生死不明 meaning in English
not knowing whether one is dead or alive; missing; where abouts unknown
Examples
- Friday being now left to his liberty , pursu d the flying wretches with no weapon in his hand , but his hatchet ; and with that he dispatch d those three , who , as i said before , were wounded at first and fallen , and all the rest he could come up with , and the spaniard coming to me for a gun , i gave him one of the fowling - pieces , with which he pursu d two of the savages , and wounded them both ; but as he was not able to run , they both got from him into the wood , where friday pursu d them , and kill d one of them ; but the other was too nimble for him , and though he was wounded , yet had plunged himself into the sea , and swam with all his might off to those two who were left in the canoe , which three in the canoe , with one wounded , who we know not whether he dy d or no , were all that escap d our hands of one and twenty : the account of the rest is as follows
这时星期五又追到树林里，砍死了一个另一个却异常敏捷，虽然受了伤，还是跳到海里，拼力向留在独木舟上的那两个野人游去。这三个人，连同一个受了伤而生死不明的野人，从我们手中逃出去了，二十一名中其余的十七人，都被我们打死了。全部战果统计如下：被我们从树后第一枪打死的，三名第二枪打死的，二名被星期五打死在船上的，二名受伤后被星期五砍死的，二名在树林中被星期五砍死的，一名被西班牙人杀死的，三名在各处因伤毙命或被星期五追杀而死的，四名在小船里逃生的，共四名其中一名虽没有死，也受了伤。