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单词 life
释义

lifen.

Brit. /lʌɪf/, U.S. /laɪf/
Inflections: Plural lives, (chiefly Scottish) lifes;
Forms: 1. Singular. a.

α. Old English hlif (Northumbrian), Old English–Middle English liif, Old English–1600s lif, Old English–1600s lyf, early Middle English lef, Middle English lefe, Middle English lijf, Middle English lijfe, Middle English liuf, Middle English liyf, Middle English liyffe, Middle English lyef, Middle English lyif, Middle English lyife, Middle English lyyf, Middle English–1500s leyf, Middle English–1500s lyefe, Middle English–1500s lyeff, Middle English–1600s liefe, Middle English–1600s liff, Middle English–1600s liffe, Middle English–1600s lyfe, Middle English–1600s lyff, Middle English–1600s lyffe, Middle English–1600s (1800s Irish English (Wexford)) lief, Middle English– life, 1500s–1600s lieff; Scottish pre-1700 layf, pre-1700 layffe, pre-1700 leife, pre-1700 lief, pre-1700 liff, pre-1700 liffe, pre-1700 liyf, pre-1700 luffe (perhaps transmission error), pre-1700 lyef, pre-1700 lyeff, pre-1700 lyff, pre-1700 lyffe, pre-1700 lyfve, pre-1700 lyif, pre-1700 lyife, pre-1700 lyiff, pre-1700 1700s lyf, pre-1700 1700s lyfe, pre-1700 1700s–1800s lif, pre-1700 1700s– life, pre-1700 1900s– leif.

β. Middle English leue, Middle English liue, Middle English 1600s 1800s– live (now English regional), Middle English–1500s lyue; Scottish pre-1700 leive, pre-1700 lieiw, pre-1700 lieve, pre-1700 liue, pre-1700 live, pre-1700 lyue, pre-1700 lyve, pre-1700 lywe.

b. Genitive.

α. Old English liifes, Old English–Middle English lyfes, Old English–1700s lifes, early Middle English lifæs, early Middle English lifess ( Ormulum), Middle English liffes, Middle English lifis, Middle English lifues, Middle English lijfes, Middle English lyffes, Middle English lyfis, 1600s– life's; Scottish pre-1700 liffis, pre-1700 liffys, pre-1700 lifys, pre-1700 lyffys, pre-1700 lyfis, pre-1700 1700s– life's, 1700s–1800s lifes.

β. Old English–1500s liues, Middle English liuis, Middle English livis, Middle English livus, Middle English liwes, Middle English lyues, Middle English lyuis, Middle English lyuys, Middle English lyvez, Middle English lyvis, Middle English lyvys, Middle English–1500s lyves, Middle English–1600s lives; Scottish pre-1700 lives, pre-1700 lyvis, pre-1700 lyvyse, pre-1700 lywis.

c. Dative.

α. Old English liife, Old English–Middle English life, Old English–Middle English lyfe, early Middle English lifæ, Middle English liffe, Middle English lifue, Middle English lyffe, Middle English lyfue; Scottish pre-1700 life, pre-1700 lyfe, pre-1700 lyffe, pre-1700 lyife.

β. Old English–Middle English liue, early Middle English liuen, Middle English leyue, Middle English live, Middle English liwe, Middle English lyue, Middle English lyve, Middle English lywe; Scottish pre-1700 lyue, pre-1700 lyve, pre-1700 lywe.

2. Plural.

α. Old English–early Middle English lif, late Old English lyf, early Middle English lifen, Middle English liffis, Middle English lifis, Middle English lifues, Middle English lifys, Middle English lijfis, Middle English lyfez, Middle English lyfis, Middle English lyfus, Middle English lyfys, Middle English–1500s lyfes, Middle English–1500s lyffes, Middle English–1600s lifes; Scottish pre-1700 liefes, pre-1700 liffis, pre-1700 liffys, pre-1700 lifis, pre-1700 lyfes, pre-1700 lyffiis, pre-1700 lyffis, pre-1700 lyffs, pre-1700 lyffys, pre-1700 lyfis, pre-1700 lyiffis, pre-1700 lyifis, pre-1700 1700s– lifes.

β. early Middle English liuen, Middle English liuis, Middle English livus, Middle English lyvis, Middle English lyvys, Middle English lywes, Middle English–1500s lyues, Middle English–1600s liues, Middle English– lives, 1500s lieves; Scottish pre-1700 layvis, pre-1700 liues, pre-1700 livis, pre-1700 liwes, pre-1700 lyues, pre-1700 lyuis, pre-1700 lyveis, pre-1700 lyves, pre-1700 lyvis, pre-1700 lywes, pre-1700 lywis, pre-1700 lywys, pre-1700 1700s– lives.

