释义 |
sur·viv·al \sə(r)ˈvīvəl\ noun (-s) Usage: often attributive Etymology: survive + -al 1. a. : the action of living longer than another person or beyond something (as a time, event, development, or condition) < the wife's survival of her husband > < the survival of the soul after death > b. : the continuance of something (as a custom) after the end of the period of the cessation of the conditions in which it had significance c. : the continuation of life or existence in the presence of or despite usually difficult conditions < the biological needs of survival and reproduction — Flanders Dunbar > < problems of survival in arctic conditions > 2. a. : one that survives or remains after others of its kind have disappeared : one that continues to exist after the cessation of something : a surviving individual or remnant < survivals of classical sculpture which … existed in Byzantium — O. Elfrida Saunders > b. : a culture trait remaining from former times but with diminished significance or with a function or utility meaningful only in terms of past history c. : a linguistic feature that has escaped extinction or has resisted change |