sheet anchor

We have trusted to it as to the sheet-anchor of our safety, in the stormy times of conflict with a foreign or domestic foe.

The Germans regarded him and his humane doctrine as their sheet-anchor of safety.

But a considerable number of the latter had served for years on board of men-of-war, and a few were sheet-anchor men.

But in "all the changes and chances of this mortal life" this household had a sure sheet anchor on which to depend.

To this famous theory, which became the sheet-anchor of the empirical school, Stewart is not altogether opposed.