From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishlife and deathlife and death (also life or death)SERIOUS SITUATION used for emphasizing that a situation, decision etc is extremely urgent and important, especially because someone is at risk of dying Don’t call me unless it’s a matter of life and death. a life or death decision A doctor’s job involves life and death situations. → life
Examples from the Corpus
life and death• Or, more accurately, a game of life and death.• In Catal Huyuk the images of life and death mingle in a way that may strike us as bizarre.• Issues of life and death also ride the roller coaster in the same trivialising way.• In some cases this might be literally a matter of life and death.• Not for reasons of life and death or right and wrong, however.• These two objects are symbolic of life and death.• Pure happenstance and luck had much to do with life and death on both sides.• The words life and death have no meaning for them. 