Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • intransitive verb To remain alive or in existence.
  • intransitive verb To carry on despite hardships or trauma; persevere.
  • intransitive verb To remain functional or usable.
  • intransitive verb To live longer than; outlive.
  • intransitive verb To live, persist, or remain usable through.
  • intransitive verb To cope with (a trauma or setback); persevere after.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • 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.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • transitive verb To live beyond the life or existence of; to live longer than; to outlive; to outlast.
  • intransitive verb To remain alive; to continue to live.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb intransitive Of a person, to continue to live; to remain alive.
  • verb intransitive Of an object or concept, to continue to exist.
  • verb transitive To live longer than; to outlive.
  • verb transitive To live past a life-threatening event.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb continue to live through hardship or adversity
  • verb support oneself
  • verb continue in existence after (an adversity, etc.)
  • verb live longer than

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English surviven, from Old French sourvivre, from Latin supervīvere : super-, super- + vīvere, to live; see gwei- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

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.

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