matters of life and death
Stakes couldn't higher
Matters of life and death are situations where survival or mortality hangs in the balance—decisions about medical treatment, wartime choices, emergency responses.
The phrase often appears in exaggerated form for emphasis: Calm down, it's not a matter of life and death.
Something treated as a matter of life and death receives the utmost seriousness, whether literally or hyperbolically.
- livingCurrently having breath
- lifeAnimate state
- deathCessation of life
- do not resuscitateOrder refusing emergency revival
- emergencySerious sudden danger
euthanasia · living will · blood · near death experience · birth · organ donation · wound · breath · dignity · dying · autonomy · palliative care · end of life · last rites · choke · war zone · rescue · morality
matters of life and deathtrivialities
Insignificant matters
trivia · trifles · small potatoes · inconsequentialities · frivolities
matter, matters, mattered, mattering, lifelong, lifeless, lifetime, deaths, deathly