cheat death

Compare French trompe-la-mort.

cheat death (third-person singular simple present cheats death, present participle cheating death, simple past and past participle cheated death)

1. To survive a situation which would be expected to result in death.

   Synonym: cheat fate

   • 2010, BioWare, Mass Effect 2 (Science Fiction), Redwood City: Electronic Arts, →OCLC, PC, scene: Therapy:

     From Olar, Han
     Shepard,
     They say you're alive. That you cheated death. That sending you this isn't just a pointless exercise as part of my therapy. They say a lot of things.

   • 2015, Ron Barnett, “World War II vets who cheated death twice honor their fallen brothers”, in The Greenville News‎, retrieved 11 August 2019:

     The Greenville resident, and the other remaining survivors of World War II, have cheated death twice, escaping with their lives in a deadliest military conflict in history and then outliving their life expectancy to enjoy the fruits of their service.

   • 2015 October 5, Tom Mullen, “Surviving eight Nazi death camps”, in BBC News‎, retrieved 11 August 2019:

     A Holocaust survivor who cheated death in eight Nazi concentration camps during World War Two has recalled his experiences, 70 years since the liberation of Auschwitz.

   • 2023 November 15, Nick Brodrick, “Okehampton's rejuvenated station is 'ACE'”, in RAIL, number 996, page 50:

     Having cheated death twice, Okehampton's successful revival was recognised at RAIL's National Rail Awards in September, with victory in the Small Station of the Year category.

• “cheat death”, in Cambridge English Dictionary, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: Cambridge University Press, 1999–present.
• “cheat death fate etc” in Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English, Longman.
• Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary‎, Cambridge University Press, 2008, →ISBN, page 230