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Glite Dictionary
life vest

life vest

8 1.7
A jacket you wear to help you float in water
  • noun
  • /laɪf vɛst/
  • US
translation icon : chaleco salvavidas
  • If you fall overboard, your life vest will keep you afloat until help arrives.
  • wear life vests
  • orange life vest
  • put on a life vest

But we almost all wear an inflatable life vest in big surf now.

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Examples

  • A life vest is located under your seat.

    United 93 (2006)

  • If you have a life vest, put it on!

    Sully (2016)

  • Is somebody wearing a life vest over there?

  • Where is my life vest?

    One Crazy Cruise (2015)

  • Grab your life vests, please.

    Sully (2016)

  • Your life vest will hold you up.

    Fiction book (1990)

  • We're slightly safer on such a big ship, but no one goes on deck without a bright orange life vest.

    Academic text (2011)

  • So before you dive back in, grab a life vest and enjoy staying afloat.

    Blog text (30)

  • We have life vests under your seats and inflatable rafts over both coat racks.

    Unbelievable!!!!! (2020)

  • Enrique Cardoso helps Americans Ben Hildebrand and twelve-year-old Eric Kirvy, already wearing life vests, strap themselves into a two-person parasail harness.

    Fiction book (2001)

Synonyms

life jacket
vslife vest
16 1.4

A jacket that helps a person float in water

is the standard term for the same sleeveless buoyant garment
preserver
vslife vest
  • US
12 4.1

A floating jacket that keeps a person above water

focuses only on the sleeveless buoyant garment rather than including belts
life preserver
vslife vest
  • US
10 2.5

A ring or jacket that helps a person float in water

is specifically the sleeveless buoyant garment rather than any buoyant device
flotation device
vslife vest
5 3.3

Something that helps a person float in water and avoid drowning

is the specific sleeveless buoyant garment, not the general flotation equipment
life belt
vslife vest
  • UK
1 1.9

A round floating ring worn around the body to keep a person afloat in water

is worn on the torso as a sleeveless buoyant garment rather than as a ring
air jacket
vslife vest
4.1

An inflatable vest that keeps you afloat in water

is broader, covering inflatable or solid buoyant sleeveless garments
cork jacket
vslife vest
  • Archaic
8.4

A sleeveless jacket made of cork that helps you float in water

refers to the same protective garment but without the historical cork focus

How Buoyant

life ring
  • US
1 2.7
life vest
  • US
8 1.7

Surface Forms

life vest singular
life vests plural

Morphology

life + vest

The compound is compositional: the noun 'life' used attributively indicates a function relating to preserving life, and 'vest' names a sleeveless garment, so the phrase transparently denotes a garment that helps keep someone alive/afloat. This functional reading is common across languages (e.g., life jacket) and follows regular English noun–noun modification, so a B1 learner who knows both words will readily infer the meaning.

Etymology

Life vest is a very literal name: a vest that helps your life by keeping you floating in water. So it means a jacket you wear to 'keep you afloat' and help 'save your life'.