Definition of "survivalist" [survivalist]

• One who has personal or group survival as a primary goal in the face of difficulty, opposition, and especially the threat of natural catastrophe, nuclear war, or societal collapse. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "Or perhaps a flea market, where the detritus of a capitalist culture gets recycled in survivalist fantasia below a mythological rural idyll."
• "If you could tell us a little bit about that training when you're looking for someone who is called a survivalist, someone who knows very well how to operate in the caves and to go, as he said, to where no man or dog can reach him?"
• "Shaun Gallon, whom authorities described as a survivalist, faces up to four years in prison for shooting James McNeil of Monte Rio with an arrow Jan. 27."