Origin: A word inherited from Germanic.
Etymology: Cognate with Old Frisian līf life, body, person, Old Saxon līf life, body (Middle Low German līf , lief life, body), Old Dutch līf life (Middle Dutch lijf life, body, person, Dutch lijf body), Old High German līb life, body, way of life (Middle High German līp , līb life, body, German Leib body), Old Icelandic líf life, body, Old Swedish lif life, body (Swedish liv life, body), Danish liv life, body < an ablaut variant (e -grade) of the Germanic base of live v.1 (zero grade) and leave v.1 (o-grade).Compare Old English lifen sustenance, and Middle Dutch leven (Dutch leven ), Middle Low German lēven , Old High German lebēn , leben (Middle High German leben , German Leben ), Gothic libains , all in sense ‘life’, all formed ultimately < the Germanic base of live v.1 Some of these coexisted with cognates of life for a long time. However, Old English lifen did not survive into Middle English, and Dutch lijf and German Leib both cease to be found in the sense ‘life’ in the early modern period. Compare classical Latin vīta (see Vita n.1) and its reflex French vie (see vie n.1), which have a similar range of senses, and of which the English word frequently occurs as a translation equivalent. Compare also ancient Greek ζωή (see zoism n.) and Hebrew nep̄eš , which underlie the Latin in some of the biblical passages. In some other biblical contexts translating classical Latin anima breath, soul, life (see anima n.); compare the underlying ancient Greek ψυχή (see psyche n.) and Hebrew nep̄eš . These are sometimes also translated as soul n. With while there's life there's hope at Phrases 8b compare classical Latin ‘Aegroto, dum anima est, spes esse dicitur ’, lit. ‘for a sick man, it is said that while he has breath/life, there is hope’ ( Cicero Ad Atticum 9. 10. 3; quoted by Erasmus in the passage translated in quot. 1539 at Phrases 8b). In a life for a life at Phrases 10a after post-classical Latin animam pro anima (Vulgate: Exodus 21:23; Leviticus 24:18; Deuteronomy 19:21, translating Hebrew nep̄eš taḥaṯ nāp̄eš ). With 12c compare e.g. post-classical Latin haec vita ‘this life’ (Vulgate: 1 Corinthians 15:19, translating Hellenistic Greek ἡ ζωὴ αὕτη ), vita quae nunc est et futura ‘the life that is now and that is to come’ (Vulgate: 1 Timothy 4:8, translating Hellenistic Greek ζωὴ τῆς νῦν καὶ τῆς μελλούσης ). With to lose one's life at Phrases 12c compare French perdre sa vie (c1100 in Old French). In early Middle English the expected pattern is that monosyllabic forms show an unvoiced final consonant (compare Forms 1aα), while inflected disyllabic forms, i.e. the genitive and dative (post-prepositional) forms and the plural, show a voiced medial consonant (compare Forms 1bβ, 1cβ, 2β). It is unclear whether the forms with unexpected u /v (Forms 1aβ) or f (Forms 1bα, 1cα, 2α) are purely graphic or reflect levelling in the paradigm. In modern English the genitive singular shows levelling of the unvoiced consonant, but the plural retains the voiced consonant. (Compare similarly wife n., knife n., etc.) The rare Old English (Northumbrian) form hlif probably shows a hypercorrect spelling resulting from the early loss of a distinction between hl- and l- in this dialect.
I. The condition or attribute of living or being alive; animate existence. Opposed to death or inanimate existence.
1.
a. The condition, quality, or fact of being a living person or animal; human or animal existence. Cf. soul n. 1. the meaning of life: see meaning n.2 1d; see also right to life adj.
ΘΚΠ
the world > life > source or principle of life > [noun]
lifeOE
life and limbc1275
life and memberc1275
being1521
trouble and strife1908
blood-being1915
the world > life > source or principle of life > [noun] > condition or state of being alive
lifeOE
liveliness1540
livelihead1557
livelihood1566
animation1615
vivency1646
livingness1656
lifesomeness1674
animateness1731
animacy1871
OE Crist I 227 Þæt witig god, lifes ordfruma, leoht ond þystro gedælde dryhtlice.
OE Beowulf (2008) 2471 Þa he of life gewat.
c1175 Ormulum (Burchfield transcript) l. 9776 Profetess all wiþþ utenn gillt. Þeȝȝ haffdenn brohht off life.
c1225 (?c1200) St. Katherine (1973) l. 252 He..hersumeð seheliche schaftes, blodles ant banles, ant leomen buten liue.
a1325 (c1250) Gen. & Exod. (1968) l. 201 God made Adam, And his licham of erðe he nam, And blew ðor-in a liues blast.
a1413 (c1385) G. Chaucer Troilus & Criseyde (Pierpont Morgan) (1881) ii. l. 1608 Lat hym neuere þryue, That doth yow harm and..bryng hym soone of lyue.
?a1425 Mandeville's Trav. (Egerton) (1889) 1 In þe whilk land it lyked him to take lief and blude of oure Lady Saint Marie.
c1450 (?a1400) Wars Alexander (Ashm.) l. 2162 If any life lenge in oire [read oure] brestis.
c1540 (?a1400) Destr. Troy 11038 Phylmen, þe freke,..Lut to þe lady, & of his lyff þanket.
1560 J. Daus tr. J. Sleidane Commentaries f. ccccxv [He is] so sicke and diseased, that they can hardlye kepe life in him.
1611 Bible (King James) Gen. ii. 20 The mouing creature that hath life . View more context for this quotation
a1638 J. Mede Wks. (1672) 401 The fire is known by its burning; the life of the body is known by its moving.
1676 J. Dryden Aureng-Zebe i. 5 Proof of my life my Royal Signet made.
1738 A. Pope Universal Prayer xi. 6 Oh lead me whereso'er I go, Thro' this day's Life, or Death.
1765 W. Blackstone Comm. Laws Eng. I. i. 94 Life is the immediate gift of God.
1803 Med. & Physical Jrnl. 10 516 Deep inspiration, sighing, and other strong symptoms of life.
1880 L. Morris Ode of Life 138 Life! what is life, that it ceases with ceasing of breath?
1945 W. de la Mare Burning-glass & Other Poems 53 Round-spectacled Chardin's Passion for life.
2005 Psychologies (U.K. ed.) Dec. 86/2 Children come up with amazing, freewheeling questions about life, the universe and everything.
b. Animate existence regarded in terms of its continuance or prolongation. Opposed to death.elixir, kiss, tree, water of life, etc.: see the first element. anti-life, pro-life: see the first element.
ΘΚΠ
the world > life > source or principle of life > continuance or tenacity of life > [noun]
lifeOE
livingc1350
existence1583
survival1598
survivancea1623
survivership1638
supervivency1659
vivaciousnessa1661
vivacity1663
survivorship1697
surviving1818
OE Guthlac A 524 Ahte bega geweald, lifes ond deaðes, þa he [sc. Christ] lustum dreag eaðmod on eorðan ehtendra nið.
OE Genesis B 468 Þæt wæs lifes beam; moste on ecnisse æfter lybban, wesan on worulde, se þæs wæstmes onbat.
OE Ælfric Old Eng. Hexateuch: Gen. (Claud.) ii. 9 Ælces cynnes treow.., eac swylce lifes treow [L. lignum etiam vitae] on middan neorxnawange and treow ingehydes godes & yfeles.
a1225 (?c1175) Poema Morale (Lamb.) l. 115 in R. Morris Old Eng. Homilies (1868) 1st Ser. 167 (MED) Ech Mon scal h[i]m solf demen to deðe oðer to liue.
a1393 J. Gower Confessio Amantis (Fairf.) viii. 1189 (MED) This noble clerk..with the craftes whiche he couthe..soghte and fond a signe of lif.
c1450 Med. Recipes (BL Add. 33996) in F. Heinrich Mittelengl. Medizinbuch (1896) 138 Ȝef þe netle be alyue, hit is a sygne of lyf.
1690 W. Walker Idiomatologia Anglo-Lat. 135 To sit upon life and death on a man, De capite alicujus quærere.
1746 J. Addison Free-holder No. 8. 36 Boadicia..encouraged them with this memorable Saying, I, who am a Woman, am resolv'd upon Victory or Death; But as for you who are Men, you may, if you please, choose Life and Slavery.
1874 C. Kingsley Westm. Serm. (1879) 301 The Lord set before our forefathers life and death, blessing and cursing; and our forefathers chose life, and lived.
1981 P. A. McCormick Notes on Moral Theol. 563 She argues that those who ‘opt for life on any terms have never known life’.
c. Animate existence viewed as dependent on sustenance or favourable physical conditions. Formerly also: †that which is necessary to sustain life; a livelihood, one's living (obsolete).quality of life: see quality n. 8a; staff of life: see staff n.1 Phrases 2b.
ΘΚΠ
the world > life > source or principle of life > [noun] > as dependent on sustenance
lifeOE
society > occupation and work > [noun] > regular occupation, trade, or profession > livelihood
lifeOE
foodOE
livelihoodc1300
livingc1330
ploughc1390
purchasec1475
daily bread1526
being1570
governing1572
shift1572
supportation1576
thrift1579
livelihead1590
thrive1592
breadwinnera1614
subsistence1644
gain1655
bread and butter1691
through-bearing1705
bread1719
bread ticket1801
daily1817
lifehood1823
rice bowl1853
crust1916
OE Andreas (1932) 1123 Þæt hie þæs cnihtes cwealm corðre gesohton, duguðe ond eogoðe, dæl onfengon lifes to leofne.
OE Ælfric's Colloquy (1991) 36 Si sine te [sc. the baker] possimus uitam ducere : hwæþer we butan þe magon lif adreogan?
a1325 (c1250) Gen. & Exod. (1968) l. 176 To fode and srud to helpen ðe lif.
a1387 J. Trevisa tr. R. Higden Polychron. (St. John's Cambr.) (1865) I. 399 Al þat nedeþ to þe lyue Þat lond bryngeþ forþ ful ryue.
1553 R. Ascham Let. 24 Mar. in H. Ellis Orig. Lett. Eminent Lit. Men (1843) 14 I trust I cold applie my self to mo kyndes of liffe than I hope any need shall ever drive me to seeke.
1571 in J. Cranstoun Satirical Poems Reformation (1891) I. xxviii. 88 Of all the barnis my Lady Seltoun bure, Scho me constranit to make Ilk ane a lyfe.
1604 E. Grimeston tr. J. de Acosta Nat. & Morall Hist. Indies ii. ii. 84 Of necessitie it must be contrarie and vnfit for mans life.
1611 Bible (King James) Deut. xx. 19 The tree of the field is mans life.
1655 tr. C. Sorel Comical Hist. Francion ix. 6 You..are so afraid to lay forth your money, that you dare not buy that which is most necessary for life.
1699 W. Dampier Voy. & Descr. i. i. 15 Cachao..is the only place of Trade in the Country, and Trade is the Life of a Chinese.
1752 D. Hume Polit. Disc. iv. 67 Every thing useful to the life of man, arises from the ground.
1865 J. M. Ludlow in Macmillan Mag. Nov. 7 He learned to read and write, earned his life as rail-splitter, deck-hand, farm labourer, clerk.
1922 F. D. Watson Charity Organization Movement in U.S. (1971) 73 The inadequacy of the wages paid to a large class of the poor to supply even the bare necessities of life.
1998 C. A. Duffy Anvil 47 How do you earn a life going on Behind yellow windows, writing at night The Latin names of plants for a garden, Opening the front door to a wet dog?
d. The condition that distinguishes animals, plants, and other organisms from inorganic or inanimate matter, characterized by continuous metabolic activity and the capacity for functions such as growth, development, reproduction, adaptation to the environment, and response to stimulation; (also) the activities and phenomena by which this is manifested.
ΘΚΠ
the world > life > source or principle of life > [noun] > as property of living things
life1547
1547 J. Wilkinson tr. Aristotle Ethiques iiii. sig. A.vi The Solle of man hath thre powers, one is called ye lyfe vegitable [It. potentia vegetabile]: in ye whiche man is partener with trees & with plantes: The second power, is the life sensible in the whiche a man is partener with beastes, for why al beastes haue lifes sensible. The third, is called solle reasonable, by the whiche a man differeth from all other thinges, for there is none reasonable but man.
1567 J. Maplet Greene Forest f. 25v In Plantes..is the life vegetative.
1668 Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) 3 833 And considering further, what part this Nitrous Air acts, and what operation it performs in the Animal Life.
1694 J. Locke Ess. Humane Understanding (new ed.) ii. xxvii. 179 Though that Life be communicated to new Particles of Matter vitally united to the living Plant.
1724 W. Stukeley Of Spleen 95 As life consists in action and motion, a constant supply [of fat] will be necessary.
1733 G. Cheyne Eng. Malady i. x. 90 Mere Mechanism..can never account for Animation, or the animal Life even of the lowest Insect.
1771 Bp. R. Watson Chem. Ess. (1787) V. 137 Wherever there is a vascular system, containing a moving nutritive succus, there is life.
1813 H. Davy Elements Agric. Chem. ii. 48 Life gives a peculiar character to all its productions; the power of attraction and repulsion, combination and decomposition, are subservient to it.
1830 R. Knox tr. P. A. Béclard Elements Gen. Anat. 4 Life is seen in organized bodies only, and it is in living bodies only that organization is seen.
1889 J. S. Burdon-Sanderson in Nature 26 Sept. 523 Life is a state of ceaseless change.
1929 H. A. A. Nicholls & J. H. Holland Text-bk. Trop. Agric. (ed. 2) i. iii. 21 Oxygen also combines with carbon to form carbon dioxide, usually called carbonic acid, a compound gas that plays a very important part in plant life.
1956 R. Carrington Guide Earth Hist. (1958) vii. 68 One of the most interesting contributions of the electron microscope to science is the knowledge it gives us of those minute substances known as filter-passing viruses, which lie on the borderlands of life.
2002 R. J. Richards Romantic Conception Life App. 313 Haller proposed, much like Aristotle, that animal life had to be understood in terms of two fundamental powers, irritability of tissues (a property shared with plants) and sensation.
e. The property resembling animate existence said to be possessed by inanimate material as a result of an artistic process.
ΘΚΠ
the world > relative properties > relationship > similarity > [noun] > (of a picture, etc.) to the object represented
likelihood1495
faithfulness1602
naturalness1624
life1638
life touch1671
lifelikeness1835
1638 F. Junius Painting of Ancients 77 He shall shew you..what marble got life by the carving-iron of the laborious Praxiteles.
c1660 J. Evelyn Diary anno 1644 (1955) II. 114 The Ecce Homo..for the life and accurate finishing exceeding all description.
1748 Lady M. W. Montagu Fashion 76 in R. Dodsley Coll. Poems III. 277 Let Italy give mimick canvass fire, Carve rock to life, or tune the lulling lyre.
1890 F. W. O. Ward 'Twixt Kiss & Lip (ed. 3) 53 Once a sculptor..flattered Dumb dead marble into breathing life.
a1986 B. Kaufman Cranial Guitar (1996) 152 Tuscan dusky twilights where torchlit italians carved life in marble mountains.
f. Mathematics and Computing. = game of life n. 2.
ΚΠ
1970 M. Gardner in Sci. Amer. Oct. 120/3 This month we consider [John] Conway's latest brainchild, a fantastic solitaire pastime he calls ‘life’.
1986 G. Johnson Machinery of Mind iv. 79 One can use Life as an introduction to a fascinating world called cellular automata theory.
2005 Futures (Nexis) 37 615 Despite Life being a simple recursive system, these entities seem to maintain themselves and move around the checkerboard in quasi-determinable ways.
2.
a. Animate existence (esp. that of a human being) viewed as a possession of which one is deprived by death; also as a count noun.to lose one's life and similar expressions: see Phrases 12c.
ΘΚΠ
the world > life > source or principle of life > [noun] > as possession
headOE
lifeOE
heart-blood?c1225
innocent blood1382
heart's-blood1562
fanny1936
ass1948
butt1964
arse1970
OE Beowulf (2008) 2751 Þæt ic..mæge æfter maððumwelan min alætan lif ond leodscipe.
OE Laws of Æðelred II (Nero) v. ii. 238 Beorge man georne, þæt man þa sawla ne forfare, þe Crist mid his agenum life gebohte.
OE Anglo-Saxon Chron. (Tiber. B.iv) anno 978 Sume þær swiðe gebrocode wæron, & sume hit ny gedydon mid þam life.
a1225 (?c1175) Poema Morale (Lamb.) l. 120 in R. Morris Old Eng. Homilies (1868) 1st Ser. 167 (MED) Al his lif scal bon suilch boð his endinge.
c1225 (?c1200) St. Katherine (Bodl.) (1981) l. 882 Neome þet he neome mei, þet lif of mi licome.
1477 Earl Rivers tr. Dictes or Sayengis Philosophhres (Caxton) (1877) lf. 1 To dispose my recouerd lyf to his seruyce.
1556 in J. G. Nichols Chron. Grey Friars (1852) 47 The kynge gave them alle there lyffes & pardynd them.
1585 R. Lane Let. 12 Aug. in Trans. & Coll. Amer. Antiquarian Soc. (1860) 4 12 My selfe have undertaken..with a good compagnye..to remayene here the returne of a new supply; as resolute rather to loose our lyfes then to deferre a possessione to her majesty.
1632 W. Lithgow Totall Disc. Trav. 357 Our lives and liberty is granted.
1645 J. Winthrop Declar. Former Passages 2 Miantonimo and his confederates have both secretly and openly plotted and practised against the life of Uncas.
1743 J. Bulkeley & J. Cummins Voy. to South-seas 75 Because he who does not value his own Life, has another Man's in his Power.
1890 G. Saintsbury in New Rev. Feb. 136 You take your life in your hands, you rebel, and you win or you don't.
1908 Daily Chron. 24 June 4/6 A criminal at Cordova was to have been executed, who, in honour of the event, was granted his Majesty's pardon. Such an act of Royal grace gives quite a new meaning to the phrase, ‘A life for a life’.
1957 F. Hoyle Black Cloud (1960) 120 In all phases together more than seven hundred million persons are known to have lost their lives.
2005 A. Burdick Out of Eden (2006) 10 As for ‘emerging diseases’ like West Nile virus, their cost is typically counted in human lives lost.
b. In generalized or collective sense. Cf. loss of life n. at loss n.1 2b.
ΚΠ
1811 Critical Rev. 22 109 The object of the author is to prevent the loss of life, in cases of shipwreck.
1841 E. W. Lane tr. Thousand & One Nights I. 92 He will not be appeased with money, nor with anything but life.
1847 F. Marryat Children of New Forest II. vi. 138 We must not take more life than is necessary.
1911 S. Smith City that Was i. 20 Privy pits, then universal, caused an enormous sacrifice of life, especially among children.
1999 L. Kennedy All in Mind vi. 114 In the Second Crusade ships in the Red Sea carrying pilgrims on their haj to Mecca were sunk by Crusaders with huge loss of life.
c. Chiefly Whaling. A vital or vulnerable point of an animal's body; = life-spot n. at Compounds 3. Now chiefly historical.
ΘΚΠ
the world > animals > mammals > order Cetacea (whales) > [noun] > parts of > other parts of
life1838
tympano-periotic1870
melon-blubber1877
melon1879
1838 J. S. Polack New Zealand II. 421 Whales have been killed at the first blow, when successfully struck under the fin, termed the life.
1869 Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia 42 After repeated thrusts the whale becomes sluggish in its motions; then, going ‘close to’, the lance is set into its ‘life’, which completes the capture.
1897 H. P. Hedges Hist. East-Hampton xi. 177 The captain darted his keen two-edged lance into the vitals, in sailor words, ‘the life of the whale’.
1924 C. B. Hawes Whaling v. 111 The oval head was ground to a keen edge, and the long shank and long handle fitted it admirably for the purpose of piercing to the ‘life’ of the whale.
1996 Providence (Rhode Island) Jrnl.-Bull. (Nexis) 25 Sept. 1 c Whalemen struck at the ‘life’ of the whale, a collection of blood vessels near the lungs. The object was to drown the beast in its own blood.
3. In Christianity and some other religious traditions: a state or condition of existence in which a person is freed from a state of sin (equated with spiritual death: cf. death n. 3a) and made spiritually regenerate, both during and (esp.) after his or her earthly life; salvation, blessedness; regeneration. Cf. afterlife n. 2 and book of life n. at book n. Phrases 1e.eternal life (see eternal adj. 3a); everlasting life (see everlasting adj. 1a).
ΘΚΠ
society > faith > aspects of faith > spirituality > soul > [noun] > health of
lifeOE
soul-heala1225
soul healtha1393
wealthc1400
OE (Northumbrian) Lindisf. Gospels: John iii. 15 Ut omnis qui credit in ipso non pereat sed habeat uitam aeternam : þætte eghuelc seðe gelefeð in ðæm..ne losað ah he hæfeð lif ece.
OE Exodus 546 Þonne he [sc. Drihten] soðfæstra sawla lædeð..on uprodor, þær [is] leoht and lif, eac þon lissa blæd.
a1225 (c1200) Vices & Virtues (1888) 9 Ðat we..swa cumeð forð in to ðe eche liue ðe he hafð us behoten.
a1300 (c1275) Physiologus (1991) l. 23 Swo ðat he [sc. ure Driȝten] ros fro dede ðo Vs to lif holden.
c1384 Bible (Wycliffite, E.V.) (Douce 369(2)) (1850) Coloss. iii. 3 Ȝour lyf is hid with Crist in God.
c1449 R. Pecock Repressor (1860) 539 It is bettir to a man forto entre sureli into lijf with oon yȝe, oon hond, oon foot, et cætera.
c1450 Ihesu þi Swetnes (Lamb. 853) in F. J. Furnivall Hymns to Virgin & Christ (1867) 9 To lastynge lijf it wole us lede.
1582 Bible (Rheims) John iii. 36 He that beleeueth in the Sonne, hath life euerlasting [L. vitam aeternam]: but he that is incredulous to the Sonne, shal not see life [L. vitam].
1585 C. Fetherston tr. J. Calvin Comm. Actes Apostles viii. 25 The seede of life began to be sowen throughout the whole region.
a1680 S. Charnock Several Disc. Existence of God (1682) 194 The promise of eternal life is as ancient as God himself... As it hath an ante-eternity, so it hath a post-eternity.
1725 J. Reynolds Three Lett. to Deist iii. 202 It is the Law of Christ,..inforc'd with the most solemn, awful Sanctions imaginable; Premiant, the promise of endless, blessed Life above.
1791 H. More Estimate Relig. Fashionable World (ed. 2) 153 That once credited promise, that ‘they who have done well shall go into everlasting life’.
1829 T. Carlyle in Foreign Rev. Dec. 129 If our Bodily Life is a burning, our Spiritual Life is a being-burnt, a Combustion.
1935 H. A. L. Fisher Europe 140 He had a vision of the one God, of a future life, of the sensual delights of paradise, of the material torments of hell, and of an impending day of retribution in which sinners would be punished.
1988 P. Carey Oscar & Lucinda xxiv. 97 Mrs Cousins believed in the resurrection of the dead and life everlasting.
4. In concrete applications relating to living beings.
a. A person or other being endowed with life; a living being, a person. In later use Scottish (Orkney): a living creature; (spec. as a noa word) a fish.
ΘΚΠ
the world > people > person > [noun]
hadc900
lifesmaneOE
maneOE
world-maneOE
ghostOE
wyeOE
lifeOE
son of manOE
wightc1175
soulc1180
earthmanc1225
foodc1225
person?c1225
creaturec1300
bodyc1325
beera1382
poppetc1390
flippera1400
wat1399
corsec1400
mortal?a1425
deadly?c1450
hec1450
personagec1485
wretcha1500
human1509
mundane1509
member1525
worma1556
homo1561
piece of flesh1567
sconce1567
squirrel?1567
fellow creature1572
Adamite1581
bloat herringa1586
earthling1593
mother's child1594
stuff1598
a piece of flesh1600
wagtail1607
bosom1608
fragment1609
boots1623
tick1631
worthy1649
earthlies1651
snap1653
pippin1665
being1666
personal1678
personality1678
sooterkin1680
party1686
worldling1687
human being1694
water-wagtail1694
noddle1705
human subject1712
piece of work1713
somebody1724
terrestrial1726
anybody1733
individual1742
character1773
cuss1775
jig1781
thingy1787
bod1788
curse1790
his nabs1790
article1796
Earthite1814
critter1815
potato1815
personeityc1816
nibs1821
somebody1826
tellurian1828
case1832
tangata1840
prawn1845
nigger1848
nut1856
Snooks1860
mug1865
outfit1867
to deliver the goods1870
hairpin1879
baby1880
possum1894
hot tamale1895
babe1900
jobbie1902
virile1903
cup of tea1908
skin1914
pisser1918
number1919
job1927
apple1928
mush1936
face1944
jong1956
naked ape1965
oke1970
punter1975
OE Byrhtferð Enchiridion (Ashm.) (1995) iii. iii. 180 Þonne wite þu, la arwyrða lif, þæt se twelfta dæl byð genemned uncia.
a1250 Wohunge ure Lauerd in R. Morris Old Eng. Homilies (1868) 1st Ser. 273 (MED) Luue iwile þe þa, swete ihesu, as te gentileste lif þat eauer liuede on eorðe.
c1300 St. Francis (Laud) 355 in C. Horstmann Early S.-Eng. Legendary (1887) 64 (MED) Honouriethþ ore creatur, For a-mong alle liues, ȝe auȝten him don honour.
a1393 J. Gower Confessio Amantis (Fairf.) v. l. 2297 Tuo cofres..So lich that no lif..That on mai fro that other knowe.
?a1400 (a1338) R. Mannyng Chron. (Petyt) ii. 27 (MED) He gate..Sex sonnes & auht douhtres; þo were faire lyues.
c1400 (?c1390) Sir Gawain & Green Knight (1940) l. 1780 Ȝif ȝe luf not þat lyf þat ȝe lye nexte.
a1500 (?c1400) Earl of Toulous l. 565 in W. H. French & C. B. Hale Middle Eng. Metrical Romances (1930) I. 400 Than answeryd þat louely lyfe.
c1500 (?a1437) Kingis Quair (1939) xxviii Ane wofull wrecche that..of every lyvis help hath nede.
c1540 (?a1400) Destr. Troy 1499 The last of þos lefe children was a lyffe [printed lysse] faire.
c1600 in H. W. Meikle Wks. W. Fowler (1914) I. 337 My love moste worthye is Of euerye lyffe that I haue seene.
1880 W. T. Dennison Orcadian Sketch-bk. 56 When he fand a tirse on the rop, he wad say tae his twa sins, ‘Boys, there a life i the net.’
1929 H. Marwick Orkney Norn at Life Saw thoo no a life aboot the hoose ava? I got no wan life.
1988 G. Lamb Orkney Wordbk. (at cited word) Life, a living creature: There wisna a life tae be seen.
†b. One's family or line, lineage; descendants. Obsolete.
ΘΚΠ
society > society and the community > kinship or relationship > kinship group > stock, race, or family > [noun]
kinc825
strindc900
maegtheOE
i-cundeeOE
birdeOE
houseOE
kindOE
kindreda1225
bloodc1300
strainc1330
lineage?a1366
generationa1382
progenya1382
stock1382
nationc1395
tribec1400
ligneea1450
lifec1450
family1474
prosapy?a1475
parentage1490
stirpc1503
pedigree1532
racea1547
stem?c1550
breed1596
progenies1673
familia1842
uji1876
c1450 (?a1400) Wars Alexander (Ashm.) l. 599 (MED) Of þe lyfe þat he liȝt off, he like was to nane.
?c1450 tr. Bk. Knight of La Tour Landry (1906) 59 There [i.e. in Hell] she [sc. Eve] and her husbond and all thaire liff [Fr. leur lignée] was in prison vnto the tyme that God deied on the crosse.
?a1475 Ludus Coventriae (1922) 58 (MED) God..hath mad promyssyon, Of Regall lyff xal come suche foyson þat a clene mayde modyr xal be.
†c. Vitality or animate existence embodied in an individual person or thing; a person regarded as a living entity. Obsolete.
ΚΠ
1587 Sir P. Sidney & A. Golding tr. P. de Mornay Trewnesse Christian Relig. v. 58 Euery life [Fr. toute vie] (if I may so speake) begetteth..issue..in it selfe afore it send it out.
a1616 W. Shakespeare Macbeth (1623) v. x. 2 Why should I play the Roman Foole, and dye On mine owne sword? whiles I see liues, the gashes Do better vpon them. View more context for this quotation
1850 Ld. Tennyson In Memoriam xiii. 20 An awful thought, a life removed, The human-hearted man I loved. View more context for this quotation
1864 Ld. Tennyson Enoch Arden in Enoch Arden, etc. 5 Philip..like a wounded life Crept down into the hollows of the wood.
1912 J. Conrad Secret Sharer in 'Twixt Land & Sea 131 Those mountainous seas..seemed ready every moment to swallow up the ship herself and the terrified lives on board her.
d. Vitality or activity embodied in material (esp. human or animal) forms. Also: living things collectively (frequently with distinguishing word indicating the nature, location, etc., of the life forms).bird-, insect-, pond life, etc.: see the first element.
ΘΚΠ
the world > life > [noun] > collectively
livingeOE
earthwareeOE
quickeOE
fleshc1000
naturalsa1400
live1565
life1728
1728 J. Thomson Spring 12 Well-showr'd Earth Is deep enrich'd with vegetable Life.
1733 A. Pope Ess. Man i. 197 From the Life that fills the flood, To that which warbles thro' the vernal wood.
1788 E. Gibbon Decline & Fall V. l. 172 The lonesome traveller derives a sort of comfort and society from the presence of vegetable life.
1850 Ld. Tennyson In Memoriam vii. 9 The noise of life begins again. View more context for this quotation
1858 N. Hawthorne Jrnl. 8 Jan. in French & Italian Notebks. (1980) 14 The life of the scene, too, is infinitely more picturesque than that of London.
1864 C. Dickens Our Mutual Friend (1865) I. i. xiv. 130 Very little life was to be seen on either bank.
1926 Encycl. Brit. III. 635/2 The ‘Formalists’ held that the naturalistic theatre was not art, but a soulless attempt to photograph life.
1958 Newnes Compl. Amateur Photogr. 6 Nowadays the photographer can take his camera underwater, and record the life of the seabed; amateur photomicrographists can explore the world of nature.
1992 Gardener (BNC) Dec. 57 The gases, largely methane and hydrogen sulphide, can kill most of your pond life including the fish.
2007 Astron. & Geophysics Feb. 24/2 It now seems clear that stellar winds and magnetism are crucial factors in the origin and viability of life on wet Earth-like planets.
5.
a. In extended use: something which represents the cause or source of living or of vitality; a vivifying or animating principle; a person who or that which makes or keeps a thing alive (in various senses); ‘soul’; ‘essence’. In modern use chiefly in the life (and soul) of (something, esp. a party).In quot. 1715: (poetic (apparently an isolated use)) = lifeblood n. 1.
ΘΚΠ
the world > life > source or principle of life > vital principle > [noun]
souleOE
lifeOE
spiritusOE
bloodOE
ghostOE
life and soulOE
quickship?c1225
quicknessc1230
breatha1300
spirita1325
spark1382
naturec1385
sparkle1388
livelinessa1398
rational soula1398
spiracle1398
animal spirit?a1425
vital spiritc1450
soul of the world1525
candle1535
fire1576
three souls1587
vitality?1592
candlelight1596
substance1605
vivacity1611
animality1615
vividity1616
animals1628
life spring1649
archeus1651
vital1670
spirituosity1677
springs of life1681
microcosmetor1684
vital force1702
vital spark (also flame)1704
stamen1718
vis vitae1752
prana1785
Purusha1785
jiva1807
vital force1822
heartbeat1828
world-soul1828
world-spirit1828
life energy1838
life force1848
ghost soul1869
will to live1871
biogen1882
ki1893
mauri1897
élan vital1907
orgone1942
OE Ælfric Catholic Homilies: 1st Ser. (Royal) (1997) x. 262 Þæs lichaman lif is seo sawul, & þære saule lif is god.
1340 Ayenbite (1866) 126 (MED) Charite, þet is, þe guodnesse and þe worþ and þet lyf of þe oþre uirtues.
a1382 Bible (Wycliffite, E.V.) (Douce 369(1)) (1850) Prov. iv. 13 Hold discipline..for it is thi lyf [a1425 L.V. lijf, L. vita].
a1425 (a1400) Prick of Conscience (Galba & Harl.) (1863) l. 1692 (MED) Als þe saule es lyf of þe body, Swa þe lyfe of þe saule es God allmyghty.
c1485 ( G. Hay Bk. Gouernaunce of Princis (1993) xxxii. 109 The wyne, quhilk is lyf and hele to mankynde.
a1530 T. Lupset Treat. Charitie (1533) f. 4 If you nowe wyll considre, what is the founteyne lyfe and soule of mans vertue, the spacinge and rote of al his good werkes.
1568 E. Dering Sparing Restraint 110 As the common bread, which we eate daily, is the life of the body: so this bread supersubstantiall is the life of the soule.
1609 W. Shakespeare Troilus & Cressida ii. ii. 193 Why there you toucht the life of our designe. View more context for this quotation
a1618 W. Raleigh Disc. Invention Shipping 17 in Judicious & Select Ess. (1650) The length of the Cable, is the life of the Ship in all extreamities.
1649 Εἰκων Βασιλικη 80 That fiduciary and fervent application of their spirits wherein consists the very life and soul of Prayer.
1683 T. Tryon Way to Health (1697) iv. 79 Water and Air are the true Life and Power of every Being.
1712 J. James tr. A.-J. Dézallier d'Argenville Theory & Pract. Gardening 198 'Tis the Life of fine Water-works to be well fed.
1715 A. Pope tr. Homer Iliad I. iv. 609 The warm Life came issuing from the Wound.
1720 D. Defoe Life Capt. Singleton 73 These indeed were the Life and Soul of all the rest, and it was to their Courage that all the rest ow'd the Resolution they shewd.
1797 R. M. Roche Children of Abbey (ed. 2) I. xvii. 309 They had assembled a number of their neighbours, among whom were a little fat priest, called father O'Gallaghan, considered the life of every party, and a blind piper.
1809 B. H. Malkin tr. A. R. Le Sage Adventures Gil Blas III. vii. xiii. 184 Ballets incidental to the piece are the very life and soul of a play.
1814 J. Austen Mansfield Park II. i. 9 Sir Thomas was indeed the life of the party. View more context for this quotation
1844 C. Dickens Martin Chuzzlewit xliii. 492 Mr. Pecksniff's young gentlemen were the life and soul of the Dragon.
1897 ‘M. Corelli’ Ziska xv. 324 Armand Gervase..was making himself the life and soul of everything at the Mena House Hotel.
1932 L. Golding Magnolia St. iii. ix. 595 He's very much the official life-and-soul-of-the-party.
1939 Collier's 21 Jan. 40/1 The other new words came in a steady flood: Big time..the borscht circuit (Catskill Mt. summer resorts booking life-of-the-party m.c.'s).
1970 G. Greer Female Eunuch 33 When the life of the party wants to express the idea of a pretty woman in mime, he undulates his two hands.
2002 N. Lebrecht Song of Names iv. 85 ‘She wasn't always such a sourpuss,’ explained my aunt... ‘Before the last war,’ she confided, ‘Violet was quite the life and soul of the soirée, singing silly ballads and larking the night away.’
b. my life (in Old English mīn līf): (a form of affectionate address used to) a person who or thing which is regarded as the animating principle of one's existence (in early use esp. in religious contexts and now somewhat archaic); my beloved, my dearest.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > emotion > love > loved one > [noun]
darlingc888
the apple of a person's eyeeOE
lief971
light of one's eye(s)OE
lovedOE
my lifelOE
lovec1225
druta1240
chere1297
sweetc1330
popelotc1390
likinga1393
oninga1400
onlepya1400
belovedc1430
well-beloved1447
heart-rootc1460
deara1500
delicate1531
belove1534
leefkyn1540
one and only1551
fondling1580
dearing1601
precious1602
loveling1606
dotey1663
lovee1753
passion1783
mavourneen1800
dote1809
treasure1844
seraph1853
sloe1884
darlint1888
asthore1894
darl1930
lOE King Ælfred tr. St. Augustine Soliloquies (Vitell.) (1922) i. 11 Gehieræ, gehyre me, drihten, forþam þu eart min god, and min drihten, and min feder,..and min hæle, and min lyf.
c1225 (?c1200) St. Katherine (Royal) (1981) l. 1128 Mi lif, & mi leouemon, Iesu Crist mi lauerd.
c1390 Talkyng of Love of God (Vernon) (1950) 2 (MED) Ihesu, mi lord, my leof, my lyf!
c1475 ( G. Chaucer Bk. Duchess (Bodl. 638) (1880) l. 1038 My suffysaunce my luste my lyfe Myn hape myn hele & all my blysse.
1540 J. Palsgrave tr. G. Gnapheus Comedye of Acolastus iii. v. sig. Rjv I can not but I must needes or algates enbrace the my lyfe.
1595 E. Spenser Colin Clouts come Home Againe sig. A3 Colin my liefe, my life.
a1616 W. Shakespeare Cymbeline (1623) v. vi. 226 Oh Imogen! My Queene, my life, my wife.
1706 J. Addison Rosamond (1707) i. vi. 12 Where is my Life! my Rosamond!
1766 O. Goldsmith Vicar of Wakefield I. xvii. 179 Let us have one bottle more, Deborah, my life.
1836 C. Dickens Pickwick Papers (1837) xiii. 125 ‘P. my dear—’ said Mrs. Pott. ‘My life,’ said Mr. Pott.
1873 B. Harte Mliss xlvii. 128/2 I want you, heart, soul, body—you, my life, my love, my mistress, my little wife.
1936 M. R. Anand Coolie iv. 260 Wah! Wah! You have made me happy, Piari, my life, my love!
2008 Windsor (Ont.) Star (Nexis) 14 Jan. c6 I ran up to her and said: ‘My darling, I've been waiting for you for so long. My wife, my life...’
6.
a. A sense of vitality or energy conveyed in action, thought, or expression; liveliness in feeling, manner, or aspect; animation, vivacity, spirit. Frequently in full of life.
ΘΚΠ
the world > action or operation > manner of action > vigour or energy > [noun] > vigour or liveliness
jollinessc1386
liveliheadc1425
quicknessc1425
vyfnes1475
ramagec1485
couragea1498
liveliness1534
spritec1540
livelihood1566
life1583
sprightliness1599
sprightfulness1602
ruach1606
sprightiness1607
sparkle1611
airiness1628
vivacy1637
spiritfulness1644
spirit1651
vivacity1652
spiritedness1654
brightness1660
sprightness1660
ramageness1686
race1690
friskiness1727
spirituousness1727
vivaciousness1727
brio1731
raciness1759
phlogiston1789
animation1791
lifefulness1829
pepper-and-salt1842
corkiness1845
aliveness1853
vitality1858
music1859
virtu1876
liveness1890
zippiness1907
bounce1909
zing1917
radioactivity1922
oomph1937
pizzazz1937
zinginess1938
hep1946
vavoom1962
welly1977
masala1986
the mind > emotion > excitement > excitability of temperament > spiritedness or liveliness > [noun]
jollinessc1386
liveliheadc1425
quicknessc1425
vyfnes1475
couragea1498
liveliness1534
livelihood1566
life1583
sprightliness1599
sprightfulness1602
sprightiness1607
airiness1628
vivacy1637
spirit1651
vivacity1651
spiritedness1654
brightness1660
friskiness1727
spirituousness1727
vivaciousness1727
animoseness1730
brio1731
animation1791
lifefulness1829
corkiness1845
the mind > emotion > pleasure > cheerfulness > [noun] > cheerful liveliness
taitea1400
lightsomeness?a1425
alacritya1460
life1583
sprightfulness1602
airiness1628
alacriousness1657
animal spirits1701
spirits1716
chirpiness1867
form1877
chipperness1887
1583 T. Stocker tr. Tragicall Hist. Ciuile Warres Lowe Countries iii. f. 96 The rest, full of lyfe in the heeles [Fr. par bien courir], saued themselues.
1594 W. Shakespeare Lucrece sig. K1 When seelie Groome (God wot) it was defect Of spirite, life, and bold audacitie. View more context for this quotation
1597 T. Morley Plaine & Easie Introd. Musicke 166 Those songs which are made for the high key be made for more life, the other in the low key with more grauetie and staidnesse.
1598 R. Bernard tr. Terence Andria i. v, in Terence in Eng. 26 Rem negligenter agit. He goes carelesslie about the matter. He puts no life into the matter.
1604 Wit of Woman sig. C2 I..had my spirit as full of life as a wagtayle, but now the case is altered.
1621 M. Wroth Countesse of Mountgomeries Urania iv. 485 I liked that beyond the other, for then me thought I saw life, spirit, and mettle in her.
1669 J. Bunyan Holy Citie Pref. sig. A iij I thought I should not have been able to speak..five words of Truth with Life and Evidence.
1692 Bp. G. Burnet Disc. Pastoral Care ix. 115 That a Discourse he heard with any Life, it must be spoken with some.
a1715 Bp. G. Burnet Hist. Own Time (1724) I. 392 His preaching was without much life or learning.
1838 E. Bulwer-Lytton Alice III. xi. ii. 256 There was no lustre in her eye—no life in her step.
1858 N. Hawthorne Fr. & Ital. Jrnls. II. 59 The most picturesque aspect of the scene was the life given to it by the many faces.
1860 Godey's Lady's Bk. June 564 First in the list of cousins stands Grace, my especial pet and companion, a tiny blonde, pretty as a picture, and full of life and fun.
1947 J. C. Rich Materials & Methods Sculpt. ii. 49 An underglaze color is a concentrated pigmenting agent that depends upon the glaze subsequently applied over it for ‘life’ or gloss and brilliance.
1966 H. Moore On Sculpt. 58 Sculpture, for me, must have life in it, vitality.
2002 J. Cunliffe Encycl. Dog Breeds (new ed.) 201/1 The popular cocker spaniel has a gentle, affectionate temperament and yet is full of life and exuberance.
b. Cricket. That quality in the pitch which causes the ball to rise abruptly or unevenly after pitching.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > sport > types of sport or game > ball game > cricket > cricket ground > [noun] > surface of ground > quality of
devil1845
life1888
bite1905
1888 A. G. Steel in A. G. Steel & R. H. Lyttelton Cricket (Badminton Libr. of Sports & Pastimes) iii. 148 On wet hard wickets..there is still life and pace in the ground; but in the sodden dead state, directly the ball touches the ground it..loses all life and pace.
