life support

See also: life-support

English

Noun

life support (uncountable)

  1. An artificial system designed to provide oxygen in an environment that lacks oxygen.
    • 2017, BioWare, Mass Effect: Andromeda (Science Fiction), Redwood City: Electronic Arts, →OCLC, PC, scene: Engineer's Report:
      The more immediate concern is the life support systems. Those units are fifty years old—a conservative estimate. If the air scrubbers stop working, we die. If the pressure regulators stop working, we die. Artificial gravity fails? We die. You get the picture.
  2. (medicine) Maintenance of vital functions of a critically ill or comatose person or a person undergoing surgery.
  3. (medicine) The equipment and special procedures used for life support.
  4. (figuratively) Means of sustaining existence or continuation of something, usually in an artificial manner when it should have changed or terminated in its natural environment.
    • 2011, Francis Tapon, The Hidden Europe: What Eastern Europeans Can Teach Us, page 135:
      As we've seen, Belarus is a Soviet time capsule that continues only because Russia is keeping it on life support.
    • 2022 January 12, “Network News: Further extension to Transport for London emergency funding”, in RAIL, number 948, page 8:
      In a war of words that has broken out between Khan and Secretary of State for Transport Grant Shapps, the Mayor was accused of sending revenue-raising proposals to Shapps some three weeks late, giving him little choice but to extend negotiations. Khan countered this by alleging that 'unfair' conditions, such as raising council tax, are being attached to any new funding deal that would "punish Londoners" for the effect the pandemic has had on passenger numbers. He added: "These short-term deals are trapping TfL on life support rather than putting it on the path to long-term sustainability."

Usage notes
  • Used with the preposition on: "the patient is on life support".

Translations

Further reading
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