Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
Wiktionary
a. Used to describe something that endangers the continued life of the subject.
WordNet
adj. causing fear or anxiety by threatening great harm; "a dangerous operation"; "a grave situation"; "a grave illness"; "grievous bodily harm"; "a serious wound"; "a serious turn of events"; "a severe case of pneumonia"; "a life-threatening disease" [syn: dangerous, grave, grievous, serious, severe]
Usage examples of "life-threatening".
Not only are there life-threatening consequences associated with drinking alcohol, but that one little glass of wine is guaranteed to disrupt your deep, antiaging sleep and slow down your fat-burning mechanism.
Given the stress of the dementia work-up, every organ system crumpled: in a domino progression the injection of radioactive dye for her brain scan shut down her kidneys, and the dye study of her kidneys overloaded her heart, and the medication for her heart made her vomit, which altered her electrolyte balance in a life-threatening way, which increased her dementia and shut down her bowel, which made her eligible for the bowel run, the cleanout for which dehydrated her and really shut down her tormented kidneys, which led to infection, the need for dialysis, and big-time complications of these big-time diseases.
The wait would no doubt be tedious, but hardly life-threatening, and if he got bored he could use his fishline and markers to map the caverns.
Those unfortunate people in Taiwanese hospitals-and there were tens of thousands of them- would be faced with barbaric conditions that might prove life-threatening.
Glenn had had her moments of regret, but nothing life-threatening, and they had passed through those years spending nappy money on a boat, went to dinner on birthday cash and drank margaritas in Mexico at Christmas after her mother had died.
And justifiable force if they believed her story that he had raped her that night and over the previous four years, and she was defending herself against his potentially life-threatening attack on her person.
It is fact that, as families, these loved ones endure enormous sacrifices so that their spouses, fathers, or mothers can perform vital, and often life-threatening, missions.
You mean, besides having a life-threatening, eventually-crippling, chronic disease?
But the main effort is being directed toward finding a specific for the adult condition, because it has become evident that if the massive debilitation and growth-retarding effects of the plague were removed, the diseases currently afflicting the pre-adult Cromsaggar would be countered by their bodies' natural defense mechanisms and would no longer be life-threatening.
She's got crabs, and lice, and about eight billion venereal infections, and every ingrown hair and toenail usually develops into this oozing, life-threatening abscess.
The nonallied pods were of course a concern, but the crazed random firing of Breetai's troops was life-threatening!
Be advised you have received an ionizing radiation dose of approximately four Greys, and that this will be life-threatening without urgent remediation.
The director tosses in a life-threatening asthma attack in an effort to raise the stakes, but it's not enough.
And to the discovery that Phimie's blood pressure was so high-210 over 126-that she was in a hypertensive crisis, at risk of a stroke, renal failure, and other life-threatening complications.
We are fairly sure that the condition is not life-threatening, except when an attempt is made to administer medication orally, by subcutaneous injection, or by external application and massage into the dermis.