1906 A. E. Knight Compl. Cricketer App. II. 348 ‘Life’ from the pitch implies the pace and sting at or with which the ball leaves the ground.
1924 Times 17 Sept. 6/4 There was a strong wind blowing towards third man to help him, but there was no life in the pitch.
1994 I. Botham My Autobiogr. xvi. 310 The weather..was overcast and muggy and there was a bit of life in the pitch for the bowlers.
2005 P. Roebuck It takes All Sorts xvi. 238 None of the other bowlers could find any life in the pitch and Australia scored 401.
7. The living world or human experience regarded as the subject for artistic representation; spec. the living form or model, esp. as represented in art (in modern use often connoting the nude form); life-size presentation; (also) the living representation or semblance of some quality, emotion, etc. Also with the. Now chiefly in fixed phrases, esp. in from life; see also after (also from, †by) the life at Phrases 5b, to the life at Phrases 5a. Cf. also life drawing n. at Compounds 2a, still life n. a, etc.
ΘΚΠ
the world > relative properties > relationship > imitation > originality or non-imitation > [noun] > the real thing
the natural1589
life1600
original1624
(the) genuine article1794
1600 W. Shakespeare Much Ado about Nothing ii. iii. 105 There was neuer counterfeit of passion, came so neare the life of passion as she discouers it. View more context for this quotation
1607 F. Beaumont Woman Hater ii. i. sig. D3 It doth shew So neere the life, as it were naturall.
1625 F. Bacon Ess. (new ed.) xxvii. 162 The best Way, to represent to life the manifold vse of Frendship.
1676 Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) 11 554 Sueton. hath drawn to life both the Portraictures and Insides of the xii Cæsars.
1704 J. Swift Tale of Tub v. 120 I have always lookt upon it as a high Point of Indiscretion..to hang out a fair large Picture over the Door, drawn after the Life.
1816 Dance of Death 7 He was drawing a figure after the life.
1886 J. A. Symonds Catholic Reaction in Renaissance in Italy (1898) VII. viii. 24 Boccaccio's clear-cut intaglios from life and nature.
1998 L. Forbes Bombay Ice (1999) 90 I believe this one was modelled from life, although the artist has had the bad taste to dress him in a maharaja's jacket.
II. With reference to duration.
8.
a. The animate existence of an individual living person, animal, etc., viewed with regard to its duration; the period from birth to death, from birth to a particular time, or from a particular time to death. Cf. natural life n. 1. See also for life at Phrases 2d, nine lives at nine adj. 3c. all my (his, etc.) life (used adverbially): = in or during all my (his, etc.) life; †formerly sometimes without all. mid-life crisis: see mid-life n. and adj. Compounds. the prime of life: see prime n.1 9b.
ΘΚΠ
the world > life > source or principle of life > [adverb] > in one's life
all my (his, etc.) lifeOE
lifelong1868
in (all) one's (born) puff1872
OE Ælfric Catholic Homilies: 1st Ser. (Royal) (1997) i. 185 Noe leofode on eallum his life, ær þan flode, & æfter þæm flode nigan hund geara & fiftig geara.
OE Laws of Edgar (Nero E.i) iv. xii. 212 Ic heom [sc. the Danish laws] a geþafode & geþafian wille, swa lange swa me lif gelæst.
c1275 (?a1200) Laȝamon Brut (Calig.) (1963) 4911 Þu mine fader swore to lasten alche ȝere al to þine liue [c1300 Otho bi al þine lifue] gauel in to Rome.
c1325 (c1300) Chron. Robert of Gloucester (Calig.) l. 6125 (MED) Febleliche he liuede al is lif & deyde in feble deþe.
c1400 J. Wyclif Sel. Eng. Wks. (1871) III. 443 Aftur a man deserves while he lyves here schal he be rewardid aftur his lyife.
1433 Rolls of Parl. IV. 472/1 [To] receive the saide annuitee, terme of his lyve.
c1450 (c1386) G. Chaucer Legend Good Women (Fairf. 16) (1879) Prol. l. 59 Ther loved no wight hotter in his lyve [c1500 Selden B. 24, Trin. Cambr. lyfe].
a1464 J. Capgrave Abbreuiacion of Cron. (Cambr. Gg.4.12) (1983) 137 Þat he schuld..neuyr his lyue dwelle in no soile longing to þe kyng of Ynglond.
a1500 tr. La Belle Dame sans Mercy (Cambr.) l. 680 in F. J. Furnivall Polit., Relig., & Love Poems (1903) 73 (MED) Considre that your liff is shorte and brief.
1561 T. Hoby tr. B. Castiglione Courtyer i. sig. A.ijv So did he end his lief with glorye.
1611 Bible (King James) Prov. xxxi. 12 She will doe him good, and not euill, all the dayes of her life . View more context for this quotation
1680 J. Sharp Serm. on Eccl. iii. 10, 26 That live scrapingly and uncharitably,..all their lives long.
1718 J. Chamberlayne tr. B. Nieuwentyt Relig. Philosopher I. xii. §25 This Globe..would be quite dispeopled in the Life of one Man.
1791 A. Radcliffe Romance of Forest I. i. 5 Early in life he had married Constance Valentia.
1849 T. B. Macaulay Hist. Eng. I. i. 47 There is a season in the life both of an individual and of a society, at which [etc.].
1895 Bookman Oct. 23/1 The disastrous effects of the blunders of his middle life.
1925 Amer. Mercury Oct. 212/2 Two thousand red-blooded, Nordic he-men..who had been taught all their lives that they were ‘as good as you are’.
1969 R. L. Keiser Vice Lords vi. 77 You not going to be a gangfighter all your life.
2002 M. Holroyd Wks. on Paper 213 In this he resembled his sister Gwen, acknowledging late in life the strange fact that ‘Gwen and I were not opposites but much the same really, but we took a different attitude.’
b. slang. Imprisonment (formerly also transportation) for life; a sentence of life imprisonment. Cf. life sentence n. 1.
ΘΚΠ
society > authority > punishment > imprisonment > [noun] > sentence or term of > life
life sentence1817
lifer1825
life1833
1833 T. Bannister Let. on Colonial Labour 12 The number of years, for a..life Convict to serve in the Gangs, before he can get his ticket-of-leave, to be mentioned.
1843 B. Watt Lett. from Van Dieman's Land 230 I learned in court, that my sentence is fourteen-years after arrival in V.D.L.—Mr. Watson's is life.
1857 Victoria Parl. Papers III. No. 48. 46 That is the time I am satisfied he got life.
1903 ‘J. Flynt’ Rise of Ruderick Clowd iii. 108 I celled for a couple o' years with old Darbsey—he was doin' life.
1924 E. Wallace Room 13 i. 10 He shot a copper and got life.
1967 C. Drummond Death at Furlong Post xii. 154 If Ada blows she gets life, they don't like Crown Evidence these days.
1999 D. Haslam Manchester, Eng. ix. 242 I know a kid who's doing life, man, and he ain't even killed someone, he's just got tangled up in it and he ain't even from the hood.
9.
a. A person considered with regard to the probable future duration of his or her life, esp. for insurance purposes; (also) any particular amount of expectation of life; an insurance on a person's life, a life insurance policy. a good life: a person assessed for life-insurance purposes as not likely to exceed his or her expectation of life; by contrast a bad life. Cf. also decrement of life n. at decrement n. 1d.
ΘΚΠ
the world > life > source or principle of life > [noun] > expectation of life > one expected to live to specific age
life1693
1672 T. Shadwell Miser ii. ii. 25 Now to sum up all these things they will amount to 2450 l. a year, for her life, there's four hundred and fifty Pound above your sum.]
1693 E. Halley in Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) 16 601 How to make a certain Estimate of the value of Annuities for Lives.
1761 Mansfield MSS (1992) 11 June 493 [He was] not a good life for a year before because, from want of retention, he was paralytic.
1780 R. B. Sheridan School for Scandal iii. iii. 39 You are afraid..that my uncle is too good a life.
1828 D. le Marchant Rep. Claims to Barony of Gardner 78 It was a sufficiently good life within the meaning of the terms of that insurance office.
1838 A. De Morgan Ess. Probabilities 212 The rules in the preceding chapter, though the status mentioned are technically called lives, are equally true for any species of circumstances.
1882 Ogilvie's Imperial Dict. (new ed.) III. 47/3 Life, an insurance on a person's life; a life-insurance policy.
1896 T. C. Allbutt et al. Syst. Med. I. 476 [An applicant for insurance] was..called upon to state on oath that he believed himself to be a good life.
1921 A. Huxley Let. 23 Mar. (1969) 194 This perpetual lack of perfect physical health is intolerable. This was brought home to me more acutely than usual today by the refusal of the London Life Association to insure me... It is..humiliating to be a Bad Life.
1938 Times Lit. Suppl. 24 Sept. 618/2 Elizabeth all her days was reckoned a ‘bad life’.
1970 Times 5 Dec. 9/3 If one is not accepted as a first class life, the most common procedure is for an insurance company to increase the premium.
1995 Wall St. Jrnl. 29 June b16/3 We've been presented with chances, including a major insurance company that wanted us to buy their covered lives.
b. the life assured: the person upon whose death a life assurance policy provides an agreed payment.
ΘΚΠ
society > trade and finance > financial dealings > insurance > [noun] > thing that or one who is insured
insured1681
assured1755
the life assured1781
insuree1853
1781 J. Weskett Compl. Digest Theory, Laws, & Pract. Insurance 206 Persons who shall make assurance for annuities to commence upon the extinction of the life assured.
1837 Times 18 Apr. 2 Furnish me with the date and amount of policy and the age of the life assured.
1920 Rep. Industr. Assurance Comp. (Cmd. 614) 2 The business of Industrial Assurance consists in the assurance of small sums, payable for the most part on the death of the life assured, in consideration of the payment of weekly premiums.
2000 Investor Nov. 88/3 The policy will provide a guaranteed amount of life assurance, which will be the minimum paid out in the event of the death of the life assured.
10.
a. The term of duration of an inanimate thing; the time that a manufactured object lasts or is usable. Cf. long-life adj., shelf life n. at shelf n.1 Compounds 2.
ΘΚΠ
the world > time > duration > [noun] > lifespan (of material things, etc.)
age1535
life1703
lifetime1822
longevity1842
lifespan1898
natural life1900
1703 R. Neve City & Countrey Purchaser 210 Mosaick,..an Ornament of much Beauty, and long Life.
1876 W. H. Preece & J. Sivewright Telegraphy 37 From eighteen to twenty months is the average life assigned to them [sc. battery cells].
1889 Scribner's Mag. Aug. 219/2 The average life of the steel rails.
1892 Sir A. Kekewich in Law Times Rep. 67 141/1 The short life of the company, and the subsequent liquidation.
1927 F. Balfour-Browne Insects ix. 238 Water nets, made of the usual cheese-cloth, have a very short life.
1947 Forum (Johannesburg) 12 Apr. 15/3 Even with the aid of boreholes, which have yet to be sunk, the ‘life’ of the dam can be extended only until the end of September.
1958 Times 23 July 5/2 Its..turbo-jet engines will be permitted an initial ‘life’ between overhauls of 1,000 hours.
1971 Gloss. Electrotechnical Power Terms (B.S.I.) iv. i. 26 Life, of a lamp. Time during which a lamp has been operated before becoming useless.
1991 Public Wks. Nov. 117/1 (advt.) Extend the life of your equipment up to 33%—Prevent non-productive downtime.
1999 Target Sports Dec. 90/1 If your rifle shoots more accurately when it's dirty, then that's how you want to keep it, providing that dirt is not shortening the life of the barrel.
b. Physics. = lifetime n. 2b. Cf. half-life n. 2b.
ΘΚΠ
the world > matter > physics > atomic nucleus > radioactive isotope > radioactive nuclide > [noun] > average duration
life1903
mean lifetime1909
1903 E. Rutherford & F. Soddy in London, Edinb., & Dublin Philos. Mag. 6th Ser. 5 607 In one gram of these elements less than a milligram would change in a million years. In the case of radium, however, the same amount must be changing per gram per year. The ‘life’ of the radium cannot be in consequence more than a few thousand years.
1942 J. D. Stranathan ‘Particles’ of Mod. Physics xiii. 535 There is some indication that the mean free path may be longer, and the mean life correspondingly longer, for high energy mesotrons than it is for low energy mesotrons.
1966 New Statesman 8 July 51/1 The team had studied..the eta-meson. It has a very short life and decomposes into other particles, called pi-mesons.
1993 E. N. Parker in G. G. Fazio & R. Silberberg Currents in Astrophysics & Cosmol. i. i. 6 The finite life of the particles in the galaxies indicates that the cosmic rays are continually inflating the field and leaving the galaxy.
2004 K. W. Ford Quantum World iv. 72 The 886-second mean life of the neutron is almost ‘forever’.
11. Extended uses in various games and sports.
a. Originally and chiefly Cards. Esp. in the game of Commerce: any one of three counters which each player is given at the start of the game, the loss of all three marking the end of a player's involvement in the game. Also in some dice and other games.
ΚΠ
1806 J. Beresford Miseries Human Life I. iii. 56 At the game of Commerce, losing your life in fishing..for aces.
1840 T. Hook Fitzherbert II. viii. 199 All the old people are at whist, and all the young ones at commerce; I have just lost my last life and my only shilling.
1890 J. D. Champlin Young Folk's Cycl. Games & Sports 468/2 Any player losing three lives must retire from the game.
1966 O. Norton School of Liars vi. 95 Mac lifted the lid... ‘Dirty,’ he said, and pocketed one of his lives. There were four aces and a king in a row.
1969 I. Opie & P. Opie Children's Games ii. 74 Whoever..is hit by the ball below the thigh loses a ‘life’... Each person has three lives.
1981 G. Brandreth Everyman's Indoor Games 211 Each player starts the game with three counters—these are his ‘lives’.
b. Billiards. In an early form of the game, involving several players (see pool n.3 2(a)): any one of three chances which each player has at the start of the game, and which may be forfeited until the player has to retire. Now historical.
ΚΠ
1857 ‘Capt. Crawley’ Billiards (ed. 2) xii. 120 The first player who loses his three lives has the privilege of purchasing what is called a star.
1991 C. Everton Snooker & Billiards i. 10/1 In ‘Life Pool’, each player adopted a different coloured ball and lost a ‘life’ (or monetary forfeit) when it was potted by an opponent. A player losing three ‘lives’ was ‘dead’ and the last player left ‘alive’ scooped the pool.
c. Cricket and Baseball (rare). An opportunity on the part of a batter to continue at the crease (or at bat), esp. after a chance of dismissal (typically a catch) has been missed.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > sport > types of sport or game > ball game > cricket > batting > [noun] > batsman's tenure of wicket
wicket1738
innings1755
stand1808
life1865
partnership1868
1865 Bell's Life in London 24 June 7/1 Mr. Voules (who had ‘a life’ when he had made but a single) was first to leave.
1868 Cincinnati Commercial 24 May 8/2 Meagher had a life given him by Gould not accepting the grounder Meagher hit to him, and Brainard's wild throw to first gave him his second.
1883 Daily Tel. 15 May 2/7 The captain..received a life..in the slips.
1902 San Francisco Call 6 Nov. 11/1 In the first Waters got a life on Reilly's error.
1920 Times 8 June 7/3 At the start of the day Captain Barrett was given a life in his first over.
1955 Times 9 July 4/5 Immediately after luncheon Goddard was given a life when he slashed at Tyson and Evans dropped a fast head-high catch.
1974 Times 25 Nov. 10/2 Ali also had a life from Barrett at mid-off.
2005 Sydney Morning Herald (Nexis) 23 July 74 Clarke was given a life in the last over before tea when he drove to short cover and was dropped by Pietersen.
III. A course, condition, or manner of living.
12.
a. The series of actions and occurrences constituting the history of an individual (esp. a human being) from birth to death. In generalized sense: the course of (human) existence from birth to death. Cf. this life at sense 12c.Frequently premodified by nouns and adjectives to designate particular styles or aspects of life: bush-, business, camp-, gang-, ranch life, etc.; country, folk, home, married, private, public, school life, etc.; fantasy, love, sex life, etc.to lead one's life, etc.: see lead v.1 12a; fact of life: see fact n., int., and adv. Phrases 7a; way of life: see way n.1 and int.1 Phrases 4d; see also past life n. 1 and real life n.
ΘΚΠ
the world > life > source or principle of life > [noun] > course or span of life
life-dayOE
year-daysOE
timeOE
dayOE
lifeOE
life's timeOE
livelihoodOE
yearOE
lifetimea1300
life-whilea1300
for (also to) term of (a person's) lifea1325
coursec1384
livingc1390
voyage1390
agea1398
life's dayc1425
thread1447
racea1450
living daysc1450
natural life1461
lifeness1534
twist1568
leasec1595
span1599
clew1615
marcha1625
peregrination1653
clue1684
stamen1701
life term1739
innings1772
lifelong1814
pass-through1876
inning1885
natural1891
life cycle1915
puff1967
the world > action or operation > behaviour > way of life > [noun] > course or way of life
wayeOE
lifeOE
train1580
career1803
OE St. Euphrosyne (Julius) in W. W. Skeat Ælfric's Lives of Saints (1900) II. 352 God ælmihtig hæfð wel gedihtod min earme lif and gefylled minne willan þæt ic moste þone ryne mines lifes werlice geendian.
OE Anglo-Saxon Chron. (Tiber. B.iv) anno 1016 He geendode his dagas..æfter myclum geswince & earfoðnyssum his lifes.
OE tr. Bede Eccl. Hist. (Cambr. Univ. Libr.) v. xvii. 464 He swa iiii gear, þæt is oð ðone dæg his forðfore, he his lif lædde on smyltre sibbe [L. uitam duxit in pace].
a1225 ( Ælfric's Homily In Die Sancto Pentecosten (Lamb. 487) in R. Morris Old Eng. Homilies (1868) 1st Ser. 89 God sette e þam israelisce folce hu heo sculden heore lif leaden.
a1400 (a1325) Cursor Mundi (Gött.) l. 252 Till þaim..þat ledis þair liues [Trin. Cambr. lyues] in mekil wast.
a1522 G. Douglas tr. Virgil Æneid (1957) iii. v. 66 I leif..and ledis life, as ȝe se.
?1529 R. Hyrde tr. J. L. Vives Instr. Christen Woman i. xvi. sig. T.ij They that marie for loue, shall leade their lyfe in sorowe.
1576 A. Fleming tr. Cicero in Panoplie Epist. 93 Reason prescribeth..that Whatsoeuer we attempt in the course of our life, blame may be auoyded.
1596 E. Spenser Hymne Heauenly Loue in Fowre Hymnes 30 He our life hath left vnto vs free.
1633 Earl of Manchester Al Mondo: Contemplatio Mortis (rev. ed.) 73 Seldome doth hee dye well, that liues ill; therefore in the course of your life practise well doing, and, at parting you shall haue the comfort of well dying.
1667 J. Milton Paradise Lost viii. 193 To know That which before us lies in daily life . View more context for this quotation
1707 tr. P. Le Lorrain de Vallemont Curiosities in Husbandry & Gardening 65 The Course of its Life is sixteen Hours.
1736 Bp. J. Butler Analogy of Relig. i. iii. 47 [Those persons] whose Course of Life from their Youth up, has been blameless.
1792 G. Dyer Poems 51 When the course of life is run, He'll wear a never with'ring crown.
1872 J. Morley Voltaire i. 2 They realised life as a long wrestling with unseen and invincible forces of grace, election, and fore-destiny.
1879 W. H. Mallock (title) Is Life worth living?
a1933 J. A. Thomson Biol. for Everyman (1934) II. 1327 These testes..consist of a large number of delicate tubes,..so that hundreds of millions are formed in the course of life.
2007 Guardian (Nexis) 9 Oct. (Features) 23 She mistrusts words yet uses them all the time, forever re-embroidering her life.
b. A particular manner or course of living. Frequently with modifying word (as good, bad, happy, wretched, etc.). anything for a quiet life: see Phrases 8c; dog's, high, low-life: see at first word.
ΘΚΠ
the world > life > source or principle of life > [noun] > manner of life
lifeeOE
walk?1567
the world > action or operation > behaviour > way of life > [noun]
lifeeOE
lifewayOE
livelihoodOE
livingc1350
dietc1460
tradec1485
use1488
daily life1516
way of living1516
governmenta1616
way of lifea1616
tread1628
mode1758
eOE Metres of Boethius (partly from transcript of damaged MS) vii. 40 Forðon orsorg lif ealnig lædað woruldmen wise buton wendinge.
OE Wulfstan Homily: Larspell (Corpus Cambr. 421) in A. S. Napier Wulfstan (1883) 270 Ealle hig wæron haliges lifes menn.
c1175 Ormulum (Burchfield transcript) l. 4516 Þatt mann..maȝȝ..cwemenn godd wiþþ haliȝ lif.
c1225 (?c1200) Hali Meiðhad (Bodl.) (1940) l. 30 (MED) Alle widewen..ant weddede..wunieð lahe on eordðe, ant meiden stont þurh heh lif i þe tur of ierusalem.
a1400 (a1325) Cursor Mundi (Vesp.) l. 13830 Þe lijf he ledes mai nan lede.
c1400 (c1378) W. Langland Piers Plowman (Laud 581) (1869) B. ix. 62 Þat liueth synful lyf here her soule is liche þe deuel.
?a1425 Mandeville's Trav. (Egerton) (1889) 30 Þai er deuote men and ledez pure lyf.
c1425 (?a1400) Arthur (Longleat 55) l. 554 He toke þe qweene, Arthoureȝ wyff, Aȝenst goddes lawe & gode lyff.
c1540 (?a1400) Destr. Troy 8939 To discharge me as cheftain, & chaunge my lif.
1578 J. Lyly Euphues f. 26 Ye quiet life which I haue tried being a maiden.
1593 R. Hooker Of Lawes Eccl. Politie i. x. 70 All men desire to leade in this world an happie life.
c1600 Wriothesley's Chron. Eng. (1875) I. 33 Queene Katherin..departed from her worldlie lief at Bugden.
1611 C. Tourneur Atheist's Trag. (new ed.) v. sig. K3v My pouertie compels my life to a condition lower then my birth or breeding.
1638 R. Baker tr. J. L. G. de Balzac New Epist. II. 213 One that partakes of the life of a schollar, and of a Courtier.
1702 Eng. Theophrastus 186 One stumble is oftentimes enough to deface the character of an honourable life.
1754 Earl of Chatham Lett. to Nephew (1804) iv. 20 Be sure to associate..with men of decent and honourable lives.
1759 J. Townley (title) High life below stairs.
1847 F. Marryat Children of New Forest I. xiii. 257 They live a roving life.
1859 Ld. Tennyson Idylls Ded. 24 Wearing the white flower of a blameless life.
1875 B. Jowett in tr. Plato Dialogues (ed. 2) III. 151 The life of Sparta was the life of a camp.
1898 Argosy Nov. 577 He would most probably have lived a blameless life.
1924 K. Burke Let. 20 Nov. in Sel. Corr. K. Burke & M. Cowley (1988) 166 Yeats lived the life of a mystic.
2000 S. Brett Body on Beach (2001) i. 4 Her parents had lived a life without frills.
c. this life (similarly the (also this) present life) (in biblical use or allusion) the earthly state of human existence, life on earth. Contrasted with the future life (also another life, the next life, the life to come, etc.) the state of existence after death (see also future adj. 1b). Cf. this adj. 1c, next world n. at next adj., adv., and n. Compounds 3.See also to depart from (this) life at depart v. 7, to depart this life at depart v. 8.
ΘΚΠ
the world > life > source or principle of life > [noun] > present life
worldeOE
this lifeOE
world-lifeOE
sithea1225
journey?c1225
pilgrimagec1384
weeping-dalec1400
valec1446
peregrinationc1475
scene1662
shades1816
earth life1842
macro-world1968
the world > the supernatural > deity > heaven > [noun] > reward of > eternal life
another lifeOE
eternity1604
hence1884
OE Ælfric Catholic Homilies: 1st Ser. (Royal) (1997) xv. 302 Seo swyðre hand getacnað þæt ece lif, & seo wynstre ðis andwearde lif [L. vita praesens].
OE Ælfric Catholic Homilies: 1st Ser. (Royal) (1997) xxxii. 457 Ge lufiað þis lif [L. istam vitam] on þam þe ge mid geswince wuniað.
OE Genesis A (1931) 1627 Þa se rinc ageaf eorðcunde ead, sohte oðer lif.
OE West Saxon Gospels: Luke (Corpus Cambr.) viii. 14 Þa ðe gehyraþ, & of carum & of welum & of lustum þiss lifes [L. vitae] synt forþrysmede.
a1225 (?OE) MS Lamb. in R. Morris Old Eng. Homilies (1868) 1st Ser. 9 (MED) Al þet ileafule folc of iudeus..weren strongliche ibunden er ure drihten come to þisse liue.
c1275 in C. Brown Eng. Lyrics 13th Cent. (1932) 58 Þis liues blisse nis wurð a slo.
c1325 (c1300) Chron. Robert of Gloucester (Calig.) 6123 (MED) Atte laste þis king aildred..wende out of þis lif.
c1350 Apocalypse St. John: A Version (Harl. 874) 4 It suffreþ in þis lyue &..it shal resceyue in þat oþere.
a1425 J. Wyclif Sel. Eng. Wks. (1871) II. 229 (MED) Here in þis liif wolden men axe þat a man be found trewe amongis dispensours of an house.
c1480 (a1400) St. Paul 219 in W. M. Metcalfe Legends Saints Sc. Dial. (1896) I. 35 Eftire þis lyfe transitore euire-lestand lyfe is me before.
1510 Hours Blessed Virgin 102 This life that is momentaine.
1549 Bk. Common Prayer (STC 16267) Svpper of the Lorde f. cxxviii All them, whyche in thys transytory life be in trouble, sorowe, nede..or any other aduersitie.
1579 G. Fenton tr. F. Guicciardini Hist. Guicciardin vii. 363 King Phillip..had chaunged this life for a better within the towne of Burgos.
1608 J. Donne Lett. (1651) 49 A thirst and inhiation after the next life.
1651 ‘A. B.’ tr. L. Lessius Sir Walter Rawleigh's Ghost 300 The which remunerations and recompensations, seeing they are not ever payed in this life,..are to be reserved for the life to come.
1703 W. Burkitt Expos. Notes New Test. Matt. v. 8 They shall see him Spiritually and Mediately in this Life, Gloriously and Immediately in the Life to come.
1751 J. Jortin Serm. (1771) II. xix. 376 This was an effectual confutation of Sadducean notion that there was no life besides the present.
1791 J. Ingraham Jrnl. 16 Sept. (1971) vii. 160 Mr. John Crafts, my second officer..departed this life at four o′clock in the afternoon.
1852 H. Rogers Eclipse of Faith 98 Regard this life—as what it is..a pilgrimage to a better.
1893 G. H. Pember Earth's Earliest Ages (ed. 7) 67 How..all our vaunted wisdom in this life is said to be at best but a knowledge in part.
1928 L. Stockett Baltimore viii. 136 Here lived an old woman who dispensed piggies—a most marvelous purple-hued candy of strange composition. Long since she has departed this life and taken her piggies with her.
1954 D. Thomas Quite Early One Morning 178 A failed psychoanalyst in this life who is even now prodnosing in the air above me, casebook in claw.
2001 L. Rennison Knocked out by Nunga-nungas 19 Yeah right, see you in the next life, don't be late.
d. With modifying adjective, as another, new, old, other, etc.: a period of a person's life regarded as entirely different or distinct from his or her previous (or subsequent) experience.In early use new life specifically connotes spiritual or moral reform: see quot. 1549; cf. new adj. 4c.
ΚΠ
1474 W. Caxton tr. Game & Playe of Chesse (1883) ii. iv. 44 Whan the knyghtes ben maad they ben bayned or bathed, that is the signe that they shold lede a newe lyf.
1549 Bk. Common Prayer (STC 16267) Svpper of the Lorde f. cxxixv You that do..entende to lede a newe life, folowyng the commaundementes of God.
1677 Lady Chaworth in 12th Rep. Royal Comm. Hist. MSS (1890) App. v. 43 The D[uchess] of Portsmouth..they say will lead a new lyfe.
1724 D. Defoe Fortunate Mistress 153 Amy went farther; she pray'd, she resolv'd, she vow'd to lead a new Life, if God wou'd spare her but this time.
1806 T. Holcroft Vindictive Man i. iii. 9 Gold. What, you would—. Har. Marry him... And lead a new life... Yes! I'd live hereafter with respect, and die at last an honest woman.
1839 C. Dickens Nicholas Nickleby xxvi The beauty and grace of the poor girl who had struggled so cheerfully with her new life of hardship and trial.
1860 ‘G. Eliot’ Mill on Floss III. vi. xiv. 228 I can't set out on a fresh life, and forget that—I must go back to it, and cling to it.
1877 A. B. Edwards Thousand Miles up Nile xxii. 706 We soon dropped back into the old life of sight-seeing and shopping.
a1911 D. G. Phillips Susan Lenox (1917) II. xx. 464 ‘I was twenty-two then... How long ago that seems—and how far away!’ ‘Another life,’ said Susan.
1913 Collier's 26 July 7/3 To shake the evangelist's hand and signify their intention of starting another life.
1967 H. Harrison Technicolor Time Machine (1968) iii. 28 He takes the girl with him and together they sail into the sunset to a new life.
2000 Times 8 June ii. 7/2 ‘He just upped and out.’ This leap into the dark was Ben's last bid for a new life.
e. In various religious and other belief systems: each of the successive existences in which a soul is held to be reincarnated; an incarnation. Cf. past life n. 2a.
ΘΚΠ
the world > life > the body > [noun] > renewed incarnation
life1603
reincarnation1845
1603 A. Willet Retection 72 Many grosse errors are ascribed to Origen, as that he should hold..that men were elected according to the merits of their soules, in a former life, before they came into their bodies.
1683 W. Kennett tr. Erasmus Witt against Wisdom sig. d2 My thinks our Author..Wishes (if Metempsuchosis be true..) In his next life he only might aspire To the few brains of some soft Country Squire.
1759 Mod. Part Universal Hist. VII. 169 They pretend that such afflictions are the punishment of the crimes committed by them in a former life.
1832 Atlantic Jrnl. Autumn 96/1 Man will not be annihilated at this passage, nor die forever. He will have many lives yet to go through.
1885 R. F. Burton tr. Arabian Nights' Entertainm. I. Foreword p. vii A reminiscence of some by-gone metempsychic life in the distant Past.
1907 Washington Post 7 Apr. 10/6 Certain reincarnationists go so far as to declare that they could not give their true age,..not knowing how many lives they have already experienced.
1994 S. P. Somtow Jasmine Nights (1995) xxxi. 229 May karma reward you a thousand fold in your next life for the kindnesses you have shown this abject and unworthy peon.
f. The active or practical part of human existence; the business, active pleasures, or pursuits of the world; frequently to see life. Also: the position of participating in the affairs of the world, of being a recognized member of society; esp. in to begin (also enter) life, to settle in life.the university of life: see university n. 1b.
ΘΚΠ
the world > life > source or principle of life > [noun] > active part of
mortal coil1604
life1763
struggle for existence, for lifea1827
society > society and the community > social relations > have social communication [verb (intransitive)] > mix in society
show1631
to go out1735
to see life1763
mix1816
to get out1835
the world > action or operation > doing > activity or occupation > [noun] > business claiming attention > an occupation or affair > affairs > of life
worldOE
human affairs1542
life1763
nightlife1852
comédie humaine1876
1763 Brit. Mag. 4 372 I, being elevated with liquor, could not pass by a night-house, always being fond of seeing life, as the term is.
1768 N. Burwell Let. 28 June in F. Mason John Norton & Sons (1968) 55 As I am entering into Life, it will be neessisary [sic] to fix a Correspondence with some Gentleman in the Virginia Trade.
1771 H. Mackenzie Man of Feeling (1886) 26 She had been ushered into life (as that word is used in the dialect of St. James's) at seventeen.
1784 Unfortunate Sensibility II. 182 The disadvantages of entering life without money.
1809 B. H. Malkin tr. A. R. Le Sage Adventures Gil Blas I. i. i. 9 I was dying to see a little of life.
1814 J. Austen Mansfield Park III. i. 18 You..are, in a wild fit of folly, throwing away from you such an opportunity of being settled in life, eligibly, honourably, nobly settled, as will, probably, never occur to you again. View more context for this quotation
1819 Sporting Mag. 5 123 All the frolic, fun, lark, gig, life, gammon, and trying-it-on are depicted.
1851 H. Mayhew Mayhew's Characters (1951) 309 I liked to see ‘life’, as it was called, and fond of the company of women.
1874 G. W. Dasent Half a Life III. 123 To see me happily settled in life.
1885 ‘E. Garrett’ At Any Cost vii. 112 Does a man want..to ‘see life’ in metropolitan boulevards and continental spas?
1918 C. Mackenzie Early Life Sylvia Scarlett ii. iv. 332 I've got a fancy..to show you a bit of life.
1937 A. Christie Death on Nile ii. i. 41 He's made a good deal of money and he's seeing life, I fancy.
1989 B. Head Tales Tenderness & Power (1990) 141 I am the dreamer and storyteller... I have seen life. I am drunk with the magical enchantment of human relationships.
2002 L. Purcell Black Chicks Talking 328 And when we got settled in life, and she got older, she said, ‘Mum, I want my own room.’
g. U.S. slang. the life. Frequently in in the life.
(a) Prostitution; cf. game n. 4b.
ΘΚΠ
society > morality > moral evil > licentiousness > unchastity > prostitution > [noun]
bordelc1300
prostitution1553
trugging1591
trade1592
putanism1672
street1750
Magdalenism1840
the life1858
profession1888
social evil1901
hustling1924
game1926
sex trade1931
1858 W. W. Sanger Hist. Prostitution xxxiii. 491 I do not like the life. I would do almost any thing to get out of it.
1911 C. B. Chrysler White Slavery iii. 27 The girl was attractive and expressed her willingness to enter the life.
1961 T. I. Rubin In the Life Pref. p. i Through Jennie's eyes we learn about Jennie herself and ‘the life’: prostitution... There is nothing gentle, pretty or nice about ‘the life’.
1976 M. Machlin Pipeline viii. 97 They say I'm too nice a girl to be in the life.
2007 Sarasota (Florida) Herald-Tribune (Nexis) 11 Mar. bv4 The story is based on five aging prostitutes... With wit, compassion and humor, they struggle to stay ‘in the life’, the only life they know.
(b) Any way of life regarded as illicit or unconventional (esp. that of homosexual people).
ΘΚΠ
the world > action or operation > behaviour > a standard of conduct > [noun] > deviation from normal standards of behaviour > as way of life
the life1916
boho1979
1916 L. E. MacBrayne & J. P. Ramsay One More Chance 94 If it never did pay, why did you so often return to the life [i.e. the criminal underworld]?
1973 C. Milner & R. Milner Black Players (new ed.) i. 10 Players will ask a new acquaintance: ‘How long have you been in The Life?’—meaning, at what age did you leave the ‘square’ or ‘straight’ world.
1977 M. Torres in R. P. Rettig et al. Manny ii. 57/2 All of us had been ‘in the life’ for years, and they just accepted Izzy and me because we handled our [drug] habits pretty well and made a valuable contribution to the organization.
1983 Maledicta 1982 6 135 Gay women are far less promiscuous and in the life than gay men.
2007 J. McCourt Now Voyagers iv. 172 Anyway, she became known in the Life as Margy LaMont. Discovered by Carlo Van V., the Ward McAllister of his gay day.
h. Originally U.S. A full, interesting, and productive existence; a worthwhile, meaningful, or fulfilling lifestyle. Usually in contexts implying a lack of this. Cf. to get a life at Phrases 12k.
ΚΠ
1980 T. Williams Lovely Sunday for Creve Coeur ii. 55 I don't want heartbreak for Dotty. For Dotty I want a—life.
1988 S. McCrumb Bimbos Death Sun v. 59 What's the matter with you, pinhead? Don't you have a life?
1994 Denver Post 5 June b2/2 It's about people who ‘have a life’ and are celebrating it.
2003 Yours Oct. 117/4 (advt.) Couple 50s..seek similar for days out, meals, theatre, walking—we need a life!
13. A written account of a person's history; a biography. Cf. life and times n., life and works n. at Compounds 3, and vita n.2 2.
ΘΚΠ
society > communication > record > [noun] > a record > life or case history
lifeeOE
natural history1555
biography1806
antecedents1828
pedigree1852
case history1868
case study1914
society > leisure > the arts > literature > prose > narrative or story > biography > [noun]
lifeeOE
biography1661
life storya1680
memoir1810
bio1925
biog1929
eOE King Ælfred tr. Boethius De Consol. Philos. (Otho) xviii. 44 Þeah hi [nu eall hiora] lif & hira dæda awrit[en hæfdon].., hu ne forealdodon þa g[ewritu].
OE Old Eng. Martyrol. (Julius) 2 Mar. 27 Þæs [sc. sancte Ceaddan] wundor ond lif Beda se leornere wrat on Angelcynnes bocum.
c1300 St. Margarete (Harl.) l. 318 in O. Cockayne Seinte Marherete (1866) 33 (MED) Hit were god þt hi radde hire lyf.
c1405 (c1390) G. Chaucer Manciple's Tale (Hengwrt) (2003) l. 50 Thus writen olde clerkes in hir lyues.
c1480 (a1400) Prol. 28 in W. M. Metcalfe Legends Saints Sc. Dial. (1896) I. 2 I wryt þe lyf of sanctis sere.
?1550 J. Bale Apol. agaynste Papyst f. xiii Augustyne..had for hys tyme & occupyeng thre concubynes, & by one of them a bastarde called Theodatus, as his wrytten lyfe manifesteth.
1641 J. Jackson True Evangelical Temper i. 42 Many for feare fled into desarts and caves, witnesseth S. Ierome in the life of Paul the Eremite.
1688 J. Walker tr. E. Périer in tr. B. Pascal Thoughts Pref. sig. b4v It made him perform several other Remarkable Christian Exercises, which I will not here relate to avoid Prolixity, it being not my design to write a Life.
1715 A. Pope in tr. Homer Iliad I. 19 Whenever Men have set themselves to write a Life of Homer, clear from Superstition, Envy, and Trifling, they have grown asham'd of all these Traditions.
1760 S. Johnson Idler 29 Mar. 97 Few Authours write their own Lives.
1819 J. Keats Let. 9 June (1947) 347 My friend Mr Brown is sitting opposite me employed in writing a Life of David.
1849 T. B. Macaulay Hist. Eng. II. vii. 203 The fifty poets whose lives Johnson has written.
c1889 W. Pater Let. 30 Apr. (1970) 94 I wish I could undertake a life for your admirable Series.
1951 G. Greene End of Affair v. v. 204 ‘You seem interested in General Gordon.’ ‘They want me to do a Life.’
1975 Listener 16 Jan. 93/1 Cavafy is..more biographical than critical, but a ‘life’ was needed and this is the fullest so far.
2005 Independent 16 Nov. 5/3 Hilary Spurling's ground-breaking life of Matisse.
†IV. The genitive singular (Old English līfes) used adjectivally.
14.
a. Predicatively: alive; (occasionally as n.) those who are alive, the living. Obsolete.
ΚΠ
OE Ælfric Lives of Saints (Julius) I. 168 Þær belifon swa þeah lifes on ðam mynstre feower and twentig muneca æfter Maures forðsiðe.
OE tr. Bede Eccl. Hist. (Cambr. Univ. Libr.) v. xvii. 462 He þær læg..swa swa dead mon, nemne ðynre eðunge anre ætywde þæt he lifes wæs [L. quia viveret].
a1225 (?OE) MS Lamb. in R. Morris Old Eng. Homilies (1868) 1st Ser. 31 Ȝif he nat to soðe þet heo beoð liues.
c1300 Havelok (Laud) (1868) 1307 Al..That euere was in Denemark lyues.
a1325 (c1250) Gen. & Exod. (1968) l. 3802 He..Ran and stod tiren [read twen] liues and dead.
c1330 (?c1300) Guy of Warwick (Auch.) l. 5459 (MED) Niȝt no day swiken y nille, Liues or deþes þat ich him se.
c1380 Sir Ferumbras (1879) l. 3685 Y nolde þe lete lyues bee.
1421 in Cal. Proc. Chancery Queen Elizabeth (1827) I. p. xvii (MED) He sent..twey baylyes, for to take the forseyd Rauf lyves or dethes.
b. As a modifier: live, living. Earliest in lifesman n. at Compounds 4b. Obsolete.
ΘΚΠ
the world > life > source or principle of life > [adjective] > opposed to dead
in the land of the livingc825
livingeOE
lifeeOE
quickeOE
aliveOE
livishc1175
alivesc1300
in lifea1325
with lifea1325
of life1392
breathinga1398
undeada1400
upon lifea1413
live1531
lifesome1582
undeceased1589
vivec1590
breathful1593
vivificent1598
on the hoof1818
eOE Will of Æðelwyrd (Sawyer 1506) in A. J. Robertson Anglo-Saxon Charters (1956) 60 An þæt gerad þæt he hebbe land mid fullre unnan ælde & gegeðe..unbesprecæn wið æghwylcne lifes man.
c1405 (c1395) G. Chaucer Merchant's Tale (Hengwrt) (2003) l. 620 No lyues creature Be it fissh, or bryd, or beest or man.
a1450 (c1410) H. Lovelich Hist. Holy Grail xxxix. l. 373 (MED) Non lyves body there-Inne he say.
1568 in J. Small Poems W. Dunbar (1893) II. 324 Now glaidith euery liffis creature.

