1817 49 67/1 A man or horse may slowly get the better of the obstinate effects of having swallowed life-sapping simples.
1928 A. Huxley in 16 Dec. 12/6 No people, it seems to me, has suffered more than the English from that life-sapping malady of too much machinery.
2003 G. Burn (2004) iii. 87 Ray could sometimes imagine he was seeing..uncles who worked as lightermen..and laboured for hours in the life-sapping heat and steam.