Someone who is living on borrowed time or who is on borrowed time has continued to live or to do something for longer than was expected, and is likely to die or be stopped from doing it soon. Perhaps that illness, diagnosed as fatal, gave him a sense of living on borrowed time.

How do you live on borrowed time?

The phrase "to live on borrowed time" means to exist only thanks to good fortune. The phrase is used to describe a person who continues living when everybody expected him to die.

Who said living on borrowed time?

What's the origin of the phrase 'Living on borrowed time'?

Sir Thomas Browne referred to this in Pseudodoxia epidemica, 1646: "So it is usual among us... to ascribe unto March certain borrowed days from April."