survive

From Anglo-Norman survivre, Old French survivre, from Late Latin supervivere (“to outlive”), from Latin super (“over”) + vivere (“to live”), akin to vita (“life”). See vivid. Compare devive, revive.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /səˈvaɪv/, /səˈvʌɪv/
• (US) IPA^(key): /sɚˈvaɪv/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -aɪv

survive (third-person singular simple present survives, present participle surviving, simple past and past participle survived)

1. (intransitive) Of a person, to continue to live; to remain alive.

   Whether by a miracle or by good luck, all twenty passengers survived.

2. (intransitive) Of an object or concept, to continue to exist.

   This town has been hit by two hurricanes, but it survives.

3. (transitive) To live past (a life-threatening event)

   Synonym: overlive (uncommon)

   Whether by a miracle or by good luck, all twenty passengers survived the crash.

   He did not survive the accident.

   This house has survived two hurricanes.

4. (transitive) To live longer than (someone); to outlive (someone or something); to outlast (something).

   Synonym: overlive (uncommon)

   Antonym: predecease

   Hyponym: postdecease

   his children survived him;   he was survived by his children

   • c. 1590–1592 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Taming of the Shrew”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene i]:

     And for that dowrie, Ile aſſure her of / Her widdow-hood, be it that ſhe ſuruiue me / In all my Lands and Leaſes whatſoeuer / Let ſpecialties be therefore drawne betweene vs, / That couenants may be kept on either hand.

   • 1817 December 31 (indicated as 1818), [Walter Scott], chapter X, in Rob Roy. […], volume I, Edinburgh: […] James Ballantyne and Co. for Archibald Constable and Co. […]; London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, →OCLC, page 227:

     I am afraid, as will happen in other cases, the treaty of alliance has survived the amicable dispositions in which it had its origin.

   • 2020 January 22, Stuart Jeffries, “Terry Jones obituary”, in The Guardian‎^[1]:

     Jones is survived by his second wife, Anna (nee Söderström), whom he married in 2012, and their daughter, Siri; and by Bill and Sally, the children of his first marriage, to Alison Telfer, which ended in divorce.

5. (intransitive) To be a victim of nonfatal but substantial harm and nonetheless to display the strength to heal; especially, after a crime or an illness, especially sexual or physical abuse or assault, cancer, or a natural disaster.

   I just know you'll get through this, because that's what survivors like you do: they not only survive but thrive.

6. (intransitive, sports) Of a team, to avoid relegation or demotion to a lower division or league.

   They narrowly survived, but the heat is on.

• “survive”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “survive”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.

• viveurs

• IPA^(key): /syʁ.viv/
• Homophones: survives, survivent

survive

1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive of survivre