Phrases

P1. Forming phrases with prepositions in the sense ‘alive’. (Chiefly in the early variant form live.)
a. in life. Also †with life. Scottish in later use. Sc. National Dict. (at cited word) records the phrase in life as still in widespread use in Scotland in 1958.
ΘΚΠ
the world > life > source or principle of life > [adjective] > opposed to dead
in the land of the livingc825
livingeOE
lifeeOE
quickeOE
aliveOE
livishc1175
alivesc1300
in lifea1325
with lifea1325
of life1392
breathinga1398
undeada1400
upon lifea1413
live1531
lifesome1582
undeceased1589
vivec1590
breathful1593
vivificent1598
on the hoof1818
a1325 (c1250) Gen. & Exod. (1968) l. 1364 To fechen ysaac hom a wif Of his kinde, ðe ðor was in lif.
a1400 (a1325) Cursor Mundi (Fairf. 14) l. 6492 Atte he was liuande and in life sulde be.
a1400 (a1325) Cursor Mundi (Vesp.) l. 1839 Na creatur in liue[Fairf. on liue].
a1400 (a1325) Cursor Mundi (Trin. Cambr.) l. 11834 Miȝt no mon wiþ lif[Fairf. in life, Gött. on lijf] haue more.
1795 R. Burns Let. 3 July in Wks. (2021) IV. 391 So e'en to preserve the poor body in life I think I maun wed him tomorrow.
1817 Scots Mag. May 395 He was carried with life to the Royal Infirmary, where he died next day.
1844 W. Jamie Muse of Mearns 98 I was o'er at my uncle's wife, Wha's nae thocht lang to be in life.
1927 J. Buchan Witch Wood xvi I counsel ye in all friendliness to let the minister do his best to keep her in life.
†b. of life. Obsolete.
ΘΚΠ
the world > life > source or principle of life > [adjective] > opposed to dead
in the land of the livingc825
livingeOE
lifeeOE
quickeOE
aliveOE
livishc1175
alivesc1300
in lifea1325
with lifea1325
of life1392
breathinga1398
undeada1400
upon lifea1413
live1531
lifesome1582
undeceased1589
vivec1590
breathful1593
vivificent1598
on the hoof1818
1392 in W. Fraser Lennox (1874) II. 47 William and Issabel, or the tane of thaim qwhey sa than be off lywe, sal frely [etc.].
a1400 (a1325) Cursor Mundi (Fairf. 14) l. 7934 Be god of liue[Vesp. o-liue, Gött. a-liue] he square his aþ.
1444 Rolls of Parl. V. 70/1 If they ben of lyff.
1489 (a1380) J. Barbour Bruce (Adv.) i. 293 Wes nane off lyve yat hym ne dred.
a1500 (?a1400) Sir Torrent of Portyngale (1887) l. 299 All men of lyve wakythe hym nowght.
a1658 Little Musgrave x, in F. J. Child Eng. & Sc. Pop. Ballads (1885) II. iii. 244 As thou art a man of life.
†c. of lifes. Also in lifes. Obsolete. [Compare alives adj.]
ΚΠ
a1325 (c1250) Gen. & Exod. (1968) l. 2834 Moyses..askede him [sc. Jethro] leue to faren and sen If hise breðere of liues ben.
a1400 (a1325) Cursor Mundi (Vesp.) l. 9676 In al þis werld left [na] ma in liues [Trin. Cambr. on lyues].
a1400 (a1325) Cursor Mundi (Vesp.) l. 8373 (MED) Þou has in liues Mani childer wit þi wiues.
a1400 (a1325) Cursor Mundi (Vesp.) l. 6794 Your barns haf na faders in liues [Fairf. on liuis].
†d. on life (also o life, etc.): see alive adj.; on lifes: see alives adj.
†e. to life (also northern. at life). Obsolete.
ΚΠ
OE Ælfric Old Eng. Hexateuch: Num. (Claud.) xxxi. 15 Moyses..axode hwi hi heoldon ða wifmen to life..& het hi ða acwellan ealle ða wif.
a1325 (c1250) Gen. & Exod. (1968) l. 629 And leten [weren] ðe oðre to liue gon.
c1330 (?a1300) Sir Tristrem (1886) l. 1022 (MED) Wheþer our to liue go, He haþ anouȝ of þis.
a1400 (a1325) Cursor Mundi (Fairf. 14) l. 5180 Bot I ne kepped na langer atte liue.
†f. upon life. Obsolete.
ΘΚΠ
the world > life > source or principle of life > [adjective] > opposed to dead
in the land of the livingc825
livingeOE
lifeeOE
quickeOE
aliveOE
livishc1175
alivesc1300
in lifea1325
with lifea1325
of life1392
breathinga1398
undeada1400
upon lifea1413
live1531
lifesome1582
undeceased1589
vivec1590
breathful1593
vivificent1598
on the hoof1818
a1413 (c1385) G. Chaucer Troilus & Criseyde (Pierpont Morgan) (1881) ii. l. 1030 Þe best harpour vpon lyue.
c1440 (a1400) Awntyrs Arthure (Thornton) l. 279 (MED) Es noghte a lorde in þat lande appone lyfe leuede.
c1540 (?a1400) Destr. Troy 11275 Ne ȝou sechis no socour..Of no lede vppon lyue.
P2. With for.
†a. (for) life or death and variants: under all circumstances, in every way, by all means; (in negative constructions) under no circumstances, in no way. Obsolete.With form lives compare IV.
ΚΠ
c1275 (?a1200) Laȝamon Brut (Calig.) (1963) l. 4711 Nulle we þe bilæuen for liue ne for dæðen.
c1275 (?c1250) Owl & Nightingale (Calig.) (1935) l. 1634 (MED) Ich not to hwan þu breist þi brod. Liues ne deaþes ne deþ hit god.
c1330 (?c1300) Guy of Warwick (Auch.) l. 1532 Where is Gij?.. Liues or deþ[es], do him come.
a1375 (c1350) William of Palerne (1867) l. 2072 (MED) Mi ladi lengeþ him wiþ for lif or for dede.
a1425 (a1400) Titus & Vespasian l. 841 in Archiv f. das Studium der Neueren Sprachen (1903) 111 297 For lyffe ne deþ nyl I reche, To wende wel ferre þe bote to feche.
c1430 (c1386) G. Chaucer Legend Good Women (Cambr. Gg.4.27) (1879) l. 692 Rygh swich as ȝe feldyn wel or wo..The same wolde I fele lyf or deth.
c1515 Ld. Berners tr. Bk. Duke Huon of Burdeux (1882–7) clxx. 675 For the loue of Florence he forsoke his owne lawe and his countre, then he sayde to Florence, ‘syr, my body and goodes I abandon to you in suche wyse that I shall neuer leue you for lyfe nor deth.’
b.
(a) for (one's) life (also for dear life, etc.): as if, or in order to, save one's life. Cf. dear adj.1 5c, for prep. 10c.Also hyperbolically in trivial use: (I cannot) for my life, (I cannot) for the life of me.
ΘΚΠ
the world > action or operation > safety > protection or defence > preservation from injury or destruction > [phrase] > so as to preserve one's life
for (one's) lifec1275
c1275 (?c1250) Owl & Nightingale (Calig.) (1935) l. 1078 Þat he ne miȝte for his liue Iso þat man wiþ hire speke.
1585 R. Lane Let. 8 Sept. in Amer. Antiquarian Soc. (1860) 4 14 [He] purposed..to have broughte mee, by indyrecte meanes and moost untrewe syrmyses, to the questione for my lyfe.
1632 W. Lithgow Totall Disc. Trav. ii. 76 For my life I could neuer attaine to any perfect knowledge thereof.
1726 J. Swift Gulliver I. ii. i. 6 I saw our Men..rowing for Life to the Ship.
1774 Dialogue between Southern Delegate & Spouse 8 Wou'd instead of Delegates, they'd sent Delegates Wives; Heavens! we cou'dn't have bungled it so for our Lives!
1809 B. H. Malkin tr. A. R. Le Sage Adventures Gil Blas IV. xi. ii. 268 Not knowing how for the life of him to part with those flattering hopes.
1813 Ld. Byron Giaour (ed. 3) 10 Away—away—for life he rides.
1831 L. E. Landon Romance & Reality (1848) 354 We must row for our lives.
1843 W. T. Thompson Major Jones' Chron. Pineville 93 He..was climbing for dear life.
1872 B. Jerrold London ii. 23 Hard-visaged men, breathlessly competing for ‘dear life’.
1880 W. E. Gladstone in Daily News 16 Mar. 2/8 I cannot, for the life of me, see why it should be struck out.
1921 H. Crane Let. 17 Oct. (1965) 68 The man who would preserve them [sc. feelings] must duck and camouflage for dear life.
1946 T. H. White Mistress Masham's Repose v. 35 Immediately afterwards she spoiled the effect, by turning round and running for dear life.
1974 J. Gardner Return of Moriarty 54 For the life of me, I cannot remember his exact name.
2006 Vanity Fair (N.Y.) Dec. 78/1 Bush is a ‘dry drunk’—someone who quit one day and is just holding on for dear life.
(b) for (also †upon) one's life: on a capital charge. Frequently to be tried (also on trial) for one's life (see also for prep. 10b).
ΘΚΠ
society > law > administration of justice > general proceedings > accusation, allegation, or indictment > [phrase] > on a capital charge
for (also upon) one's life1594
1594 in J. Stuart Misc. Spalding Club (1842) II. 126 Ye..ar..accusit on your lyffis of..away taking..of George, sumtyme Erle of Huntlie.
1643 ‘F. Greville’ Five Yeares King James 70 You have here before you Robert Earle to be tryed for his life.
1674 in F. P. Verney & M. M. Verney Mem. Verney Family 17th Cent. (1907) II. 317 Judg Torner's son, who was tryed for his life last November for killing a man.
a1715 Bp. G. Burnet Hist. Own Time (1724) I. 586 He was not, as they said, now in a criminal Court upon his life.
1776 W. J. Mickle in tr. L. de Camoens Lusiad Introd. p. xxx Pizarro..ordered that prince to be tried for his life, for having concubines, and being an idolater.
1849 T. B. Macaulay Hist. Eng. II. 223 Rosewell..had been tried for his life by Jeffreys.
1873 P. V. Smith Hist. Eng. Inst. iii. viii. 214 A person tried for his life might..challenge and strike off the panel as many as thirty-five.
1921 J. Fitzmaurice-Kelly Fray Luis de Leon iii. 80 When being tried for his life, the merriest of men does not dwell on the innate absurdity of things.
1966 A. Sachs Jail Diary iii. 30 With her husband Dennis on trial for his life for supporting the underground, she was hoping for some peace.
2003 R. Lacey Street Bible 376 Steve's on trial for his life and takes them through a potted history of couriers roadblocked by the men in suits.
c. Law. for (two, three, etc.) lives: until the death of the last survivor of (two, three, etc.) specified persons (with reference to the length of time a lease, grant, gift, etc., is to remain in force ). Cf. also a (new) lease of life at lease n.3 2. Now historical.
ΚΠ
1576 Act 18 Eliz. c. 6 §1 That no Master, Provoste [etc.]..shall make anye Lease for lief lieves or yeeres, of anie ferme [etc.].
1641 J. Milton Reason Church-govt. 37 As men buy Leases, for three lives and downward.
1692 R. L'Estrange Fables (1708) xci. 106 A Gentleman that had an Estate for Lives, and two of his Tenants in the Lease... The Man..had Poyson'd himself, and the Revenge upon his Landlord was the Defeating him of his Estate by Destroying the Last Life in the Lease.
1731 Phœnix Britannicus 86 Sir John Munson..to settle 50l. per annum for two lives.
1796 W. Marshall Rural Econ. W. Eng. I. 71 The disposal of farms for three lives is generally by what are provincially termed surveys.
1849 T. B. Macaulay Hist. Eng. II. vi. 156 He obtained a pension of four thousand pounds a year for two lives on the post office. He had made great sums out of the estates of traitors.
1885 Act 48 & 49 Victoria c. 77 §7 If any land is comprised in a lease for a life or lives.
1920 S. Williston & C. M. Lewis Law Contracts 1770 That was a suit to enforce a contract assignees were entitled to recover the to purchase an estate for two lives.
1999 Oxoniensia 63 27 Oswald leases land at Golder in Pyrton to his man Aethelmund for two lives.
d. for life: for the remaining period of the person's life (both in general and legal contexts). for term of (one's) life: see term n. Phrases 9.president-for-life: see president n. Compounds 2.
ΚΠ
OE Ælfric Catholic Homilies: 1st Ser. (Royal) (1997) xxiii. 368 Hawiað be gehwylcum, for þan ðe oft getimað yfelum tela for life.
c1485 ( J. Fortescue Articles of Advice (BL Add. 48031) in Governance of Eng. (1885) App. B. 351 That no patente be made..for terme of lyfe, or yeres countervailing terme of lyffe.]
1591 in F. G. Emmison Essex Wills (1998) (modernized text) XI. 64 To Bridget my wife my house wherein I dwell with the oyster layne belonging for life.
a1626 F. Bacon Elements Common Lawes (1636) ix. 37 If tenant in taile discontinue, and the discontinuee make a lease for life.
1640 Certaine Considerations touching Pacification & Edification Church of Eng. 17 Their Office is elective and for life, and not patrimoniall or hereditary.
1705 J. Addison Remarks Italy 15 The Administration of this Bank is for Life.
1714 A. Pope Rape of Lock (new ed.) i. 5 Nymphs..For Life predestin'd to the Gnomes Embrace.
1768 H. Brooke Fool of Quality III. xvi. 181 Here I counted to set up my rest for life.
1804 W. Cruise Digest Laws Eng. Real Prop. IV. 304 To the use of himself for life, remainder to his wife for life.
1834 T. B. Macaulay William Pitt in Ess. (1887) 321 Newcastle offered him..the Duchy of Lancaster for life.
1895 J. A. Strahan Gen. View Law of Property (1908) 131 When joint tenants for life sever, each takes a tenancy in severalty or in common for his own life in his share.
1958 G. Greene Our Man in Havana (1962) 48 He's yours for life.
1967 Appraisal Terminol. & Handbk. (Amer. Inst. Real Estate Appraisers) (ed. 5) 55 Demise, a transfer; a lease; a transfer of an estate to another for years, for life, or at will.
2006 T. Parks in Granta Summer 169 It was an opportunity his wife and parents wouldn't let him pass up: a meal ticket for life. This is how a railway job is seen.
e. for once in your (also my, etc.) life: on this single occasion in your (my, etc.) life, exceptionally (chiefly hyperbolically). Cf. for once at once adv. 9.
ΘΚΠ
the world > time > frequency > infrequency > infrequently or it rarely happens [phrase] > for once in your life
for once in your (also my, etc.) life1685
1685 S. Wesley Maggots 126 The black old Gentleman..ow'd thee a spight for once in thy life courting virtuous Women.
1693 J. Bancroft Henry II iii. ii. 30 Why you might do a good thing for once in your life.
1769 H. Brooke Fool of Quality IV. xvii. 234 Perhaps it might not be amiss to satisfy my Curiosity for once in my Life.
1799 C. Smith What is She? iii. 37 This is some trick of Lady Zephyrine's—Nay, then, her Ladyship shall for once in her life, hear a little truth.
1846 ‘Mrs. Markham’ Hist. Eng. (ed. 12) xxxvi. 402 George. I think, mamma, that the fire of London was a happy event for the king, as it made him exert himself, for once in his life, to do some good.
1883 R. Broughton Belinda II. iv. 30 Has not the tone of his answers sufficiently proved to her that, for once in her life, Sarah had spoken unvarnished truth.
1902 V. Jacob Sheep-stealers viii Bumpett stared blankly. For once in his life he was quite taken aback.
1964 ‘S. Woods’ Trusted like Fox viii. 79 Mr. Justice Conroy..for once in his life owned himself puzzled.
2001 J. Boyle Galloway Street 114 For once in my life I'm pleased to get to my bed, for all the good it does me, because that night and for months after it I have a terrible dream.
†P3. of life: dead. Cf. Phrases 12a(a) and of prep. 4a. Similarly out of life (see out of prep. 9a). Obsolete.
ΘΚΠ
the world > life > death > dead person or the dead > [adjective]
deadOE
lifelessOE
of lifeOE
storvena1225
dead as a door-nail1362
ydead1387
stark deadc1390
colda1400
bypast1425
perishedc1440
morta1450
obita1450
unquickc1449
gone?a1475
dead and gone1482
extinct1483
departed1503
bygonea1522
amort1546
soulless1553
breathless1562
parted1562
mortified1592
low-laid1598
disanimate1601
carcasseda1603
defunct1603
no morea1616
with God1617
death-stricken1618
death-strucken1622
expired1631
past itc1635
incinerated1657
stock-dead1662
dead as a herring1664
death-struck1688
as dead as a nit1789
(as) dead as mutton1792
low1808
laid in the locker1815
strae-dead1820
disanimated1833
ghosted1834
under the daisies1842
irresuscitable1843
under the sod1847
toes up1851
dead and buried1863
devitalized1866
translated1869
dead and done (for, with)1886
daid1890
bung1893
(as) dead as the (or a) dodo1904
six feet under1942
brown bread1969
OE Ælfric Homily (Trin. Cambr. B.15.34) in J. C. Pope Homilies of Ælfric (1968) II. 533 Se ðe bote underfehð, and he beo syððan hræðe þæs of life, he sceal to reste gewiss.
c1275 (?a1200) Laȝamon Brut (Calig.) (1978) 9057 Þeo cudden Kinbeline þat his fader wes of liue.
a1400 (a1325) Cursor Mundi (Trin. Cambr.) l. 12478 Ioseph..wende þe maistir were of lyue.
?a1400 (a1338) R. Mannyng Chron. (Petyt) (1996) i. 2424 Þan wald Leyr haf ben of lyue.
P4. on (also †in, †of, †under, upon) pain of life: subject to the penalty of death. In early use with possessive adjective; occasionally also with and limb and other nouns. Cf. on pain of death at pain n.1 1b. Now archaic.
ΘΚΠ
society > authority > punishment > capital punishment > [adverb] > subject to penalty of death
on (also in, of, under, upon) pain of lifec1330
c1330 (?a1300) Arthour & Merlin (Auch.) (1973) l. 3650 It was forboden..Ich man bi way forto gon..Opon pain of her liue.
c1400 Life St. Anne (Minn.) (1928) 1378 Of payne of lyf & lym he bade.
c1440 (?a1400) Morte Arthure l. 1217 (MED) Þe myche tresour..Luke it be done and delte to my dere pople That none pleyn of theire parte o peyne of ȝour lyfez.
a1513 H. Bradshaw Lyfe St. Werburge (1521) i. x. sig. c.viiiv Cease of suche busynesse, in peyne of thy lyue.
1550 T. Nicolls tr. Thucydides Hist. Peloponnesian War ii. v. sig. I iiii They did defende vpon payne of lyfe, that no man shulde propone nor put into deliberation to take of the sayd thousande talentes.
1597 W. Shakespeare Richard II i. iii. 134 You cousin Hereford vpon paine of life, Til twice fiue summers haue enricht our fields, Shall not regreete our faire dominions. View more context for this quotation
1613 A. Sherley Relation Trav. Persia 50 Enioyning them vpon paine of life to take no other sort of reward.
1650 J. Howell tr. A. Giraffi Exact Hist. Late Revol. Naples i. 77 That all Cavaliers, under paine of life should deliver their Armes.
1687 A. Behn Amours Philander & Silvia 216 She ordered her Porter to be call'd, and gave him Orders, upon pain of Life, not to tell of my being in the House.
1729 F. Midon Hist. Masaniello 195 Long live the King of Spain, and let none from henceforth upon Pain of Life obey Masaniello.
1765 T. Mortimer New Hist. Eng. II. 7/1 It was also enacted, that none should, upon pain of life and limb, read the Scriptures in English.
1834 W. Betham Orig. & Hist. Constit. Eng. iv. 87 [Leicester] ordained..that no one should bear arms, without the king's license, on pain of life and limb.
1928 P. Haworth Elizabethan Story-bk. 62 Above all things, he should not fail to await his coming besides the churchyard of St. Francis', and upon pain of life to keep his intent in silence.
1992 F. R. P. Akehurst tr. P. de Beaumanoir Coutumes de Beauvaisis lx. 622 The count can and should take the quarrel into his own hands and forbid them on pain of life and property to do harm to each other.
P5.
a. to the life: with lifelike representation of or resemblance to the original (said esp. of a drawing or painting); with fidelity to nature; with exact reproduction of every point or detail. †Formerly with of. †to set oneself out to the life: to adorn oneself with the utmost pains (obsolete).
ΘΚΠ
the mind > attention and judgement > beautification > beautification of the person > beautify the person [verb (reflexive)]
preenc1395
prunec1395
prank1546
to set oneself out to the life1604
adonize1611
briska1625
tight1775
to make up1778
tighten1786
smarten1796
pretty1868
tart1938
pansy1946
sharpen1952
primp1959
the world > relative properties > relationship > similarity > [adverb] > closely (of resemblance) > with lifelike representation
livelyc1405
livinglyc1475
quickly1477
to the quick1531
livelily?1565
to the life1604
naively1640
1604 B. Jonson His Pt. Royall Entertainem. 247 Wherein..the very Site, Fabricke, Strength, Policie, Dignitie and Affections of the cittie were all laide downe to life.
1606 No-body & Some-body sig. D4 Let him be straight imprinted to the life: His picture shall be set on euery stall.
1641 J. Milton Reason Church-govt. 19 To frame of their own heads as it were with wax a kinde of Mimick Bishop limm'd out to the life of a dead Priesthood.
1662 E. Stillingfleet Origines Sacræ ii. vii. §12 The shadow or dark representation of that which was to be drawn afterwards to the greatest life.
1678 tr. A. de Courtin Rules Civility (rev. ed.) xix. 268 To reflect upon a Lady..for having set her self out to the life in order to some evil design.
1702 in J. Ashton Social Life Reign of Queen Anne (1882) I. 283 Effigies..Curiously done in Wax to the Life.
a1758 A. Ramsay Some of Contents Ever-green (1761) vii The girnand wyfe, Fleming and Scot haif painted to the lyfe.
1809 B. H. Malkin tr. A. R. Le Sage Adventures Gil Blas I. ii. vii. 281 I can take off a cat to the life.
1861 C. Reade Cloister & Hearth II. x. 199 Where is the coquette that cannot scream to the life?
1887 H. Caine Deemster I. vii. 137 The young rogue, who spoke the home-spun to the life.
1941 ‘N. Blake’ Case of Abominable Snowman iv. 33 She resembled to the life the stately, arch, sorely put-upon hostess of Animal Crackers.
1988 S. Gray How's that for telling 'em, Fat Lady? ii. 60 There he was, Nathan to the life, sitting at a table with various foods spread in front of him.
b. after (also from, †by) the life: (drawn, painted, etc.) from the living model, rather than copied or imagined. Also in extended use. Cf. sense 7.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > the arts > visual arts > painting and drawing > [phrase] > from living model
after (also from, by) the life1606
1606 H. Peacham Art of Drawing 20 The ouerlipp is best showen by a shadow cast ouer the crosse line as you see: which shadowe and crosse line if you drawe by the life muste bee hit at an heyres breadth.
1662 J. Evelyn Sculptura iv. 38 But to proceed, Albert [Durer] being very young set forth our Lady, some designes of Horses after the life, [etc.].
1689 London Gaz. No. 2420/4 Two Medals, One of his Highness the Prince of Orange, done by the Life.
1714 R. Hunter Androboros i. ii. 6 Keeper. The Rogue is a good Painter. Deputy. He draws from the Life, I assure you.
1766 I. Bickerstaff Plain Dealer ii. ii. 24 I draw from the life, cousin; paint every one in their proper colours.
1816 Dance of Death 7 He was drawing a figure after the life.
1859 T. J. Gullick & J. Timbs Painting 312 The study from ‘the Life’.
1896 G. Saintsbury Hist. 19th Cent. Lit. i. 5 It is not true, as Wordsworth and others have said, that Dryden himself could not draw from the life.
1938 D. C. Peattie Prairie Grove xxxvii. 268 There is Audubon's plate, painted from the life with every nacreous gleam of a pinion.
1962 A. Brookner tr. J. P. Crespelle Fauves v. 156 Forcing them to spend many tedious hours copying plaster casts before allowing them to draw from the life.
2005 New Statesman (Nexis) 4 July The Prime Minister does not appear in this magnificent collection of 60 Rowson cartoons, drawn from the life at the tables of the Gay Hussar.
c.
(a) as large as (†the) life and variants: lifesize; (in extended use, sometimes humorously) (present) in reality, in actual fact. Also in catchphrase as large as life, and twice as natural. See also larger-than-life adj.
ΘΚΠ
the world > space > extension in space > measurable spatial extent > [phrase] > life-size
as large as (the) life1634
as large as life, and twice as natural1836
the world > relative properties > wholeness > completeness > completely [phrase] > completely or without deficiency
as large as life, and twice as natural1836
1634 I. Jones & W. Davenant Temple of Love sig. A3v All these figures were in their naturall colours bigger than the life.
1641 J. Evelyn Mem. (1857) I. 36 A glorious crucifix..greater than the life.
1759 S. Johnson Idler 31 Mar. 97 The picture is..bigger than the life.
1765 H. Walpole Vertue's Anecd. Painting (ed. 2) I. vii. 145 The figures are less than life, and about half lengths.
1780 H. Walpole Vertue's Anecd. Painting (ed. 2) IV. i. 12 A light flimsy kind of fan-painting as large as the life.
1802 C. Wilmot Irish Peer on Continent (1920) 129 A beautiful piece of clockwork representing Apollo with his lyre... It was as large as life.
1822 M. Edgeworth Let. 9 Mar. (1971) 368 We 6 went together to see Belzonis tomb—the model first and afterwards the tomb as large as life.
1836 T. C. Haliburton Clockmaker (1837) 1st Ser. 143 As large as life and twice as nateral.
1898 G. B. Shaw Mrs. Warren's Profession ii. i. 176 This is George Crofts, as large as life and twice as natural.
1930 J. Dos Passos 42nd Parallel 46 Doc Bingham was sitting as large as life in a rocking chair.
1977 J. Pepper What Thing to Say 17 As like as not be next week he'll be haughlin' away intil town as large as life and twice as natural.
2004 H. Strachan Make Skyf, Man! xvii. 206 There in the Visitor's Room large as life and every bit as beautiful, stands me ol' chum.
(b) larger than (†the) life: bigger than lifesize; (now usually, in extended use) having a more powerful personality than is natural or expected, displaying exaggerated or extreme characteristics. See also larger-than-life adj.
ΚΠ
1695 W. Congreve Let. 10 July in J. Dennis Lett. Several Occasions (1696) 88 The distance of the Stage requires the Figure represented, to be something larger than the Life.
1712 R. Steele Spectator No. 302. ⁋8 Love or Flattery might perhaps be thought to have drawn the Picture larger than Life.
1766 T. Smollett Trav. France & Italy II. xxviii. 61 He is larger than the life, cloathed in a magnificent pallium.
1859 J. H. Ingraham Pillar of Fire xvii. 284 A statue larger than life, of pure crystal, was displayed to his sight.
1897 Times 8 Feb. 12/3 It is acted upon what may be called a..lavish scale. All the dramatis personæ are somewhat larger than life.
1955 D. Eden Darling Clementine (1959) i. 12 I'm sorry to be so lacking in melodrama, but honestly your ancestors were probably painted larger than life.
1999 Alumnus Apr. 13/3 A device under study can also be rendered larger than life, enabling the observer to physically walk inside the image to observe various effects.
2008 Daily Tel. 22 Apr. 22/2 The characters are larger than life yet credible.
†d. small life: (of an artistic representation) somewhat smaller than lifesize. Cf. small life-size at life-size adj. and n. Phrases. Obsolete.
ΚΠ
1807 R. C. Hoare Tour Ireland 235 Two curious old portraits..the one of King Henry VIII, the other of Anna Bullen, small life.
P6. within an inch of one's life (see inch n.1 2a.)
P7. In asseverative phrases, exclamations, and oaths.
a. by (also †for, †of, on) my life and variants. Now somewhat archaic.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > language > malediction > oaths > [interjection] > oaths other than religious or obscene > with reference to life
by (also for, of, on) my lifec1225
(God's) lifelikinsa1644
OE Beowulf (2008) 2131 Þa se ðeoden mec ðine life healsode hreohmod, þæt ic on holma geþring eorlscipe efnde.]
c1225 (?c1200) St. Juliana (Bodl.) 147 (MED) ‘For mi lif,’ quoð hire feader, ‘þe schal laðin his luue.’
a1333 William of Shoreham Poems (1902) 18 Ich segge..Þys men and eke þis wyues, Þat hi ne hebbe hare oȝe child [i.e. at baptism], By hare quicke lyues.
a1400 (a1325) Cursor Mundi (Gött.) l. 2719 At mi gaincum, bi mi lijf [Vesp. if i haue lijf; L. vita comite], A son sal haue sare þi wijf.
?1516 T. More Mery Gest By my lyfe I can not tell you whan whan an hatter wyll go smater In phylosophy Or a pedlar waxe a medlar in theolegy.
1562 J. Heywood Dialogue Prouerbes Eng. Tounge (new ed.) i, in Wks. sig. Civ Hold fast whan ye haue it (quoth she) by my lyfe.
a1593 C. Marlowe Edward II (1594) sig. C2v She smiles, now for my life his minde is changd.
1599 H. Porter Pleasant Hist. Two Angrie Women of Abington sig. D2v Ile holde my life, Your minde was to change maidenhead for wife.
1606 J. Day Ile of Guls sig. G1 Of my life we are come to the birth of some notable knauery.
1607 G. Chapman Bussy D'Ambois i. 10 The Duke mistakes him (on my life) for some Knight of the new edition.
a1616 W. Shakespeare As you like It (1623) iv. i. 150 By my life, she will doe as I doe. View more context for this quotation
1683 G. Meriton York-shire Dial. (1684) 71 You are unsawncy, I think by my life.
1723 C. Johnson Love in Forest iv. 48 By my Life she will do as I do.
a1766 F. Sheridan Hist. Nourjahad (1767) 126 Dost thou call these beauties, said Nourjahad, angrily? By my life they are a pack of as awkward damsels as ever I beheld.
1799 J. Boaden Aurelio & Miranda i. ii. 10 By my life I swear, If any indirect and treacherous means Have warp'd my sister Agnes from her duty—.
1853 E. Bennett Clara Moreland xxiii. 278 Ha! by my life!.. I see! we have taken too much for granted.
1894 A. Douglas tr. O. Wilde Salomé 50 By my life, by my crown, by my gods. Whatsoever thou shalt desire I will give it thee.
1932 R. Macaulay They were Defeated i. vi. 47 And, on my life, I never had a pupil who did me such credit.
1962 F. Norman Guntz i. 7 My life (I thought) what chance am I going to have if I produce this letter.
1999 Glasgow Herald (Nexis) 30 Apr. 24 The neophyte holds a revolver in one hand..and swears to defend Serbia ‘by the sun that warms, by the earth that feeds me, by the blood of my forefathers, by God, by my honour and by my life’.
b. God's life and variants (see Cod n.4, Gad n.2); also elliptically life. Cf. also 'Slife int. Now archaic.Gad's, God's, od's, ud's my life: see at the first word; Z'life: see Zlid n.
ΚΠ
1600 B. Jonson Every Man out of his Humor v. iii. sig. Q Nay Gods life, hee'ld be content (so he were well rid out of his companie) to pay him fiue for one at his next meeting him in Paules. View more context for this quotation
1604 T. Dekker & T. Middleton Honest Whore sig. G3v Cods life I was neere so thrumbd since I was a gentleman.
1611 T. Middleton & T. Dekker Roaring Girle sig. Dv Life, sh'as the Spirit of foure great parishes.
1693 J. Bancroft Henry II v. 46 Ha! who comes yonder! the Queen! Gods Life, there's Villany, I'll House presently and secure my Charge.
1792 J. Richardson Fugitive iv. ii. 55 Gads life, ma'am, don't ask so many questions; I understand you well enough, Miss—You would insinuate that I am a helpless old fellow—that you can see no great use in my living.
a1816 R. B. Sheridan School for Scandal (rev. ed.) v. ii in Wks. (1821) II. 133 Gad's life, ma'am, not at all.
1860 tr. J. Sandeau Mlle. de la Seigliere iv. ii. 62 But, od's life! monsieur, when one has the honor of receiving the Marquis de La Seigliere beneath one's roof, it's not the thing to serve him with notice to quit through a sheriff's officer.
1891 Atlantic Monthly Apr. 444/2 When the idle varlets of a king have power so to deal in a tradesman's shop, what is broken beside his earthenware? God's life, the charter of a nation!
1910 M. J. Cawein Cabestaing ii. ii, in Shadow Garden 234 What means thy message, Roussillon!—Art ill?—God's life! I was retired! Why have me up!
2009 C. C. Humphreys Vlad (2011) xviii. 130 ‘Two months with nuns, praying and stitching, stitching and praying. God's life,’ she laughed.
c. not on your life: not on any account, by no means.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > language > statement > negation > [adverb] > no > certainly not
for nothinglOE
not (to do something) for the worlda1375
for foul or fairc1405
not for a moment1785
not on your life1791
not for Joe (Joseph)1844
no siree1845
not much1871
a thousand times, no1896
not on your tintype1900
not for all the tea in China1937
1791 T. Holcroft School for Arrogance iii. 43 Edm. The Count your brother?—My sister, my family, must be informed. Lydia. Not on your life, Edmund.
1896 W. C. Gore in Inlander Jan. 149 ‘Say, Jack, are you going to bolt?’ ‘Not on your life.’
1905 N.Y. Evening Post 19 Aug. 2 The congressman was asked if there had been any gambling during the trip. ‘Not on your life,’ he said.
1944 Living off Land: Man. Bushcraft iv. 62 Say that you are lost, properly bushed. You come across a river. Well, that river is not bushed—not on your life it isn't.
1972 ‘H. Carmichael’ Naked to Grave v. 56 ‘Why not get in touch with your lawyer?’ ‘Not on your life!.. It would be a tacit admission of my guilt.’
1992 Jrnl. Negro Hist. 77 1 Are these just isolated cases of mob hysteria? Not on your life.
d. you bet your life (see bet v. d); to bet one's sweet life (see sweet adj. 8d).
P8. In proverbs and proverbial phrases.
a. plural. With reference to the continuation of or tenacity for life, esp. through adversity. Cf. nine lives at nine adj. 3c.
ΚΠ
1546 J. Heywood Dialogue Prouerbes Eng. Tongue ii. iv. sig. Gii v A woman hath nyne lyues lyke a cat.
a1627 T. Middleton & W. Rowley Old Law (1656) v. 66 I believe now a father Hath as many lives as a mother.
1773 J. Robertson Poems (rev. ed.) 242 'Tis thought that Cats have got nine lives: Some husbands think so of their wives.
1859 F. L. M'Clintock Voy. ‘Fox’ x. 176 We are only now to commence the interesting part of our voyage. It is to be hoped the poor ‘Fox’ has many more lives to spare.
1999 M. Thorne Eight Minutes Idle (2001) xvi. 270 I'm sure Mother Nature must've fitted cats with an upscale survival system. Why else would people talk about them having nine lives?
b. while there's life there's hope and similar phrases.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > expectation > hope > expression of hope [phrase]
perish the thought (also man, name)1526
while there's life there's hope1539
good (also braw, etc.) time cominga1780
1539 R. Taverner tr. Erasmus Prouerbes sig. E.ivv The sycke person whyle he hath lyfe, hath hope [L. Aegroto dum anima est spes est].
1671 J. Crowne Juliana v. 56 Madam, he breathes, and whilst there's life, there's hope.
1698 J. Collier Short View Immorality Eng. Stage 288 As long as there is Life there's Hope.
1727 J. Gay Fables I. xxvii. 93 While there is life, there's hope, he cry'd.
1808 Monthly Pantheon 1 366/1 Whilst there is life you know there are hopes!
1857 J. T. Trowbridge Neighbor Jackwood i. 17 This 'll never do. Where there 's life there 's hope. Only think you can, and you can, you know.
1878 J. Payn By Proxy I. i. 12 There are years of life before you yet: and where there's life there's hope; the chances of promotion, a stroke of luck at the races—.
1908 E. J. Banfield Confessions of Beachcomber ii. ii. 301 While there is life there is hope is evidently Nelly's creed.
1955 Amer. Jrnl. Nursing 55 1215/1 I think it's a nurse's job to feel that where there is life there is hope.
2007 Irish Times (Nexis) 1 Dec. 3 Where there's life, there's hope... We don't want to think about the dark side.
c. anything for a quiet life: expressing concession or resigned agreement, to ensure one is not disturbed.
ΚΠ
1620 (title) Any thing for a quiet life, or, The Married mans bondage to a curst wife. To the tune of Oh no, no, no, not yet, or, Ile neuer loue thee more.
1800 M. Edgeworth Parent's Assistant (ed. 3) VI. 123 Any thing for a quiet life.
1837 C. Dickens Pickwick Papers xlii. 463 Anythin' for a quiet life, as the man said ven he took the sitivation at the light-house.
1968 ‘L. Marshall’ Blood on Blotter v. 40 I'm a born appeaser... Anything for a quiet life.
2002 S. Brett Torso in Town (2003) xiii. 100 And Mum... well, she just agrees with him all the time. Anything for a quiet life.
d. life is too short: there is not time (for something or to do something); time is too precious (typically used to indicate that the speaker feels there are better uses of one's time).Also in various aphorisms, as life is too short to hold grudges, life is too short to stuff a mushroom, etc.
ΚΠ
a1628 F. Greville Alaham iii. iv, in Certaine Wks. (1633) 50 Nutrix. Canst thou doe worse? Hala. Else to my selfe I sinne Life is too short.
1686 F. Fane Sacrifice iii. i. 37 For life's too short for Pleasure.
1741 I. Watts Improvem. Mind i. v. 80 Life is too short, and Time is too precious, to read every new Book quite over in order to find that it is not worth the reading.
1768 L. Sterne Sentimental Journey I. 185 Life is too short to be long about the forms of it.
1832 Athenæum 26 May 341/1 One of them advised our worthy host..to visit that theatre. ‘I would with pleasure,’ said he, ‘but life's too short.’
1853 Littell's Living Age June 738/2 Gad, sir, life's too short for that sort of humbug.
1873 Advocate of Peace Apr. 32/1 Life is too short to be frowned away.
1908 Internat. Molders' Jrnl. Mar. 191/2 ‘Life is too short’ to hold ‘grudges’.
1961 P. White Riders in Chariot viii. 232 Only the civil servants are Roman Catholics here... Arch and me are Methoes, except we don't go; life is too short.
1975 S. Conran Superwoman 100/2 Make it clear you are no longer the enterprising cook that once you were when newly wed and showing off. Life is too short to stuff a mushroom.
2007 Independent 11 Dec. 18/2 Have a go at everything. Try everything once, and if you like it, try it again. Don't be afraid of newness—life's too short.
e. your money or your life: see money n. Phrases 2a(g).
f. there's life in the old dog yet and variants: an assertion of continuing competence, strength, etc., notwithstanding evidence to the contrary.
ΚΠ
1840 S. Grey in New Sporting Mag. Feb. 76 Men are to be found who would kill the old hound, And his long years of service forget; But a hand I'll ne'er lend to destroy my old friend, ‘For the life's in the Old Dog yet.’]
1840 Jackson's Oxf. Jrnl. 1 Feb. 2/5 The New Sporting Magazine for February 1840... Contents:—‘There's Life in the Old Dog yet!’
1852 P. L. Simmonds Sir John Franklin & Arctic Regions 356 Sir John Ross, we know, went out in the Victory to Regent Inlet, and was frozen in for four years, and all the world gave him up for lost—but ‘there's life in the old dog yet’, as the song has it.
1899 E. L. Godkin 15 Nov. in Life & Lett. (1907) xviii. 240 As to my health ‘there is life in the old dog yet’. I went abroad in May completely broken up, but the doctor there assured me there was nothing wrong but having worked too hard and too long.
1922 H. V. Esmond Law Divine ii. 45 Bill. But—but Dad's married—besides he's thirty-eight. He's much too old to go messing about with widows. Ted (chuckling). There's life in the old dog yet.
1940 Time 15 July 49/1 Tallulah Bankhead demonstrated that there's life in Pinero's old girl yet.
2000 Truck & Driver Nov. 11/1 She might be long in the tooth but clearly there's life in the old girl yet, as she can still be found at work shunting scrap trailers.
P9.
a. in life: ‘in the world’, at all. Chiefly in (there is) nothing in life.
ΚΠ
1725 M. Davys Lady's Tale in Wks. II. 161 There is nothing in Life so impertinent as the offer of a Heart, when one does not care to accept on't.
1744 S. Fielding Adventures David Simple I. x. 278 There was nothing in Life he attended to more earnestly than the Behaviour of those Men, whose want of Education shewed more openly, and with less disguise, what their Natures were.
1823 W. Scott St. Ronan's Well II. x. 246 There is nothing in life so intolerable as pretending to think differently from other people.
1837 C. Dickens Pickwick Papers xlix. 534 ‘Hallo!’ responded that gentleman, looking over the side of the chaise with all the coolness in life.
1868 M. Pattison Suggestions Acad. Organisation 5 One who owes to College endowments all that he has and is in life.
1900 Academy 21 July 55/2 Get drunk as often as you can, and stay so long as you can, for there's nothing in life half so profitable.
1931 ‘G. Trevor’ Murder at School i. 12 So far he seemed to have done nothing in life except win the Newdigate.
1961 A. Sillitoe Key to Door (1962) i. ii. 17 He spat forcefully at the fire-bars and his spit didn't sizzle with the alacrity to which he was accustomed, thereby reinforcing his often-said conviction that nothing in life could be relied on.
2006 Heat 18 Mar. 68 We thought there was nothing in life Paris Hilton liked to collect more than small, bug-eyed animals and wallet-stacked shipping heirs.
b. Similatively: like life itself.
ΚΠ
1738 H. Shorthose Serm. 201 Their good Name and Reputation..which when taken away, like Life itself, is never to be repaid.
a1807 J. Newton Wks. (1811) VI. 248 The one, like life itself, is instantaneous and perfect at once, and takes place the moment the soul is born of God.
1891 G. Moore Impressions & Opinions 89 The illusion is complete; it is just, as the phrase goes, like life itself.
1977 S. Heath tr. R. Barthes Image, Music, Text 79 Narrative is international, transhistorical, transcultural: it is simply there, like life itself.
2001 J. Hamilton-Paterson Loving Monsters (2002) x. 194 ‘A passing malaise,’ he says. ‘Like life itself. You, on the other hand, have that tropicalised look.’
c. such is life!: an expression of resignation or acquiescence in things as they are; similarly that's life, life's like that.
ΚΠ
1739 W. Broome Poems (ed. 2) 222 Such, such is Life! the Mark of Misery plac'd Between two Worlds, the future and the past.
1796 W. J. Temple Diary 7 Apr. (1929) 167 This interruption is very teasing; but such is Life.
1843 C. Dickens Martin Chuzzlewit (1844) xxix. 347 ‘Sairey,’ says Mrs. Harris, ‘sech is life. Vich likeways is the hend of all things!’
1864 C. Dickens Our Mutual Friend (1865) I. i. ii. 6 With a mournful air—as who should say, ‘Here is another wretched creature come to dinner; such is life!’
