Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- v. To remain alive or in existence.
- v. To carry on despite hardships or trauma; persevere: families that were surviving in tents after the flood.
- v. To remain functional or usable: I dropped the radio, but it survived.
- v. To live longer than; outlive: She survived her husband by five years.
- v. To live, persist, or remain usable through: plants that can survive frosts; a clock that survived a fall.
- v. To cope with (a trauma or setback); persevere after: survived child abuse.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- To outlive; live or exist beyond the life or existence of; outlast beyond some specified point of time, or some given person, thing, event, or circumstance: as, to survive one's usefulness.
- Synonyms Outlive, Survive. See outline.
- To remain alive or in existence; specifically, to remain alive after the death or cessation of some one or something.
Wiktionary
- v. intransitive Of a person, to continue to live; to remain alive.
- v. intransitive Of an object or concept, to continue to exist.
- v. transitive To live longer than; to outlive.
- v. transitive To live past a life-threatening event.
GNU Webster's 1913
- v. To live beyond the life or existence of; to live longer than; to outlive; to outlast.
- v. To remain alive; to continue to live.
WordNet 3.0
- v. continue to live through hardship or adversity
- v. support oneself
- v. continue in existence after (an adversity, etc.)
- v. live longer than
Etymologies
- From Anglo-Norman survivre, Old French survivre, from Late Latin supervivere ("to outlive"), from Latin super ("over") + vivere ("to live"), akin to vita ("life"); see vivid. Compare devive, revive. (Wiktionary)
- Middle English surviven, from Old French sourvivre, from Latin supervīvere : super-, super- + vīvere, to live. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“I agree that at least it's likely that "Christianist" (should the term survive past the end of the week) is/will be (a) cast mostly in a pejorative context and (b) will be used more broadly than its current definition - that is, it will be wielded by certain individuals against all Christians with socially conservative views.”
Why not engage with me instead of trying to make me into your enemy?
“Win two out of three, and the Nittany Lions are in the first Big Ten championship game -- playing for the, ahem, Stagg-Paterno trophy, should the name survive this tumult.”
“Still, the only way for newspapers to survive is to explore, discuss and debate a wide range of ideas.”
A Progressive on the Prairie » FTC to help “the reinvention of journalism”? » Print
“So Reid's only chance to survive is to take some of these people who don't feel so good about him and get them to feel very badly about Sharron Angle and perhaps hold their nose and vote for him - or, because we have this crazy none of the above on the ballot here, vote none of the above.”
“Attacked and hunted, their only chance to survive is to find a way back to the surface.”
“If you are ugly and maybe fat your only chance to survive is to become as disgusting on the inside as you (obviously) are on the outside (ARGH!) by becoming a villain.”
In The Apocalypse Only Superhot Chicks Will Survive… « 1979 Semi-Finalist…
“As some have said above, there are alternative lifeboats and the way to survive is to get in them.”
“The only way to survive is to blaze your own path!”
“Coturnix says the way to survive is to be smart and invisible.”
“In a country ruled by fear, the best way to survive is to draw as little attention to yourself as possible.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘survive’.
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Linda(G4)
Accurate, address, afford, alert, analyze, ancestor, annual, apparent, arena, arrest, ascend, assist and 126 more...
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EN - academic vocabulary
Use these and get promoted
abandon, abandonment, abnormally, abstract, abstraction, abstractly, abstracts, academia, academic, academically, academics, academies and 3119 more...
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eggplantia5's Words
scintillate, marvel, cranberry, oscillate, triumph, bamboozle, grimace, magical, book, hexagon, cipher, compendium and 2727 more...
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Lively Words
quick, quicksilver, cwic, quitch grass, cwice, vivify, viviparous, viper, weever, wyvern, viand, victual and 148 more...
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ESL Academic Word List
This is a list of academic words for students learning English as a Second or Foreign Language. It includes 570 word families that often appear in academic texts. It does not include words that are...
collapse, depression, colleagues, invoked, levy, nonetheless, likewise, so-called, ongoing, conceived, forthcoming, integrity and 558 more...
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Remain
Verbs meaning remain.
permane, persist, continue, endure, persevere, last, survive
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Basic English Vocabulary
Very basic words for ESL students.
a, abandon, ability, able, abortion, about, above, abroad, absence, absolute, absolutely, absorb and 4334 more...
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my dictionary
able, abnormally, abroad, absent, abstract, acceptable, acceptance, access, accessible, accession, according to, account and 4551 more...
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Luis Guillermo's KiwiEnglish class
New Vocabulary
Rain, Rainy, Sun, Sunny, cloud, cloudy, forbidden, priest, brochure, old, young, flu and 2 more...
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Beautiful Words
Words that I love that sound beautiful words that spark in the soul.
phoenix, silver, dreams, feather, prelude, echo, serendipity, paradox, illuminate, eclipse, dusk, autumn and 39 more...
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Tunie: And the Band Played Waltzing M...
I used to sing this as a lullaby to my spawn—till said spawn grew big enough to understand the words, and asked me to sing something else.
Written by Eric Bogle, c. 1971.
...billabong, ghosts, no one, fewer, the call, question, what are they mar..., forgotten war, forgotten, sore, stiff, bent and 66 more...
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Middle School Years
statistic
curious
appreciate
survive
tutor
Tweets
Looking for tweets for survive.
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