life-sustaining
life-sustaining — 形容詞
1. needed to keep a person, animal, or plant alive — used especially for food, wate
維持生命的
幫助生物存活的
needed to keep a person, animal, or plant alive — used especially for food, water, air, or medical care that supports continued existence.
The village well provided the only life-sustaining water for miles around.
方圓數英里內，只有村裡那口井能提供維持生命的水。
collocation: life-sustaining water / food / air
Doctors debated whether to stop life-sustaining treatment for Mrs. Okonkwo.
醫生們對於是否停止 Okonkwo 太太的維生治療展開了辯論。
collocation: life-sustaining treatment / care
Without life-sustaining food supplies, the refugees could not survive the winter.
如果沒有維持生命的糧食供應，這些難民撐不過冬天。
Keiko learned that clean water is a life-sustaining resource for all living things.
Keiko 學到，乾淨的水是維持所有生物生命的必要資源。
The paramedic checked the life-sustaining oxygen level on the monitor.
急救人員檢查了監視器上顯示的維生氧氣濃度。
- vital
broader — can describe any extremely important thing, not only biological survival
- essential
focuses on necessity rather than the specific idea of keeping alive
- life-supporting
near-synonym; more common in medical contexts for machines or equipment
- life-threatening
describes something that endangers life rather than supporting it
- fatal
describes something that causes death, the opposite of sustaining life
用法筆記
Typically used before a noun (attributive position) — e.g., life-sustaining treatment, life-sustaining resources. Rarely appears after a linking verb.