1903 ‘T. Collins’ (title) Such is life.
1924 J. Buchan Three Hostages xvi. 227 That's life, my dear. We've got to go on to the finish anyhow, trusting that luck will turn.
1968 P. Dickinson Skin Deep vii. 140 No, it's..not the sort of thing that makes the newspapers... Ah well, life's like that.
1970 New Statesman 26 June 924/3 Whatever Ned Kelly was really like..he can scarcely have been like Mr Jagger... The famous last words ‘Such is life’—could as well have been ‘Pass the salt’.
2003 V. Blake Bloodless Shadow (2004) 44 Lots of people have nothing in common with their parents. That's life. You just have to get on with it.
d. what a life!: an expression of discontent.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > emotion > suffering > displeasure > discontent or dissatisfaction > expression of dissatisfaction [interjection]
umpha1568
humh1603
what a life!1765
humph1815
1765 G. Colman tr. Terence Brothers iv. x, in tr. Terence Comedies 397 Jove, what a life [L. hancin vitam]! what manners! what distraction! A Bride just coming home without a portion.
1851 G. Borrow Lavengro II. xi. 101 What a life! what a dog's life!
1893 G. Gissing Odd Women III. x. 308 What a life! Every paltry trifle will make me uneasy, and if I discovered any fresh deceit, I should do something terrible.
1930 J. B. Priestley Angel Pavement i. 49 She groaned as she stuck another sheet of paper into the typewriter. ‘What a life!’
1972 G. Bell Villains Galore viii. 104 ‘Nothing ventured, nothing lost either,’ muttered Boote miserably. ‘Gawd! What a life!’
2001 L. Rennison Knocked out by Nunga-nungas 49 All aloney. On my owney. It's bloody nippy noodles as well. What a life.
e. this is the life: an expression of satisfaction.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > emotion > pleasure > contentment or satisfaction > expression of content or satisfaction [interjection]
ahaa1400
this is the life1775
1775 D. Garrick Bon Ton ii. i. 33 I know the law better than to be frighten'd with moon-shine; I wish that I was to live here all my days,—this is the life indeed!
1915 P. G. Wodehouse in Vanity Fair Jan. 37/3 ‘This is the life!’ I seem to hear her cry. ‘This is certainly the life.’
1926 R. Macaulay Crewe Train xi. 200 Sitting at the open door and looking at the sea and sky. This was the life.
1980 M. Bail Homesickness i. 12 This is the life, aye?.. I'd say this is what it was all about. What do you reckon?
2001 L. Rennison Knocked out by Nunga-nungas 26 Forced to go and sit in the pub with the elderly loons (and James) to ‘celebrate.’ Yippeee! This is the life... (not).
f. it's a great life (if you don't weaken) and variants: an ironic comment on the difficulties of one's situation.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > emotion > courage > moral courage > stoicism > ironic comment on one's difficulties [phrase]
it's a great life (if you don't weaken)1919
1919 J. Buchan Mr. Standfast v. 105 ‘Back to Glasgow to do some work for the cause,’ I said lightly. ‘Just so,’ he said, with a grin. ‘It's a great life if you don't weaken.’
1943 K. Tennant Ride on Stranger xviii. 202 Oh, it was a great life, if you liked that sort of a life.
1998 T. Lynch Still Life in Milford 63 ‘A great life if you do not weaken! And if you do..’ you say. You turn and smile.
g. how's life?: ‘how are things going?’, ‘how are you getting along?’ Also with various extensions.
ΘΚΠ
the world > action or operation > behaviour > good behaviour > courtesy > courteous act or expression > courteous formulae [phrase] > terms of greeting
God give you good dayc1275
hail be thou (also ye)c1275
pax vobisc1275
how do ye?1570
(good, fair) time of day (to you)1597
how goes it?1598
I salute youa1616
savea1616
how do you find yourself?a1646
how-do-you-do1697
how do?1886
how are you popping (up)?1894
how's (less frequently how are) tricks?1915
how's (or how are) things (or, originally Australia and New Zealand, tricks?)1926
how's life?1931
1931 A. Huxley World of Light i. i. 10 Enid. But what's the matter, Hugo? Hugo. Nothing! Enid. It must be a nasty sort of nothing. How's life?
1960 L. Barrett tr. E. Verissimo Mexico ix. 254 I see in front of his stall a motionless Indian, his eyes closed, and I ask him:..‘How are things, friend? How's life going for you?’
1991 J. Kelman Burn (1992) 202 So how's life treating ye? Aw fine, alright. Good, that's good.
2001 C. Hobson Black Earth City (2002) v. 60 He..pulled me over to a corner where two guys were leaning against the wall and rolling a joint. ‘Privyet , Lapochka, how's life? Hello, Horse.’
P10. In idiomatic collocation with nouns.
a. a life for a life: an expression of the ‘law of retaliation’ (chiefly in biblical allusion: see lex talionis n. and an eye for an eye (and a tooth for a tooth) at eye n.1 Phrases 4a(a)). Also life for life, † life with life.
ΘΚΠ
the world > action or operation > behaviour > reciprocal treatment or return of an action > revenge > in revenge or retaliation (for) [phrase] > equal retaliation
an eye for an eye (and a tooth for a tooth)a1400
life for lifea1400
OE Old Eng. Hexateuch: Exod. (Claud.) xxi. 23 Gyf..heo æfter ðam [sc. the beating] dead byð, sylle lyf wið life [L. animam pro anima].
a1400 (a1325) Cursor Mundi (Vesp.) l. 1970 Þar gas na ransun bot liue for lijf.
a1425 (a1382) Bible (Wycliffite, E.V.) (Corpus Oxf.) (1850) Exod. xxi. 24 If..a man smyte a womman with child and..if..hir deeth folwe, he shal ȝeld lijf for lijf.
1570 in J. Cranstoun Satirical Poems Reformation (1891) I. xii. 101 Possest in purpois, lyfe for lyfe to cose.
1660 Bp. J. Taylor Ductor Dubitantium II. vii. 140 Their lives were a commutation for the lives of those that offered them, as who should say a life for a life.
1748 A. A. Sykes Ess. Sacrifices 129 The slaying the Animal before God..would not be deemed, the giving Life for Life, but it was the pouring the Blood, which is the Life, upon the Altar, which made the Atonement.
1843 New Englander (New Haven, Connecticut) July 317/2 He lived under the great law of nature; life for life and limb for limb..which Pharisaic interpretation perverted into a Divine rule of private conduct.
1964 Life 25 Dec. 56/2 The original ethical intent of Mosaic law also has been badly mangled by misinterpretations of the so-called lex talionis—‘life for life, eye for eye.’
2000 B. W. Sinclair & J. Sinclair Life in Balance p. ii The Dixie Mafia had made good on its vow—a life for a life.
b. life and soul. Cf. body n. 1b and heart and soul n.the life and soul of (a party, etc.): see sense 5a.
ΘΚΠ
the world > life > source or principle of life > vital principle > [noun]
souleOE
lifeOE
spiritusOE
bloodOE
ghostOE
life and soulOE
quickship?c1225
quicknessc1230
breatha1300
spirita1325
spark1382
naturec1385
sparkle1388
livelinessa1398
rational soula1398
spiracle1398
animal spirit?a1425
vital spiritc1450
soul of the world1525
candle1535
fire1576
three souls1587
vitality?1592
candlelight1596
substance1605
vivacity1611
animality1615
vividity1616
animals1628
life spring1649
archeus1651
vital1670
spirituosity1677
springs of life1681
microcosmetor1684
vital force1702
vital spark (also flame)1704
stamen1718
vis vitae1752
prana1785
Purusha1785
jiva1807
vital force1822
heartbeat1828
world-soul1828
world-spirit1828
life energy1838
life force1848
ghost soul1869
will to live1871
biogen1882
ki1893
mauri1897
élan vital1907
orgone1942
OE Homily: Sunnandæges Spell (Tiber. A.iii) in A. S. Napier Wulfstan (1883) 218 And swa hwylc man, swa his weorc deþ an þane halgan sunnandeg, þanne weorþaþ þæs mannes lif and saule of þam heape mines folces.
a1225 MS Lamb. in R. Morris Old Eng. Homilies (1868) 1st Ser. 71 We aȝen þenne ure boden to singe,..þet lif and saule beon iborȝen and baðe ilesed ut of sorȝen.
1426 in E. F. Jacob & H. C. Johnson Reg. Henry Chichele (1937) II. 340 (MED) I, William Chichele..dispose for my lyf and sowle by this my testament or last wille.
1643 J. Milton Doctr. Divorce 21 Not to canonize mariage either as a tyrannesse or a goddesse over the enfranchiz'd life and soul of man.
1750 E. Kimber Life & Adventures Joe Thompson ii. 13 What would scarcely have kept Life and Soul together, in half that Number, sufficed us all.
1855 P. J. Bailey Mystic 64 From their opposition comes Of good and evil like necessity; While death and body, life and soul, compugn.
1988 R. Dinnage One to One 144 I was very, very hurt, very devastated, because I'd really pledged my life and soul to her.
2006 C. Herman Prophets & Profits v. 190 [A management system] that depended on the full-time honorary chairman who gave his life and soul to it.
c. life and limb (formerly also †life and member): esp. in the context of physical danger, as to venture (also risk) life and limb, etc. Cf. also Phrases 4.
ΘΚΠ
the world > life > source or principle of life > [noun]
lifeOE
life and limbc1275
life and memberc1275
being1521
trouble and strife1908
blood-being1915
the world > life > the body > part of body > [adverb] > every part or all over
(from) head to foot (also feet)eOE
ich a limbc1275
life and limbc1275
limb and headc1275
limb and landc1275
limb and lithc1275
from face to foot1567
limb and bone1599
limb and wind1697
limb and carcass1841
OE Cynewulf Crist II 776 Utan us to fæder freoþa wilnian.., se us lif forgeaf, leomu, lic ond gæst.
lOE St. Margaret (Corpus Cambr.) (1994) 164 Sege me, hwanen is þin lif, Margareta, and hwanan beoð þine liman [L. unde est uita tua uel unde membra tua], and hwu and on hwilce wise is Crist mid þe.]
c1275 (?a1200) Laȝamon Brut (Calig.) (1963) 353 Ȝe sculen habben lif & leomen & beon mine leofe freond.
c1300 St. Nicholas (Laud) 290 in C. Horstmann Early S.-Eng. Legendary (1887) 248 (MED) Ich ou ȝiue lijf and lime and ouwer chateles al-so.
c1450 (?a1400) Wars Alexander (Ashm.) l. 1918 Of life & o lym my lege men I charge To prestli ȝow apparaill & pas þam agaynes, With all þe hathils & þe heris & þe hiȝe maistris.
1577 J. Grange Golden Aphroditis sig. Iiij This letter following, wherein he..offered to gage his gloue with tooth and nayle, to hazarde life and limme if (so occasion serued) to proue the same.
1610 E. Gardiner Triall of Tabacco sig. I 3v Euen with the most valiant, that dare venture life and limbe, that cannot yet endure the letting of bloud.
1659 T. Burton Diary (1828) III. 235 It is not enough to serve you in those offices, unless they venture life and member.
1698 R. Gould Satyr against Wooing 7 Mad to enjoy, he ventures Life and Limb.
a1764 C. Churchill Duellist in Poems (1933) iii. 293 How often, whether wrong or right, Must he in jest or earnest fight, Risking for those both life and limb Who would not risk one groat for him!
1785 J. Hanway Chimney Sweepers xviii The present mode is disgraceful, as employing children to the danger of their limbs and lives.
1836 Lady Willoughby de Eresby in C. K. Sharpe's Corr. (1888) II. 495 Mrs. V..was pitched off..but mercifully escaped with life and limb.
1881 M. E. Braddon Asphodel II. 137 All wild and rugged coasts she denounced sweepingly, as dangerous to life and limb.
1904 E. Rickert Reaper 246 These dangers to life and limb never entered the head of the practised moorsman.
1960 Observer 20 Mar. 22 The fact that the search was conducted without loss of life or limb is remarkable.
2008 Evening Standard (Nexis) 11 Feb. Any sudden surge of people, either in panic away from danger, or when attracted towards some ‘happening’, is a potential threat to life and limb.
d. life after death: a state of existence after death (esp. as a matter of speculation or debate); resurrection, survival of the soul.
ΚΠ
1549 T. Cooper Lanquet's Epitome of Crons. ii. sig. Tiii Thei taught, that there was neither angell spirite, nor life after death.
1692 W. Sherlock Pract. Disc. Future Judgem. (ed. 2) i. 102 Judgment is as certain as a Life after death , which I must take for granted in this Argument.
1708 W. Lowth Direct. Profitable Reading Holy Script. x. 193 Who..rose again to assure us of a Life after Death.
1867 Radical May 565 To the first Christians the question of life after death, was not the abstract, metaphysical question it has become to us.
1900 Harper's Mag. Aug. 432/1 In estimating the value of spirit phenomena as evidence of life after death.
2002 N. Drury Dict. Esoteric 191/2 McDougall was interested in researching the possibility of life after death and studied telepathy and clairvoyance as well as the evidence for post-mortem survival.
e. life means life (also life should mean life): used to express the principle or belief that a life sentence passed down by the judicial system should result in life imprisonment for the offender, with no possibility of release. Cf. sense 8b, life sentence n. 1.
ΚΠ
1911 M. B. Booth Open Let. to Society iv. 106 But if life means life, why pardon them? If it does not, why sentence them to life?
1964 Times 22 Dec. 5/1 Life should mean life, or at least an indefinite term of imprisonment, unless and until a committee..decided after a certain number of years that the person concerned was a changed individual.
1975 Economist (Nexis) 25 Oct. 35 (headline) Bombing trial; Life means life?
2005 N.Y. Times (National ed.) 2 Oct. i. 19/5 The rise in truth-in-sentencing laws, the oft-repeated maxim that ‘life means life’ and tougher parole boards have made the prospect of parole very limited in some states.
f. there is (a) life after ——: it is possible to enjoy or make a fresh start in life after (a particular experience, event, situation, etc.); it is possible to manage without (something or someone considered to be essential). Frequently humorous.
ΚΠ
1931 Washington Post 5 Nov. 20/5 Is there a life after Wall Street?
1942 N.Y. Times 8 Nov. v. 2/6 There is a life after playing with the Green Bay Monsters.
1968 N.Y. Times 25 June 34 (advt.) The nation's No. 1 authority on extra-marital hi-jinks is back to show there is life after marriage.
1980 Times 9 Oct. 6/6 ‘Is there life after Benn?’ ‘We are not going to have Benn, so we shall never know,’ Mrs Thatcher said.
2003 ‘S. Pax’ Weblog Diary 9 Mar. in Baghdad Blog 111 Surprise them with cool info from the web. It helps if Google is still blocked and no one has yet figured out that there is life after Google.
2008 Chatelaine (Electronic ed.) May Our girls are constant reminders that there is life after mental illness.
g. life in the fast lane: see fast lane n. 2.
P11. to —— the life out of. Cf. to death at death n. Phrases 1.
a. To —— a person, resulting in death. Also figurative.
ΚΠ
1565 J. Hall Hist. Expost. in tr. Lanfranc Most Excellent Woorke Chirurg. sig. Bbb.iii He poured in a purgation..whiche within three or foure houres at the moste, purged the lyfe out of hir body.
1694 T. D'Urfey Comical Hist. Don Quixote: Pt. 1 ii. ii. 22 Those hot flames, that burnt the Life out of the Noble Chrysostom.
1856 Putnam's Monthly Mag. May 540/1 What had England done, or what had the United States done, that could not be reconciled, until they had taken each other by the throat, and strangled the life out of one or the other.
1864 T. Carlyle Hist. Friedrich II of Prussia IV. xv. x. 145 A cannon-ball smites the life out of him, and he ended here.
1991 Sight & Sound Oct. 13/1 This is itself horribly overtrumped at the end when Isabella literally tears the life out of Kent with her teeth.
b. To —— a person or thing to an extreme, violent, or unpleasant degree.Cf. also to bother the life out of at bother v. and int. Phrases 2a, to pester the life out of at pester v.1 4c, to plague the life out of at plague v. 2b.
ΚΠ
1746 Let. 28 July in Leisure Hour (1880) 117 An old nasty grunting bishop..who plagues me out of my life, he is such a formal piece.]
1814 Lady Morgan O'Donnel II. iv. 112 Sure, if they'd let the hound alone, he would never ax to trouble them; but they worry the life out of him.
1825 Times 13 Sept. 3/4 Your Worship will shame the life out of me.
1891 T. De W. Talmage Night Scenes City Life xi. 161 His seven hundred wives almost pestered the life out of him!
1931 K. Boyle Plagued by Nightingale iv. 28 Washerwomen bending over the stream..and with wooden spankers beating the life out of dish-cloths.
1958 R. Galton & A. Simpson Hancock's Half-hour (1987) 124 Not in my ear, please. You frightened the life out of me.
2000 I. Pattison Stranger here Myself (2001) iv. 141 Back then teachers belted the life out of children and magistrates pined for corporal punishment.
P12. In idiomatic collocation with verbs.
a.
†(a) to go (also fare, (i-)wite) (out) of life: to die. See also to sye of life (sye v.1 2c). Obsolete.
ΚΠ
OE Beowulf (2008) 2471 Þa he of life gewat.
OE Ælfric Lives of Saints (Julius) I. 156 Se þegn wæs wunigende butan wifes neawiste, forðan þe his gebedda gefaren wæs of life.
OE Ælfric Let. to Sigeweard (De Veteri et Novo Test.) (Laud) 31 Moises se mæra, mid þam þe he wæs on ylde hundtwentig wintra, ða gewat he of life.
c1175 Ormulum (Burchfield transcript) l. 8222 Herode king. Wass witenn ut off life.
c1175 Ormulum (Burchfield transcript) l. 8361 Alle þa..Nu sinndenn dæde. & farenn ut. Off life.
a1325 (c1250) Gen. & Exod. (1968) l. 3884 Aaron ðo wente of liwe ðor.
†(b) to do (also i-do, draw) of life: to kill, destroy. Obsolete.
ΘΚΠ
the world > life > death > killing > kill [verb (transitive)]
swevec725
quelmeOE
slayc893
quelleOE
of-falleOE
ofslayeOE
aquellc950
ayeteeOE
spillc950
beliveOE
to bring (also do) of (one's) life-dayOE
fordoa1000
forfarea1000
asweveOE
drepeOE
forleseOE
martyrOE
to do (also i-do, draw) of lifeOE
bringc1175
off-quellc1175
quenchc1175
forswelta1225
adeadc1225
to bring of daysc1225
to do to deathc1225
to draw (a person) to deathc1225
murder?c1225
aslayc1275
forferec1275
to lay to ground, to earth (Sc. at eird)c1275
martyrc1300
strangle1303
destroya1325
misdoa1325
killc1330
tailc1330
to take the life of (also fro)c1330
enda1340
to kill to (into, unto) death1362
brittena1375
deadc1374
to ding to deathc1380
mortifya1382
perisha1387
to dight to death1393
colea1400
fella1400
kill out (away, down, up)a1400
to slay up or downa1400
swelta1400
voida1400
deliverc1400
starvec1425
jugylc1440
morta1450
to bring to, on, or upon (one's) bierc1480
to put offc1485
to-slaya1500
to make away with1502
to put (a person or thing) to silencec1503
rida1513
to put downa1525
to hang out of the way1528
dispatch?1529
strikea1535
occidea1538
to firk to death, (out) of lifec1540
to fling to deathc1540
extinct1548
to make out of the way1551
to fet offa1556
to cut offc1565
to make away?1566
occise1575
spoil1578
senda1586
to put away1588
exanimate1593
unmortalize1593
speed1594
unlive1594
execute1597
dislive1598
extinguish1598
to lay along1599
to make hence1605
conclude1606
kill off1607
disanimate1609
feeze1609
to smite, stab in, under the fifth rib1611
to kill dead1615
transporta1616
spatch1616
to take off1619
mactate1623
to make meat of1632
to turn up1642
inanimate1647
pop1649
enecate1657
cadaverate1658
expedite1678
to make dog's meat of1679
to make mincemeat of1709
sluice1749
finisha1753
royna1770
still1778
do1780
deaden1807
deathifyc1810
to lay out1829
cool1833
to use up1833
puckeroo1840
to rub out1840
cadaverize1841
to put under the sod1847
suicide1852
outkill1860
to fix1875
to put under1879
corpse1884
stiffen1888
tip1891
to do away with1899
to take out1900
stretch1902
red-light1906
huff1919
to knock rotten1919
skittle1919
liquidate1924
clip1927
to set over1931
creasea1935
ice1941
lose1942
to put to sleep1942
zap1942
hit1955
to take down1967
wax1968
trash1973
ace1975
OE Ælfric Homily (Corpus Cambr. 162) in B. Assmann Angelsächsische Homilien u. Heiligenleben (1889) 67 Þa earman Iudeiscan embe þæt smeadon, hu hi þæt soðe lif of life gedydon.
a1200 MS Trin. Cambr. in R. Morris Old Eng. Homilies (1873) 2nd Ser. 197 And te londes men hire..lacheð, and doð of liue.
a1325 (c1250) Gen. & Exod. (1968) l. 3806 .xiii. ðhusent it [sc. the plague] haueð slagen, And .iiii. score of liue dragen.
c1400 (?a1300) King Alexander (Laud 622) 7596 Ȝee duden Porus of lyue.
(c) to bring (out) of life (also life's day) (to kill: see bring v. 8c).
b.
(a) to come to life: to recover from or as from death; to regain consciousness. Also: to develop or show signs of life; to become animated. Also figurative.
ΚΠ
OE Phoenix 367 Hwæþre eft [fenix] cymeð aweaht wrætlice wundrum to life.
c1300 (?c1225) King Horn (Laud) (1901) 113 (MED) For yf þou come to liue [v.r. were alyue], With suerdes..We sholde alle deye.
1525 tr. H. von Brunschwig Noble Experyence Vertuous Handy Warke Surg. sig. I iv Wilhelmus thoughte he had be dede bycause he felyd no wynde come from him and he halpe hym that he came to lyfe.
1600 W. Shakespeare Henry IV, Pt. 2 (2nd issue) iii. i. 78 A man may prophecie, With a neere ayme of the maine chance of things, As yet not come to life.
1640 Bp. J. Hall Christian Moderation i. 35 I have observed, that the small, and scarce-sensible seed, which it [sc. the silkworm] casts, comes not to life and disclosure untill the mulbery..yeelds her leafe.
1672 R. Wiseman Treat. Wounds i. ix. 113 We bled him till he came to life.
1728 P. Aubin Life & Adventures Young Count Albertus iii. 66 Poor Eudoxia swooned at the News. She truly loved the inconstant Count, and coming to Life, fell at his Feet.
1753 Philos. Trans. 1751–2 (Royal Soc.) 47 54 They [sc. flies and butterflies] came to life after a syncope of longer duration.
1857 C. M. Sedgwick Married or Single? iv. 53 She perceived Letty coming to life again under the tender ministrations of the Steinbergs.
1876 S. Warner Daisy in Field xiv. 173 That hedgehog of thoughts began to stir and unfold and come to life.
1910 D. Fairbridge That which hath Been xxiii. 275 On the stoep of his pastorie sat the minister,..watching Dorp Straat come to life after its mid-day sleep.
1923 D. A. Mackenzie Myths China & Japan ix. 116 The saint handed him a crane made of paper which, when mounted, came to life and carried Sentaro across the ocean.
1957 J. Braine Room at Top (1960) 61 You're most awkward with Anne and Johnny. But with Alice you really come to life.
2007 Chesapeake Bay June 23/2 Feel the seventies come to life as R&B hitmakers The Stylistics, The Delfonics, The Blue Notes, and The Intruders take the stage.
(b) to bring (back) to life: to cause to recover from or as from death; to cause to regain consciousness. Also: to imbue with life; to animate. Also figurative and in extended use.
ΚΠ
OE Ælfric Lives of Saints (Julius) (1881) I. 106 Þa coman twegen englas and me of ðam deoflum genamon and me gebrohtan to life, þæt ic nu on God gelyfe, æfter minum deaðe, þone þe ic ær wiðsoc.
c1330 Gregorius (Auch.) (1914) l. 265 (MED) To liue god him wald bring.
?a1475 (?a1425) tr. R. Higden Polychron. (Harl. 2261) (1874) V. 137 (MED) Lete him bryng to lyfe the bulle [a1387 J. Trevisa tr. arere þe boole from deth to lyve] that he hathe sleyne.
a1576 Lady Abergavenny Praiers in T. Bentley et al. Monument of Matrones (1582) ii. 169 Thou which didst die and rise againe, wilt raise and bring to life all those that are dead beleeuing in thy faith.
1591 R. Greene Farewell to Folly sig. I2 v Semyramis no sooner heard of the death of hir husbande, but she fell into a pasme, and was hardly brought to life.
1623 W. Drummond Flowres of Sion 8 The Pelican powres from her brest her Blood, To bring to life her yonglings backe againe.
1696 J. Banks Cyrus Great Ep. Ded. sig. A4 That chear'd the World, and brought to Life the Stage, Where the sad Muses..Ne'er till that Day did tune their Songs agen.
1723 P. Aubin Life Charlotta Du Pont xii. 113 The Physicians were called, and by their Aid she was brought to Life.
1781 J. Goodridge Phœnix 24 Paradise..had received the greatest heat, in order..for the vegetables to spring and bring to life the creatures of all sorts.
1833 B. Cornwall On Eng. Trag. in Ess. & Tales in Prose (1853) II. 118 The Restoration, perhaps, cherished and brought to life that bright phalanx of wits, Wycherley, and Congreve, and the rest.
1873 L. Ferguson Disc. 71 His body..was immediately after death brought to life again in a spiritualised and incorruptible form.
1886 Philadelphia Evening Tel. 20 Mar. The hose was cut..and engines killed so that it will take days to bring them to life again.
1904 L. F. Baum Marvelous Land of Oz 40 How could he ever have guessed that the man..would be brought to life by means of a magical powder contained in an old pepper-box?
1958 W. Willetts Chinese Art I. iii. 120 They [sc. bronzes] bring to life the whole character of the period in a way that no historical account could ever do.
1990 Rolling Stone 9 Aug. 37/3 Each volunteers to be put to death..and then brought back to life... They call themselves flatliners.
2005 DVD Rev. No. 73. 33 A gorgeous visual feat.., Zhang Yimou's film is like a painting brought to life.
c. to lose (also give, lay down, etc.) one's life.
ΘΚΠ
the world > life > death > [verb (intransitive)] > lay down one's life
to lose (also give, lay down, etc.) one's lifeOE
layc1330
putc1384
OE West Saxon Gospels: John (Corpus Cambr.) x. 11 God hyrde sylþ his lif [L. animam suam dat] for his sceapon.
c1225 (?c1200) St. Katherine 2500 Iesu..leafde lif on rode for hire & for us alle.
c1275 (?a1200) Laȝamon Brut (Calig.) (1978) 12935 Anan swa he lai hire mide, hire lif heo losede sone.
c1480 (a1400) St. Paul 702 in W. M. Metcalfe Legends Saints Sc. Dial. (1896) I. 49 Nero gert hym lose þe lyf.
?1570 T. Drant Two Serm. sig. I viv The people ought thus to doo for the prince and magistrate, to draw theyr weapon in his cause, and to lay downe their life at his foote.
1596 E. Topsell Reward of Relig. vi. 129 Knowing her to be a faithfull sister, for whose sake, if need were, he was bound to lay downe his life.
a1631 J. Donne Βιαθανατος (1647) iii. iv. §5 I lay down my life for my sheepe... Christ said this now, because his Passion was begun.
1685 J. Evelyn Diary (1955) IV. 452 [They] sold their lives very dearely.
1719 D. Defoe Farther Adventures Robinson Crusoe 140 You have..sav'd my Life.
1743 W. Crawford Zion's Traveller (ed. 2) xxix. 62 That the Prince of Life should lay down his Life for the ransoming of my Soul from Hell and Death, O! Wonderful!
1796 E. Inchbald Nature & Art I. xix. 122 The young woman who lost her virtue in the village of Anfield, had better have lost her life.
1897 Washington Post 7 Mar. 14/3 (headline) An unsung heroine. Little California girl who gave her life for her brother.
1958 G. Greene Our Man in Havana (1962) 155 What a very romantic story. And now of course he would give his life for you.
2008 Australian (Nexis) 7 Jan. 7 Benazir was willing to lay down her life for what she believed in: for the future of a democratic, moderate, progressive Pakistan.
d. to save (one's, or another's) life: see save v. Phrases 1 (also hyperbolically at save v. Phrases 1b).
e. to lead (also live) a double life (see double adj.1 5).
†f. to give life to: to bring into active use; to impart an impetus to. Obsolete.
ΘΚΠ
the world > action or operation > undertaking > beginning action or activity > begin or enter upon (an action) [verb (transitive)] > bring into practice or performance
animatea1586
to give life to1593
to give effect to1845
1593 R. Wilbraham Jrnl. (1902) 3 Lawes to which her maiestie must give lief.
1622 G. Wither Faire-virtue sig. O3v Young men, and Mayds, and Girles & Boyes, Giue life, to one anothers Ioyes.
1622 Let. in J. Rushworth Hist. Coll. (1659) 69 To give life and execution to all Penal Laws, now hanging over the heads of Catholicks.
1625 C. Burges New Discouery Personal Tithes 48 The Statute of 32. Hen. 8. was principally intended both to giue life to the former Statute.
1631 T. Adams in H. Ellis Orig. Lett. Eminent Literary Men (1843) (Camden) 150 To give life and beginning to the publick Lecture.
1721 R. Bradley Philos. Acct. Wks. Nature 139 The late Dutchess..whose Curiosity and Skill in Natural Knowledge gave Life to many Discoveries which, without her happy Influence, would have lain uncultivated.
g. to take the life of (someone), to take one's (own) life: see take v. Phrases 3a.
h. to live one's own life: to conduct oneself without reference to the opinions of others; to live according to one's plan or principles. Cf. live v.1 5.
ΘΚΠ
the world > time > spending time > spend time [verb (intransitive)] > spend one's life
liveeOE
to live one's own life1833
the world > action or operation > behaviour > way of life > lead one's life in specific way [verb (intransitive)]
leadc900
liveeOE
to live one's own life1833
society > authority > lack of subjection > freedom or liberty > independence > be independent [verb (intransitive)] > be uninfluenced by others
to think for oneself1735
to live one's own life1833
1833 H. Ellison Madmoments I. 56 If thou wouldst be thyself, wouldst be a man, Live thine own Life; live for thyself.
1853 C. Brontë Villette I. xiii. 229 Thinking meantime my own thoughts, living my own life in my own still, shadow-world.
1873 L. M. Alcott Work vii. 148 She clung to her little room, for there she could live her own life undisturbed.
1911 D. H. Lawrence White Peacock iii. iii. 397 At home you cannot live your own life.
1935 N. L. McClung Clearing in West xxv. 205 Still Will had his own life to live and must make his own choice.
1952 J. L. Waten Alien Son 87 Auntie Fanny lived her own life, never commenting on her husband's whirlwind comings and goings.
2002 Time Out N.Y. 19 Sept. 108/1 A contortionist of selfhood, John continually squeezes himself into boxes others have created in a paradoxical effort to live his own life below the culture's radar.
i. to make a life: to live contentedly, successfully, or satisfactorily, esp. in new or difficult circumstances; (also) to make life satisfactory, or to provide the necessities for living, for oneself or another.
ΚΠ
1877 Catholic World May 258/2 Many of their young men are forced to make a life for themselves in foreign service or by emigration.
1892 R. Kipling & W. Balestier in Cent. Mag. May 137/2 O Kate, I love you, I need you, and if you'll let me, I'll make a life for you!
a1911 D. G. Phillips Susan Lenox (1917) II. xx. 461 You lost belief in me and dropped me. I have begun to make a life for myself. Let me alone.
1928 D. H. Lawrence Lady Chatterley's Lover xvi. 302 We will live together and make a life together, won't we?
1977 F. McDonagh tr. T. Adorno in E. Bloch et al. Aesthetics & Politics 186 The camp follower who uses the Thirty Years' War to make a life for her children thereby becomes responsible for their ruin.
1988 B. Desai Memory of Elephants 233 Now I'm making a life with Jan.
1999 Independent 29 Oct. i. 1/2 Once they have reached the age of adulthood, I would hope they would get as early as possible a release in order to give them some chance of making a life.
j. Australian and New Zealand colloquial. to go for one's life: to make a wholehearted effort; to set about something with vigour and enthusiasm. Usually in imperative, expressing support and encouragement. Cf. to go for it at go v. Phrasal verbs 2.
ΚΠ
1920 H. F. Mollard Humour of Road 14 You'll have to go for your life now, Jim, if you want your firm's boots to keep walking. You have a keen competitor up against you.
1940 J. Pollard Out of West 16 I shoved the menu across to him. ‘Go for your life,’ I said, trying not to sound too patronising.
1971 F. Hardy Outcasts of Foolgarah 80 Caught me right in the bloody act with a woman who came to do the cleaning; chocker-block up her, I was, going for me life.
1988 D. McGill Dict. Kiwi Slang 51 Look, she's alone now, you wimp. Here's your chance. Go for your life.
2008 Townsville (Queensland) Bull. (Nexis) 3 May 44 I called my father up and told him word for word what I was going to say,..and he said go for your life.
k. slang (originally U.S. ) (usually derogatory). to get a life: to adopt a more worthwhile and meaningful lifestyle, esp. by making new acquaintances or developing new interests, or by abandoning pointless or solitary pursuits. Frequently in imperative (esp. as a rebuke): stop being so boring, conventional, old-fashioned, etc.; start living a fuller or more interesting existence.
ΚΠ
1983 Washington Post 23 Jan. (Mag.) 8/1 Gross me out, I mean, Valley Girls was, like, ohmigod, it was last year, fer sure! I mean, get a life! Say what?
1989 P. Munro U.C.L.A. Slang 42 Geez, Joe, you're a 27-year-old burger fryer at Big Tommies. Get a life!
1990 N.Y. Woman Nov. 32/2 You need to get a fucking life, Moo-kie, cuz the one you got, baby, is not working.
1994 Guardian 24 Nov. (OnLine section) 4/2 If I'm using e-mail because I can't handle the stress of being in close proximity to other people, then I'm sad and should probably get a life.
1997 J-17 June 50 (table) All anybody seems to be talking about today is school work. These people need to get a life.
2000 Independent 23 Nov. ii. 12/7 A local father of three chuckled at his sons' damning verdict on his dialect: ‘Oh that's old hat father mon. We're movin on. We're in the 21st century now. Get a life!’
P13. In of-phrase or genitive.
a. change of life (see change n. Phrases 2).
b. a matter of life and (also or) death: something on which the life or death of a person depends; (also in extended use) a matter of vital importance or extreme urgency.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > attention and judgement > importance > [noun] > that which is important > of great importance
a matter of life and (also or) deatha1631
three-decker1835
day1882
the world > action or operation > harm or detriment > danger > [noun] > insecurity > precariousness > precarious situation
a matter of life and (also or) deatha1631
neck-question1655
touch and go1816
tightrope1858
razor-edge1861
shaky do1942
the mind > attention and judgement > importance > [noun] > that which is important > essential or central > upon which something depends > types of
a matter of life and (also or) deatha1631
neck-word1650
a1631 S. Harsnett Serm. Ezek. in R. Steward Three Serm. (1656) 131 Who so dishapes or defaces that Image..it is Capitale a matter of Life and Death.
1661 in S. Annesley Morning-exercise at Cripplegate xxiii. 583 Make Religion your businesse;..bestir your selves in this as in a matter of life and death.
1738 J. Fraser Mem. ix. 318 'Tis a Matter of Life and Death; hence the Charge of Prophesying, committed to the Prophets, is called a Burden.
c1800 R. B. Sheridan Let. (1966) II. 124 It is really a matter of almost Life and Death—you must borrow of Barford or any neighbour, for not a moment is to be lost.
1837 C. Dickens Let. ?20 Apr. (1965) I. 249 It is matter of life or death to us, to know whether you have got Ainsworth's MS yet.
1898 W. J. Locke Idols x. 134 The marriage could be concealed no longer. It was a matter of life or death.
1926 People's Home Jrnl. Feb. 31/1 I need a car in a hurry. It's a matter of life or death. Will you let me take that one.
1950 K. Winsor Star Money iii. xxix. 249 I never have made any man a matter of life or death to me.
2004 B. Dylan Chronicles I. v. 271 It's a matter of life and death and our friendship ain't worth a bo diddley. Is that what you're trying to tell me?
c. life's rich pageant: see pageant n. 3c.
d. power of life and death (see power n.1 Phrases 11.)
e. of one's life: used to indicate the most significant example or event of its kind in one's life and (more recently also in weakened use) an exceptionally enjoyable or notable example or event (as the time of one's life, etc.). See also the surprise of one's life at surprise n. 4b.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > attention and judgement > importance > [adjective] > most important > events
grandc1390
of one's life1862
1862 L. P. Harvey Let. 17 Apr. in L. P. Brockett & M. C. Vaughan Woman’s Work in Civil War (1867) ii. 260 Yesterday was the day of my life. Thank God for the impulse that brought me here.
1874 Once & for Ever 181 Perhaps such days are common to you. To me it was the day of my life.
1887 A. M. Sullivan Let. 13 Nov. in H. Keller Story of my Life (1903) iii. iii. 340 We took Helen to the circus, and had ‘the time of our lives’!
1905 M. Moore Let. 24 Sept. in Sel. Lett. (1997) 10 I am having the time of my life.
1936 Discovery Jan. 14/2 They got the shock of their lives.
1939 W. Saroyan (title) The time of your life.
1961 L. van der Post Heart of Hunter i. 25 The men sat with their heads bowed over arms clasped round their knees like long-distance runners recovering from the race of their lives.
1982 A. Maupin Further Tales of City 17 The woman he had once described as ‘that uptight airhead from Cleveland’ was easily the love of his life.
1993 A. R. Siddons Hill Towns (1994) xi. 311 She's going to get the shock of her life. He's definitely wind-broke, as Sam would say.
2004 N.Y. Times Bk. Rev. 14 Mar. 16/2 The droll tongue of a woman with the wit to realize that, while she may be dirty and tired and in constant danger, she is having the time of her life.
f. one of life's ——s: denoting a person who is a —— by nature; a habitual, perpetual, or archetypal ——.
ΚΠ
1901 Cosmopolitan May 17/1 To-day she is one of life's philosophers.
1924 C. W. Gilbert You takes your Choice 56 There are men born to feel that they are captains of their soul. And Mr. Davis is one. He is one of life's fair-haired boys.
1955 Times 19 Aug. 2/5 He is one of life's born losers.
1971 ‘A. Burgess’ MF v. 57 I could not say that my body's little caprices rendered me so sick as to be taxonomized as one of life's permanent invalids.
1987 A. Perry Cardington Crescent (1991) xi. 268 She was one of life's survivors—a venturer, not a victim.
2001 Guardian 16 July ii. 4/1 I don't fanny about. I'm not one of life's fanny abouters. I just get on and do it.
P14. Followed by of-phrase.
a. the life of Riley (see Riley n.).
b. the life of the mind [compare post-classical Latin vita mentis (6th cent.)] : intellectual or aesthetic pursuits, scholarship; (also) meditation, the realm of the imagination.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > perception or cognition > faculty of imagination > mental image, idea, or fancy > realm of imagination > [noun]
the life of the mind1831
the mind > mental capacity > knowledge > scholarly knowledge, erudition > learned person, scholar > [noun] > learned world > pursuits of
the life of the mind1831
1823 S. J. B. Hale Genius of Oblivion 146 Nor death can the union destroy, That's linked with the life of the mind.]
1831 Encycl. Americana V. 111 His [sc. Fichte's] idealism led him to represent the life of the mind as the only real life, and every thing else as a mere delusion.
1899 W. James Talks to Teachers xiv. 161 The flowing life of the mind is sorted into parcels suitable for presentation in the recitation-room.
1926 E. Hemingway Men without Women (1927) 216 Live the full life of the mind, exhilarated by new ideas.
1950 P. Bottome Under Skin xxiii. 204 If we try to escape into the life of the mind we find you there before us.
1972 G. E. C. Wigg George Wigg i. 28 He was an inspired teacher..arousing in us a feeling for literature and poetry and the life of the mind.
2002 Washington Post (Nexis) 15 Feb. c1 The life of the mind must be ballasted with the senses.
c. colloquial. a life of its own: (with reference to an inanimate object, abstract quality, emotion, etc.) a vitality, force, or motion which seems to function independently of any human intervention; a separate existence or history. Frequently in to have (also take on) a life of its own; cf. to have a mind of one's own at mind n.1 17f.
ΚΠ
1659 J. Sparrow tr. J. Böhme Fifth Bk. Authour i. iii. 20 Each source or quality, brought its own Tincture along with it, as a peculiar Life of its own [Ger. als ein eigen Leben].
1674 J. Owen Disc. Holy Spirit iv. viii. 478 Sin in our depraved Nature, having a constant, powerful inclination, and working Actually towards all evil; it is said Metaphorically to Live, or to have a Life of its own.
1820 J. Hogg Winter Evening Tales II. 212 Each hair had a life of its own!
1882 Amer. Jrnl. Philol. 3 195 The Greek infinitive has a life of its own.
1944 ‘Palinurus’ Unquiet Grave ii. 43 When sexual emotion increases,..something starts growing which possesses a life of its own.
1996 F. Popcorn & L. Marigold Clicking ii. 145 Every Trend has a life of its own, and Egonomics is in its prime.
2002 N.Y. Times (National ed.) 17 Feb. ii. 9/1 The so-called ‘German wheel’..is another instance of a prop that takes on a life of its own.

