How to Use lifeboat in a Sentence

lifeboat

noun
  • Others, a lifeboat adrift in time.
    — Alma Rota, Rolling Stone, 14 Oct. 2025
  • With no word from the captain, the crew fled to the lifeboats.
    — Ellen Wexler, Smithsonian Magazine, 16 Feb. 2024
  • When none were at hand, men were allowed to board the lifeboats.
    — Sophie Dodd, Peoplemag, 23 June 2023
  • Some made it to the lifeboats, which were swamped by the waves or smashed against the rocks.
    — David Reamer | Alaska History, Anchorage Daily News, 16 Apr. 2023
  • Eight people died when one of the lifeboats capsized.
    — George Petras, USA Today, 16 Feb. 2026
  • Two people close enough to the wooden lifeboat were pulled in.
    — Sarah Moore, Freep.com, 4 Nov. 2025
  • The lifeboat that was pulled down was still tethered to the wreckage.
    — Justin Klawans, The Week, 1 Mar. 2023
  • One of the lifeboats capsized on the way to shore, killing eight people.
    — Todd Richmond, Chicago Tribune, 15 Feb. 2026
  • The crew members, who knew what was in the hold, hurried to their lifeboats.
    — Stephen Maher, chicagotribune.com, 21 Dec. 2017
  • Episode 6, on the boat, when June is trying to steal a lifeboat.
    — Daniel Vaillancourt, Los Angeles Times, 17 Aug. 2021
  • The ship’s deck, hull and stern cabin can also be seen, as well as its lifeboat.
    — Fox News, 14 Nov. 2019
  • When the lifeboat is full, those who hate life will try to load it with more people and sink the lot.
    — Sam Adler-Bell, The New Republic, 24 Sep. 2019
  • The robotic camera also showed the lifeboat tied to the ship's stern.
    — John Flesher, Detroit Free Press, 1 Mar. 2023
  • With no sails, the Atlanta soon sank and the crew was forced into a lifeboat.
    — Cliff Pinckard, cleveland, 4 Mar. 2022
  • From there, there’s little to do but find a comfortable seat in a lifeboat and wait.
    — Kyle Whitmire, al, 31 July 2020
  • White said that the four men in the lifeboat were not skilled at rowing, so the women took over the task.
    — Emily Sweeney, BostonGlobe.com, 17 July 2019
  • The team was forced to abandon ship and set out on foot, pulling sledges and lifeboats along with them over the snow and ice.
    — National Geographic, 24 Jan. 2020
  • The old lifeboat on display is just the beginning of the story.
    — oregonlive, 22 July 2021
  • For a good part of the show, the action takes place with the four leads onstage confined to a lifeboat.
    — Adam Bell, Charlotte Observer, 11 Sep. 2025
  • Meanwhile, Yasmin is finding her own lifeboat as the ship goes down.
    — Meg Walters, Glamour, 2 Mar. 2026
  • In the mad rush to the lifeboats, hundreds of companies were stranded on deck.
    — Steven Levy, WIRED, 17 Mar. 2023
  • The 32 crew members boarded two lifeboats and were towed to shore by a fishing boat.
    — Aliza Chasan, CBS News, 13 May 2024
  • Earth was just this lifeboat hanging undisturbingly in the universe.
    — William Harwood, CBS News, 12 Apr. 2026
  • The area looked like a clipper ship, complete with 50-foot masts with sails, a teak deck and even a lifeboat.
    — Ron Miscavige, Esquire, 3 May 2016
  • But in the spring, the ice melted, forcing the crew to jump into their lifeboats and sail to a tiny island.
    — Frederick Dreier, Outside, 7 Oct. 2025
  • For the next few weeks, that will be the crew's lifeboat to escape the space station in the event of an emergency.
    — Stephen Clark, Ars Technica, 13 Sep. 2024
  • Crew members launched the D-class lifeboat and sped toward Limpet Bay.
    — Sam Gillette, PEOPLE, 10 June 2026
  • But nobody managed to untie the painter, the rope which tethered the lifeboat to the vessel.
    — Christopher Parker, Smithsonian Magazine, 3 Mar. 2023
  • The lunar module became their lifeboat to hurtle back to Earth.
    — Kelly Meyerhofer, jsonline.com, 8 Aug. 2025
  • The Coast Guard later found lifeboats, life rings and other debris from the ship.
    — Mike Ives, New York Times, 2 May 2023

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'lifeboat.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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