save someone's life

Verb

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)

1. To prevent someone from dying.
   • The lifeguard saved the kid's life by doing CPR.
   • 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.2025 January 20, Donald Trump, Inaugural Address (2025)

   Synonyms:

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

2. (idiomatic) To prevent someone from getting into trouble, or to rescue them from it.
   • My buddy saved my life by lending me a thousand bucks when I was dead broke.
   • 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...2025 October 21, Rose George, “‘I knew in my head we were dying’: the last voyage of the Scandies Rose”, in The Guardian

   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