Meanings
- uncountableAn artificial system designed to provide oxygen and other conditions necessary for human life in an inhospitable environment.
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.
2017, BioWare, Mass Effect: Andromeda (Science Fiction), Redwood City: Electronic Arts, →OCLC, PC, scene: Engineer's Report - uncountablemedicineThe maintenance of vital functions of a critically ill or comatose person or a person undergoing surgery.
- uncountablemedicineThe equipment and special procedures used for life support.
- figurativelyuncountableA means of sustaining existence or continuation of something, usually in an artificial manner when it should have changed or terminated in its natural environment.
As we've seen, Belarus is a Soviet time capsule that continues only because Russia is keeping it on life support.
2011, Francis Tapon, The Hidden Europe: What Eastern Europeans Can Teach Us, page 1351 more example
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."
2022 January 12, “Network News: Further extension to Transport for London emergency funding”, in RAIL, number 948, page 8
Synonyms & antonyms
nounequipment that makes life possible in otherwise deadly environmental conditions
nounmedical equipment that assists or replaces important bodily functions and so enables a patient to live who otherwise might not survive
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Translations
Chinese Mandarin 生命支持系統 /生命支持系统, 生命維持系統 /生命维持系统
- 生命支持系統 /生命支持系统 (shēngmìng zhīchí xìtǒng)system for providing oxygen
- 生命維持系統 /生命维持系统 (shēngmìng wéichí xìtǒng)system for providing oxygen
- 生命支持設備 /生命支持设备 (shēngmìng zhīchí shèbèi)system for providing oxygen
- 人工生命維持系統 /人工生命维持系统system for providing oxygen
- 維生 /维生 (wéishēng)maintenance of vital functions
- 維生設備 /维生设备 (wéishēng shèbèi)equipment and procedures
- 人工維持 /人工维持 (réngōng wéichí)figurative: means of sustaining existence
Finnish happilaitteisto, elintoimintojen ylläpitäminen
- happilaitteistosystem for providing oxygen
- elintoimintojen ylläpitäminenmaintenance of vital functions
- elintoimintojen ylläpitäminenequipment and procedures
- hengityskonefigurative: means of sustaining existence
German Sauerstoffversorgung, lebenserhaltende Maßnahmen
- Sauerstoffversorgungsystem for providing oxygen
- lebenserhaltende Maßnahmenmaintenance of vital functions
- lebenserhaltende Ausrüstungequipment and procedures
- lebenserhaltende Apparateequipment and procedures
- Tropffigurative: means of sustaining existence
Russian жизнеобеспе́че́ние
- жизнеобеспе́че́ние (žizneobespéčénije)system for providing oxygen
Cite this entry
life support. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/life%20support
“life support.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/life%20support. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “life support,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/life%20support.
Source: life support on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.