to save one's life

English

Phrase

to save one's life

1. (informal) at all (Used with "can't", "couldn't" etc. to emphasize a lack of skill.)

   Synonyms: for the life of one, even if one's life depended on it, for toffee

   I can't dance to save my life.

   • 1902 September 7, George Ade, “Modern Fables By George Ade. The Modern Fable of the Troubles of the Unemployed and the Danger of Changing from Bill to Harold.”, in Idaho Daily Statesman, Boise, Ida., page 16, column 5:

     After she began to have a Governoress for Stuyvesant Jimpson and an Imported Nurse for the little Evelyn Jimpson her memory began to blur in spots and she couldn’t have done up the Dishes to save her life.

2. (informal, hyperbolic) under any circumstances; [I'd] rather die than...(Used with "will not", "would not" etc. to emphasize refusal.)

   She wouldn't eat baked beans to save her life.

See also

• for dear life