Compounds

C1.
a. General use as a modifier.
(a) As life-air, life-beauty, life-meaning, life-stuff, life vein, life-wreck, etc.In modern use frequently in literary contexts; particularly characteristic of the work of Thomas Carlyle and D. H. Lawrence. [In 19th- and 20th-cent. uses frequently after similar formations in German, although the regular German combining form is Lebens- , originally a genitive (compare Compounds 4).]
ΘΚΠ
the world > life > the body > vascular system > blood vessel > [noun] > others
life vein?1515
recurrent1615
subclavian1615
pyloric1714
pudendal1752
prester1753
shunt1923
OE Andreas (1932) 1089 Nyston beteran ræd, þonne hie þa be hlidenan [read belidenan] him to lifnere [deade] gefeormedon.
OE Cynewulf Elene 1268 Nu synt geardagas æfter fyrstmearce forðgewitene, lifwynne geliden.
1435 R. Misyn tr. R. Rolle Fire of Love (1896) 35 Fro þe begynynge forsoth of my lyfe-chaungyng [L. alteracionis uite mee]..thre ȝere ar ryn.
a1500 Consail & Teiching Vys Man (Cambr. Kk.1.5) in R. Girvan Ratis Raving & Other Early Scots Poems (1939) 68 Al suppos thai get lyf-grace, Ȝit have thai scham in euery place.
?a1500 Nominale (Yale Beinecke 594) in T. Wright & R. P. Wülcker Anglo-Saxon & Old Eng. Vocab. (1884) I. 788/20 Hic victus, lyfefode.
?1515 Hyckescorner (de Worde) sig. A.iiiv Death..Taketh his swerde & smyteth asonder ye lyfe vayne.
1694 T. D'Urfey Comical Hist. Don Quixote: Pt. 1 ii. ii. 22 Crack'd some Life Artery with an overstrain, And dy'd of some Male Mischief in the Brain.
1776 W. J. Mickle tr. L. de Camoens Lusiad 459 His son's life-gore his wither'd hands imbrews.
1820 J. Keats Hyperion: a Fragm. i, in Lamia & Other Poems 152 Space region'd with life-air.
1837 T. Carlyle French Revol. I. i. ii. 13 He marches and fights, with victorious assurance, in this life-battle.
a1843 R. Southey Common-place Bk. (1851) 4th Ser. 274/2 The trees in their full life-beauty.
1847 N. Wiseman Unreality Anglican Belief in Ess. (1853) II. 421 Seated at the helm of his life-bark, that defies every storm.
1856 C. Merivale Hist. Romans under Empire V. l. 606 The life-thread..had been severed by the fatal shears.
1890 ‘R. Boldrewood’ Miner's Right III. xxxix. 198 Failures and life-wrecks.
1899 W. James Talks to Teachers 257 The occasion and the experience..are nothing. It all depends on the capacity of the soul to be grasped, to have its life-currents absorbed by what is given.
1920 S. Alexander Space, Time & Deity II. 355 Hunger and thirst..are the affections of its life-body.
1923 D. H. Lawrence Kangaroo xii. 283 It is gruesome, with no life-meaning.
1927 D. H. Lawrence Lovely Lady (1932) 230 He deemed it [sc. sex], as the Chinese do, one of the great life-mysteries.
1944 R. Lehmann Ballad & Source 13 A life-wish so crackling with energy that it could overcome no matter what minatory fate.
1969 C. Bukowski Let. 16 Sept. in Screams from Balcony (1998) 351 Some of what has happened to me is my own fault..but the life-juice spit of a dying man will not, I hope, be without a vernacular of its own.
1985 AMHCA Journ. Jan. 16 Developing the isomorphic relationship between the client's life pattern and those in the metaphor..is only an initial step in the process.
2007 Independent 5 Feb. (Extra section) 22/1 Not for Dr De Grey the restricted-calorie route to life extension, a starvation diet that gives you an extra 20 years to wish you were dead.
(b)
life-activity n. [originally after German Lebensthätigkeit (1844 in the passage translated in quot. 1854)]
ΚΠ
1854 W. Howitt tr. J. Ennemoser Hist. Magic II. 250 The ideas thus clothed with physical nature operate also in a..physical manner, on the living creature, through the means of the life-activity.
1937 R. A. Wilson Birth of Lang. 83 The modern error..of characterizing life-activity as mechanism.
2003 Isis 94 561/2 Miniature cardiac pacemakers..within the body..could function for months or years and permit the patient to resume normal life activities.
life-centre n. [probably originally after German Lebensmittelpunkt (1821 or earlier)]
ΚΠ
1831 T. Carlyle in Edinb. Rev. 54 363 Herein, as in the life-centre of all, lay the true health and oneness.
1902 Westm. Gaz. 2 Apr. 10/2 As a life-centre Lake Eyre has long lost its importance.
1988 W. James Listening Ebony i. ii. 70 As the primary focus of arum or animating power within the body it is an essential life-centre.
life-chance n.
ΚΠ
1869 R. Browning Ring & Bk. IV. 18 This is why Guido is found reprobate. I see him furnished forth for his career, On starting for the life-chance in our world, With nearly all we count sufficient help.
1944 Politics 1 273/2 However strongly life chances may be differentiated, this fact in itself..by no means gives birth to ‘class action’.
2005 Daily Tel. 10 Nov. 32/1 Imagine what young Joseph's life-chances were; he might well have been drowned at birth.
life-course n.
ΚΠ
1718 tr. W. Dugdale Monasticon Anglicanum III. 337/1 Your life course so far forth is yrunne.
1849 U.S. Mag. & Democratic Rev. Oct. 340 Her heart being torn from its proper life-course grew hard and stern in its loneliness.
a1930 D. H. Lawrence Phoenix (1936) v. i. 609 This reversal of the life-course.
2006 M. H. Goodwin Hidden Life of Girls i. 16 People inhabit multiple ‘positions’ as they journey through the life course.
life drama n. [probably after German Lebensdrama (1822 or earlier)]
ΚΠ
1837 T. Carlyle in London & Westm. Rev. 26 383 His life-drama would not and could not be measured by the three unities alone.
1915 D. H. Lawrence Rainbow x. 262 On Easter Sunday the life-drama was as good as finished.
1999 E. Tolle Power of Now (2004) ix. 182 Most people are in love with their particular life drama.
life experience n. [compare German Lebenserfahrung (1805 or earlier)]
ΚΠ
1824 W. Thompson Inq. Princ. Distrib. Wealth vi. 569 Which new mode of life experience would soon prove to be happier than the deserted occupations.
1914 H. Münsterberg Psychology xxviii. 363 The psychohistoric interest must have the same double face which our daily life experience has shown to us.
2007 N.Y. Times Mag. 6 May 78/2 The new batch of programming, though, refers not..to the pop-culture talismans and life experiences this generation shares.
life flame n.
ΚΠ
1697 J. Lead Fountain of Gardens II. 345 Meeting still with cold damps that have often choaked the Life-flame.
1906 Macmillan's Mag. Apr. 436 Two of these life-flames were burning brightly..in the adjacent theatre.
2002 S. P. Thoele Woman's Bk. Confidence (new ed.) 166 As Leslie puts it, one day she awoke from her depression with the awareness that her life force, or life flame as she calls it, was not yet extinguished.
life-flow n.
ΚΠ
1860 M. Fuller Life Without iii. 413 Triune, shaping, restless power, Life-flow from life's natal hour.
a1930 D. H. Lawrence Last Poems (1932) 107 People who complain of loneliness must have lost..their life-flow Like a plant whose roots are cut.
1994 Man 29 262 This relationship is structurally the most important for the intergenerational transmission of the vital life-flow that perpetuates the lineage.
life habit n.
ΚΠ
1853 C. W. Webber Tales Southern Border 254 He saw her take the kernels from those delicate nuts nearly whole, with the skill which showed a life-habit.
2000 Molecular Phylogenetics & Evol. 15 31/2 Modioliform and mytiliform morphology are closely correlated with life habit.
life instinct n.
ΚΠ
1804 D. Humphreys Misc. Wks. 130 I love th' immortal marble's breathing form, With life instinct, with animation warm.
1908 E. F. Benson Blotting Bk. i. 22 His was the hot blood that could do any deed when the life-instinct commanded it.
1922 C. J. M. Hubback tr. S. Freud Beyond Pleasure Princ. vi. 38 The opposition between the ego or death instincts and the sexual or life instincts would then cease.
2002 J. Goad Shit Magnet x. 157 We don't use protection. I shoot my fishies straight up her gully, trying to impregnate her as part of some warped, desperate life instinct.
life journey n.
ΚΠ
1834 T. Carlyle Sartor Resartus iii, in Fraser's Mag. Aug. 193/2 Some months of our Life-journey.
1927 Jrnl. Amer. Folklore 40 248 He said he's goin' out to make his fortune, see, on his life journey to make his fortune.
2005 M. Bjornerud Reading Rocks ii. 45 Minerals like these..are the imprints the rock received at various checkpoints in its life journey.
lifemate n.
ΚΠ
1850 N. Hawthorne Scarlet Let. 2 The author addresses..the few who will understand him, better than most of his schoolmates and life-mates.
1922 J. Joyce Ulysses ii. xiv. [Oxen of the Sun] 400 Faithful lifemate.
2003 Independent 5 Mar. (Review section) 5/3 My friends were snapping up lifemates right and left, popping out heirs.
life orientation n.
ΚΠ
1930 Amer. Jrnl. Sociol. 36 148 Of the twenty-nine combinations or types discovered,..the most common by far was that of the mediocre student, socially well adjusted but unsettled in respect to life-orientation.
1966 G. E. Evans Pattern under Plough xii. 124 Only tremendous transformations of life-orientation have succeeded in tearing them away from this universal form of religiosity.
2005 Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) 4 Feb. 33/2 (advt.) Full time Mathematics Teacher Grades 8–12... Ability and willingness to teach Life Orientation and/or Science an advantage.
life path n. [compare German Lebensweg (second half of the 18th cent., or earlier)]
ΚΠ
1818 Lady Morgan Florence Macarthy IV. ii. 85 It rises..in a plain, open and sunny; like the life-path of the prosperous : that is your way.
1843 A. J. H. Duganne Two Clerks xxiv. 46 Thus far in the life-path of youth, have we travelled. Shall we follow? No!
1955 W. H. Auden Shield of Achilles iii. 76 A fortuitous intersection of life-paths.
2005 N.Y. Times (National ed.) 25 Sept. iv. 11/6 Crucial life paths are set at age 18, which means family and upbringing matter more.
life pattern n.
ΚΠ
1903 P. E. Burrowes Revolutionary Ess. xxx. 156 There is a life pattern made up by the movers and the movements of life.
1993 H. Gardner Creating Minds ii. 42 With respect to life patterns, I look for evidence of peaks and valleys, in the productivity of the creators.
life phase n. [compare German Lebensphase (1838 or earlier)]
ΚΠ
1849 D. M. Mulock Ogilvies I. iii. 60 The real nature of the life-phase which was opening upon her.
1918 Geogr. Rev. 6 77 The ‘summation process’..consists in adding together the mean daily air temperatures during the life phase of a crop in order to find the thermal requirement.
1997 G. S. Helfman et al. Diversity of Fishes xx. 350/2 Sex changers can be..sequential hermaphrodites, functioning as males during one life phase, and as females during another.
life plan n.
ΚΠ
1839 Boston Q. Rev. Jan. 2 He..is in duty bound to form his own creed, his own life-plan, his own system of the Universe.
1949 M. Mead Male & Female xvii. 361 Adolescent crises and change of life plan.
2001 P. Reizin Dumping Hilary (2002) iii. 67 I was in the bar writing my life-plan on the inside of the Silk Cut packet.
life-principle n.
ΚΠ
a1672 P. Sterry Rise Kingdom of God (1683) 21 All things are seen; as growing up out of this Life-Principle, the Spirit; and Themselves, as Powers of this Life displaying themselves, and working in themselves.
1773 C. Fleming Diss. Self-murder 3 The life-principle, he knows, is not his own; because it operates wholly under another's direction.
1851 H. Melville Moby-Dick cvii. 521 This same..cunning life-principle in him.
1950 L. S. Thornton Revelation & Mod. World iii. 90 Totality and identity are two aspects of one life-principle by which the creative Word calls into himself that response which he creates.
2002 N. Drury Dict. Esoteric 241/1 Orenda , among the Iroquois Indians of North America, the term for the life-principle. Objects, animals, and human beings could possess it and medicine-men could draw upon it as a source of magical power.
life process n. [after German Lebensprocess (1836 in the passage translated in quot. 1838, now Lebensprozess)]
ΚΠ
1838 A. J. W. Morrison tr. H. Ritter Hist. Anc. Philos. I. 220 This very notion, that the life-process [Ger. Lebensprocess] of the universe is supported from without, leads to the further assumption of a successive production and destruction of several worlds.
1948 L. E. Booher in M. Sahyun Proteins & Amino Acids in Nutrition iv. 133 Plant proteins are essential to the life processes by which all nutriment for man and animals is provided.
2000 Cutting Edge: Encycl. Adv. Technol. 197/1 Those parts of the brain responsible for the control of basic life processes such as breathing and circulation are irreparably damaged.
life situation n. [compare German Lebenssituation (1834 or earlier)]
ΚΠ
1904 Amer. Jrnl. Sociol. 10 190 The standards which fix the moral plane of a people..spring naturally from the life-situation in which the majority find themselves.
1936 L. Wirth & E. A. Shils tr. K. Mannheim Ideol. & Utopia i. i. 10 Constantly varying social strata and life-situations.
1998 Wired Aug. 139/2 The author winds up his journey basking in the warm nonconscious glow of these [Freudian] slips and other messy life situations.
life-space n. [in later use after German Lebensraum space to live, habitat (see Lebensraum n.)]
ΚΠ
1566 T. Nuce tr. Octavia ii. i. sig. Fiv But why ceasse I, with Hell to hide my face, Wyfe, stepdame, mother dire, in my life space [L. meis]?
1912 M. Booth tr. R. Eucken Main Currents Mod. Thought 305 All these movements are now oriented towards the development of a self-dependent, essential, spiritual life and spiritual reality: here a life-space [Ger. Lebensraum] is provided in which to meet and adjust their differences.
1991 K. Laumer Judson's Eden 100 There can be no sharing of my lifespace, especially with such alien entities as yourselves.
life-stream n.
ΚΠ
1633 P. Fletcher Purple Island iv. xix. 42 The grosser waves of these life-streams (which here With much, yet much lesse labour is prepar'd) A doubtfull chanel doth to Pneumon bear.
1731 D. Mallet Eurydice iv. vii. 64 She dies. I tear her from my breast, tho' the life-stream Should issue with her.
1832 T. Carlyle Misc. Ess. (1847) III. 153 Their [sc. Shakespeare and Goethe's] construction begins at the heart and flows outward as the life-streams do.
1941 W. Lewis Let. 10 Aug. (1963) 295 The character..is so deeply stained with the deposits on the obscure bed of the life-stream.
2002 N. Drury Dict. Esoteric 18/2 Ascending arc , in Theosophy, a ‘lifestream’ of growing spiritual entities who pass upwards through a series of increasingly mystical planes of existence.
life-urge n.
ΚΠ
1922 D. H. Lawrence Let. 21 Sept. (1962) II. 717 But I won't mention the life-urge any more.
1926 W. de la Mare Connoisseur & Other Stories 18 I had become an automaton—little better than a beetle obeying the secret dictates of what I believe they call the Life-Urge.
1998 S. Riemer Emotional Found. Human Personality i. 7 The outstanding common denominator of all known forms of terrestrial animal life is its possession of a life urge.
b. Objective.
(a) As life-abhorring, life-accepting, life-begetting, life-bringing, life-devouring, life-quelling, life-shaking, life-working adjectives.
ΘΚΠ
the world > the supernatural > deity > Christian God > activities of God > [adjective] > that bestows life
life-bringing1561
entifical1743
1561 T. Norton tr. J. Calvin Inst. Christian Relig. iv. f. 121 Christe was..yt lifebringing [L. viuificum, Fr. vivificante] worde of the Father.
1590 E. Spenser Faerie Queene ii. vii. sig. S3v Auarice..Kindled life-deuouring fire.
1593 W. Shakespeare Venus & Adonis sig. Eiijv Life-poysoning pestilence. View more context for this quotation
1596 M. Drayton Mortimeriados sig. F 2v Like Promethian life-begetting flame.
1602 R. Carew Surv. Cornwall i. f. 58 Lif-reauing knocks.
1613 T. Jackson Eternall Truth Script. ii. ii. iii. §8 The silliest soule among them, might sooner bee partaker of their life-working sense.
1632 W. Lithgow Totall Disc. Trav. x. 10 Each halfe houre a hell of infernall paine, and betweene each torment, a long distance of life-quelling time.
1648 R. Herrick Hesperides sig. N7v Stay but till my Julia close Her life-begetting eye.
1776 H. H. Brackenridge Battle of Bunkers-Hill v. iv. 28 With these rude Britons, wage life-scorning war, 'Till they admit it, and like hell fall off.
1812 Ld. Byron Childe Harold: Cantos I & II i. lxxxiii. 49 Life-abhorring gloom.
1868 J. H. Newman Verses Var. Occasions 187 Life-creating Paraclete.
1886 H. H. Henson Jrnl. 25 May in Retrospect (1942) I. i. 13 I am convinced that this easy-going, popular, life-enjoying Christianity is a bald and impudent falsehood.
1928 P. Grainger Let. 23 Apr. in All-round Man (1994) 94 I live only waiting for such life-oertopping moments, in which the all-world ((universe)) [sic] seems to suddenly do one's bidding so that one feels like god.
1960 Encounter Sept. 72/1 Gerda is one of those sex-free affairs between tormented men and life-accepting women.
2006 Men's Health Aug. 97/1 It's life-shaking moments, such as a..George W Bush press conference, that are the most dangerous to hair.
(b)
life-affirming adj.
ΚΠ
1922 G. S. Hall Senescence i. 12 This life-affirming motif was always in conflict with the thought of death, which in later years became an obsession.
1947 A. Einstein Music Romantic Era xii. 165 He became a priest, the ‘Abbé Liszt’, who sought in Rome a sort of defense against his overflowing, life-affirming virtuosity.
2005 A. Smith Accidental 198 I mean, the Genuines formula is life-affirming, because they affirm life, don't they?
life-bearing adj.
ΚΠ
?1624 G. Chapman tr. Hymn to Apollo in tr. Crowne Homers Wks. 38 She strooke Life-bearing Earth so strongly; that she shooke Beneath her numb'd hand.
1847 Biblical Repertory Apr. 303 The church of the creed is life-bearing. Christianity is not a system of doctrines, nor a code of ethical rules, nor a record of events, but a perpetual fact.
2005 New Nation 26 Sept. 10/4 Dr Emanuel Finn..believes the government of his native Dominica should use the country's life-bearing qualities to promote it as a health tourism destination.
life-breathing adj.
ΚΠ
1592 A. Fraunce 3rd Pt. Countesse of Pembrokes Yuychurch f. 2v Lyfe-breathing Zephyrus with sweete blast charyly fostred Euery fruite.
1701 E. Grace Funeral-serm. Mary Crisp sig. A2v How cold and frozen must our hearts be..if the warm hand of Christ, and his Life-breathing Lips do not Thaw them into love and joy?
1820 P. B. Shelley Prometheus Unbound ii. i. 64 The folded depth of her life-breathing bosom.
1939 R. Haines Victorian in Mod. World iii. 337 His restless lifebreathing personality.
2000 R. H. Smith Apocalypse xiv. 69 It gives breath to the image of the first Beast (13:15), in a parody of the Holy Spirit's life-breathing work.
life-changing adj.
ΚΠ
1747 Christian Hist. 159 To talk of being sav'd in Christ..merely by what he hath done for us, without feeling the Heart and Life-changing Influence thereof.
1864 Harper's Mag. Oct. 629 To tell of other and life-changing storm.
1937 E. Underhill Worship i. 15 Only in so far as man's worship is thus firmly rooted in the concrete here-and-now of our common experience,..will it..develop its full richness and life-changing power.
2006 New Scientist 29 Apr. 45/3 Whether or not it's love, it can certainly be life-changing.
life-denying adj.
ΚΠ
1843 Visitor 408/1 It has become of late years too general to decry and undervalue the instructive writings and life-denying labours of those valiant confessors of former days.
1898 Internat. Jrnl. Ethics 8 379 The new social form of religion must gradually surmount the life-denying elements of the historic religions.
1962 J. B. Priestley Margin Released ii. v. 137 He would be twisted..malevolent, life-denying.
2000 A. Sayle Barcelona Plates 16 Camden Market—look at the drug dealers by the station, that's so cool, you'd have to be a life-denying drip not to find it cool.
life-destroying adj.
ΚΠ
a1600 in E. Farr Sel. Poetry Reign Elizabeth (1845) II. 437 More strong then life-destroying death.
1767 W. Harte Amaranth 147 Acrid juices, scent annoying;—Corrósive crow-feet choak the plains, And hemlock strip'd with lurid stains, And luscious mandrakes, life-destroying.
1813 C. Lamb in Philanthropist 3 50 Draughts of life-destroying wine.
2007 Sunday Times (Nexis) 9 Dec. 17 You get children barely out of nappies fretting about their adorable little-girl shapes and mistaking baby podge for hideous, terrible, life-destroying fat.
life-enhancing adj.
ΚΠ
1896 B. Berenson Florentine Painters of Renaissance xi. 67 The contemplation of his [sc. Leonardo da Vinci's] personality is life-enhancing as that of scarcely any other man.
2001 D. Marcus Oughtobiography xvii. 137 I recalled an earlier, even more unexpected and certainly more life-enhancing meeting that living in London had brought about.
life-extending adj.
ΚΠ
1841 T. H. Gill Fortunes of Faith iv. 100 Decreed their toil a life-extending length.
1978 Science 4 Aug. 395 (advt.) Recent studies show that vitamin C has a large life-extending effect for patients with advanced cancer.
2001 Observer 24 June (Life Suppl.) 53/2 How else do you explain the recent claim that retsina, of all things, has life-extending qualities?
life-loving adj.
ΚΠ
1647 J. Trapp Comm. Evangelists & Acts (Matt. xvi. 25) 445 Man is naturally a life loving creature.
1792 T. Holcroft Anna St. Ives II. xix. 9 Let the lamb, the dove, and the life-loving eel writhe and die.
1875 Jrnl. Amer. Geogr. Soc. N.Y. 7 149 The supreme boon which the religions of the vigorous, life-loving nations of the western world hold out as the reward of virtue is immortality.
2007 Sight & Sound Mar. 56/3 A novel pen-written by the present-day Izzi, an impulsive, life-loving woman beset by a brain tumour.
life-preserving adj.
ΘΚΠ
the world > action or operation > safety > protection or defence > preservation from injury or destruction > [adjective] > life
life-preserving?1594
?1594 M. Drayton Peirs Gaueston sig. K2 His gummy life-preseruing tears.
a1616 W. Shakespeare Comedy of Errors (1623) v. i. 84 Life-preseruing rest. View more context for this quotation
1783 J. Hanway Proposal for County Naval Free-schools 57 The celebrated life-preserving philosopher the Reverend Doctor Hales.
1819 Times 2 July 4/1 (advt.) To..those going abroad, are recommended C. Kendall's Life-preserving Air Jackets... Repeated exhibitions..have afforded the most satisfactory proofs of the buoyancy of the machine.
1895 S. R. Hole Little Tour Amer. 24 Life-preserving belts.
1943 Man 43 37/2 Sometimes it is placed, whole, in water to endow the water with life-preserving power.
2002 D. DeGrazia Animal Rights iii. 43 Pain's unpleasantness provides the motivation for adaptive, life-preserving responses.
life-prolonging adj.
ΚΠ
1618 T. D. Canaans Calamitie Ded. We cannot requite the least poynt of that life prolonging kindnes, which the riches of your courtesie did yeeld.
1744 Siris in Shades 6 How came you to quit the World, just at the Time when such a Life-prolonging Medicine was discovered?
1897 Science Dec. 854/2 This minority rejected the extravagant belief in a life-prolonging elixir.
2005 New Nation 26 Sept. 10/2 The island's life-prolonging qualities have been attributed to everything from its peaceful and lush environment to its natural volcanic water.
life-renewing adj.
ΚΠ
1619 P. Hannay Happy Husband sig. Fv A soft and tender-hearted Pellican, Who to recall life to her dying brood, Suckes from her owne heart life-renewing blood.
1782 W. Cowper Conversation in Poems 237 Your heart shall yield a life-renewing stream.
1886 F. Cowan Australia 16 The Banyan-tree: the grandest of the Figs: in its expansion and extension, self-supporting its long arms with outward-leaning, life-renewing, supplemental props.
1996 Common Ground (San Anselmo, Calif.) Summer 44/2 (advt.) Experience a life-renewing retreat in the full residential facility of The Gatehouse.
life-restoring adj.
ΚΠ
1613 I. F. Christes Bloodie Sweat 26 Neuer hence forward may your hopes arise, For to behold my life-restoring sight.
1782 W. Cowper Hope in Poems 164 The trumpet of a life-restoring day.
1855 Jrnl. Amer. Oriental Soc. 5 307 The country is famed for its coral, curious gems, fire-proof cloth, life-restoring incense, bright-moon pearls, and light-lustre gems.
1908 G. W. Cable Kincaid's Battery lxi. 333 The rational, life-restoring belief, that in that awful hour of twilight between the hosts, of twilight and delirium, what she had seemed to see she had but seemed to see.
2007 Star Phoenix (Saskatoon, Sask.) (Nexis) 15 Sept. e19 Large doses of lavish love must flow from individuals involved in the boys' lives. The combination will be life-restoring.
life-sapping adj.
ΚΠ
1817 Sporting Mag. 49 67/1 A man or horse may slowly get the better of the obstinate effects of having swallowed life-sapping simples.
1928 A. Huxley in Sunday Disp. 16 Dec. 12/6 No people, it seems to me, has suffered more than the English from that life-sapping malady of too much machinery.
2003 G. Burn North of Eng. Home Service (2004) iii. 87 Ray could sometimes imagine he was seeing..uncles who worked as lightermen..and laboured for hours in the life-sapping heat and steam.
life-shortening adj.
ΚΠ
1688 R. Steele Disc. Old-age ii. 35 And on the other hand, all those destroying, and life-shortning Diseases mention'd.
1798 J. Middleton View Agric. Middlesex 109 The life-shortening effects of such confinement.
1888 Times 9 June 17/3 The moulding is done mechanically and the blowing by means of compressed air, thus relieving the glassblower of his unhealthy and life-shortening occupation.
2007 Health & Med. Week (Nexis) 24 Dec. 220 Major depression is a serious, debilitating, life-shortening illness that affects millions of people worldwide.
life-sustaining adj.
ΘΚΠ
the world > food and drink > food > [adjective] > sustaining life
life-sustaininga1644
a1644 F. Quarles Solomons Recantation (1645) v. 17 His very life-sustaining diet.
1749 S. Fielding Governess 235 The Sire his Life-sustaining Prize To each expecting Bill applies; There fondly pours the Wheaten Spoil.
1862 H. Spencer First Princ. ii. x. §91. 304 Life-sustaining power.
1923 D. A. Mackenzie Myths China & Japan xii. 190 The early peoples regarded the precious metal [sc. gold] as an ‘avatar’ of the life-giving and life-sustaining Great Mother goddess.
2006 Herald-Times (Bloomington, Indiana) 20 Oct. a4/3 The microbes they found rely on radiation from uranium in the rocks to produce life-sustaining energy.
life-threatening adj.
ΚΠ
1759 H. Venn Serm. vii. 167 Your Minister now standing before you—chastened and corrected, of a long Season, with a life-threatening Malady.
1850 W. Wordsworth Prelude x. 268 The point of the life-threatening spear.
1948 Los Angeles Times 18 Mar. ii. 13/2 Cancer, or other grave, life-threatening disease.
1997 Independent 4 June 16/4 (caption) Six suffered life-threatening injuries.
(c) With agent nouns.
life-brightener n.
ΚΠ
1906 W. De Morgan Joseph Vance xxviii. 268 ‘Come, Joe, some news this time I hope!’ I should have liked to be able to say yes, for he looked..as if he sadly wanted a life-brightener.
2006 Milwaukee (Wisconsin) Jrnl. Sentinel (Nexis) 4 June w1 Summer band concerts in a city park are a life brightener but not in the same league as firefighters or cops.
life-denier n.
ΚΠ
1930 S. Potter D. H. Lawrence 107 It is a description of a life denier, a man who weakly disobeyed certain commands and therefore to Lawrence a description of death.
2007 Times 13 July 80 Ah, the knockers, the sneerers, the begrudgers, the life-deniers: how I loathe them all in whatever walk of life I find them in.
life-enhancer n.
ΚΠ
1932 D. MacCarthy Criticism 177 She shall be, like Betsy Trotwood, a life-enhancer.
1951 G. Brenan Lit. Spanish People ix. 205 He was also a poet who threw himself with zest into everything he did and delighted in whatever could give delight. He is thus a great life-enhancer.
2001 Times 12 Apr. i. 1/8 Sir Harry Secombe..was one of the great life-enhancers of our age and gave pleasure and constant happy laughter to so many of us throughout his life.
life-lover n.
ΚΠ
1675 T. Brooks Golden Key 291 Making good the Philosophers notion, that Man is a life-lover.
1878 J. A. Symonds Many Moods 197 For me no delicate life-lover Will dare to bow; My pyramid of bloom shall cover No craven's brow.
1936 E. Wharton Let. 11 Oct. (1988) 598 I'm afraid I'm an incorrigible life-lover & life-wonderer & adventurer.
2003 New Yorker 8 Sept. 88/1 The ball of fire was Mame, the mother, who had wanted to be an actress and remained a life-lover, a git-up-and-goer.
c. As a modifier, with the sense ‘by, towards, or with life’, as life-clouded, life-crowded, life-deserted, life-oriented, life-penetrated, etc.With past participles.
ΚΠ
1744 J. Thomson Summer in Seasons (new ed.) 88 Solitary Tracts Of Life-deserted Sand.
1845 P. J. Bailey Festus (ed. 2) 130 Its seas life-crowded.
1847 J. F. W. Herschel tr. F. Schiller Spaziergang 3 Life-teeming fields.
1893 Month Jan. 52 A potent and life-penetrated organism.
1921 D. H. Lawrence Tortoises 18 Life establishing the first eternal mathematical tablet, Not in stone..or bronze, but in life-clouded..tortoise-shell.
1968 Sun (Baltimore) 4 July A 16/3 Speakers were using such terms..as life-oriented curriculum..and multi-media and multi-mode curriculum.
2005 N. Johnson Big Dead Place i. 15 Palmer lies across the continent, on the life-infested Antarctic Peninsula, which has been called ‘the banana belt of the Antarctic’.
d. Modifying adjectives and participles, with the senses ‘of, in, or towards life’.
(a) life-bereft, life-busy, life-empty, life-friendly, life-lost, life-old, life-thirsting, etc. Also occasionally: ‘lifelike’, as †life-expression (obsolete).
ΚΠ
OE Beowulf (2008) 966 Ic him [read hine]..wriþan þohte, þæt he for handgripe [perh. read mundgripe] minum scolde licgean lifbysig.
1598 S. Rowlands Betraying of Christ sig. Gij His life-lost blood.
1608 J. Sylvester tr. G. de S. Du Bartas Deuine Weekes & Wks. (new ed.) ii. iv. 113 Life-lengthned Ezechiah.
1621–31 W. Laud Serm. (1847) 98 Another King, but the same life expression of all the royal and religious virtues of his father.
1633 J. Ford Broken Heart iv. i. sig. H3v Life-spent Penthea.
1804 European Mag. Feb. 86 The drowning, life-infatuate fool.
1859 C. Dickens Tale of Two Cities iii. ix. 212 A life-thirsting..juryman.
1859 H. Kingsley Recoll. G. Hamlyn (1900) 87/2 The rupture of life-old associations.
1871 F. T. Palgrave Lyrical Poems 80 The life-lorn hillside.
1896 T. Martin tr. Virgil Æneid vi. 219 The bodies life-bereft Of heroes of renown.
1921 D. H. Lawrence Let. c8 May (1962) II. 653 Everybody nice, but rather spent, rather life-empty.
1927 Passing Show Summer 46/3 It is life-guaranteed, and the price is far below any other on the market.
2002 Sci. News 9 Feb. 86/3 Jupiter's icy moon Europa..may harbor a life-friendly ocean beneath its surface.
(b)
(i)
life-weary adj.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > emotion > suffering > dejection > [adjective]
ungladc888
wearyc888
drearyc1000
dreary-moodOE
heavyc1000
unmerryOE
droopy?c1225
mournc1275
sada1300
languishinga1325
amayedc1330
matec1330
unlightc1330
unblissful1340
lowa1382
mishappyc1390
dullc1393
elengely1393
droopinga1400
heavy-hearteda1400
joylessa1400
sytefula1400
mornifc1400
tristy?c1400
lightless?1406
heartlessa1413
tristc1420
amatec1425
languoring?c1425
mirthlessc1430
heavisome1435
darkc1440
gloomingc1440
comfortlessc1460
amateda1470
chermatc1475
tristfula1492
lustless?1507
dolorous1513
ruthful1513
downcast1521
deject1528
heartsicka1529
lumpisha1535
coolc1540
dowlyc1540
glum1547
discouraged1548
uncheerfulc1555
dumpish1560
out of heart1565
sadded1566
amoped1573
tristive1578
desolated1580
dejected1581
à la mort1586
delightless1589
afflicted1590
gladless1590
groanful1590
gloomya1593
muddy1592
sitheful1592
cloudy1594
leaden-hearted1596
disconsolated1598
clum1599
life-weary1599
spiritless1600
dusky1602
chop-fallen1604
flat1604
disanimated1605
jaw-fallen1605
moped1606
chap-fallen1608
decheerful1608
uncheerful1612
lacklustrea1616
pulled1616
dumpya1618
depressed1621
head-hung1632
grum1640
downa1644
dispirited1647
down-at-mouth1649
down in (rarely of) the mouth1649
unhearted1650
sunlessa1658
sadful1658
unlightened1659
chagrin1665
saddened1665
damp1667
moping1674
desponding1688
tristitious1694
unenjoying1697
unraised1697
unheartya1699
unked1698
despondent1699
dismal1705
unjoyful1709
unrejoiced1714
dreara1717
disheartened1720
mumpish1721
unrejoicing1726
downhearted1742
out of spirits1745
chagrineda1754
low-spirited1753
sombrea1767
black-blooded1771
glumpy1780
oorie1787
sombrous1789
morose1791
Novemberish1793
glumpish1800
mopeful1800
die-away1802
blue-devilish1804
blue-devilled1807
malagrugrous1818
down in the hip1826
yonderly1828
sunshineless1831
downfaced1832
broody1851
in a (or the) trough1856
blue-devilly1871
drooped1873
glummy1884
pippy1886
humpy1889
pipped1914
lousy1933
pissed1943
crappy1956
doomy1961
bummed1970
1599 W. Shakespeare Romeo & Juliet v. i. 62 The life-wearie-taker may fall dead. View more context for this quotation
1638 J. Kirke Seven Champions iii. sig. E3v What over desperate and life-weary foole Dares meete the couched Lance of this brave Knight, Seeing the foyle we tooke?
1793 Carthusian Friar iv. ii. 56 Why, why once more do these life-weary steps Pursue their usual path?
1867 T. Carlyle Reminisc. (1881) I. 112 The most life-weary looking mortal I ever saw.
1982 H. Engel Murder on Location 24 His neck was skinny and his chin looked like he would stick it out when a more life-weary veteran might shrug.
(ii)
life-struggle n.
ΚΠ
1824 J. P. Collier in tr. F. Schiller Fridolin 41 He is making no use of his legs in the life-struggle with his antagonists.
1898 Q. Rev. July 103 The bitter life-struggle of primitive society.
1945 Amer. Jrnl. Sociol. 51 168/1 The real tragedy here comes..from the decline of the lineage and the dying-out of a family name, events which are only partly connected with the life-struggle.
2008 Irish Times (Nexis) 21 Jan. 14 Presenting enormous cheques to rulers who mercilessly exploit their own people makes a mockery of the life-struggles of the citizens of Africa.
life-weariness n. [perhaps after German Lebensmüdigkeit (1811 or earlier)]
ΘΚΠ
the mind > emotion > suffering > dejection > [noun] > attitude to life or the world
taedium vitae1759
life-weariness1828
Weltschmerz1875
mal du siècle1926
1828 T. Carlyle in Foreign Rev. 2 95 If Byron's life-weariness..could pierce so deep into many a British heart,..we may judge with what vehement acceptance this Werter must have been welcomed.
1870 E. Peacock Ralf Skirlaugh III. 168 His illness had been more life-weariness than organic disease.
1927 Internat. Jrnl. Ethics 37 181 Life-weariness is not always begotten of the satiety consequent upon excess.
2007 Daily Tel. (Nexis) 24 Mar. Ruggero Raimondi is a dignified, almost classically restrained Philip..vividly catching the king's private sadness and life-weariness.
e. With the sense ‘lasting for a lifetime, lifelong; during one's whole life, for life’.purchased life annuity: see purchased adj. Compounds.
ΚΠ
1593 in J. Morris Troubles Catholic Forefathers (1877) (modernized text) 3rd Ser. 124 Yet their life-labour is..costly unto us.
1648 R. Herrick Hesperides sig. I7v Though hourely comforts from the Gods we see, No life is yet life-proofe from miserie.
1769 R. Price Let. 3 Apr. in B. Franklin Papers (1972) XVI. 82 What the writers on Life Annuities and Reversions have called the Expectation of Life.
a1794 E. Gibbon Memoirs in Misc. Wks. (1796) I. 180 The heir most gratefully subscribed an agreement, which rendered my life-possession more perfect.
1813 J. Forsyth Remarks Excurs. Italy 85 Extending the livelli, or life-leases.
1841 T. Carlyle On Heroes ii. 85 Working out his life-task in the depths of the Desert there.
1849 G. Grote Hist. Greece V. ii. xlvi. 483 The life-sitting elders at Athens.
1868 M. Pattison Suggestions Acad. Organisation v. 127 Colleges were homes for the life-study of the highest and most abstruse parts of knowledge.
1884 J. A. Symonds Shakspere's Predecessors Pref. 9 Elizabethan Dramatic Literature is..important enough to occupy a man's life-labours.
1920 T. S. Eliot Let. 28 Sept. (1988) I. 410 You seem to me to have obtained so to speak a life lease on the pre-war terms.
1993 A. C. Murch in S. E. Gontarski Beckett Stud. Reader 196 The precious life-burden has been replaced by the gross burden of merchandise.
C2. In senses relating to Art (see sense 7).
a. With the sense ‘from the life, involving a living model’; ‘drawn (painted, etc.) from the life’.
life drawing n.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > the arts > visual arts > painting and drawing > drawing > [noun] > a drawing > in specific manner
monogram1610
description1655
manu-tract1660
eye-draft1695
outline1735
eye-sketch1757
scribble1824
monography1828
technical drawing1831
chic1844
reversion1848
outline drawing1850
life drawing1867
1867 Pall Mall Gaz. 5 Apr. 12/1 It is very difficult in Holland to procure proper models for life drawing.
1915 W. Owen Let. 4 Apr. (1967) 329 Great talent in Life-Drawings and Oil Portraits; studied in Paris.
1956 K. Clark Nude iv. 117 A splendid drawing of a nude model, one of the first ‘life drawings’ of a woman.
2000 N.Y. Times Mag. 17 Sept. (NYC—It's a Great College Town Suppl.) 4/2 (advt.) I've never been good at life drawing, but when I was in high school..I drew from my imagination constantly.
life study n.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > the arts > visual arts > painting and drawing > [noun] > a picture > types of
emblemc1430
Flanders piece1659
night scenea1798
life study1837
colour picture1856
roundel1879
scrap1880
artist's impression1887
sleeve-picture1959
sleeve design1977
1837 Penny Cycl. VII. 437 In proof of this, a single figure, a mere life-study for instance, from his unrivalled hand may be contemplated with emotions of admiration and wonder.
1867 S. Spooner Biogr. Hist. Fine Arts II. 1144/2 A portrait of Washington, made from life studies, was his best-known head.
1946 Burlington Mag. Jan. 16/2 Poussin was a frequent visitor to the Accademia (for life studies) of Domenichino.
1999 J. Lloyd & E. Rees Come Together i. 17 I told her I was planning a series of life studies.
b. With the sense ‘for the study of the life or life drawing’.
life academy n.
ΚΠ
1781 G. M. A. Baretti Guide Royal Acad. 25 The Casts have already been seen below in the Life-Academy.
1849 Chambers's Information for People (new ed.) II. 638/2 In London and elsewhere there are life academies.
1973 Brit. Jrnl. Educ. Stud. 21 96 The conduct of the Life Academy was closely laid down, and was altered very little over the decades.
life class n.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > the arts > visual arts > [noun] > art school or class
life class1842
art school1852
figure-training1871
Slade1890
1842 Manch. Times 12 Nov. 4/2 Let them follow the example of the London artists in the formation of ‘rustic composition’ classes, life classes, and classes for their general improvement.
1873 W. Smith Art Educ. iii. 115 A life-class, for drawing from the nude living model, is carried on for the benefit of professional students.
1897 Mag. of Art Sept. 252 The life class should be confined to the study of the figure for purposes of design only.
1967 ‘L. Egan’ Nameless Ones iv. 43 He was built like Tarzan, and could have earned a living posing for life classes.
2001 Church Times 1 June 30/5 John Constable..attended the life-class at the Royal Academy long after his student days were over.
life model n.
ΚΠ
1841 Penny Cycl. XIX. 191/1 [He] devoted his leisure to drawing from the life model.
1957 J. C. Levenson Mind & Art Henry Adams v. 200 He had used life models before.
2006 Metro (Toronto) 20 Sept. 27/3 The all-day drawing and painting session..will feature life models in two large studios. Life..is code for nude.
life room n.
ΚΠ
a1825 H. Fuseli Lect. on Painting (1830) 2nd Ser. vii. 16 The precipitation with which admission from the Plaster to the Life-room is solicited..[proves] the superficial impression of the forms previously offered to their selection.
1937 P. L. Hale Vermeer i. v. 55 Sweerts's picture of work in a Dutch life room differs from the aspect of an art school of today chiefly as regards the age of the students.
1990 Artist's & Illustrator's Mag. May 14/1 My main thing was to arrange models and I was in charge of the Life Room; they'd never had any life painting there before so it was a novel idea.
life school n.
ΚΠ
1821 Edinb. Monthly Rev. Apr. 509 Patroclus slain by Hector: the Model that obtained the Silver Medal in the Life School, Royal Academy, London, in 1817, is beautifully drawn.
1856 F. S. Cozzens Sparrowgrass Papers viii. 113 We are in want of a nude model for the life school.
1921 Burlington Mag. July 36/1 The earliest—two large life school studies of 1800, were of sound student's quality.
1994 Financial Times (Nexis) 8 Feb. 19 A few dim and tired examples of the Victorian academic life school are set up, stump and smudge, to show the bad, dull old ways.
c. With the sense ‘imparting or bringing to life’.
† life touch n. Obsolete
ΘΚΠ
the world > relative properties > relationship > similarity > [noun] > (of a picture, etc.) to the object represented
likelihood1495
faithfulness1602
naturalness1624
life1638
life touch1671
lifelikeness1835
1671 J. Dryden Evening's Love Pref. 'Tis fancy that gives the life touches.
1853 Era 22 May 9/2 A more insinuating appeal never invokes human attention than ‘our current list of wines’, with the life-touch here and there, e.g., ‘old-bottled’—‘generally popular’.
1915 Musical Q. 1 146 Acquaintance with a person whose photograph one sees gives a life touch to the bare outline of the features suggested on paper.
C3.
life and times n. a biography combined with a study of the public events of the subject's lifetime.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > the arts > literature > prose > narrative or story > biography > [noun] > types of biography
family piece1709
hikayat1808
heterobiography1825
necrology1830
life and times1866
life and works1907
photo-biography1915
hagiography1924
vie romancée1941
as-told-to1966
photo-essay1977
1696 (title) Reliquiæ Baxterianæ: or, Mr. Richard Baxter's narrative of the most memorable passages of his life and times.]
1866 Atlantic Monthly Apr. 526/2 It is impossible to write a Life and Times of the painter without passing in review—hasty and brief as it must be—the great facts of politics, literature, and manners during his busy life.
1912 Amer. Hist. Rev. 17 625 Clearly Professor Bassett has written a Life of Jackson, not a Life and Times.
1962 Listener 15 Nov. 804/1 To use a man's letters and all related correspondence to produce a reasonably short life and times.
2001 Brit. Jrnl. Hist. Sci. 34 464/1 Wilson has written a very unpolemical book whose exhaustiveness has stylistic echoes of an older ‘life and times’ mode of medical biography.
life and works n. (also life and work) [compare post-classical Latin vita et opera (1711 in a work title, or earlier), vita atque opera (1683 in a work title, or earlier), earlier opera et vita (1524 in a work title, or earlier)] a biography combined with a study of the writings of the subject.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > the arts > literature > prose > narrative or story > biography > [noun] > types of biography
family piece1709
hikayat1808
heterobiography1825
necrology1830
life and times1866
life and works1907
photo-biography1915
hagiography1924
vie romancée1941
as-told-to1966
photo-essay1977
1712 Mem. Lit. I. 124/2 This Anonymous Writer designs to publish an Historical and Apologetical Encomium upon the Life and Works of Father Maignan.]
1907 Amer. Law Reg. 55 11 The next steps will be a statue and a Life and Works of Wilson, both of which have for some time been well in hand.
1957 Times Lit. Suppl. 25 Oct. 640/2 Mr. Wilson's life-and-work summaries are excellent.
1998 19th-cent. Music 22 211/2 He has recently completed a life and works of Robert Schumann.
† life-arrow n. Obsolete a barbed arrow with a line attached, fired from a gun in order to establish communication with a vessel in distress; cf. life gun n., life-shot n.
