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Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
life raft
noun
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ As soon as his life raft boomed into the sea, Delaney pulled the quick release tag and dropped from his harness.
▪ Finally one end of the hawser was fastened to the bank, and the makeshift life raft was dispatched.
▪ For McKenzie, the tide had turned again and he watched helplessly as his life raft drifted back over the horizon.
▪ He greeted Collingridge's downfall like a drowning man discovers a life raft.
▪ In the middle of the store, dangling by nylon wires from the ceiling, was an orange rubber life raft.
▪ Men who hold tenaciously to a life raft may expect to he cast upon strange shores among strange companions.
▪ She is the person most centered on the child since the moment he held on to her like another life raft.
▪ The cabin is gouged open, spilling out wooden crates, twisted pieces of metal, a blown-up life raft.
Wiktionary
life raft

alt. A usually inflatable raft carried aboard a ship or airplane, used to save lives in case the vessel has to be abandoned in an emergency on the sea. n. A usually inflatable raft carried aboard a ship or airplane, used to save lives in case the vessel has to be abandoned in an emergency on the sea.

WordNet
life raft

n. a raft to use if a ship must be abandoned in an emergency [syn: Carling float]

Usage examples of "life raft".

Ralph was at his desk, which had become a life raft in this sea of destruction.

Underneath him, the life raft was rocking in soothing fashion upon the wide swell of the empty ocean.

Being stranded on a life raft in the Pacific is a perfect venue for a hacker.

Grunting with the effort, Gelan dragged his purloined life raft down the tube to the lip, and then considered what to do with Bacarion's body.

The plane might be tiny compared to the sea, but it was more solid than that life raft.

Spillane has lost his one-man life raft, his ribs are broken, and every breath feels like he is being run through with a hot fire poker.

And then I had to swim underwater to cut a life raft off the deck.

Mildred warned, lifting one of Doc's rubbery arms and dropping it back down with a wet slap as it hit the bottom of the life raft.

Devise a big life raft, just a framework of light poles which could be dovetailed together.

A limp yellow life raft poked through the side door and two men in fatigues quickly inflated it with a compressed gas canister.

Leaning out the door secured by the rope Shannon had tied around his waist, both legs and feet spread and set, he hoisted the uninflated life raft onto his shoulder and waited.