Source : Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)

   {Life buoy}. See {Buoy}.

   {Life car}, a water-tight boat or box, traveling on a line
      from a wrecked vessel to the shore. In it persons are
      hauled through the waves and surf.

   {Life drop}, a drop of vital blood. --Byron.

   {Life estate} (Law), an estate which is held during the term
      of some certain person's life, but does not pass by
      inheritance.

   {Life everlasting} (Bot.), a plant with white or yellow
      persistent scales about the heads of the flowers, as
      {Antennaria}, and {Gnaphalium}; cudweed.

   {Life of an execution} (Law), the period when an execution is
      in force, or before it expires.

   {Life guard}. (Mil.) See under {Guard}.

   {Life insurance}, the act or system of insuring against
      death; a contract by which the insurer undertakes, in
      consideration of the payment of a premium (usually at
      stated periods), to pay a stipulated sum in the event of
      the death of the insured or of a third person in whose
      life the insured has an interest.

   {Life interest}, an estate or interest which lasts during
      one's life, or the life of another person, but does not
      pass by inheritance.

   {Life land} (Law), land held by lease for the term of a life
      or lives.

   {Life line}.
       (a) (Naut.) A line along any part of a vessel for the
           security of sailors.
       (b) A line attached to a life boat, or to any life saving
           apparatus, to be grasped by a person in the water.

   {Life rate}, the rate of premium for insuring a life.

   {Life rent}, the rent of a life estate; rent or property to
      which one is entitled during one's life.

   {Life school}, a school for artists in which they model,
      paint, or draw from living models.

   {Life table}, a table showing the probability of life at
      different ages.

   {To lose one's life}, to die.

   {To seek the life of}, to seek to kill.

   {To the life}, so as closely to resemble the living person or
      the subject; as, the portrait was drawn to the life.

Buoy \Buoy\, n. [D. boei buoy, fetter, fr. OF. boie, buie,
   chain, fetter, F. bou['e]e a buoy, from L. boia. ``Boiae
   genus vinculorum tam ferreae quam ligneae.'' --Festus. So
   called because chained to its place.] (Naut.)
   A float; esp. a floating object moored to the bottom, to mark
   a channel or to point out the position of something beneath
   the water, as an anchor, shoal, rock, etc.

   {Anchor buoy}, a buoy attached to, or marking the position
      of, an anchor.

   {Bell buoy}, a large buoy on which a bell is mounted, to be
      rung by the motion of the waves.

   {Breeches buoy}. See under {Breeches}.

   {Cable buoy}, an empty cask employed to buoy up the cable in
      rocky anchorage.

   {Can buoy}, a hollow buoy made of sheet or boiler iron,
      usually conical or pear-shaped.

   {Life buoy}, a float intended to support persons who have
      fallen into the water, until a boat can be dispatched to
      save them.

   {Nut} or {Nun buoy}, a buoy large in the middle, and tapering
      nearly to a point at each end.

   {To stream the buoy}, to let the anchor buoy fall by the
      ship's side into the water, before letting go the anchor.
      

   {Whistling buoy}, a buoy fitted with a whistle that is blown
      by the action of the waves.

Source : WordNet®

life buoy
     n : a life preserver in the form of a ring of buoyant material
         [syn: {lifesaver}, {life belt}, {life ring}]