save someone's life

save someone's life (third-person singular simple present saves someone's life, present participle saving someone's life, simple past and past participle saved someone's life)

2. To prevent someone from dying.

   Synonyms: save someone's skin, save someone's ass, save someone's bacon, pull someone's bacon out of the fire

   The lifeguard saved the kid's life by doing CPR.

   • 2025 January 20, Donald Trump, Inaugural Address (2025):

     Just a few months ago in a beautiful Pennsylvania field, an assassin's bullet ripped through my ear, but I felt then and believe even more so now that my life was saved for a reason. I was saved by God to Make America Great Again.

4. (idiomatic) To prevent someone from getting into trouble, or to rescue them from it.

   Synonyms: save someone's skin, save someone's ass, save someone's bacon, pull someone's bacon out of the fire, throw someone a rope

   Coordinate terms: throw someone a bone, give someone a break, give someone a hand, lend a hand, bail someone out

   My buddy saved my life by lending me a thousand bucks when I was dead broke.

   • 2025 October 21, Rose George, “‘I knew in my head we were dying’: the last voyage of the Scandies Rose”, in The Guardian‎^[1]:

     The captain did a safety drill. This covered where the emergency position-indicating radio beacon (EPIRB) was located, how to make a mayday call, and where the fire extinguishers were. A crew member demonstrated how to put on an immersion suit. These survival suits are waterproof full-body garments with a hood and integral three-finger gloves and boots. They are bulky and hard to get on but far more likely to save your life in cold water than a lifejacket.