LIFEBOAT

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does lifeboat mean? 

• LIFEBOAT (noun)
  The noun LIFEBOAT has 1 sense:

1. a strong sea boat designed to rescue people from a sinking ship

  Familiarity information: LIFEBOAT used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• LIFEBOAT (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A strong sea boat designed to rescue people from a sinking ship

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Hypernyms ("lifeboat" is a kind of...):

sea boat (a boat that is seaworthy; that is adapted to the open seas)

 Context examples 

They were making out to me, in an agitated way—I don't know how, for the little I could hear I was scarcely composed enough to understand—that the lifeboat had been bravely manned an hour ago, and could do nothing; and that as no man would be so desperate as to attempt to wade off with a rope, and establish a communication with the shore, there was nothing left to try; when I noticed that some new sensation moved the people on the beach, and saw them part, and Ham come breaking through them to the front.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)