live to tell the tale
Survive the ordeal
To live to tell the tale is to survive a dangerous or harrowing experience—implying you came close enough to death or disaster that your survival itself becomes a story worth telling.
The phrase often carries a note of relief or dark humor: We got lost in the mountains but lived to tell the tale.
Sometimes used loosely for any difficult experience: I survived my first day of teaching and lived to tell the tale.
- perilSerious threat of harm
- brush with deathNarrow escape from dying
- near death experienceSurviving a life-threatening crisis
- perseveranceSustained resolve despite obstacles
- recollectionRecalled mental image
narrative · endurance · catastrophe · recovery · oral history · hardship · account · narrow escape · triumph · survivor story · chronicle · witness · harrowing · memoir · fortitude · testimony · risk · trauma
live to tell the taleperish
Cease to exist
meet one's end · succumb · lose one's life · fall · bite the dust
lively, livelihood, outlive, telling, teller, foretell, retell