lifebloodn.
/ˈlʌɪfblʌd/, U.S. /ˈlaɪfˌbləd/ 1. The blood necessary for life; vital blood; (also) blood shed in life.
ΘΚΠ
the world > life > the body > vascular system > blood > types of blood > [noun] > life-blood
heart-blood?c1225
lifeblood1579
life's wet1598
live blood1625
1579 E. Spenser Shepheardes Cal. Jan. f. 1 v Such rage as winters, reigneth in my heart, My life bloud friesing with vnkindly cold.
1590 E. Spenser Faerie Queene i. xi. sig. L6v The weapon..Deepe emperst his darksom hollow maw, And back retyrd, his life blood forth with all did draw.
1600 W. Shakespeare Merchant of Venice iii. ii. 264 A gaping wound issuing life blood . View more context for this quotation
1667 J. Milton Paradise Lost vii. 1104 A Rib, with cordial spirits warme, And Life-blood streaming fresh. View more context for this quotation
1753 T. Smollett Ferdinand Count Fathom I. iv. 17 The shades of death encompassed him, his life-blood issued at the wound.
1789 W. Cowper Cockfighter's Garland vii Nor e'er had fought but he made flow The life-blood of his fiercest foe.
1827 J. Keble Christian Year I. xxxv. 138 With the Saviour's life-blood wet.
1899 Westm. Gaz. 9 Feb. 2/1 A mighty hunter, a spiller of life-blood.
1923 D. A. Mackenzie Myths China & Japan xi. 185 In Egypt the red jaspar [sic] amulet, called ‘the girdle of Isis’, was supposed to be a precious drop of the life-blood of that goddess.
1991 I. Sinclair Downriver ix. 291 An icon, a gorgon head. Life-blood bubbled, drained into an earthen cup; a zin.
2. figurative and in extended use. Something that gives life to or is essential to a person, action, enterprise, etc.; an indispensable factor or influence that gives something its strength and vitality. Frequently with of.
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the world > existence and causation > existence > intrinsicality or inherence > essence or intrinsic nature > [noun] > vital part or vitalizing influence
pitheOE
sap1526
quicka1566
lifeblood1582
heartstring1584
entelechy1603
heart1603
heart-blood1606
heart and soul1616
heart's-blooda1631
life's bloodc1635
1582 R. Mulcaster 1st Pt. Elementarie xxiii. 159 That opposition..is a priuat thing it self, and the verie life blood, which preserueth tungs in their naturall best from the first time that theie grew to account, till theie com to decaie.
1598 W. Shakespeare Henry IV, Pt. 1 iv. i. 29 This sicknes doth infect The very life bloud of our enterprise. View more context for this quotation
1602 B. Jonson Poetaster iv. ix. sig. I4 [Ovid addressing Julia] Be gon, sweete Life-bloode . View more context for this quotation
1602 J. Marston Hist. Antonio & Mellida ii. sig. D4 His loue (life blood of all his hopes).
1644 J. Milton Areopagitica 4 A good Booke is the pretious life-blood of a master spirit.
1715 C. Bullock Slip i. 6 Nay, don't be angry, Captain Regent , Principal! What shall I call thee? the noble Spark of Bounty, the Life-blood of Society.
1770 ‘Junius’ Stat Nominis Umbra (1772) II. xxxvii. 73 The noble spirit of the metropolis is the life-blood of the state.
1857 R. A. Willmott Pleasures of Lit. xx. 110 The poetic element is the life-blood of the narrative.
1952 T. Armstrong Adam Brunskill iv. 102 That's why the fog, which is the grass that grows after haymaking, is worth so much to us for fattening cattle and sheep. Ay, hay's our life-blood.
2004 N.Y. Times (National ed.) 10 Sept. b16 His is the kind of first-class craftsmanly work that never wins awards or even much attention, but has long been the lifeblood of the movies.
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the world > health and disease > ill health > a disease > diseases of tissue > disorders affecting muscles > [noun] > spasm or cramp > type of spasm > of specific muscles
dog spasm1615
wry-mouth1661
risus sardonius1663
lifeblood1733
locked jaw1754
laryngismus1822
podism1858
blepharospasm1872
Saturday night palsy1887
wrist clonus1888
cardiospasm1896
pylorospasm1898
wrist jerk1899
histrionic spasm1912
main d'accoucheur1926
twister's cramp-
a1677 J. Harrington Life Mech. Nature in Oceana (1700) p. xliv Scarce any man but has at som time or other felt such a motion as Country people call the Lifeblood; if in his Ey, perhaps there has flown out somthing like a dusky cloud.
1729 Prosodia Chirurgica 39 Celsa, a little Collection of vagrant Spirits that endeavour to make their Exit by their continual Motion, at any part of the body. Some call it the Life-blood.
1733 G. Cheyne Eng. Malady ii. xi. 229 Pulsations from Flatulency, like what is vulgarly called the Life-Blood, in several Parts of the Body.
1753 S. Richardson Hist. Sir Charles Grandison VI. 221 My upper-lip had the motion in it, throbbing, like the pulsation which we call the life-blood.
1811 Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) 101 92 She experienced in certain parts of the left arm and thigh, that sensation of twitching which is vulgarly called the ‘life blood’.
Compounds
General attributive. Necessary for life; vital, essential. rare.
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1641 J. Milton Of Reformation 65 All the most sacred, and life blood Lawes.
1684 T. D'Urfey Malecontent 27 Modern Misers tear the trembling Strings, And from the heart, force out the life-bloud Springs.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2009; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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