lifeline

Help or support that someone badly needs during a difficult time.

• This money is a lifeline.
• The bus service provides a lifeline for older residents.
• Her weekly calls became my lifeline during that difficult year.

How to use it: a lifeline for someone/something (The loan was a lifeline for the small business.)

Similar words: vital support, saving grace

Common phrases: provide a lifeline, lifeline for someone, lifeline to someone

A rope that someone holds or is attached to so they do not drown or fall.

• She grabbed the lifeline.
• The crew threw a lifeline to the swimmer.
• Each climber was attached to a lifeline.

Similar words: safety line, rescue rope

Common phrases: throw a lifeline, grab a lifeline, hold a lifeline

A route or service that brings supplies people need to survive.

• The road is our lifeline.
• Floods cut the village's only lifeline to the outside world.
• Ships kept this island lifeline open throughout the winter.

Similar words: supply route

Common phrases: vital lifeline, lifeline to somewhere, supply lifeline

A curved line on the palm near the thumb, used by people who claim to predict lives.

• Her lifeline curves around her thumb.
• The palm reader examined his lifeline.
• Do both hands have equally clear lifelines?

Similar words: life line

Common phrases: long lifeline, read a lifeline, short lifeline