on life support
18
5.7
- idiom
:
con soporte vital
- The patient remains on life support while doctors monitor her vital signs.
- a patient on life support
So imagine you're Ghilane and your brother is just on life support and he can't even communicate with you.
- So imagine you're Ghilane and your brother is just on life support and he can't even communicate with you.
- And that was what it was like being such a quadriplegic on life support for months.
- My favorite was when she said, I feel like I'm on life support and everybody keeps pulling the plug to charge their phones like that.
- I felt like I was cheating on my guitars that were on life support in the hospital and I'm looking at dating sites.
Examples
-
During those first weeks, as Zack lay on life support, the words "What if?" haunted his parents.
Academic text (2011) -
Back in 2005, Trek was on life support and left for dead!
Blog text (8) -
So they have to keep it on life support until they can bring the economy back.
-
We're keeping her on life support.
-
Indeed, what we have is a patient on life support who has been given a dose of drugs.
Blog text (18) -
A woman's on life support.
-
The city's health-care system is on life support.
Academic text (2007) -
By that night, Zack had lapsed into a coma and was on life support.
Academic text (2011) -
For 18 days, she was on life support and in a medically induced coma.
Blog text (27) -
He's on life support.
Synonyms
13
3.5
Help that keeps someone going in hard times, like care from family
13
4.0
Equipment that keeps a person alive by doing the body's most important jobs
How Dependent
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase literally combines 'life' and 'support' to mean support that keeps life functioning, and the preposition 'on' indicates being connected to that support; a learner who knows the constituent words can readily infer the medical or figurative sense. This composition follows transparent, cross-linguistically common patterns (support sustaining life), so the meaning is predictable without prior exposure.
Etymology
On life support comes from hospitals, where machines give support to a very sick person's life, helping the heart or breathing when the body cannot. So, when we say something is on life support now, we mean it is being kept 'alive' or 'barely working' only because of outside help.