life preserver

Definitions

1. 1

   A buoyant ring or vest intended to keep a person afloat.

2. 2

   A short club with a weighted end.

   • Here's your crowbar / And your centre-bit; / Your life-preserver— / You may want to hit!
   • But when I gave him every particular that had occurred, he tried to bluster, and took down a life-preserver from the wall. I knew my man, however, and I clapped a pistol to his head before he could strike.
3. 3

   Used other than figuratively or idiomatically

   Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see life, preserver.

   • In such cases, the story is told to illustrate some main truth, which, in this case, is the beer-drinking habit of the people. By this faith, that beer is a life preserver, the English live, and by this they die.
   • In a very similar way, in the early, barbarous, unsanitary condition of society, alcohol obtained credit as a life preserver which was not merited by any virtues the drug itself possessed.

The neighborhood