. It is also used, however, of a person or object that has lived or lasted beyond a certain point: He has outlived his usefulness.

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Related Words for survived

handle, withstand, last, recover, remain, bear, keep, live, weather, exist, endure, sustain, subsist, suffer, persevere, outlast, revive, persist, outwear, outlive

Examples from the Web for survived

Contemporary Examples of survived

Drugeon survived an airstrike last year and is believed to be still at large, officials have said.
U.S. Spies See Al Qaeda Fingerprints on Paris Massacre
Shane Harris, Nancy A. Youssef
January 8, 2015
The follow-up story is how those who survived both the competitive onslaught, as well as the recession, have adapted.
Best Buy Punches Back at Amazon
William O’Connor
December 27, 2014
Still, a handful of centuries-old establishments have survived and housed some pretty phenomenal history.
Inside The World’s 10 Oldest Restaurants
Justin Jones
December 20, 2014
He spent 47 days on a raft and survived only to be captured by the Japanese.
Dick Cheney vs. ‘Unbroken’
Mike Barnicle
December 15, 2014
Craig-Lewis is survived by two children, a 16-year old son and a 16-month old daughter.
The Mystery Death Of A Female Firefighter
Christopher Moraff
December 13, 2014

Historical Examples of survived

But she knew that she had survived them, that some great calamity had fallen upon and destroyed them.
Green Mansions
W. H. Hudson
Thacher was Avery's companion and survived to tell the tale.
The Works of Whittier, Volume I (of VII)
John Greenleaf Whittier
Its effects were, however, beneficial to the villagers who survived.
English Villages
P. H. Ditchfield
By this traffic Germany had survived for a century and a half.
City of Endless Night
Milo Hastings
Hilary Grendon was a methodical man: that was the reason he had survived.
Slaves of Mercury
Nat Schachner

British Dictionary definitions for survived

survive

verb

(tr) to live after the death of (another)he survived his wife by 12 years
to continue in existence or use after (a passage of time, an adversity, etc)
informal to endure (something)I don't know how I survive such an awful job

Derived Formssurvivable, adjectivesurvivability, noun

Word Origin for survive

C15: from Old French sourvivre, from Latin supervīvere, from super- + vīvere to live

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

Word Origin and History for survived

survive

early 15c., "act or condition of one person outliving another," originally in the legal (inheritance) sense, from Anglo-French survivre, Old French souvivre, from Latin supervivere "live beyond, live longer than," from super "over, beyond" (see super-) + vivere "to live" (see vivid). Related: Survived; surviving.