continue to live; endure or last; "We went without water and food for 3 days"; "These superstitions survive in the backwaters of America"; "The race car driver lived through several very serious accidents"; "how long can a person last without food and water?"
continue in existence after (an adversity, etc.); "He survived the cancer against all odds"
certainty based on past experience; "he wrote the paper with considerable reliance on the work of other scientists"; "he put more trust in his own two legs than in the gun"