Other forms: lifelines
A lifeline is the rope that keeps a rescuer connected to safety. Clip on the lifeline, throw a lifeline, a lifeline to shore.
At sea and on cliffs it is the physical rope, clipped to a harness, and using one is the difference between a rescue and two casualties. Figuratively a lifeline is any help that saves a situation: throw somebody a lifeline, a lifeline for rural buses. In palmistry the lifeline is a line on the hand, which is a separate and unserious use.
1nounlifelineThe rope that keeps a rescuer connected to safety.
“The lifeboat crew threw a lifeline to the man struggling in the waves.”
2nounhelpAny help that saves a situation.
“For many lonely old people, the weekly phone call is a lifeline.”
lifeline is a safety rope or rescue.
Life plus line, a plain compound from the nineteenth century. The figurative sense followed the literal one almost at once.
From life + line.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA
Practised in Emergency & Rescue