Also 6–7 -our. [f. SURVIVE + -OR.] One who (or that which) survives.
1. A person, animal or plant that outlives another or others; one remaining alive after another’s death, or after some disaster in which others perish.
1624. Donne, Devot. (ed. 2), 27. As though that one were the suruiuour of all the sonns of men, to whom God had giuen the world.
1683. Dryden, Life Plutarch, 59. That he was at Rome either in the joynt reign of the two Vespasians, or at least in that of the survivour Titus.
1765. Museum Rust., IV. 361. I am now sorry that I counted not the plants,… I should then have known what proportion the deceased bore to the survivors.
1791. Cowper, Yardley Oak, 1. Survivor sole, and hardly such, of all That once liv’d here.
1856. Kane, Arctic Expl., I. xiv. 163. My dogs … had perished; there were only six survivors of the whole pack.
1874. Green, Short Hist., viii. § 6. 518. Of the band of patriots … he [Pym] was the sole survivor.
fig. 1859. Sporting Mag., Dec., 393. In the last half-hour there were only six [hunting men] up, over a very severe bit of country; Jack Morgan [the huntsman], who has quite changed the face of matters here, one of the survivors.
b. attrib. or appos. Surviving. rare–1.
1602. Warner, Alb. Eng., Epit. (1612), 371. Edward yongest, but Suruiuor Sonne of the aforesaid Egelred.
2. spec. in Law. One of two or more designated persons, esp. joint-tenants or other persons having a joint interest, who outlives the other or others; a longer or the longest liver.
1503–4. Act 19 Hen. VII., c. 25 § 1. As yf the seid persones … hade be jointly named with the seid Survivours.
1592. West, 1st Pt. Symbol., § 103 A. Within one yeare next after the decease of the suruiuor of them.
1607. Shaks., Cor., V. vi. 19. The fall of either Makes the Suruiuor heyre of all.
1759. Ir. Act 33 Geo. II., c. 4 § 17. Any two of them, or the survivors or survivor of them, or the heirs of such survivor, may sell … any part of the estate.
1766. Blackstone, Comm., II. xii. 183. The entire tenancy upon the decease of any of them remains to the survivors, and at length to the last survivor.
1818. Cruise, Digest (ed. 2), II. 434. A. devised lands to B. and C., and the survivor of them.
1855. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., xix. IV. 326. As the annuitants dropped off, their annuities were to be divided among the survivors, till the number of survivors was reduced to seven.
Hence Survivoress (-vress), a female survivor.
a. 1711. Ken, Sion, Poet. Wks. 1721, IV. 414. The Survivress in soft mournful Tones The Death of Sister Philomel bemoans.
