life supportn.adj.
/ˈlʌɪf səˌpɔːt/, U.S. /ˈlaɪf səˌpɔrt/ A. n.
1. The provision of basic financial or material needs; (resources for) sustained survival or well-being. Also in extended use: an indispensable source of sustenance or aid; a lifeline.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > possession > supply > [noun] > provision of means of support or livelihood
substancec1384
maintenance1389
sustenance1389
sustentation1389
sustaining1395
findingc1400
uphold1439
retainment1449
exhibition?a1475
entertainment?c1475
upholdingc1480
entertaininga1492
sustenation1496
support1561
alimentation1590
alimony1622
enablement1626
subsisting1698
keep1801
life support1852
palimony1977
1852 T. J. Vaiden Rational Relig. & Morals 989 No one should procreate children, without proper world protection for them in morals, rational education, life support, [etc.].
1889 Catholic World July 442 The priests of religious orders in some cases get sixty dollars per year, and in others simply their life support.
1892 M. Thompson Poems 99 The self-yew bow was England's boast... It was her very life-support At Crecy and at Agincourt.
1943 Slavonic & East European Rev. 2 162 Djuro transferred his land to Marko, who in turn pledged himself to furnish his uncle-in-law with ‘life-support’.
1963 H. Mitgang Man who rode Tiger x. 198 A suit she had brought against..the producer, for life support as a result of extramarital favors and services rendered.
1994 K. ya Salaam What is Life? 41 The underside of this literally shortsighted vision is that even the essentials of life support (water, air, land, and sunlight) become a commodity.
2. The support of life by artificial means; the use of life-support systems or equipment (see sense B. 1). Frequently in on life support. Also figurative.
ΚΠ
1962 Science 25 May 725/2 A symposium on ‘Life Support in Space: Basic Physiology and Systems Design’.
1974 National Observer (U.S.) 9 Mar. 4/3 The hospital, once life support was begun, was committed to it... To follow the parents' wishes would have been to violate medical precepts. It was the difference between not starting life support at all and terminating it.
1979 Stanford Law Rev. 31 931 They may keep patients on life-support when they are required to withdraw treatment.
1987 Skin Diver Aug. 160/2 Bell Diving..may be part of a saturation dive or simply a means of getting someone to a deep, hazardous job with less stress and with better, closer life support available in or at the bell.
1993 Harper's Mag. Dec. 24/2 The protocol is used only with patients who are dependent on life-sustaining technology and only after they (or their families) have explicitly requested that their life support be removed and their organs be donated for transplants.
2000 Nation (N.Y.) 4 Dec. 8/1 The laws of the state..keep the party system on life support by preferring two parties above all others.
B. adj. (attributive).
1.
a. Designating artificial systems designed to allow people to live in an environment, esp. in space or under water, in which survival would not otherwise be possible; of or relating to such a system.
ΘΚΠ
the world > life > source or principle of life > [adjective] > necessary to or supporting life
livelyOE
sustantivea1500
vital1558
life-supporting1610
sustenant1874
biotrophic1902
life support1959
1959 Adv. Space Sci. & Technol. 1 174 (heading) Life support system.
1962 F. I. Ordway et al. Basic Astronautics xiii. 509 A life support system for a manned base on the Moon..will be exceedingly complex.
1969 Guardian 21 July 1/6 Before take-off the spacecraft's pressurisation system is tested while the astronauts are still in their life-support suits.
1970 McGraw-Hill Yearbk. Sci. & Technol. 280/2 All submersibles require life-support systems.
1992 B. Bova Mars (1993) 296 Thanks to teleoperation, an aircraft could range thousands of miles across Mars without the need to carry a pilot and all the life-support equipment that a human operator requires.
b. Designating or involving medical equipment (esp. ventilators) used to maintain vital functions in a critically ill or comatose patient.
ΚΠ
1966 Lancet 9 Apr. 799 (title) Mobile emergency life-support system.
1977 N.Y. Times 29 Dec. 17/2 A 55-year-old comatose woman..died last night, a day after doctors complied with a court order and disconnected her life-support equipment.
1999 Independent 28 Oct. i. 4/6 The court will decide cases like that of Tony Bland, whose parents asked doctors to switch off his life-support machine following injuries he suffered in the Hillsborough football stadium tragedy.
2007 Jrnl. Palliative Med. 10 1262 Three decades later..society's view about cessation of life-support treatment has markedly changed.
2. figurative and in extended use, esp. in life-support system.
ΚΠ
1969 Chicago Daily Defender 14 Aug. 18/1 Man is not only running out of food, he is also destroying the life support systems of the Spaceship Earth.
1979 Sci. Amer. Feb. 46/1 The bird egg is a self-contained life-support system for the developing bird embryo.
1984 D. Lodge Small World ii. i. 88 His life-support system: billfold, passport, tickets, pens.
2007 Mail on Sunday (Nexis) 18 May 7 The power of the natural world, its rhythm of renewal, of light pushing out of the darkness, was, quite simply, my life-support machine.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2009; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.adj.1852