Wiktionary
a. 1 Of critical importance to the survival of a living organism. 2 Having death as a possible or even likely outcome; perilous. 3 (context idiomatic English) Of critical importance to the success of a particular endeavor. alt. 1 Of critical importance to the survival of a living organism. 2 Having death as a possible or even likely outcome; perilous. 3 (context idiomatic English) Of critical importance to the success of a particular endeavor.
WordNet
adj. vitally important; "a life-and-death struggle" [syn: life-and-death]
Usage examples of "life-or-death".
Locked together in a life-or-death struggle the two fleets fought all day long.
But add those nasty little can-openers, and cockfighting becomes a macho life-or-death spectacle.
It cannot be the case that the equal-protection clausewhich was designed to target racial discrimination against blacksimposes a higher burden of proof on blacks seeking its protection against discrimination in life-or-death cases than on voters who claim that their vote may have been diluted by an unknown and tiny amount in a random, nondiscriminatory manner.
For close to an hour the water around the raft turned to blood as the fish acted out their never-ending life-or-death struggle that the sharks always won.
The Ruminators didn't share Robertson's paranoid worldview, but they admired his life-or-death style of fund-raising and hoped to pick up some pointers.
In life-or-death situations, ordinary people can be empowered with superheroic abilities.
When the bland and blustery fellow arrived,Gyro was happy to see that his accompanying thought balloon -- despite theongoing life-or-death crisis -- reflected the man's typical vacuity, consistingmostly of an empty white canvas with some children's primer figures -- Dick,Jane, and Spot -- romping about.
And much more about getting along day to day and surviving in a life-or-death situation than I did, right down to using real fur blankets because nature was sometimes hard to improve upon.
Kirk gave the nod he knew was expected and turned his mind back to the life-or-death need of convincing the Intruder that this interception was peaceful.