ΚΠ
1868 Chambers's Encycl. X. 605/2 Colonel Delvigne, of the French army, invented a life-arrow..to be fired from an ordinary musket.
1885 Cassell's Encycl. Dict. IV. ii. 683/2 Life-shot, a shot carrying a line, and used for the same purpose as a life-arrow.
life assemblage n. Palaeontology a group of fossils preserved together in one location, representing a former community of living organisms (biocoenosis).
ΚΠ
1854 E. Forbes in Q. Jrnl. Geol. Soc. 10 p. lxxviii Wherever you have a perfect sequence of formations accumulating in the same medium, air or water as the case may be, there is..a graduated succession and interlacement of types and of the facies of life-assemblages.
1953 Amer. Jrnl. Sci. 251 26 It is here suggested that the terms ‘life assemblage’ and ‘death assemblage’, respectively, be employed as the paleontological equivalents of biocoenosis and thanatocoenosis.
2005 M. Bjornerud Reading Rocks ii. 53 The Burgess Shale..is a life assemblage—the creatures were alive just moments before entombment.
life assurance n. [ < life n. + assurance n. (compare assurance n. 5)] Chiefly British = life insurance n.
ΘΚΠ
society > trade and finance > financial dealings > insurance > [noun] > life insurance
life insurance1781
life assurance1795
group1888
life cover1958
1795 Life Assurance Society, for Benefit of Widows & Female Relations 14 Form of Declaration. I A.B. of —— in the County of —— being desirous of becoming a Member of the ‘Life Assurance Society for the Benefit of Widows and Female Relations’, in respect of my wife (or Mother, &c), do hereby declare [etc.].
1804 S. T. Coleridge Coll. Lett. (1956) II. 1158 I shall send you 50 £ to pay my Life-assurance.
1866 A. Crump Pract. Treat. Banking iii. 84 Life-assurance policies.
1922 E. F. Spurgeon Life Contingencies v. 73 An Office which values its life assurance contracts quinquennially.
2001 Daily Tel. 12 Jan. i. 37/3 Orphan assets—now renamed, in the euphemistic way of the life assurance business, as the ‘inherited estate’—do not really belong to anyone.
lifebelt n. (a) a belt or jacket of buoyant or inflatable material, worn to support the body in water; (b) a (usually rigid) buoyant ring used to support the body in water; cf. lifebuoy n.
ΘΚΠ
society > travel > travel by water > vessel, ship, or boat > equipment of vessel > other equipment of vessel > [noun] > float to support person in water
belt1758
jacket1762
marine collar1764
lifebuoy1783
life-preserver1804
life jacket1819
safety belt1836
lifebelt1841
life vest1848
life ring1911
preserver1912
Mae West1940
1841 Hull Packet 29 Oct. 5/5 The Master Warden and the Wardens of the Trinity House and the Committee of the Scarboro' Life Boat have ordered the crews of their respective boats to be furnished with Mr. Carte's life belts and buoys.
1874 F. G. D. Bedford Sailor's Pocket Bk. viii. 242 The life belts supplied to men-of-war weigh 5 pounds.
1941 N.Y. Times Mag. 27 July 21/2 One can understand..why an airman's life-belt should be a ‘Mae-West’. It..gives the wearer a somewhat feminine figure.
2008 Evening Herald (Plymouth) (Nexis) 29 Jan. 16 Students at Estover Community College have been raising money for the RNLI by selling doughnuts decorated to look like lifebelts.
life-breath n. (a) the breath that supports life; cf. breath of life at breath n. Phrases 1a; (b) figurative an inspiring influence, a sustaining principle; cf. lifeblood n. 1.
ΘΚΠ
the world > life > source or principle of life > [noun] > as dependent on sustenance > means of life
bylivec1000
sustenancec1300
sustaining1395
sap1526
livinga1538
maintenance1540
life-breath1597
support1599
subsistence1606
through-bearing1705
1597 Bp. J. King Lect. Ionas vi. 87 This is the band wherby the common wealth hangeth together, the life-breath which these many thousand creatures draw.
1657 J. Harington Hist. Polindor & Flostella (ed. 3) iii. 158 Just when Polindor's Feast, gave up Life-breath That wild young King , mere surffetted to death.
1786 T. Holcroft Amourous Tale ii. vi. 118 An thou wishest me to vow thee, and only thee, to love, while this life breath I draw, that will I straight do.
1811 W. Dimond Gustavus Vasa iii. iv. 68 More precious than is the life-breath, that links that soul unto my mortal heart.
1875 W. Stubbs Constit. Hist. II. xvii. 621 That constitutional spirit which was the life-breath of parliamentary growth.
1997 S. Heighton Admen move on Lhasa i. 8 What is a poem, finally, but life-breath exhaled and given form?
lifebuoy n. a (usually rigid) buoyant ring or other device used to support the body in water; = buoy n. 1b.
ΘΚΠ
the world > matter > properties of materials > lightness > [noun] > rising due to lightness > buoyancy > device providing buoyancy
lifebuoy1783
float1874
water wing1901
rubber ring1976
society > travel > travel by water > vessel, ship, or boat > equipment of vessel > other equipment of vessel > [noun] > float to support person in water
belt1758
jacket1762
marine collar1764
lifebuoy1783
life-preserver1804
life jacket1819
safety belt1836
lifebelt1841
life vest1848
life ring1911
preserver1912
Mae West1940
1783 R. Macpherson Diss. Preservative from Drowning 27 Some men of war, and the East India Company's ships, have what they call a life-buoy fixed to the stern, which, when people are observed to have fallen over-board while the ship is under way, is suddenly let out with a length of two hundred fathom rope.
1801 Naval Chron. 6 342 The life buoy being caught hold of.
1875 F. G. D. Bedford Sailor's Pocket-bk. (ed. 2) viii. 283 The Service Life Buoy is supposed to be capable of keeping four men afloat.
1995 I. Rankin Let It Bleed (1996) vii. 53 She clutched a large shopping-bag on her lap as if it was a lifebuoy keeping her afloat.
life care n. †(a) worldly care, anxiety about life (obsolete); (b) U.S. long-term residential care, esp. for the elderly, in which accommodation and medical services are purchased for life; frequently attributive.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > emotion > suffering > state of being upset or perturbed > worry > anxiety > [noun] > specific anxiety
life careOE
neurosis1927
OE Andreas (1932) 1427 Is me feorhgedal leofre mycle þonne þeos lifcearo.
OE Genesis A (1931) 878 For hwon..sagast lifceare hean hygegeomor, þæt þe sie hrægles þearf?
1937 Amer. Jrnl. Nursing 37 491/2 This is..a most understandable requirement in the light of the guarantee of life care which is the home's share of the contract.
1960 Rep. Supreme Court Calif. 2nd Ser. 53 290 A life care contract is not subject to..cancellation because the beneficiary dies before performance of the contract is to commence.
1980 R. Rejnis Her Home 117 Life care does not come cheap. Costs of the apartments range from $20,000..to $50,000 and more.
2001 Kansas City (Missouri) Star (Nexis) 31 Mar. 1 There currently are 750 residents at the life care community.
life coach n. originally U.S. a person whose job is to offer advice and guidance on how to achieve professional or (esp.) personal goals.
ΚΠ
1986 Washington Post 24 Nov. (Metro section) b3/2 After psychiatric treatment, counseling and ‘the inspiration of friends,’ she now works as a ‘life coach’ helping other homeless women at the shelter.
2004 Face Apr. 98/2 Most life coaches are just pocket cheer-leaders with no qualifications other than an ability to charge £1,000 for three 45-minute sessions telling you how to fix yourself.
life coaching n. originally U.S. the provision of advice and guidance on how to achieve professional or (esp.) personal goals; the work of a life coach.
ΚΠ
1996 Times Union (Albany, N.Y.) 21 Mar. c2/3 Leonard came up with the life-coaching concept when he realized he was doing more than financial planning with his own clients.
2002 S. Ban Breathnach Romancing Ordinary 73 Unlike therapy, life coaching doesn't focus on the past, but on the present.
life companion n. a spouse; a member of a couple in a permanent relationship; = life partner n.
ΘΚΠ
society > society and the community > kinship or relationship > marriage or wedlock > married person > [noun] > spouse, consort, or partner
ferec975
matchOE
makec1175
spousea1200
lemanc1275
fellowc1350
likea1393
wed-ferea1400
partyc1443
espouse?c1450
bedfellow1490
yokefellow?1542
espousal1543
spouse1548
mate1549
marrow1554
paragon1557
yokemate1567
partner1577
better halfa1586
twin1592
moiety1611
copemate1631
consort1634
half-marrow1637
matrimonya1640
helpmeet1661
other half1667
helpmate1715
spousie1735
life companion1763
worse half1783
life partner1809
domestic partner1815
ball and chain1921
lover1969
1763 G. Pooke Epithalamium 23 I hope such happy day, not one will lose: But may some swain, a life companion chuse.
1883 Proc. Amer. Philos. Soc. 1882–3 20 294 As stated in the Potts' memorial by the authoress, his wife and congenial life companion,—‘From his youth he devoted his leisure to the study of botany.’
1939 H. E. Jacob Johann Strauss, Father & Son viii. 226 Next to him sat his life companion Cosima, the daughter of Liszt.
2007 Charleston (W. Va.) Gaz. (Nexis) 20 Jan. 4 b Mother of his daughter and his life companion.
life company n. a life-insurance company.
ΘΚΠ
society > trade and finance > financial dealings > insurance > [noun] > insurance company (specific)
fire office1684
fire company1737
life office1799
life company1806
Re1952
1806 Times 17 July 1/1 (advt.) How much more beneficial, therefore, must it be in the Rock Life Company, where not only the Sum assured is to be paid, but an eventual addition growing out of the profits.
1820 Times 1 Mar. 1/5 (advt.) To be Sold by Private Contract, an old-established Printing Office..has also an extensive sale of Patent Medicines, and the Agency of an incorporated Fire and Life Company.
1907 Westm. Gaz. 10 Apr. 10/1 That is sufficient justification for the life-company amalgamation.
1997 Sunday Times 26 Oct. (Money section) 4/3 If the stock market performs well, the life company will keep back some of the returns to pay out in a bad year, providing a ‘smoothing effect’ on your returns.
life cover n. chiefly British = life insurance n.; cf. cover n.1 5b and whole-life adj. at whole adj., n., and adv. Compounds 1b.
ΘΚΠ
society > trade and finance > financial dealings > insurance > [noun] > life insurance
life insurance1781
life assurance1795
group1888
life cover1958
1892 Leeds Mercury 28 Dec. 2/4 When it comes to ordinary whole-life cover, the average death rate forms the radical basis for calculation of premium.
1924 Times 27 Feb. 20 The ‘Business Man's’ policy—a policy which for minimum expenditure at the outset gives whole life cover.]
1958 New Statesman 18 Oct. 509/3 Labour..offers pensions which increasingly and more rapidly offer half-pay..life cover.
1989 Which? Sept. 448/2 Your whole premium goes to buy life cover, nothing goes on investment—which maximises the cover you get for the money you pay.
2001 Financial Times 27 Jan. (Money section) 7/1 Currently, if you buy life cover within the wrapper of a personal pension, you get full income tax relief on the premiums.
life cord n. = life string n. (in modern use esp. a spinal or umbilical cord); also in extended use.
ΘΚΠ
the world > life > the body > nervous system > nerve > types of nerves > [noun]
sensitive?a1425
motivec1475
life stringc1522
recurrent1615
life corda1631
abducent1681
cord1774
chord1783
motor1824
afferent1828
excitor1836
nerve trunk1850
mixed nerve1861
inhibitory nerve1870
nervelet1875
vaso-motor1887
pilomotor1892
lemniscus1913
a1631 J. Donne Poems (1633) 21 This mouse..to the brain..went, And gnaw'd the life-cords there.
1840 R. Browning Sordello vi. 733 Fate shears The life-cord prompt enough.
1931 V. W. Brooks Amer. Caravan 441 The earth surgeon must sever the life cord with care and deliver healthy stone from the earth's womb.
1987 R. E. Duncan Ground Work II 30 I am entirely a creature of the veil, there my life cord, there my birdsong of scents and colors.
life craft n. †(a) a small boat launched from land to rescue people in distress at sea (obsolete); (b) a small craft, carried on board a larger one, by which escape may be made in an emergency, a lifeboat; (also with plural agreement) boats of this nature.
ΘΚΠ
society > travel > travel by water > vessel, ship, or boat > vessels with other specific uses > [noun] > lifeboat or raft
boatlOE
lifeboat1797
safety boat1814
life raft1819
life craft1844
raft1849
redningskoite1906
Carley float1915
crash boat1936
1844 Mechanics' Mag. 20 Apr. 266/1 We desire all ships and boats to be life craft, everywhere in readiness to save life and property on the shore and on the seas.
1872 Times 23 Oct. 4/6 Then to watch, through gloom or through spray, the slow but steady progress of the life craft, the dogged and resolute pull of the rowers.
1947 J. Williamson in Astounding Sci. Fiction Mar. 18/1 Lifecraft 18 was a trim steel missile... It had its own ion drive, a regular crew of six, and plenty of additional space for our party.
1970 New Scientist 22 Oct. 178/1 A computer would calculate the position of the lifecraft with an accuracy of one to ten miles.
2005 Sea Angler Mar. 84/1 We called them cattle boats and in the years that followed I'd often sleep in one of the life craft. No stabilisers in those days, of course.
† life-dead adj. Obsolete suffering a living death.
ΚΠ
a1586 Sir P. Sidney Arcadia (1593) ii. sig. V2v This life-deadman in this old dungeon flong.
1597 T. Middleton Wisdome of Solomon Paraphr. xiv. sig. R2v The father mournes to see his sonne life-dead, But seldome mournes to see his sonne dead-liu'd.
† life-drop n. Obsolete a drop of heart's-blood (see heart-blood n. 1), esp. one shed in death.
ΚΠ
1768 Verses in Memory of Lady 3 Oh! had ye known how Souls to Souls impart Their Fire, or mix'd the Life-drops of the Heart!
1807 Ld. Byron Nisus & Euryalus 48 And hostile life-drops dim my gory spear.
1906 E. W. Wilcox Poems of Sentiment 118 The crimson life-drops from a virgin heart Pierced to the core by Cupid's fatal dart.
life energy n. [compare German Lebensenergie (1791 or earlier)] vital energy; = life force n.
ΘΚΠ
the world > life > source or principle of life > vital principle > [noun]
souleOE
lifeOE
spiritusOE
bloodOE
ghostOE
life and soulOE
quickship?c1225
quicknessc1230
breatha1300
spirita1325
spark1382
naturec1385
sparkle1388
livelinessa1398
rational soula1398
spiracle1398
animal spirit?a1425
vital spiritc1450
soul of the world1525
candle1535
fire1576
three souls1587
vitality?1592
candlelight1596
substance1605
vivacity1611
animality1615
vividity1616
animals1628
life spring1649
archeus1651
vital1670
spirituosity1677
springs of life1681
microcosmetor1684
vital force1702
vital spark (also flame)1704
stamen1718
vis vitae1752
prana1785
Purusha1785
jiva1807
vital force1822
heartbeat1828
world-soul1828
world-spirit1828
life energy1838
life force1848
ghost soul1869
will to live1871
biogen1882
ki1893
mauri1897
élan vital1907
orgone1942
1838 E. B. Barrett Seraphim & Other Poems 44 The hard malign life-energy, Stamped inward, in the parting soul's disdain.
1921 Harvard Theol. Rev. 14 2 It could be thought of as the quintessential source of being, the life-energy in all phenomena.
2002 P. Thomas What works, what Doesn't xvi. 217 What the manipulative therapies call homeostatic forces, practitioners of energy or ethnic medicines might call life energy, the vital force, qi or prana.
life estate n. Law an estate or property which a person holds for life but cannot dispose of further; (also) = life interest n.
ΘΚΠ
society > law > legal concepts > [noun] > interest > during lifetime only
life estate1701
life interest1721
1701 Abridgm. Act Execution Declar. Settlement Ireland 53 Their Election to take the Reversion in Fee of such Lands upon the determinations of the Life Estate, in lieu of their 2 third parts for the same.
1753 Chambers's Cycl. Suppl. Life estates..are either for the life of the owner, or for the life of another, or others.
1827 T. Jarman Powell's Ess. Learning of Devises (ed. 3) II. 111 The fee expectant on his wife's life estate.
1906 Times 6 Apr. 6/1 Lord Davey..set at rest a doubt whether a married woman could alone be protector of a settlement in respect of a life estate which was her separate property.
2005 N.Y. Times (National ed.) 25 Sept. xi. 11/3 It is possible for a property owner to sell a home while retaining a ‘life estate’ that allows him to remain for the rest of his life.
life event n. (originally simply) an event in a person's life; (now usually) spec. a significant event that causes a major change in a person's life, such as marriage, the birth of a child, etc.
ΚΠ
1862 L. Whiting Memorial Tribute Rev. T. Snell 3 The faithful and minute recital of the life-events of the deceased, in the Discourse just pronounced, leaves for me the preferred service of an affectionate Memorial Tribute.
1918 Amer. Jrnl. Theol. 4 600 He himself had stated Wang's great life-event in his biography.
1972 Jrnl. Health & Social Behavior 13 403 Of the 64 life events analyzed in this paper 13 can be considered independent by this method: family member started to school, serious physical illness, serious injury or accident, death of spouse,..etc.
2006 N.Y. Mag. 17 Apr. 34/1 The big three of life events, the theory goes, are weddings, breakups, and babies.
life expectancy n. [compare German Lebenserwartung (1837 or earlier)] the average period that a person (of a specified age, state of health, etc.) may be expected to live, esp. as derived from statistics of the population at large (cf. expectation of life at expectation n. Phrases 5, life expectation n.); also in extended use.
ΘΚΠ
the world > life > source or principle of life > [noun] > expectation of life
expectation of life1725
life expectancy1848
life expectation1867
liveability1914
1848 W. H. Robertson Pop. Treat. Diet (ed. 2) II. iv. 78 How important must be the purity of the respired air, to the health and life-expectancy of the population!
1875 G. C. Eggleston How to make Living vii. 117 The chances of death increase with every year of age, and..a calculation of the average premium during the life expectancy is made.
1935 Jrnl. Amer. Med. Assoc. 17 Aug. 514/2 Today, life expectancy at birth is 57 years.
1962 Daily Tel. 30 Apr. 24/3 Details of the Board's plans for closures in Scotland..await completion of a ‘life-expectancy’ survey.
2006 A. Goodman Intuition i. iv. 37 Once you start talking about ballparks—there's no difference in life expectancy between you and anybody else.
life expectation n. = life expectancy n. (cf. expectation of life at expectation n. Phrases 5).
ΘΚΠ
the world > life > source or principle of life > [noun] > expectation of life
expectation of life1725
life expectancy1848
life expectation1867
liveability1914
1867 J. A. Allen Med. Exam. for Life-insurance (ed. 2) 8 Tables indicate a progressive diminution of the life expectation.
1939 C. Aronovici Housing Masses ii. 53 For males, the life expectation of children born in 1789 was 34.5, as opposed to 46.01 years in 1901.
1982 Mining Mag. (Nexis) Feb. 167 Ore left in the mine..will shorten the life-expectation of the mine in proportion to the tonnage of ore left behind.
2004 K. Knipscheer in B.-M. Öberg et al. Changing Worlds & Ageing Subj. 195 Life expectation was increasing up to the last decade of the twentieth century and is expected to continue to increase slowly.
life-expired adj. chiefly British (originally Railways) (of equipment, machinery, etc.) no longer suitable for use due to age, wear, or obsolescence.
ΚΠ
1951 Times 20 Dec. 2/6 The provision of a further 573 Diesel engines will enable 635 life-expired steam engines to be scrapped.
2005 Press & Jrnl. (Aberdeen) (Nexis) 18 Feb. 4 Fourteen schools are categorized as being in poor condition, of which five have life-expired heating systems.
life force n. (a) vital energy; a force that gives something its vitality or strength; cf. élan vital n., will to live n. at will n.1 Compounds 3; (b) the spirit which animates living creatures; the soul.
ΘΚΠ
the world > life > source or principle of life > vital principle > [noun]
souleOE
lifeOE
spiritusOE
bloodOE
ghostOE
life and soulOE
quickship?c1225
quicknessc1230
breatha1300
spirita1325
spark1382
naturec1385
sparkle1388
livelinessa1398
rational soula1398
spiracle1398
animal spirit?a1425
vital spiritc1450
soul of the world1525
candle1535
fire1576
three souls1587
vitality?1592
candlelight1596
substance1605
vivacity1611
animality1615
vividity1616
animals1628
life spring1649
archeus1651
vital1670
spirituosity1677
springs of life1681
microcosmetor1684
vital force1702
vital spark (also flame)1704
stamen1718
vis vitae1752
prana1785
Purusha1785
jiva1807
vital force1822
heartbeat1828
world-soul1828
world-spirit1828
life energy1838
life force1848
ghost soul1869
will to live1871
biogen1882
ki1893
mauri1897
élan vital1907
orgone1942
1848 C. D. Meigs Females & their Dis. xxxv. 444 I have all along insisted that the power of germ production is a climax of life-force.
1896 W. Caldwell Schopenhauer's Syst. ix. 500 The will is the life-force that pulsates through man's nature.
1903 G. B. Shaw Man & Superman iii. 134 This Life Force says to him ‘I have done a thousand wonderful things unconsciously by merely willing to live and following the line of least resistance.’
1920 D. H. Lawrence Lost Girl xii. 309 Even the will of God is a life-force.
1952 C. Day Lewis tr. Virgil Aeneid vi. 137 The life-force of those seeds is fire, their source celestial.
1975 A. Fraser Whistler's Lane x. 160 The relentless, uncheckable advent of spring..this all-powerful life force which flowed so strongly.
2003 N.Y. Times (National ed.) 3 Nov. b1/3 The first act largely belongs to Maggie, a blood-pumping life force of a woman.
life-forcer n. now historical a believer in Bergson's philosophy of the élan vital (cf. élan vital n.) or in a similar philosophy maintained by others.
ΘΚΠ
the world > life > source or principle of life > vital principle > [noun] > believer in life force
life-forcer1931
orgonomist1950
1931 T. S. Eliot Thoughts after Lambeth 9 These two depressing life-forcers [sc. Bertrand Russell and Aldous Huxley].
1935 W. H. Auden & C. Isherwood Dog beneath Skin i. (chorus betw. sc. ii & iii) 43 The naughty life-forcer in the norfolk jacket Was the rebels' only uncle.
2007 Independent (Nexis) 17 Dec. 10 It was the spirit of the age. Communists, fascists, surrealists and life-forcers were all in the total transformation business, though their recipes varied.
life gun n. a gun used for sending a communication line or lifesaving apparatus to a vessel in distress.
ΘΚΠ
the world > action or operation > safety > rescue or deliverance > [noun] > means of > means of saving life > from ship or drowning
plank1608
cradle1839
plug1841
anchor ball1858
breeches-buoy1880
Lyle gun1880
life gun1910
Schermuly1922
1828 Hull Packet 29 Jan. 1/4 The life-gun apparatus was immediately ready, and the life-boat launched.
1910 Chambers's Jrnl. Mar. 159/2 The life-gun which is used by the rescuers for shooting lines to the vessel.
1999 Sydney (Austral.) Morning Herald (Nexis) 16 July 2 They returned at 7 am with a ‘life gun’, a safety device that shoots a line that can be secured and used to draw a rescue boat closer to a stranded victim.
lifehold adj. Law (now historical) attributive designating property which is held for a life or lives.
ΘΚΠ
society > law > legal right > right of possession or ownership > tenure of property > a legal holding > [adjective] > held in freehold > types of
charter-hold1710
lifehold1767
1767 J. T. Atkyns Rep. Cases Chancery 2 424 In 1734, he purchased one moiety of the reversion in fee of the lifehold estate, and the other moiety in 1737, and died soon after, without making any alteration in his will.
1808 C. Vancouver Gen. View Agric. Devon xvii. 428 Lifehold tenures.
a1843 R. Southey Common-place Bk. (1851) 4th Ser. 359/2 My father's Aunt Hannah had a life-hold estate.
1887 Athenæum 31 Dec. 883/2 A small lifehold farm.
1954 W. G. Hoskins Devon v. 93 Life-hold tenure, as it was sometimes called, persisted in places into the later years of the 19th century, though the practice of renewal of lives was then quite obsolete.
1986 Manch. Guardian Weekly (Nexis) 28 Sept. 19 In practice, when a lifehold deed was extinguished by a final death, whoever was occupying the cottage in question continued to do so, though now paying rent to the landowner.
life holder n. Law (now chiefly historical) = life tenant n.
ΘΚΠ
society > law > legal right > right of possession or ownership > tenure of property > one who has tenure > [noun] > by freehold > types of
franklin1297
feoffor1426
frank-tenementary1488
liferenter1535
feoffee1542
purlieu man1573
charterer?1592
fiar1597
swaina1610
life tenant1623
life holder1776
fief-holder1864
common holder1987
1776 M. Peters Agricultura 176 Even those engrossing lease holders, not content with holding four or five farms of consequence, but envies the life holder of his little bargain.
1827 J. Bentham Rationale Judicial Evid. IV. ix. ii. vii. 635 The axe of the..malicious life-holder is levelling to the ground the lofty oaks.
1883 T. Hardy in Longman's Mag. July 269 Many of these families had been life-holders... The ‘liviers’ (as these half-independent villagers used to be called).
1997 Eng. Hist. Rev. 112 1115 Clinton was to hold these other properties in expectancy, pending the deaths of Queen Isabella and the Countess of Pembroke, the life holders of the lands involved.
life imprisonment n. imprisonment for life; a life sentence (cf. life sentence n. 1).
ΘΚΠ
the world > life > source or principle of life > [noun] > course or span of life > prison sentence for life
life imprisonment1794
life sentence1817
lifer1825
life term1861
1794 J. Scott Contin. Hist. Aurungzebe's Successors in tr. M. Firishtah Hist. Dekkan II. ii. 277 Mr. Hastings was too generous to obey commands, which, if complied with, would have sacrificed an unfortunate prince to life imprisonment, if not assassination.
1867 Times 1 Jan. 9 The Hokitiki murderers have all been executed, except Sullivan, the approver, who was reprieved and had his sentence commuted to life imprisonment.
1927 B. Vanzetti Let. 25 May in N. Sacco & B. Vanzetti Lett. (1997) ii. iv. 277 So, it will be either electric chair or life imprisonment to us.
2004 Independent 16 Dec. 20/5 The sentence for murder remains life imprisonment.
life-index n. (in folklore) an external object whose condition is held to reflect the state or condition of a person, esp. as regards health or safety.
ΘΚΠ
the world > the supernatural > the occult > sorcery, witchcraft, or magic > [noun] > magical object > indicating state of person
life-index1884
life token1899
1884 F. A. Steel & R. C. Temple Wide-awake Stories 404 Outside a person's life is an object which faithfully reflects the conditions of his life: this life-index is always very difficult of access.
1915 Encycl. Relig. & Ethics VIII. 44/2 ‘Life-token’ or ‘life-index’ is the technical name given to an object the condition of which is in popular belief bound up with that of some person, which indicates his state of health or safety.
1984 M. B. Emeneau Toda Gram. ii. x. 375 The motivation of the introduction of this form of life-index in the present text seems almost to be the extraneous explanation of the growth and form of canes on a peak of the Nilgiris.
life insurance n. insurance for payment on the death of the person insured (cf. insurance n. 4 and life assurance n.).
ΘΚΠ
society > trade and finance > financial dealings > insurance > [noun] > life insurance
life insurance1781
life assurance1795
group1888
life cover1958
1781 W. Blackstone Rep. Cases Westminster-Hall I. 312 Concealment of Circumstances on a Life Insurance not so fatal, if the Life be warranted good, as if it be a common Insurance.
1809 R. Langford Introd. Trade 51 Life Insurances are contracts to pay the assured a specified sum of money upon the death of the person or persons named in the contract.
1853 W. Farr in Reg. General's 12th Rept. App. p. xvii The phrase ‘Life Insurance’ is in every respect preferable to ‘Life Assurance’.
1937 Amer. Home Apr. 4/3 A definite sum paid every month takes care of the interest, reduces the principal, and in some cases pays taxes, insurance, and a peculiar kind of life insurance which will take care of the remainder of the payments for his estate after the original mortgagee is dead.
2007 Climb Mag. May 51 ‘I've got life insurance,’ he says. ‘It's a good policy. It pays out three times as much if I check out overseas’.
life insurance policy n. a policy (policy n.2) which provides life-insurance cover; also figurative.
ΚΠ
1822 Comyns's Digest Laws Eng. (ed. 5) V. 113 The term ‘disorder tending to shorten life’, in a life-insurance policy, is confined to diseases which usually have that tendency.
1891 E. G. White in Seventh-Day Adventist Bible Commentary (1915) VI. 1070/2 I reprieve him from the condemnation of death giving him My life insurance policy—eternal life—because I have taken his place and have suffered for his sins.
1955 Granta 26 Nov. 20/2 I'm gonna sell 'em a life insurance policy.
2006 Reveal (Special Sample Issue) 23 Sept. 4 It is believed they will pick up a bumper £2 million from a special life-insurance policy if one of them pops their clogs.
life interest n. an interest or estate which ends with the life of the holder or of another person; a right to a life estate.
ΘΚΠ
society > law > legal concepts > [noun] > interest > during lifetime only
life estate1701
life interest1721
1721 Bunbury vs. Bolton: Respondents Case 3 For that the Fines which were taken by the Respondent Alderman Bolton, and which are directed to be applied to the Mortgagee, were chiefly taken out of th Appellant's Estate for Life, whereby the Appellant's Life Interest is unequally charged.
1807 W. Taylor in Ann. Rev. 5 200 Life-interests, such as entailed estates, church-livings and annuities, should be wholly sequestrable with less ceremony.
1870 E. A. Freeman Hist. Norman Conquest (ed. 2) II. App. 551 His life-interest in his prebend was forfeited.
1927 A. Conan Doyle Case-bk. Sherlock Holmes 277 The place belonged to her late husband, Sir James. Norberton has no claim on it at all. It is only a life interest and reverts to her husband's brother.
2001 N.Y. Times 21 Jan. iii. 10/4 A QTIP trust..would give a spouse a life interest in an asset that would ultimately go to another beneficiary.
life jacket n. a jacket of buoyant or inflatable material for supporting the body in water (cf. life vest n.).
ΘΚΠ
society > travel > travel by water > vessel, ship, or boat > equipment of vessel > other equipment of vessel > [noun] > float to support person in water
belt1758
jacket1762
marine collar1764
lifebuoy1783
life-preserver1804
life jacket1819
safety belt1836
lifebelt1841
life vest1848
life ring1911
preserver1912
Mae West1940
1819 Morning Chron. 31 July 3/2 A person passing at the moment had one of Mr. Kendall's life jackets in his possession, which he instantly put on, plunged into the marshes, and fortunately saved the boy.
1861 Times 4 July 12/1 The man can cast loose the springs of the cylinder cap, and..rise to the surface of the water in his inflated india-rubber life-jacket.
1938 Amer. Home June 52/2 Even though she was ensconced in a life jacket..it is a bit disconcerting to rescue one's only daughter while she shrieks she is drowning.
2004 Hoosier Times (Bloomington, Indiana) 17 Oct. (Herald-Times ed.) h1/1 Personally, I only wear a life jacket in rough water or sometimes when canoeing or kayaking.
† life-knot n. [after French nœud vital (1828 in the passage translated in quot. 1829)] Botany Obsolete the neck or collar (junction of the stem and root) of a plant.
ΚΠ
1829 P. Clinton tr. A. Richard New Elements Bot. i. 44 The root..may be divided into three parts. 1st. The body or middle part... 2d. The collar or life knot [Fr. le collet ou nœud vital], that is, the point or line of demarcation which separates the root from the stem, and from which springs the bud of the annual stem, in perennial roots.
1841 W. A. Leighton Flora of Shropshire 157 In the axil of this scale.., at a point a little above the life-knot or part from which the true roots depend.
1882 Tea Cycl. 147/1 The disease, followed by decay, travels upwards until it reaches the collar or life, knot—the point from which roots and stem diverge, the one up, and the other downwards.
life lesson n. a lesson (or in later use an experience, situation, etc.) which conveys something instructive or valuable about life or principles for living one's life.
ΘΚΠ
society > education > teaching > means of teaching > [noun] > a lesson > object lesson
lesson1822
object lesson1831
life lesson1838
1838 Christian Examiner & Gen. Rev. Nov. 263 Mr. Bulfinch..has communicated a life-lesson which might be instructive to many.
1940 Peabody Jrnl. Educ. 17 272/2 Each story teaches a life lesson, sometimes unobtrusively, sometimes not.
1991 Premiere Sept. 18/4 What starts out as a mean-spirited trick turns into a heavy-duty life lesson.
2009 P. Buyer Marching Bands & Drumlines iii. 45 We try to impress upon them [sc. the band] that it's a team effort, a group effort. It's not about the individual. That's the most important life lesson. That's a life lesson that will pay dividends for them later in life.
life list n. Ornithology (originally U.S.) a record of all of the bird species identified by a birdwatcher during his or her life.
ΘΚΠ
the world > animals > zoology > study of specific types of animal > [noun] > birds > bird-watching > record of birds seen
life list1900
sight record1934
1900 Wilson Bull. No. 33. 19 Oct. July 15 and 16 aboard train, placed Ruddy Horned Lark and California Jay upon my life list, but otherwise they were uninteresting bird-wise.
1959 Audubon Mag. 61 201/2 (caption) His ‘life’ list of birds seen was well over 3,000 species.
2005 Plenty Mar. 41/1 Life-list all-stars like the blue-crested motmot, a rare South American bird with a brilliant blue head.
life mask n. a cast (in plaster or a similar material) taken from the face of a living person; cf. death-mask n. at death n. Compounds 2.
ΚΠ
1881 Cent. Mag. Dec. 223 (heading) The Lincoln life mask and how it was made.
1947 J. C. Rich Materials & Methods Sculpt. v. 107 The fashioning of a life mask in plaster of Paris is a rather disagreeable experience from the point of view of the subject.
2005 Believer Dec. 16/1 Life and death masks alike enjoyed a vogue in the nineteenth century.
life member n. a person who holds lifelong membership of a society or other organization; also in extended use.
ΘΚΠ
society > society and the community > social relations > an association, society, or organization > [noun] > member > other types of member
fellowc1405
entrant1560
redemptionary1583
honorary1675
confrere1753
constituent1755
corresponding member1772
new (also fresh) blood1782
life member1813
young blood1830
old guard1841
cardholder1869
hardcore1922
fully paid-up member1960
teleocrat1971
1813 Morning Chron. 18 Oct. 1/4 That every Annual Subscriber..of Five Guineas, in one sum, [become] a Life Member [of the West London Lancasterian Association].
1827 C. M. Sedgwick Hope Leslie II. xv. 291 We hope that class of our readers, above alluded to, will not be shocked at our heroine's installing Master Cradock as a life-member of her domestic establishment.
1867 Harper's Mag. Aug. 349/2 These life-members of my charity.
1907 R. Fry Let. 5 Mar. (1972) I. 282 I'm so glad they've made you a life member of the museum.
1926 A. E. Housman Let. 15 Jan. (1971) 233 You may be perplexed by communications from the London Library. I am taking steps to have you made a life member.
1972 H. Kemelman Monday Rabbi took Off ii. 22 The by-laws made all past presidents life members of the board.
2002 Ringing World 2 Aug. 800/1 (advt.) Mold, Flints. 16 Jun. 1260 Bob Doubles... Rung before a Confirmation Service to congratulate..Bill Court on being elected an Honorary Life Member of the North Wales Association of Church Bellringers.
life membership n. lifelong membership of a society or other organization.
ΘΚΠ
society > society and the community > social relations > an association, society, or organization > [noun] > membership of > specific type
life membership1843
1843 C. Mathews Var. Writings 85 I am to wait upon Parson Huckins tomorrow, and notify him of his life-membership in the Pottawatomy.
1867 Harper's Mag. Aug. 349/1 A most laudable charity—put me down for a life-membership by all means.
1930 Times 21 Jan. 12/1 [The] Medical Officer of Health for Goodwick and Port Sanitary Authority of Fishguard..has received the certificate of life membership of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem for Wales for distinguished services in ambulance work.
1999 M. Syal Life isn't All Ha Ha Hee Hee (2000) iii. 127 He had wangled the odd day pass, but life membership and bar privileges would not be forthcoming.
life mortar n. now historical and rare a mortar for discharging a life rocket to a vessel in distress; cf. life gun n.
ΚΠ
1808 Ipswich Jrnl. 27 Feb. 2/5 Captain G. Manby's invention of throwing a rope to a ship stranded on a lee shore..proved the certainty of its never-failing success on the Elizabeth of Plymouth.]
1848 Ipswich Jrnl. 12 Feb. 2 Many clever shots were fired by Lieut. Ramsay from the life mortar of Capt. Manby.
1873 Chambers's Encycl. X. 605/1 In 1807, Captain Manby invented his life-mortar.
1978 Country Life 164 329/2 A year later..a much more terrible wreck in the same place, that of the 589-ton Austrian brig Capricorno.., proved that the ‘life mortar’ had its limitations.
life net n. U.S. a net used to save the life of a falling person, esp. a safety net held by rescuers to catch people jumping from a burning building.
ΘΚΠ
the world > action or operation > safety > rescue or deliverance > [noun] > means of > means of saving life > person jumping from building
jumping-sheet1846
life net1888
1888 N.-Y. Times 23 Mar. 8/3 During the fire he dropped 50 feet into a life net.
1890 Sunday Herald (Syracuse, N.Y.) 26 Oct. 5/7 The investigation by Colonel Deitsch led that gentleman to recommend that each patrol wagon be equipped with a life net, something on the principle of the nettings used by aerial performers in circuses.
1904 Third Ann. Rep. Commissioner Labor 1903 ii. App. III. 153 (heading) Requiring the use of life nets in the erection of bridges and buildings.
1909 Daily Chron. 11 Mar. 6/3 New York... Many leapt from the windows and were caught in the life nets.
1962 L. Stein Triangle Fire 211 The life nets were broken. The firemen kept shouting for them not to jump.
2007 Kansas City (Missouri) Star (Nexis) 10 Nov. sl1 He landed in the ocean while pushing over a life net into the sea for his other crew members.
life office n. an office or company which deals in life insurance.
ΘΚΠ
society > trade and finance > financial dealings > insurance > [noun] > insurance company (specific)
fire office1684
fire company1737
life office1799
life company1806
Re1952
1799 Times 17 Jan. 2/1 (advt.) The Directors of the Pelican Life-Office, think it incumbent upon them to give additional publicity to that salutary Provision.
1837 C. Dickens Pickwick Papers xlvi. 500 An agreeable little party had been got together to meet them, comprising Mr. Snicks the Life Office Secretary, Mr. Prosee the eminent counsel, three solicitors, one commissioner of bankrupts, a special pleader from the Temple.
1879 W. S. Champness Insur. Dict. (1883) 106 The Experience Table is based on that of seventeen British Life Offices.
1930 Pitman's Dict. Life Assurance 506/1 The life office allows him a cash surrender value if he discontinues.
2004 Independent 31 July (Save&Spend section) 14/4 I am forgetting the other category of shares that have got to the populace at large; the demutualisation by various building societies and life offices.
life partner n. either member of a couple in a romantic relationship which is regarded as permanent; a spouse; cf. partner n.1 5a.Formerly usually denoting a married person; now increasingly used to refer to a member of a couple in a long-standing relationship of any kind, so as to give equal recognition to marriage, cohabitation, same-sex relationships, etc.
ΘΚΠ
society > society and the community > kinship or relationship > marriage or wedlock > married person > [noun] > spouse, consort, or partner
ferec975
matchOE
makec1175
spousea1200
lemanc1275
fellowc1350
likea1393
wed-ferea1400
partyc1443
espouse?c1450
bedfellow1490
yokefellow?1542
espousal1543
spouse1548
mate1549
marrow1554
paragon1557
yokemate1567
partner1577
better halfa1586
twin1592
moiety1611
copemate1631
consort1634
half-marrow1637
matrimonya1640
helpmeet1661
other half1667
helpmate1715
spousie1735
life companion1763
worse half1783
life partner1809
domestic partner1815
ball and chain1921
lover1969
1809 Lett. from Irish Student to Father II. xxxv. 273 The lady whom he had chosen as a life-partner.
1913 Maclean's June 123/1 The need of teaching boys and girls the essential facts of life, so as to equip them for the momentous time when they choose life partners.
1975 J. Plamenatz Karl Marx's Philos. of Man xiv. 400 This family..is set up by a man and a woman who come to love one another and who choose each other as life partners.
1982 Washington Post (Nexis) 3 Apr. k1 My life partner and my best friend is a man. Even if ‘marriage’ were legally obtainable between persons of the same sex, I seriously doubt the two of us would seek to obtain such legal recognition.
2000 J. Harvey Gimme Gimme Gimme (2002) 96/1 Are you trying to tell me that you're so desperate you'd trawl through Her Majesty's prison system to find yourself a life partner?
life plant n. now rare any plant of the tropical genus Kalanchoe (formerly Bryophyllum) (family Crassulaceae), many members of which bear plantlets on their leaf margins.
ΘΚΠ
the world > plants > particular plants > plants and herbs > according to family > Crassulaceae (stonecrop and allies) > [noun] > life-plant
life plant1851
1851 P. H. Gosse Naturalist's Sojourn Jamaica 61 The Leaf of Life, or the Life Plant.
1939 C. J. Hylander World of Plant Life xxii. 274 The Life Plant is grown because of this foliage peculiarity rather than for the purplish-green pendant flowers.
2005 Star-Ledger (Newark, New Jersey) (Nexis) 20 Jan. (Home & Garden) 64 Several other kalanchoes are a good deal more interesting. The Miracle Leaf, Life Plant and Good Luck Plant drop little plantlets from the tips or edges of the leaves.
life policy n. = life insurance policy n.; cf. whole-life adj. at whole adj., n., and adv. Compounds 1b.
ΘΚΠ
society > trade and finance > financial dealings > insurance > [noun] > insurance policy > specific types of policy
fire policy1737
valued policy1737
life policy1751
wagering policy1766
wager policy1766
time policy1808
wager-insurance1824
voyage policy1848
ppi1895
floater1900
maintenance contract1915
death futures1993
1751 W. Beawes Lex Mercatoria Rediviva 288 (heading) Life Policy, No. 1249. By the Governor and Company of the London Assurance of Houses and Goods from Fire.
1801 Times 8 June 3/2 This was an action brought on a Life Policy against the Defendants, who are the Directors of the Westminster Insurance Office.
1879 W. S. Champness Insur. Dict. (1883) 302 Settlement policies, life policies in which are introduced clauses giving them all the effect of marriage settlements so far as the moneys assured are concerned.
1907 ‘M. Twain’ in N. Amer. Rev. Jan. 14 If I hadn't taken out a life policy on this one the premiums would have bankrupted me long ago.
1942 Mind 51 288 His watchword, in thinking not only of the means but of the ends of a life-policy, is ‘here, or nowhere, is my America’.
2007 Chicago Tribune (Midwest ed.) 10 Sept. iii. 9 (advt.) Life insurance attendees will learn..why you should never lapse a life policy.
life raft n. a small craft (now typically a shallow, inflatable boat) designed for use in an emergency at sea (cf. raft n.1 3d); also in extended use.
ΘΚΠ
society > travel > travel by water > vessel, ship, or boat > vessels with other specific uses > [noun] > lifeboat or raft
boatlOE
lifeboat1797
safety boat1814
life raft1819
life craft1844
raft1849
redningskoite1906
Carley float1915
