From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishsurvivesur‧vive /səˈvaɪv $ sər-/ ●●● S2 W2 AWL verb 1 [intransitive, transitive]SURVIVE to continue to live after an accident, war, or illness Only 12 of the 140 passengers survived. She survived the attack. people who survive cancer2 [intransitive, transitive]SURVIVE to continue to live normally in spite of many problems I’m sure she will survive this crisis. I’ve had a tough few months, but I’ll survive.3 SURVIVE[intransitive] to manage to live a normal life even though you have very little moneysurvive on I don’t know how you all manage to survive on Jeremy’s salary. the amount that a family needs each week just to survive4 [intransitive]SURVIVE to continue to exist after a long time A few pages of the original manuscript still survive.survive from Several buildings in the town have survived from medieval times.survive into an old custom which has survived into the twenty-first centurysurvive as The main building was demolished, but the library still survives as a museum.5 [intransitive, transitive] to continue to be successful The car industry cannot survive without government help. A lot of smaller firms did not survive the recession.6 [transitive]LIVING/ALIVE to live longer than someone else, usually someone closely related to you He is survived by his wife Sue.→ See Verb table
Examples from the Corpus
survive• Many of the small, independent businesses are struggling to survive.• Only 12 of the 140 passengers on the plane survived.• Only a few of Leonardo's earlier paintings still survive.• Because of the nature of oceanic impacts, close observers of large impacts can not survive.• Analysts expect the surviving airlines to be stronger than ever.• My grandmother wouldn't survive another operation.• I don't think I could survive another year as a teacher. It's just too stressful.• I'll show everyone I can survive as a single parent.• Noell was survived by five sons, two daughters, and his wife Elizabeth who died two weeks after his own death.• Monroe is survived by his wife, Regina, and two sons, Stanley and John.• The English language contains many Saxon words that have survived for over 1000 years.• Charles survived his wife by three months.• Few sites that I visited had reached a point where they clearly would survive if these extra start-up funds disappeared.• As the surviving joint tenant, Mary Tene inherits the building.• It's really difficult to survive on £120 a week in London.• I don't know how they expect me to survive on my salary.• They had taken professional risks, had survived personal disasters.• The Cathedral survived repeated bombings during the Second World War.• Liz Taylor has survived several broken marriages, as well as periods of drug and alcohol addiction.• Our friendship has survived the bad times and has grown stronger.• None of our photos survived the fire.• As Mugezi struggles to survive the parental dictatorship, he finds his admiration for Amin swelling by the day.• Hannah prayed every night that her husband would survive the war.• Not many of the insects survive the winter.• Caesar will never know how fortunate he was to survive this episode.• Many Roman roads still survive today.• Doctors predicted that the baby would not survive with such severe disabilities.From Longman Business Dictionarysurvivesur‧vive /səˈvaɪvsər-/ verb [intransitive, transitive]1if a business survives, it manages to continue operating, even though it is in a very difficult situationTo survive, companies will have to focus on staff development.The retailing company is cutting the number of its stores in an effort tosurvive its severe recessionaryproblems.2if you survive, you continue to live. If you survive someone, you continue to live after they have diedProvided her husband survived her by 30 days, he would receive the income from her father’s estate. —surviving adjective [only before a noun]The merger will cost the surviving company $136 million from tax effects.He leaves nosurviving children.→ See Verb tableOrigin survive (1400-1500) Old French survivre “to live longer than”, from Latin supervivere, from vivere “to live” 