lifeboat

English

Etymology

From life +‎ boat.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈlaɪfˌbəʊt/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈlaɪfˌboʊt/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

Noun

lifeboat (plural lifeboats)

1. (nautical) A boat especially designed for saving the lives of shipwrecked people or people in distress at sea (either launched from the shore with a crew, or else carried on board a larger ship).
   • 1971, Alice Cooper, Glen Buxton, Michael Bruce, Dennis Dunaway, Neal Smith (lyrics and music), “Halo of Flies”, in Killer, performed by Alice Cooper:

     I've got a watch that turns into a lifeboat

2. (science fiction) An emergency vehicle carried aboard a spaceship.

Synonyms

• quarter boat, rowboat, raft

Derived terms

• LEM lifeboat
• lifeboat ethics
• lifeboatman
• LM lifeboat
• lunar lifeboat

 

Translations

a boat to save shipwrecked people

• Arabic: قَارِب نَجَاةَ m (qārib najāha)
• Bulgarian: спасителна лодка (spasitelna lodka)
• Catalan: bot salvavides m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 救生船 (zh) (jiùshēngchuán), 救生艇 (zh) (jiùshēngtǐng)

• Czech: záchranný člun m
• Dutch: reddingsboot (nl) m or f
• Finnish: pelastusvene (fi)
• French: radeau de survie m
• German: Rettungsboot (de) n
• Gujarati: જીવાહોડી (jīvāhoḍī)
• Hebrew: סירת הצלה (he)
• Hungarian: mentőcsónak (hu)
• Icelandic: björgunarbátur (is) m
• Indonesian: sekoci (id)
• Italian: scialuppa (it) f
• Japanese: 救命ボート (きゅうめいボート, kyūmei bōto)
• Latvian: glābšanas laivas
• Maori: poti whakaora, poti kārewa
• Norman: baté d'sauvetage m
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: livbåt m

  Nynorsk: livbåt m

• Polish: łódź ratunkowa f
• Portuguese: barco salva-vidas m
• Russian: спаса́тельная ло́дка f (spasátelʹnaja lódka)
• Scottish Gaelic: bàta-teasairginn m, bàta-sàbhalaidh m
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: чамац за спасавање m

  Roman: čamac za spasavanje m

• Spanish: bote salvavidas m
• Swedish: livbåt (sv) c
• Thai: เรือชูชีพ

Verb

lifeboat (third-person singular simple present lifeboats, present participle lifeboating, simple past and past participle lifeboated)

1. To rescue; to carry to safety