natural lifen.
/ˌnatʃ(ə)rəl ˈlʌɪf/, /ˌnatʃ(ə)rl̩ ˈlʌɪf/, U.S. /ˌnætʃər(ə)l ˈlaɪf/, /ˌnætʃr(ə)l ˈlaɪf/ 1.
a. The duration of a person's life. Chiefly with possessive adjective.
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
1461 in F. B. Bickley Little Red Bk. Bristol (1900) II. 128 They may occupy ther seid wyfes duryng ther naturall lyfe of the seid women.
1555 Charter in R. Hakluyt Princ. Navigations (1589) ii. 305 To haue and enioy the said office of Gouernour, to him the said Sebastian Cabota during his natural life.
1569 R. Grafton Chron. II. 701 Till eyther he had lost his awne naturall lyfe, or vtterly..put vnder hys foes.
1607 in R. Pitcairn Criminal Trials Scotl. (1833) II. 524 To bereif him of his naturall lyffe.
1631 Will 20 Nov. in Wills Doctors' Commons (1908) 95 And I doe hereby give and bequeath all my said partes and shares in the said waterworkes..to my said lovinge wife Dame Elizabeth Middleton, to have and to hould for and dureinge her naturall life.
1766 W. Blackstone Comm. Laws Eng. II. 121 The grant is usually made ‘for the term of a man's natural life’; which can only determine by his natural death.
1818 W. Cruise Digest Laws Eng. Real Prop. (ed. 2) VI. 317 H. Cook devised a messuage to R. Cook for the term only of his natural life.
1859 All Year Round 1 Oct. 543/1 The inventor of the Venetian lamps had his crust..assured to him..for the term of his natural life.
1909 J. London Sel. Stories (1982) 872 Seven times seven bells they must have knocked out of him..and he was discouraged for the rest of his natural life from harboring runaway laborers.
1943 H. Read Politics of Unpolitical i. 6 It has always been recognized that a king might easily degenerate into a tyrant, but his natural life is limited and can at a pinch be artificially shortened.
b. spec. A period of incarceration or other punishment lasting until death. Also attributive.
ΚΠ
1819 J. H. Vaux New Vocab. Flash Lang. in Memoirs II. 225 A man transported for his natural life, is said to be lag'd for his wind.
1974 R. Kurz Lethal Gas iv. 37 The subject's Court appointed attorney..has been successful in having the subject's sentence reduced to Natural Life w/o parole. Revised mittimus received 1-16-60.
2001 New Straits Times (Malaysia) (Nexis) 6 July 1 Wan Roslan faces natural life imprisonment and whipping not less than six strokes, if convicted.
2. In extended use: the length of time for which something remains operational, viable, serviceable, etc.
ΘΚΠ
the world > time > duration > [noun] > lifespan (of material things, etc.)
age1535
life1703
lifetime1822
longevity1842
lifespan1898
natural life1900
1900 in Jrnl. Polit. Econ. (1913) 21 403 If a lathe, the natural life of which might be two years, does not break down before that, I would go to the engineer in charge.
1991 T. Feldman Multimedia in 1990s 63 Even if the value of that software has been recovered, there will be no willingness to replace it until its natural life has expired.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2003; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1461