life-support system
13
4.0
- noun
- /ˈlaɪf səˌpɔrt ˈsɪstəm/
- Specialized
- Earth's life-support systems are in flux, yet no centralized system to monitor and report these changes exists.
- Earth's life-support systems
- life-support systems of the planet
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Watch on YouTubeAt that point, your life support system is as vulnerable to us as ours is to you, and yours is more vulnerable.
- At that point, your life support system is as vulnerable to us as ours is to you, and yours is more vulnerable.
- They've people have done, you know, closed life support systems for that long.
Examples
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American patients die hooked up to technically advanced life support systems.
Academic text (1993) -
Each one had its own power source, its own computer, and a special life-support system.
Fiction book (1991) -
No oxygen was provided for the life-support system.
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On the last day of his life, he lay unconscious in the hospital, all life-support systems disconnected.
Fiction book (1990) -
Activities focused on space will continue to accelerate advances in robotics, power technologies, and life-support systems.
Academic text (2006) -
The astronauts relied on a reliable life-support system to survive in the vacuum of space.
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The hospital's life-support system kept the patient stable while doctors worked to diagnose the issue.
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During the deep-sea expedition, the researchers monitored the life-support system to ensure all vital functions were operating correctly.
Synonyms
42
3.4
Medical machines that keep a person alive by helping them breathe or keeping the heart working
18
5.7
Kept alive by machines after a serious illness or kept working only with little help
How Life-Saving
Surface Forms
Morphology
life-support + system
The meaning 'equipment that keeps a person alive' is directly and compositionally derived from the constituents 'life' + 'support' + 'system' — literally a system that provides support for life. This noun-compound formation is transparent and cross-linguistically common, so a B1 learner who knows the component words would readily infer the meaning.
Etymology
The noun life-support system comes from a simple image: a machine that supports someone's life, like strong hands holding them up when they cannot live on their own. That's why it means equipment that keeps a person 'alive' by helping or replacing the body's important functions.