Definition of "life-raft" [life-raft]

• Nautical, a raft-like construction designed to save life in case of shipwreck. (noun)

The Century Dictionary (Public Domain)

• "Deploying once again the tired and false charge of “moral equivalence” — a term that has done quite a bit of work over the years as a life-raft for sinking conservative foreign policy arguments — Krauthammer writes:"
• "For who can resist the gallantry of David Hart Dyke staying aboard the tilting hull of HMS Coventry, or Noel Coward and what remains of his crew clinging to their life-raft in In Which We Serve, and Coward commanding, as his destroyer finally goes down: "Three cheers for the ship!""
• "The book as a solitary life-raft adrift and apart from the clamor of modern life..."