From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishcheat death/fate etccheat death/fate etcAVOIDto manage to avoid death or a very bad situation even though it seemed that you would not be able to The Italian ace cheated death in a spectacular 100 mph crash. → cheat
Examples from the Corpus
cheat death/fate etc• And because he thought he could cheat death.• Our attempts to cheat life have progressed to an attempt to cheat death.• Some of them are cheating death.• Explain how you cheated death at every stage of the journey. 