jaws of life
jaws of life noun: emergency rescue equipment used to open a severely damaged passenger vehicle with a strong mechanical jaw function that forcibly pushes or pulls metal components apart, to quickly and somewhat safely extricate the trapped occupants.
Noun
jaws of life pl (plural only)
- Emergency rescue equipment used to open a severely damaged passenger vehicle with a strong mechanical jaw function that forcibly pushes or pulls metal components apart, to quickly and somewhat safely extricate the trapped occupants.
- Isn't there some machine used in car wrecks to extricate people called the jaws of life?2005, Mary Gordon, Pearl
- The power of the “jaws of life” were shown first and set aside.2005, Chuck McCann, Short, Shorter and Shorter Stories, Volume 1, page 388
Origin of jaws of life
By analogy with an actual jaw and the fact that this mechanical device allows the possibility of preserving the life of the victim being rescued.
Questions about jaws of life
- What does jaws of life mean?
- Jaws of life means emergency rescue equipment used to open a severely damaged passenger vehicle with a strong mechanical jaw function that forcibly pushes or pulls metal components apart, to quickly and somewhat safely extricate the trapped occupants.
- What part of speech is jaws of life?
- Jaws of life is a noun.
Words near jaws of life in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: jaws of life (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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