outlive

/ˌaʊtˈlɪv/ (bre, ipa) · /ˌaʊtˈlɪv/ (ame, ipa) · /ˌau̇t-ˈliv/ (ame, mw)

outlive — verb

  • outlivepresent simple I / you / we / they
  • outliveshe / she / it
  • outlivedpast simple
  • outliving-ing form

1. If a person outlives someone, the person stays alive after that other person has

1.動詞及物B2
釋義

If a person outlives someone, the person stays alive after that other person has died; if something outlives an event, idea, or period, it keeps existing after that thing has ended.

例句

Grandma Ada outlived her husband by nearly twenty years.

outlive + person (literal: live longer than someone who died)

Few wooden churches in the village outlived the great fire of 1923.

outlive + event (something keeps existing after an event ends)

同義詞
  • survive

    more general — can mean live through a danger; outlive specifically means live longer than a named other

  • outlast

    interchangeable when the object is a thing or period; outlive is preferred when the object is a person

  • endure

    stresses lasting through hardship; less about being alive after someone else

反義詞
  • predecease

    formal — to die before someone else; the exact opposite when subjects are people

文法句型

outlive + someone

outlive + something

用法筆記

Subject is usually a person, family member, institution, or cultural object; object is usually another person, an event, an era, or an organisation. Often carries an against-expectations flavour (the subject was not expected to last longer).

常見錯誤

❌My grandmother outlived for many years.
✅My grandmother outlived her husband by many years.
💡outlive needs a direct object (who or what was outlived); it is not used intransitively.
❌The tradition outlived from the war.
✅The tradition outlived the war.
💡no preposition; the thing outlasted goes straight after the verb.