crash boat1936
1819 Trans. Soc. Arts 37 110 The Gold Medal of the Society was this Session voted to Mr. Thomas Cook, Lieut. R.N. for a Life Raft.
1903 U.S. Patent 734,118 Horace S. Carley of Hydepark, Massachusets, Assignor to Carley Life Float Company, of Philadelphia... I, Horace S. Carley,..have invented a new and useful Improvement in Life-Rafts.
1922 Encycl. Brit. XXXII. 451/1 The Carley Life Raft..is made in various sizes. A large copper pipe is bent into the form of an O, brazed up to be airtight, surrounded by cork and canvas, provided with a strong rope netting to form a floor within the O, and fitted with hand ropes, etc.
1958 Times 10 July 15/2 The manufacture..of..inflatable liferafts and other air-sea rescue aids.
1962 S. Carpenter in J. Glenn et al. Into Orbit 60 I had a smaller version of it in my liferaft as part of the emergency kit.
2005 T. Hall Salaam Brick Lane vi. 131 Literature became my life-raft. It got me through prison and opened up new worlds to me. Without it, I'm not sure I would have survived in there.
life rate n. the rate or sum for which a life may be insured.
ΚΠ
1819 Trewman's Exeter Flying Post 30 Sept. 1/4 Norwich Union Fire, Life, and Annuity Office... Tables of the Life-Rates may be had at the office.
1938 Bull. Business Hist. Soc. 12 68 The decision as to life rates had by this time been made and the first applications were being studied.
2003 Reinsurance Mag. (Nexis) Oct. 14 The report claims that life rates have been kept low for years by a combination of aggressive competition and improvements in mortality rates.
life regiment n. a regiment of lifeguards (lifeguard n. 1).
ΚΠ
1632 Swedish Intelligencer I. (Preface) Weyersburg, Colonell to the Life-Regiment.
1723 London Gaz. No. 6199/1 The Squadron of Life-Guards, two Squadrons of the Life-Regiment.
1799 W. Tooke View Russ. Empire II. vi. i. 458 Three regiments of cuirassiers, viz. the life-regiment of 5285 men, the grand duke's of 1080 men, and prince Potemkin's regiment of 997 men [etc.].
1876 E. Sidenbladh Swedish Catal. I. 146 (table) Not including the Marine Regiment and ‘Life Regiment’ of conscripts.
1907 A. Forbes tr. H. von Moltke Franco-German War 1870–71 ii. 292 The farmstead whose possession was so obstinately disputed was taken by storm at about five o'clock, with the co-operation of the Grenadiers of the 8th Life-Regiment.
1959 F. L. Carsten Princes & Parl. in Germany i. vii. 111 The commander-in-chief, General von Phul, suggested changing the name of the guards to ‘life-regiment’ because their name was so hated.
2001 Baltic News Service (Nexis) 19 Jan. The chief of Denmark's Prince's Life regiment, colonel Jensen Christian Lund, also spoke at the press conference.
life ring n. chiefly North American = lifebelt n. (b).
ΘΚΠ
society > travel > travel by water > vessel, ship, or boat > equipment of vessel > other equipment of vessel > [noun] > float to support person in water
belt1758
jacket1762
marine collar1764
lifebuoy1783
life-preserver1804
life jacket1819
safety belt1836
lifebelt1841
life vest1848
life ring1911
preserver1912
Mae West1940
1911 Times 20 Nov. 22/2 Life ring marked ‘St. Bride, Glasgow’, and quantity of wreckage washed ashore.
1912 L. J. Vance Destroying Angel xiv. 189 He managed..to jam the life-ring over her head and under one arm before the next wave bore down upon them.
1972 Daily Colonist (Victoria, Brit. Columbia) 11 Jan. 7/1 The aircraft sighted..a life-ring bearing the ship's name.
1999 Vanity Fair (N.Y.) May 205/1 Someone threw a life ring toward him, but Charles was upwind and the ring sailed helplessly back onto the deck.
life rocket n. now chiefly historical a rocket to which a line is attached, fired to establish communication with a vessel in distress; cf. life-shot n.
ΚΠ
1842 Hull Packet 18 Feb. 4/3 We are again obliged to omit the account of ‘Life Rocket Practice at Whitburn’,..which shall appear in our next.
1852 Times 15 Nov. 6/6 Captain Bernard, of the Coast Guard..fired several rockets from Dennett's life rocket apparatus but all to no purpose.
1892 Liverpool Mercury 28 Sept. 7/1 There was no necessity for them to have exercised the life rocket apparatus.
1956 W. A. Heflin U.S. Air Force Dict. 298/2 Life rocket, a rocket designed to carry a line over, or to, a ship in distress.
life root n. (more fully life root plant) golden ragwort, Packera aurea, used medicinally for a wide variety of complaints.
ΚΠ
1845 Western Jrnl. Med. & Surg. 3 521 Senecio Aureus.—Class Syngenesia, Superflua. Life-root, Gravel-root, by the Indians Nun-qua.
1908 A. R. Harding Ginseng & Other Medicinal Plants (rev. ed.) ii. 27 Life Root Plant (Rag-wort).
1996 S. Lavery et al. Hamlyn Encycl. Complementary Health 233/1 Remedies include: sage which can affect oestrogen levels; st john's wort and other nerve tonics such as for mild depression and life root for vein irritability leading to hot flushes.
life savings n. the money saved by a person throughout his or her entire life; all of the money that a person has at his or her disposal.
ΚΠ
1855 Lloyd's Weekly Newspaper 11 Nov. 11/5 The money was the life savings of the unfortunate creature.
1934 L. Charteris Boodle ii. 43 The small investments which represented their life savings had on occasion been skittled down the market in the course of Mr. Oates's important operations.
2004 S. Hunter Hell Bent for Leather (2005) xiii. 236 One of the hawks..would phone and hound them until they finally agreed to sign away their life savings into one of Fratton's special ‘schemes’.
life science n. = biological science n. at biological adj. and n. Compounds; (also) any of various social sciences (now rare).
ΘΚΠ
the world > life > biology > study > [noun] > biology
biology1799
organomy1801
physiognosya1832
biological science1856
organonomy1857
life science1861
biognosy1880
bugs1900
bioscience1941
bio1943
1861 Lancet 5 Oct. 316/2 The connexion between medicine and the various branches of the life sciences was then made the subject of illustration.
1928 Amer. Jrnl. Sociol. 34 425 History can be written adequately only by those who are great scholars and great students of the life-sciences.
1959 Vistas in Astronautics 2 139 (heading) The utilization of a satellite laboratory for life science studies.
1973 Freedom 2 June 3/4 I regard my own specialism, psychology, as a continuing part of the Darwinian revolution in the Life Sciences.
2005 C. Tudge Secret Life Trees xii. 279 Hundreds of putative explanations are out there which between them encompass every aspect of the life sciences—and of the earth sciences, too.
life scientist n. an expert or specialist in (a) life science.
ΘΚΠ
the world > life > biology > study > person who studies > [noun] > biology
biologist1829
bioscientist1937
life scientist1944
1944 W. E. Armstrong et al. College & Teacher Educ. iii. 77 The life scientists emphasized the biological determinants of living, with a view to the implications for teachers, while the social scientists took up consumer and labor problems as they are conditioned by our contemporary social order.
1976 B. Souček & A. D. Carlson Computers in Neurobiol. & Behavior i. 3 Behavioral biologists, neurophysiologists, and other life scientists.
1990 S. Maitland Three Times Table (1991) i. ii. 17 ‘Real scientists,’ said Simon tauntingly, ‘not life scientists like you.’
† life-shot n. Obsolete a projectile used to carry a communication line to a vessel in distress (cf. life rocket n.).
ΚΠ
1867 Daily News 31 July 3/6 A large number of rockets, signal lights, and Manby's life shot fuzees had been kindly sent by the Royal Artillery authorities.
1873 Chambers's Encycl. X. 605/1 (caption) Captain Manby's Life-shot.
† life-sin n. Obsolete rare sin perpetrated by action or deed during one's lifetime; = actual sin n. at actual adj. and n. Compounds.
ΘΚΠ
society > faith > aspects of faith > spirituality > sin > kinds of sin > [noun] > actual
actual sin1494
life-sina1641
a1641 R. Montagu Acts & Monuments (1642) viii. 532 Concerning actuall, or life-sinne, whether shee [sc. the Virgin Mary] ever committed any by breach of any of Gods commandements, it cannot be denyed.
† life sithe n. Obsolete the course or duration of a person's life; a lifetime.
ΚΠ
c1225 (?c1200) Hali Meiðhad (Bodl.) (1940) l. 656 (MED) Te oþre..beoð..iȝotten i godd, þen þe oþre in a wlecheunge al hare lif siðen [a1250 Titus lifsiðe].
c1225 (?c1200) Sawles Warde (Bodl.) (1938) 10 (MED) Euch sunne..þet he wið wil oðer wið word oðer wið werc wrahtte in al his lif siðe.
life skills n. originally U.S. the basic practical, social, and other skills needed to deal with the requirements of everyday life or to function normally in society.
ΚΠ
1930 J. F. Williams & C. L. Brownell Health & Physical Educ. for Public School Administrators Elem. Schools ii. 73 Skills that do not function in life are useless, but the many life skills of recreative or utilitarian character are essential in a proper education.
1954 Amer. Jrnl. Nursing 54 1465 One of the most fundamental life-skills..is the art of recognizing the essential bias of all human thinking, including one's own.
2007 Independent 23 Feb. 50/2 When did ‘life skills’ become something we had to learn?
lifespan n. a lifetime; the period of existence or duration (of an animate or inanimate thing).
ΘΚΠ
the world > time > duration > [noun] > lifespan (of material things, etc.)
age1535
life1703
lifetime1822
longevity1842
lifespan1898
natural life1900
1831 Political Observer 16 Apr. 3/2 Oh Eldon! and has thy life-span been protracted To witness the triumph of ‘Old Harry’ Brougham?
1898 P. Manson Trop. Dis. i. 4 Each variety or species of the intra-corporeal plasmodium has its special and more or less definite life-span of twenty-four hours.
1937 B. H. L. Hart Europe in Arms xxii. 290 He [sc. Napoleon] took short views, since his horizon was his own life-span.
1957 G. E. Hutchinson Treat. Limnol. I. ii. 177 The life span of the lake.
1974 A. J. Huxley Plant & Planet xviii. 189 As soon as we move to multi-cellular plants the lifespans increase.
2007 N.Y. Times (National ed.) 6 May iv. 16/4 The long lifespans of turtles can mask their declines. Many survive in small populations whose adults are no longer able to reproduce.
life spencer n. [ < life n. + spencer n.2 (compare spencer n.2 2)] now historical a cork jacket for supporting the body in water (cf. life jacket n.).
ΚΠ
1820 Trans. Soc. Arts 38 164 Life-spencer.
1859 I. S. Homans & I. S. Homans Cycl. Commerce & Commerc. Navigation (ed. 2) 1210/2 The whole apparatus is packed in a chest, containing from 8 to 12 rockets, the musket, a life-spencer, a chair to traverse on a rope, a canvas bag, and a ball of wood to throw to a person swimming.
1947 C. Marsden Eng. at Seaside 43 There were safety garments such as Wilson's Ladies' Silk Life Spencers and Swimming Waistcoats.
† life-spot n. Whaling Obsolete a vulnerable point behind the fin of the whale into which a lance may be thrust to kill the animal (cf. sense 2c).
ΚΠ
1851 H. Melville Moby-Dick lxxxiv. 410 In a superb lofty arch the bright steel spans the foaming distance, and quivers in the life spot of the whale.
1873 J. B. O'Reilly Songs from Southern Seas 91 The lance had struck in a life-spot, and the whale was spouting blood!
life spring n. the spring or source of life; frequently in extended use.
ΘΚΠ
the world > life > source or principle of life > vital principle > [noun]
souleOE
lifeOE
spiritusOE
bloodOE
ghostOE
life and soulOE
quickship?c1225
quicknessc1230
breatha1300
spirita1325
spark1382
naturec1385
sparkle1388
livelinessa1398
rational soula1398
spiracle1398
animal spirit?a1425
vital spiritc1450
soul of the world1525
candle1535
fire1576
three souls1587
vitality?1592
candlelight1596
substance1605
vivacity1611
animality1615
vividity1616
animals1628
life spring1649
archeus1651
vital1670
spirituosity1677
springs of life1681
microcosmetor1684
vital force1702
vital spark (also flame)1704
stamen1718
vis vitae1752
prana1785
Purusha1785
jiva1807
vital force1822
heartbeat1828
world-soul1828
world-spirit1828
life energy1838
life force1848
ghost soul1869
will to live1871
biogen1882
ki1893
mauri1897
élan vital1907
orgone1942
1649 P. Sterry Commings Forth of Christ 26 From thence divides it selfe into those Foure Heads, the Foure Life-Springs to the whole Creation.
a1672 P. Sterry Disc. Freedom of Will (1675) ii. 199 Their Life-Spring, their Light, their Love entire in themselves, all infinite, eternal, without Beginning, End, or Bound.
1798 T. J. Mathias Pursuits of Lit.: Pt. IV (ed. 5) 262 The life-springs of taste and of good conduct.
1859 K. Cornwallis Panorama New World I. 14 Hope is the life-spring of enterprise.
1954 G. B. Gardner Witchcraft Today xiii. 140 We worship the divine spirit of Creation, which is the Life-Spring of the world and without which the world would perish.
1999 Sewanee Rev. 107 203 Children no longer learn poetry,..so that it could enter the expression of their thought and become the life spring of their language.
life stage n. a stage of the life cycle of an organism or species, or (more generally) of the life of a person.
ΘΚΠ
the world > life > biology > biological processes > development, growth, or degeneration > [noun] > life cycle > phase of
life stage1832
haplophase1919
scotophily1960
1832 T. R. Edmonds Life Tables p. viii Those who have belonged to the monied class for some generations..will probably have different limits of the Life stages.
1883 Amer. Naturalist 17 724 The Amphibia, which pass their first life stage as gilled water animals, do not attain their final grade of development if confined to the water.
1932 C. L. Metcalf & W. P. Flint Fund. Insect Life vi. 156 The molts occurring during the growing period divide this life stage..into a number of sharply separated sizes or steps that are called instars.
2007 N.Y. Times (National ed.) 10 Apr. h1/2 We are getting to the point where people's retirement life stage may be longer than their work life stage.
life story n. the story of a person's life, a biography; cf. life history n. 1.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > the arts > literature > prose > narrative or story > biography > [noun]
lifeeOE
biography1661
life storya1680
memoir1810
bio1925
biog1929
a1680 J. Harrington Horæ Consecratæ (1682) 13 The indulgent Parent fears that the life story of that child, will prove but a compendium, whose Infant years are an Abridgment of Mans stature.
1853 W. Jerdan Autobiogr. III. 51 The self-revelations I have deemed essential to my life-story.
1930 C. Beaton Diary Dec. in Wandering Years (1961) 200 Buy her Life Story for three dollars.
1960 ‘R. Simons’ Frame for Murder xiii. 165 Squere..produced a bundle of papers. ‘This is him. His entire life story.’
2007 Glamour Apr. 375/2 A set of individually selected beads..creates a distinctive and unique lifestory bracelet or necklace.
life string n. now rare a string or nerve supposed to be essential to life (frequently in plural); also in extended use.
ΘΚΠ
the world > life > the body > nervous system > nerve > types of nerves > [noun]
sensitive?a1425
motivec1475
life stringc1522
recurrent1615
life corda1631
abducent1681
cord1774
chord1783
motor1824
afferent1828
excitor1836
nerve trunk1850
mixed nerve1861
inhibitory nerve1870
nervelet1875
vaso-motor1887
pilomotor1892
lemniscus1913
c1522 T. More Treat. Memorare Nouissima in Wks. (1557) I. 77 Breaking thy vaines & thy life stringes wt like pain & grief.
1621 M. Wroth Countesse of Mountgomeries Urania iii. 394 She would not be a meanes to cut my life-strings with this cruelty.
1767 G. S. Carey Hills of Hybla 39 Thy words have cut my life-string thro'.
1827 J. Keble Christian Year I. xxxii. 127 One by one, The life-strings of that tender heart gave way.
1926 Columbia Law Rev. 26 1021 Every passing year attenuates the life string of legislation based on an emergency which many contend never existed.
2007 Seattle Times (Nexis) 6 Apr. c Athletics has proven to be a lifestring that keeps kids engaged in school.
life system n. a system of living; a system of analysing or classifying life; (in later use) esp. a life support system.
ΚΠ
1840 T. Carlyle On Heroes, Hero-worship & Heroic in Hist. vi. 185 To philosophers who had made up their life-system on that ‘madness’ quietus, no phenomenon could be more alarming.
1877 Amer. Naturalist 11 543 From every point of view, whether of the rock system or of the life system, it [sc. the Archæan] is by far the most widely and trenchantly separated of all the eras.
1926 Jrnl. Philos. 23 342 We may arrange existing systems of life on a scale of values... Life-systems representing the same ‘stage’ or ‘level’ may have had no ascertainable relation to one another.
1992 Los Angeles Times 18 Apr. b5/3 The first six months in Biosphere 2 have been something of a ‘shakedown cruise’. All of the life systems are in good shape.
life table n. (a) a table of statistics relating to life expectancy as a function of age; an actuarial table; (b) Zoology a similar table for a population of animals divided into cohorts of given age.
ΚΠ
1825 Caledonian Mercury 17 Oct. 2/2 The life tables from which premiums have hitherto been calculated, are acknowledged to be no longer applicable.
1865 Reader 25 Feb. 213/1 Every insurance office bases its transactions upon an instrument which is called a ‘Life Table’.
1921 Amer. Naturalist 55 490 The most exact and comprehensive manner in which the facts about the duration of life in any organism can be presented is by means of life tables, of the type used for many years by actuaries in their work.
1947 Q. Rev. Biol. 22 283 (title) Life tables for natural populations of animals.
1971 Nature 23 July 284/2 The remaining section of the book gives a series of palaeodemographic life tables of various series referred to in the text.
2005 A. Burdick Out of Eden (2006) x. 124 Life tables are to biologists what human mortality schedules are to insurance agents: mind-numbing assemblages of life-expectancy data.
life tenancy n. Law the holding of a tenancy until the death of the holder; (also) a tenancy of this nature.
ΘΚΠ
society > law > legal right > right of possession or ownership > tenure of property > [noun] > freehold > types of
fee-farmc1460
fee-simple1463
liferent1478
fee-tail1495
frank-tenement1523
frank-fee1531
frank-tenure1600
frank-ferm1767
life tenancy1847
commonhold1978
1792 T. Cooper Reply Mr. Burke's Invective 27 Hitherto (America excepted) the affairs of nations have been conducted with the Few governing the Many, with permanent Authority held in life-tenancy or inheritance.
1847 Examiner 12 July 452/2 In the case of the church, the mere life-tenancy excluded the possibility of improvement.
1908 Westm. Gaz. 24 Nov. 4/1 The life-tenancy individualism which Mr. Carnegie recommends to us is sharply distinguished from the feudal individualism which obtains in old countries.
1962 H. R. Loyn Anglo-Saxon Eng. iv. 178 An abbey or church..could receive estates as a gift, and then yield them back to the donor on a life-tenancy.
2008 Irish Times (Nexis) 1 Feb. 2 They handed over thousands of acres of woodland and pasture for a nominal sum but retained life tenancy of Killarney House.
life tenant n. Law a person who holds a life tenancy (cf. life holder n.); also in extended use.
ΘΚΠ
society > law > legal right > right of possession or ownership > tenure of property > one who has tenure > [noun] > by freehold > types of
franklin1297
feoffor1426
frank-tenementary1488
liferenter1535
feoffee1542
purlieu man1573
charterer?1592
fiar1597
swaina1610
life tenant1623
life holder1776
fief-holder1864
common holder1987
1623 T. Scot High-waies of God 67 God hath appointed Kings and Iudges to bee life-tenants and Deputies in his steade, to defend weake truth from strong falsehood and oppression.
1672 in Further Contin. Abridgem. Statutes in Force 123 Ordained, that all Heritors, Wadsetters, and Life-tenants in the shire of Lanerk..shall not import, or reset any [Victuals] from Ireland.
1789 A. M. Bennett Agnes de-Courci III. 5 Her father was but a life tenant on the estate.
1837 S. Smith Let. to Singleton in Wks. (1859) II. 264/2 An Ecclesiastical Corporation..can sell a next presentation as legally as a lay life-tenant can do.
1973 N.Y. Law Jrnl. 4 Sept. 17/1 Ordinarily a life tenant of real property is entitled to collect all the income but must pay real estate taxes, mortgage interest if any, insurance cost and routine maintenance expenses.
2000 Investor Nov. (Pract. Investment Guide Suppl.) 15/2 Some trusts are inflexible so that on the death of the person entitled to income (i.e. the life tenant), the capital goes to another named person (the remainderman).
life term n. (a) chiefly poetic the duration of a person's (or animal's, etc.) life, a lifetime (now rare); (b) = life sentence n. 1.
ΘΚΠ
the world > life > source or principle of life > [noun] > course or span of life
life-dayOE
year-daysOE
timeOE
dayOE
lifeOE
life's timeOE
livelihoodOE
yearOE
lifetimea1300
life-whilea1300
for (also to) term of (a person's) lifea1325
coursec1384
livingc1390
voyage1390
agea1398
life's dayc1425
thread1447
racea1450
living daysc1450
natural life1461
lifeness1534
twist1568
leasec1595
span1599
clew1615
marcha1625
peregrination1653
clue1684
stamen1701
life term1739
innings1772
lifelong1814
pass-through1876
inning1885
natural1891
life cycle1915
puff1967
the world > life > source or principle of life > [noun] > course or span of life > prison sentence for life
life imprisonment1794
life sentence1817
lifer1825
life term1861
1739 Young Clerk's Mag. Index at Fine For a Term of Years... For a Life Term.
1821 J. Bowring tr. V. A. Zhukovsky in Specimens Russ. Poets (ed. 2) 90 When his life-term is ended, Affection immortal shall live in his soul.
1861 New Amer. Cycl. XII. 755/1 Commutation to a shorter period of a life term to the state prison..does not restore marital rights.
1912 E. Ferber Man who came Back in Buttered Side Down ii. 25 If stuffing an order was a criminal offense I'll bet your swell traveling man would be doing a life term.
1969 A. C. Rich Observer in Coll. Early Poems (1993) 325 The mountain gorillas move through their life term.
2007 Vanity Fair (N.Y.) Jan. 77/1 In Greece, however, a life term is limited to 25 years, and ‘lifers’ are eligible for parole after 16 years.
† life-throw n. [ < life n. + throw n.1] Obsolete a lifetime; one's lifetime.
ΚΠ
c1480 (a1400) St. Agnes 332 in W. M. Metcalfe Legends Saints Sc. Dial. (1896) II. 355 A lame quhytare þan ony snaw þat euir þai schaw of þe lif-thraw.
life-tide n. †(a) the stream or flow of lifeblood (in quot. by extension perhaps: (one's) livelihood, inheritance) (obsolete); (b) the tide or stream of (one's) life (now rare and archaic).
ΚΠ
1610 P. Holland tr. W. Camden Brit. i. 245 [She] endowed the same with her owne Patrimonie and Livetide [L. patrimonioque suo ditauit].
1678 J. Browne Compl. Disc. Wounds lxvi. 308 Seeing the life-tide of every creature is inconstant, and doth quickly poste away, Nature doth endeavour by reason of the continual expense of his threefold substance whereof he consisteth, to conclude the breach by respiration and nutriment.
1827 L. H. Sigourney Poems 28 But see! his life-tide flows Beneath his brother's javelin.
1859 C. Dickens Tale of Two Cities iii. xiii. 233 The life-tide of the city.
a1918 W. Owen Coll. Poems (1963) 113 Though from his throat The life-tide leaps There was not threat On his lips.
2006 Yonhap (S. Korea) (Nexis) 2 Aug. It was three years later that his life tide began to turn.
life token n. †(a) something that betokens life (obsolete); (b) (in folklore) = life-index n.
ΘΚΠ
the world > the supernatural > the occult > sorcery, witchcraft, or magic > [noun] > magical object > indicating state of person
life-index1884
life token1899
1628 G. Wither Britain's Remembrancer f. 105v Those round-purple-spots, which most have thoght Deaths fatall tokens (where they forth are brought,) May prove Life tokens, if that ought be done, To helpe the worke, which Nature hath begun.
1899 R. C. Temple in Folk-Lore 10 403 It now seems to have found a definite place among the recognized technicalities of writers on folklore under the guise of the life-token.
1950 Jrnl. Amer. Folklore 63 291 This concept of a misplaced life token seem to be definitely Eastern in origin.
2006 Folklore (Nexis) Dec. 329 There are several tales where a red/white contrast is used as a life token.
life tree n. = tree of life n. at tree n. Compounds 3b (esp. in tree of life n. (a) at Compounds 3b).
ΘΚΠ
the world > life > source or principle of life > [noun] > symbol of life
life tree1649
1649 J. Ellistone tr. J. Böhme Epist. vii. ii. 94 A Christian..desire after the same Life-Tree of Christ [Ger. an dem Lebens-Baume Gottes in Christo].
1726 Dict. Rusticum (ed. 3) Thya or Arbor Vita, a kind of wild Cypress-tree, the wood of which is very sweet and lasting; the Life-tree.
1821 Ld. Byron Cain i. i, in Sardanapalus 357 Wherefore pluck'd he not The life-tree?
1849 W. M. W. Call Reverberations i. 8 Again the life-tree freshlier springs.
1909 A. J. Lockhart Birds of Cross 40 Let Destiny strike the hour When thy life-tree shall break in flower.
1989 M. Gimbutas Lang. of Goddess iii. xx. 235 On a four-faced Minoan seal of black steatite, there are two life trees, a he-goat, and a column flanked by moons.
2005 Afr. Amer. Rev. (Nexis) 22 Mar. 201 This renewal image,..reverts to the Christian tree; that is, the cross, and the preparation for Easter, the resurrection that typologically presents the death tree as a life tree.
life vest n. chiefly U.S. = life jacket n.
ΘΚΠ
society > travel > travel by water > vessel, ship, or boat > equipment of vessel > other equipment of vessel > [noun] > float to support person in water
belt1758
jacket1762
marine collar1764
lifebuoy1783
life-preserver1804
life jacket1819
safety belt1836
lifebelt1841
life vest1848
life ring1911
preserver1912
Mae West1940
1848 Daily News 20 May 1/2 Wilson's Patent Life coats and Waistcoats..Life Vests, £1. 10s.
1918 R. H. Barbour For Freedom of Seas x. 109 At seven bells Nelson was on lookout duty, a life-vest strapped around his body.
1962 S. Carpenter in J. Glenn et al. Into Orbit 155 A tiny life vest which weighed less than a pound and could be folded up into a package not much bigger than a man's hand.
1994 J. Barth Once upon Time 84 I've fetched up from the crashing cabin our life vests and foul-weather gear.
2004 Boys Toys July 101/3 You'll also need to fork out for a decent wetsuit, goggles, racing gloves, aqua boots and a coastguard approved life-vest.
† life-while n. [ < life n. + while n.] Obsolete a lifetime; one's lifetime.
ΘΚΠ
the world > life > source or principle of life > [noun] > course or span of life
life-dayOE
year-daysOE
timeOE
dayOE
lifeOE
life's timeOE
livelihoodOE
yearOE
lifetimea1300
life-whilea1300
for (also to) term of (a person's) lifea1325
coursec1384
livingc1390
voyage1390
agea1398
life's dayc1425
thread1447
racea1450
living daysc1450
natural life1461
lifeness1534
twist1568
leasec1595
span1599
clew1615
marcha1625
peregrination1653
clue1684
stamen1701
life term1739
innings1772
lifelong1814
pass-through1876
inning1885
natural1891
life cycle1915
puff1967
a1300 Siriz in T. Wright Anecdota Literaria (1844) 5 Never more his lif wile.
a1849 J. C. Mangan Poems (1859) 321 The life-while of a world.
life-work n. [compare German Lebenswerk (early 19th cent.); compare life's work n. at Compounds 4b] the work of a lifetime; the work which is the object or activity of a person's whole life, a career.
ΘΚΠ
society > occupation and work > work > [noun] > other types of work
church worka1225
kirk work1418
fieldwork1441
labour of love1592
life's work1660
shop work1696
outwork1707
private practice1724
tide-work1739
sales-work1775
marshing1815
work in progress1815
life-work1837
relief work1844
sharp practice1847
near work1850
slop-work1861
repetition work1866
side work1875
rework1878
wage-slavery1886
work in progress1890
war work1891
busywork1893
screen work1912
staff-work1923
gig work1927
knowledge work1959
WIP1966
telework1970
playwork1986
laboratory work2002
1837 Brighton Patriot 10 Jan. 2/6 Weber gave the world his Der Freischutz, his real life-work, and expired.
1845 S. Judd Margaret iii. 454 To perfect ourselves, our institutions, our Town, is a life-work.
1879 M. Pattison Milton xiii. 167 In 1638..Milton has already determined that this lifework shall be a poem, an epic poem.
1933 Amer. Mercury May 60/1 He had a feeling that fruit-selling was not his life work.
1982 A. Tyler Dinner at Homesick Restaurant iii. 75 It's not a lifework, restaurants.
2000 N.Y. Times Mag. 9 Apr. 42/1 McGinley..has made his lifework out of trying to bring swinging out of the realms of perceived deviance and into the mainstream.
life-world n. [in later use after German Lebenswelt Lebenswelt n.] the sum of immediate experiences, activities, and contacts that make up the world of an individual, or of a corporate, life; spec. in the philosophy of Husserl.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > philosophy > philosophy of reflection of self > [noun] > experiences comprising a life
life-world1863
Lebenswelt1945
1863 Atlantic Monthly Feb. 236/1 Jane Austen's life-world presented such a limited experience that it is marvellous where she could have found the models from which she studied such a variety of forms.
1940 A. Schuetz in M. Farber Philos. Ess. in Memory E. Husserl 173 Human existence itself is referred to an existent life-world as a realm of practical activity.
1972 D. Føllesdal in R. E. Olson & A. M. Paul Contemp. Philos. Scandinavia 426 We all live in a ‘life-world’ which is constituted by everyone in community. The term ‘life-world’ (‘Lebenswelt’) first appeared in an unpublished article on Kant which he [sc. Husserl] wrote in 1924, and the life-world became the main theme of his last major work, The Crisis of the European Sciences (1936).
2007 BusinessWorld (Nexis) 29 Mar. s1 The close proximity of a great variety of lifeworlds and lifestyles in urban areas and various ethnic and social groups have the potential to destabilize and fragment urban societies.
life-writer n. a biographer.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > the arts > literature > prose > narrative or story > biography > [noun] > biographer
life-writer1611
biographer1644
biographista1661
biologist1686
memorialist1711
Boswell1857
1611 J. Speed Hist. Great Brit. vi. xlvii. 264/2 He is by Amianus his Life-writer, condemned for mingling foolish doting superstitions, with the sincere doctrine of the Christian Religion.
1737 W. Warburton Let. 24 Nov. in J. Boswell Life Johnson (1791) I. 3 Almost all the life-writers we have had before Toland and Desmaiseaux, are indeed strange insipid creatures.
1803 Edinb. Rev. July 427 Our author has..interfered with the province of the preacher and life writer.
1931 M. Longaker Eng. Biogr. in 18th Cent. ii. 66 Novelists and Life-writers viewed the life of man as a real experience.
1993 Boulevard Spring 171 Examples of confession in American literature include the early Puritan conversion and captivity narratives and such diverse life-writers as Thomas Merton, Richard Selzer, and Alice Koller.
life-writing n. biography.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > the arts > literature > prose > narrative or story > biography > [noun] > writing biography
life-writing1687
biographying1858
1687 F. Atterbury Answer Considerations Spirit Luther Pref. One, whose thoughts had for some years convers'd with nothing less then Oecumenical Councels, Popes and Patriarchs, should quitt all those fine amusements for the humble task of Life-writing, and drawing of Characters.
1772 Ann. Reg. 1771 Misc. Ess. 193 Of all the fantastic amusements in which modern genius indulges itself, the most whimsical is Life-writing.
1889 J. R. Lowell Latest Ess. (1891) 76 It..comes nearer to him [sc. Plutarch] than any life-writing I can think of.
1997 N.Y. Times Bk. Rev. 8 June 13/1 Virginia Woolf has very mixed feelings about biography or ‘life writing’, as she called it.
2001 N.Y. Rev. Bks. 12 Apr. 54/3 Travel metaphors are irresistible for this gentleman-adventurer, or érivain-voyageur of life writing.
† life-writing adj. Obsolete that writes biographies.
ΚΠ
1772 Ann. Reg. 1771 ii. Misc. Ess. 194/1 This life-writing part of the world.
life zone n. Ecology (a) a zone in which life occurs, or in which the greatest number of living organisms may be found; (spec.) that down to a certain depth in the sea; (b) chiefly North American a geographical area or zone and its associated ecosystems or communities, either on a large scale (a biome) or, more usually, on a small scale (as an altitudinal zone).
ΚΠ
1866 Gentleman's Mag. Mar. 352 The Antwerp crag series presents two conditions of sea-bed, a deepish-water and life-zone formation, corresponding to the ooze-depths of existing seas.
1893 Auk 10 287 Map 2 illustrates the ‘Lower Sonoran Life Zone’, which is ‘the area in which the raising [sic] grape may be successfully produced.’
1949 W. C. Allee et al. Princ. Animal Ecol. xxx. 593 The life zone concept..is useful in the description of altitude zonation in mountains..in spite of a wholly erroneous theoretical base.
1992 Nature Canada Spring 54/3 Biologically,..[the Arctic] is a life zone characterized by a treeless landscape inhabited by hardy dwarf vegetation and a group of animals particularly well adapted to life in an extremely cold and harsh environment.
2002 N.Y. Times (National ed.) 10 Mar. v. 9/5 The miraculous layers of life that these ‘islands’ sustain dramatize Merriam's breakthrough notion of the life zone... Each 1,000-foot rise in elevation is equivalent to traveling 300 miles north.
C4. Compounds in the genitive (13–17th cent. in form lives).Cf. sense 14b. Modern instances are typically not fixed compounds.
a. Chiefly with preceding possessive, in the sense ‘of one's life’, as life's book, life's food, etc.
ΚΠ
OE tr. Bede Eccl. Hist. (Corpus Cambr.) iii. xiv. 216 Ealle his lifes tid [L. omni vitae suae tempore] þæt tacen..he..in his sculdre & on his ceacan bær.
OE Ælfric Homily (Corpus Cambr. 178) in J. C. Pope Homilies of Ælfric (1968) II. 757 Ic ne adiligie heora naman of lifes bec [L. de libro uitæ].
?c1225 (?a1200) Ancrene Riwle (Cleo. C.vi) (1972) 181 God haueð on liues boc writen al þet ha seið.
a1300 (c1275) Physiologus (1991) l. 178 Seke we ure liues fod.
c1430 (c1380) G. Chaucer Parl. Fowls (Cambr. Gg.4.27) (1871) l. 53 Oure present wordis lyuys space Nys but a maner deth.
1600 Certain Prayers in W. K. Clay Liturg. Services Q. Eliz. (1847) 692 On whose life dependeth the life and life's-joy of so many thousands!
1683 T. Tryon Way to Health 613 There is but little Sand left in their Lives Glass.
b.
† life's blood n. Obsolete = lifeblood n. 3.
ΘΚΠ
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
c1635 Witts Triumvirate f. 25 I haue a strange twinkling of my left eye; some call it but Lifes-blood.
† life's day n. Obsolete = life-day n.; cf. bring v. 8c, day n. Phrases 1c.
ΘΚΠ
the world > life > source or principle of life > [noun] > course or span of life
life-dayOE
year-daysOE
timeOE
dayOE
lifeOE
life's timeOE
livelihoodOE
yearOE
lifetimea1300
life-whilea1300
for (also to) term of (a person's) lifea1325
coursec1384
livingc1390
voyage1390
agea1398
life's dayc1425
thread1447
racea1450
living daysc1450
natural life1461
lifeness1534
twist1568
leasec1595
span1599
clew1615
marcha1625
peregrination1653
clue1684
stamen1701
life term1739
innings1772
lifelong1814
pass-through1876
inning1885
natural1891
life cycle1915
puff1967
c1425 J. Lydgate Troyyes Bk. (Augustus A.iv) v. l. 1776 (MED) I shal possede Palladioun duringe my lives day.
c1430 (c1386) G. Chaucer Legend Good Women (Cambr. Gg.4.27) (1879) l. 1624 I wot wel that..myn labour May nat disserue it in myn lyuys day.
a1533 Ld. Berners tr. A. de Guevara Golden Bk. M. Aurelius (1546) sig. Cc.jv We can never passe one good lyves daie.
life's end n. somewhat archaic the end of one's life, one's death.
ΘΚΠ
the world > life > death > [noun]
hensithOE
qualmOE
bale-sithea1000
endingc1000
fallOE
forthsitheOE
soulingOE
life's endOE
deathOE
hethensithc1200
last end?c1225
forthfarec1275
dying1297
finec1300
partingc1300
endc1305
deceasec1330
departc1330
starving1340
passingc1350
latter enda1382
obita1382
perishingc1384
carrion1387
departing1388
finishmentc1400
trespassement14..
passing forthc1410
sesse1417
cess1419
fininga1425
resolutiona1425
departisona1450
passagea1450
departmentc1450
consummation?a1475
dormition1483
debt to (also of) naturea1513
dissolutionc1522
expirationa1530
funeral?a1534
change1543
departure1558
last change1574
transmigration1576
dissolving1577
shaking of the sheets?1577
departance1579
deceasure1580
mortality1582
deceasing1591
waftage1592
launching1599
quietus1603
doom1609
expire1612
expiring1612
period1613
defunctiona1616
Lethea1616
fail1623
dismissiona1631
set1635
passa1645
disanimation1646
suffering1651
abition1656
Passovera1662
latter (last) end1670
finis1682
exitus1706
perch1722
demission1735
demise1753
translation1760
transit1764
dropping1768
expiry1790
departal1823
finish1826
homegoing1866
the last (also final, great) round-up1879
snuffing1922
fade-out1924
thirty1929
appointment in Samarra1934
dirt nap1981
big chill1987
OE Ælfric Lives of Saints (Julius) I. 50 Þa suna..þurhwunodon on ðam soðan geleafan oð heora lifes ende.
c1275 (?a1200) Laȝamon Brut (Calig.) (1963) l. 116 Þis lond he hire lende þat come hir lifes [c1300 Otho liues] ende.
a1500 (a1400) Awntyrs Arthure (Douce) l. 702 A kniȝte of þe table ronde, To his lyues ende.
1637 Bk. Common Prayer Church of Scotl. Catechism That I may continue in the same unto my lives end.
1665 T. Mall Cloud of Witnesses 165 During the reign of King Edward, he did depart from his former Faith and Religion, and so doth continue, and determineth so to do, (as he saith) to his life's end.
1709 Tatler No. 24 This Felicity attending him to his Life's End.
1875 M. Hobson I Likes Good Beer ii. 3 And I'll maintain to my life's end, There's nothing to tipple like beer.
1976 B. Levin in Times 24 Dec. 12/8 Is it any wonder that this music is what I want to hear at my life's end?
† lifesman n. (chiefly in form livesman) Obsolete a living person.
ΘΚΠ
the world > people > person > [noun]
hadc900
lifesmaneOE
maneOE
world-maneOE
ghostOE
wyeOE
lifeOE
son of manOE
wightc1175
soulc1180
earthmanc1225
foodc1225
person?c1225
creaturec1300
bodyc1325
beera1382
poppetc1390
flippera1400
wat1399
corsec1400
mortal?a1425
deadly?c1450
hec1450
personagec1485
wretcha1500
human1509
mundane1509
member1525
worma1556
homo1561
piece of flesh1567
sconce1567
squirrel?1567
fellow creature1572
Adamite1581
bloat herringa1586
earthling1593
mother's child1594
stuff1598
a piece of flesh1600
wagtail1607
bosom1608
fragment1609
boots1623
tick1631
worthy1649
earthlies1651
snap1653
pippin1665
being1666
personal1678
personality1678
sooterkin1680
party1686
worldling1687
human being1694
water-wagtail1694
noddle1705
human subject1712
piece of work1713
somebody1724
terrestrial1726
anybody1733
individual1742
character1773
cuss1775
jig1781
thingy1787
bod1788
curse1790
his nabs1790
article1796
Earthite1814
critter1815
potato1815
personeityc1816
nibs1821
somebody1826
tellurian1828
case1832
tangata1840
prawn1845
nigger1848
nut1856
Snooks1860
mug1865
outfit1867
to deliver the goods1870
hairpin1879
baby1880
possum1894
hot tamale1895
babe1900
jobbie1902
virile1903
cup of tea1908
skin1914
pisser1918
number1919
job1927
apple1928
mush1936
face1944
jong1956
naked ape1965
oke1970
punter1975
eOELifes man [see sense 14b].
a1200 MS Trin. Cambr. in R. Morris Old Eng. Homilies (1873) 2nd Ser. 67 Heorte..habbe nu sehtnesse and luue to ech liues man.
c1390 Castle of Love (Vernon) (1967) l. 1424 Heo seȝen him alyue a lyues mon.
1548 N. Udall et al. tr. Erasmus Paraphr. Newe Test. I. Luke xi. 110 The yearth shal yelde hym again a liuesman on the third daie.
1600 P. Holland tr. Livy Rom. Hist. xl. viii. 1064 It is the..gift..of God that I am a livesman [L. vivus] at this houre.
a1649 G. Abbott Brief Notes Psalms (1651) 563 The Lord..hath now made me a livesman again.
1663 Cup of Coffee (single sheet) Take me then Coffee, drink it scalding hot,..Sleep upon't soundly; when you re-awake, Y'are a lives man again, I'll undertake.
† life's time n. Obsolete = lifetime n.
ΘΚΠ
the world > life > source or principle of life > [noun] > course or span of life
life-dayOE
year-daysOE
timeOE
dayOE
lifeOE
life's timeOE
livelihoodOE
yearOE
lifetimea1300
life-whilea1300
for (also to) term of (a person's) lifea1325
coursec1384
livingc1390
voyage1390
agea1398
life's dayc1425
thread1447
racea1450
living daysc1450
natural life1461
lifeness1534
twist1568
leasec1595
span1599
clew1615
marcha1625
peregrination1653
clue1684
stamen1701
life term1739
innings1772
lifelong1814
pass-through1876
inning1885
natural1891
life cycle1915
puff1967
OE Ælfric Homily (Corpus Cambr. 162) in J. C. Pope Homilies of Ælfric (1967) I. 253 Ælc man hæfð agenne cyre hwæt he lufige on his lifes timan.
c1449 R. Pecock Repressor (1860) 536 For eny certein while or for al hir lyuys tyme.
1654 E. Gayton Pleasant Notes Don Quixot iii. xii. 156 In the lives-time of their dearly Beloveds deceas'd.
1676 T. Shadwell Virtuoso iv. 70 Your Marriage-Bawd, your Canonical-Bawd is worst of all; they betray people for their lives-time.
† life's wet n. (in form liues-wet) Obsolete one's blood.
ΘΚΠ
the world > life > the body > vascular system > blood > types of blood > [noun] > life-blood
heart-blood?c1225
lifeblood1579
life's wet1598
live blood1625
1598 J. Marston Scourge of Villanie i. iv. sig. D3v Cold, writhled Eld, his liues-wet almost spent.
life's work n. = life-work n. at Compounds 3.
ΘΚΠ
society > occupation and work > work > [noun] > other types of work
church worka1225
kirk work1418
fieldwork1441
labour of love1592
life's work1660
shop work1696
outwork1707
private practice1724
tide-work1739
sales-work1775
marshing1815
work in progress1815
life-work1837
relief work1844
sharp practice1847
near work1850
slop-work1861
repetition work1866
side work1875
rework1878
wage-slavery1886
work in progress1890
war work1891
busywork1893
screen work1912
staff-work1923
gig work1927
knowledge work1959
WIP1966
telework1970
playwork1986
laboratory work2002
1660 T. Shepard Parable Ten Virgins vii. 42 Though a soul may live long, and cannot finish its lives work, yet if it finish its dayes work, or hours work.
1860 J. L. Motley Hist. Netherlands (1868) I. i. 15 He was already girding himself for his life's work.
1927 F. Balfour-Browne Insects ix. 249 Any one who is really interested in entomology can now study it with a view to making it his life's work, and the Colonies are employing more and more men trained in Agricultural Entomology.
1996 F. Popcorn & L. Marigold Clicking ii. 195 ‘If you're going to have kids,’ Eric Jonsson added, ‘then you should make them your life's work.’
2006 M. Pollan Omnivore's Dilemma xvii. 318 The hens will be..starved of food and water and light for several days in order to stimulate a final bout of egg laying before their life's work is done.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2009; most recently modified version published online June 2022).

lifev.

Brit. /lʌɪf/, U.S. /laɪf/
Origin: Formed within English, by conversion. Etymon: life n.
Etymology: < life n. Compare earlier lifen v., live v.2
rare.
transitive. To give or bring life to. In later use also: to assign an expected lifetime to (a manufactured component).
ΚΠ
1843 E. Jones Stud. Sensation & Event 67 A glorious echo these hanging cliffs shall roll O'er this great sea; However far it speed, shall speed my soul Thrice lifed with glee.
1880 G. MacDonald Bk. of Strife 27 As to our mothers came help in our birth—Not lost in lifing us, but saved and blest.
1962 L. Lee Three-dimensioned Darkness vii. 98 As many as possible of the component parts of the aircraft are ‘lifed’ in the light of experience, and before that life expires the component is replaced by a new or reconditioned one.

Derivatives

lifing adj.
ΚΠ
1880 G. MacDonald Bk. of Strife 11 I see him all in all, the lifing mind, Or nowhere.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2009; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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