like their lives depended on it
- idiom
:
como si les fuera la vida en ello
- You bring them over for, like, two grand, and they fuck like their life depends on it, because it does.
So people need to start behaving like their life depends on it because it does.
- So people need to start behaving like their life depends on it because it does.
Examples
-
The athletes trained like their lives depended on it, pushing themselves to their limits every day.
-
So people need to start behaving like their life depends on it because it does.
-
Pasty and pukestained as they were, they trolled for kingfish and Spanish mackerel like their lives depended on it, and Carrie, too.
Fiction book (1990) -
She studied for her exam like her life depended on it, staying up late into the night to prepare.
-
During the final minutes of the match, the team played like their lives depended on it, determined to win.
Synonyms
366
3.6
In a very urgent way because you feel a strong need or fear
16
5.9
Very quickly because you are afraid of danger
4
7.4
To do something with great energy and effort
4
7.8
In a very urgent and determined way as if everything depended on it
1
7.6
Act with very strong, urgent energy and full focus
1
8.2
Act with great energy and not worry about the future
With very strong, uncontrolled energy and effort
Doing something suddenly and forcefully without thinking because you are very eager
Antonyms
How Urgent
Surface Forms
Morphology
like + their + life + depend + on + it
This is a transparent simile: the words retain their literal meanings and combine compositionally — 'like' = 'as if', 'their lives' = survival, 'depended on it' = contingent on the outcome — so the overall sense of extreme urgency or desperation is directly inferable. The construction has clear parallels in many languages, making it easily understandable to a B1 learner who knows the constituent words.
Etymology
Like their lives depended on it makes you imagine someone doing everything as if their lives were at risk, like running from danger or fighting to survive. That's why the phrase means 'very urgently' or 'desperately'.