as if one's life depended on it

English

Adverb

as if one's life depended on it (not comparable)

1. Alternative form of like one's life depended on it.
   • 1991, Bret Easton Ellis, American Psycho, London: Picador, →ISBN, page 148:

     […] I'm experiencing a major-league anxiety attack, searching my pockets for Valium, Xanax, a leftover Halcion, anything, and all I find are three faded Nuprin in a Gucci pill-box, so I pop all three into my mouth and swallow them down with a Diet Pepsi and I couldn’t tell you where it came from if my life depended on it.

   • 2026 June 14, Tom English, “Why Haiti v Scotland was antidote to the ills of world football”, in BBC Sport‎^[1], archived from the original on 24 August 2026:

     More minutes drifted by. Pierrot had another chance - and missed. At one point the ball fell to Andy Robertson and instead of taking his time and clearing, he hoofed it away as if his life depended on it. His football life, for sure.