outlive

outlive, outlast, survive are comparable when they mean to remain in existence longer than another person or thing or after a given experience.

Outlive carries a strong implication of a capacity for endurance and is especially appropriate when competition, struggle, or the surmounting of a difficulty is also connoted

{

not marble, nor the gilded monuments of princes, shall outlive this powerful rhyme— Shak.

}

{

the world has outlived much, and will outlive a great deal more— J. R. Lowell

}

Outlast differs little from outlive but usually stresses greater length of duration rather than greater capacity for endurance and therefore may be employed when comparison is more important than a suggestion of superiority or when the fact of existing longer is more important than the length of time involved

{

customs that have long outlasted their usefulness— Inge

}

{

the sweet sensations of returning health made me happy for a time; but such sensations seldom outlast convalescence— Hudson

}

Survive may be used as an intransitive as well as a transitive verb; in general it suggests merely a living or existing longer than another person or thing, or after some event (sometimes implied rather than expressed) which might bring about his or its end

{

the elder sister survived the younger

}

{

he is unlikely to survive the operation

}

{

one in a million of these childish talents survives puberty— Huxley

}

{

they had at least survived the old year and were alive for the next— Irwin Shaw

}

{

all called their host "Mr. President." That much sense of the proprieties survived the reek of whiskey— S. H. Adams

}

Analogous words: endure, persist, abide, *continue: surpass, *exceed