life buoy
English edit
Alternative forms edit
Etymology edit
From the way it can save someone's life by buoying them up so that they do not drown.
Noun edit
life buoy (plural life buoys)
- (British) A buoyant object (most commonly torus-shaped) that is used as a life-saving device by keeping a person afloat.
- Synonyms: (US) life preserver, life ring, lifesaver
- 1910, Official Gazette of the United States Patent Office:
- A spherical life buoy having an air chamber formed therein, an entrance opening communicating with the interior of said life buoy, air inlet and exhaust pipes extending exteriorly therof, a perforated housing for each of said pipes, a dome secured to teh periphery of said life buoy and covering said housings, said dome being perforated, and means for supporting said life buoy upon the deck of a vessel.
- 1981, Compilation of Regulations Related to Mineral Resource Activities:
- At least four approved ring life buoys shall be placed on each manned platform.
- 2007, Daniel E. Blaney, Old Orchard Beach:
- Also, a life buoy was attached to the fuselage.
- 2012, Jay Henry Mowbray, Sinking of the Titanic: Eyewitness Accounts:
- He had on a life buoy and a life preserver. He clung there a moment and then he slid off again.
- (British, figurative) Something that rescues one from difficulties.
- 2001, Suzanne Jill Levine, Manuel Puig and the Spider Woman: His Life and Fictions, page 166:
- Fearing that he might become permanently sewn into the Air France uniform he put on every morning, Manuel regarded Mario's faith in him as a life buoy.
- 2006, Peter van Kemseke, Towards an Era of Development, page 43:
- Above all, the Marshall Plan was a life buoy for the then sinking French economy.
- 2008, Fleur Yano, Collected Writings of Flora Belle Jan, page 89:
- I but pity him, who, losing me, found the bright stars dimmed, And frantically seized you as a life buoy.
- 2012, Holly Reese, Rising from the Abyss, page 116:
- I was so exhausted and weak that several times, I nearly collapsed in the store. My shopping cart became my life buoy as I hung on to it and stubbornly kept going.
Related terms edit
Translations edit
life preserver — see life preserver