lifelinen.
/ˈlʌɪflʌɪn/, U.S. /ˈlaɪfˌlaɪn/ 1. Palmistry. Usually as two words. A mark following the crease of the skin on the palm of the hand supposed to indicate the length of one's life. Cf. line of life at line n.2 8b.Breaks in a life line may be understood to indicate particular life events (e.g. illnesses).
ΘΚΠ
the world > life > the body > skin > mark on skin > line in palmistry > [noun]
headline1571
lifeline1571
rascette1571
discriminal1652
heart line1652
bracelet1883
fate-line1889
the mind > mental capacity > expectation > foresight, foreknowledge > prediction, foretelling > divination by natural phenomena > palmistry > [noun] > mark on the hand > line of life
line of life1538
lifeline1571
vital line1653
vitala1824
1571 T. Hill Contempl. Mankinde xxi. f. 89 The life line was stretched out long, and red in colour.
1613 T. Hill Pleasant Hist. Physiognomy xxi. f. 89 The life line was grosse, betweene the thombe and fore-finger. Thus was this most wicked man formed in personage, and lined in the hand.
1664 R. Stapylton Step-mother iii. 38 Here's a deep Life-line, without Cross or Break; Ten, twenty, thirty, you'l live, till you be Just a year older then am I, a hundred.
1894 ‘M. Twain’ in Cent. Mag. Feb. 554/2 Wilson began to study Luigi's palm, tracing life lines, heart lines, head lines, and so on.
1919 M. Beerbohm Seven Men 154 I had seen in my own hand..a clean break in the life-line.
1971 M. McCarthy Birds of Amer. 312 He felt a sharp pain in..his palm, the part bounded by his life line.
2001 L. Block Hit List 86 There's your head line, there's your heart line, there's your life line. And no marriage lines.
2.
a. Chiefly Nautical. A line or rope intended to be instrumental in saving life, such as a line strongly secured along a vessel to which sailors may hook their safety harnesses, a rope attached to a lifebuoy, or one used by firefighters.
ΘΚΠ
the world > action or operation > safety > rescue or deliverance > [noun] > means of > means of saving life > line or rope
lifeline1700
monkey-strap1987
1700 in Notes & Queries (1941) 12 July 22/2 Lyfline.
1790 Gentleman's Mag. Jan. 35/1 A line..which was called his Life-line, as it was found..to have been serviceable in preserving ships and lives.
1794 D. Steel Elements & Pract. Rigging & Seamanship I. 169 Life-lines, for the preservation of the seamen.
1841 R. H. Dana Seaman's Friend 114 Life-lines, ropes carried along yards, booms, &c., or at any part of the vessel, for men to hold on by.
1895 Daily News 2 Jan. 3/3 He observed a rocket, and informed the coastguard, who arrived with the lifelines.
1904 Daily Chron. 26 Oct. 6/7 Fireman Herbert White lashed a branch hose to his body with a life-line.
1968 Globe & Mail (Toronto) 3 Feb. 11/4 Firemen..used a life~line gun to reach the boat and Mr. MacAdam.
1975 Times 6 Jan. 4/4 Lifelines used on Mr Heath's ill-fated yacht..were yesterday called sub-standard by the British Safety Council.
2000 Canad. Yachting Summer 79/4 (advt.) Stainless—rails, lifelines, ladders, radar arches, davits and custom fittings.
b. A diver's signalling line.
ΘΚΠ
the world > movement > progressive motion > moving with current of air or water > movement in or on water > [noun] > underwater swimming > equipment
armour1721
lifeline1808
shot line1884
plumper line1896
shot rope1909
aqualung1950
scuba1952
snorkel1953
weight belt1955
umbilical pipe1968
1808 J. Pinkerton General Coll. Voy. & Trav. I. 761 He carries a life-line in his hand, which he pulls hard upon, when he feels too much pressure.
1896 Strand Mag. 12 351/1 As the strain of the air-pipe was downward, and that of the life-line upward, I concluded that the pipe must be fast below.
1993 U.S. Navy Diving Man. (rev. ed.) I. j-8 The D-ring and snap hook allow the quickest transfer of the lifeline from diver to diver on the surface.
3. In extended uses.
a. The course of a person's life, represented as a line from birth to death; (also) Classical Mythology = line of life at line n.2 1g.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > will > necessity > fate or destiny as determining events > [noun] > the (three) Fates > thread spun by
the fatal thread1447
line of lifec1580
lifeline1855
1855 J. V. Pinkney Patchwk. Poems 40 I..traced the life-line back To his youth's day.
1905 Daily Chron. 13 Feb. 3/1 Every man who has lived so long..and kept the life-line so straight and true as Mr. Holyoake.
1975 R. Rapoport & R. N. Rapoport Leisure & Family Life Cycle (1978) i. 21 Each life-line strand, then, can be seen as undergoing a ‘career’.
b. Something that is depended on or which provides a means of escape from a difficult situation; an essential line of communication, supply route, etc.
ΘΚΠ
society > travel > means of travel > [noun] > essential
lifeline1941
1862 F. J. Pakenham Life Lines p. iv Sometimes the Christian is aloft, and doing honor to his Master; but he needs a ‘life line’ to protect him.
1936 Lit. Digest 17 Oct. 13c Cut what Britain calls her ‘life line’.
1941 Times (Weekly ed.) 15 Oct. 8 The King spent Wednesday at Liverpool seeing what is being done to hold this end of the Atlantic lifeline.
1963 Times Lit. Suppl. 1 Mar. 149/1 Liberals who keep a life~line open between the actual world..and the one they would like to see exist.
1970 Daily Tel. 7 Oct. 1/1 A £54-million ‘lifeline’ was thrown by the Government yesterday to the farming industry, which has been faced with having to cut back production because of rising costs.
1975 D. Ramsay Descent into Dark ii. 60 Who the hell thinks about honour when her lifeline's being cut?
2005 Wall St. Jrnl. 9 Sept. (Central ed.) a1/5 (heading) At center of crisis, city officials faced struggle to keep in touch. Mayor's inner-circle spent two days in the dark; Web phone became lifeline.
Compounds
attributive. North American (originally and chiefly U.S.). Designating or relating to a system of providing utilities such as water, power, etc., whereby a basic level of service is provided at a low cost (sometimes only to low-income consumers), with additional use being charged at a higher rate, as lifeline rate, lifeline service, etc.
ΚΠ
1968 Press-Courier (Oxnard, Calif.) 31 Dec. 12/4 The rate of $2.30 a month for 30 messages as a ‘lifeline’ service for minimal telephone users.
1976 Business Week (Nexis) 9 Aug. 52 The organization opposes so-called lifeline rates, which provide a minimum amount of power at a fixed, lower-than-cost rate.
1987 D. C. Sweet & K. W. Hexter Public Utilities & Poor viii. 101 While the Congress has yet to enact formal legislation, the lifeline issue continues to be the subject of legislative, regulatory and consumer debate.
1996 San Antonio (Texas) Express-News (Nexis) 23 July a9 Moreno said the board decided the lifeline level—the amount needed to provide an average household with water for essential purposes—is 15,000 gallons.
2000 M. de Villiers Water (new ed.) i. i. 17 People should pay for its [sc. water's] use, to encourage efficiency... But perhaps a universal ‘lifeline rate’ should be established, and anything above that should be priced much higher.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2009; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1571