▪ I. life, n.
(laɪf)
Forms: 1 l{iacu}f, 3–5 lif, lijf, (4 liif, leve, liuf), 4–5 live, 4–6 lyf(f, lyif(f, liff, lyve, 4–7 lyfe, 5 lyyf, 5–6 lief, liffe, lyffe, 4– life. gen. sing. 1 l{iacu}fes, 2–7 lives, 3 lifves, 4–5 lyfes, lyvis, -ys, 4–6 -es, 5 -ez, lyfes, 6 liffis. dat. sing. 1 l{iacu}fe, 2–5 live, 3 liwe, 4–5 lyve; see also alive. pl. 4 lyfis, 4–6 lyves, -is, 4–7 lifes, 5 lywes, lijfis, lyvis, -ess, 6 lyffes, lyfes, lieves, 4– lives.
[OE. l{iacu}f str. neut., corresponds to OFris. lîf neut., life, person, body, OS. lîf neut., life, person (MDu. lijf life, body, Du. lijf body), OHG. lîb masc. and neut., life (MHG. lîp, inflected lîb-, masc., life, body, mod.G. leib masc., body), ON. l{iacu}f neut., life, occas. body (Sw. lif, Da. liv life, body):—OTeut. *lîƀo{supm}, f. Teut. root *lī̆ƀ-, whence live v., OE. bel{iacu}fan belive v., to remain; the ablaut-var. *laiƀ- appears in leave v. The general meaning of the root (Aryan *leip-, loip-, lip-) is ‘to continue, last, endure’; cf. Gr. λῑπαρής persistent.]
I. The condition or attribute of living or being alive; animate existence. Opposed to death.
1. a. Primarily, the condition, quality, or fact of being a living person or animal. Phrases: † to bring (out) of life (see bring v. 8 b); † to do or draw of live, to kill, destroy; † to go of live, to die; while there is life there is hope (and similar phrases); there is life in the old dog yet (and variants): an assertion of continuing competence, strength, etc., notwithstanding evidence to the contrary.
| Beowulf 2471 Þa he of life ᵹewat. c 1200 Trin. Coll. Hom. 197 And te londes men hire.. lacheð, and doð of liue. c 1200 Ormin 9776 Profetess all wiþþutenn gilt Þeȝȝ haffdenn brohht off life. a 1225 Leg. Kath. 252 Blodles & banles & leomen buten liue. c 1250 Gen. & Ex. 201 His licham of erðe he nam, And blew ðor-in a liues blast. Ibid. 3806, .xiiii. ðhusent it haueð slaȝen, And .iiii. score of liue draȝen. Ibid. 3884 Aaron ðo wente of liwe ðor. c 1330 Spec. Gy Warw. 252 Vp he ros þe þridde day From deþ to liue wid-oute nay. c 1374 Chaucer Troylus ii. 1559 (1608) Ioue..bryng hym soone of lyue. c 1400 Destr. Troy 11038 Phylmen, þe freke,..Lut to þe lady, & of his lyff þanket. c 1400 Mandeville (Roxb.) Pref. 1 In þe whilk land it lyked him to take lief and blude of oure Lady Saint Marie. a 1400–50 Alexander 2162 If any life lenge in oure brestis. 1539 R. Taverner Erasmus's Proverbs f. 36v, The sycke person whyle he hath lyfe, hath hope. 1560 J. Daus tr. Sleidane's Comm. 415 [He is] so sicke and diseased, that they can hardlye kepe life in him. 1611 Bible Gen. ii. 20 The mouing creature that hath life. a 1638 Mede Wks. 401 The fire is known by its burning; the life of the body is known by its moving. 1671 J. Crowne Juliana v. 56 Madam, he breathes, and whilst there's life, there's hope. 1676 Dryden Aurengz. i. i. 150 Proof of my Life my Royal Signet made. 1697 Collier Immor. Stage 288 As long as there's Life there's Hope. 1727 J. Gay Fables xxvii. 93 While there is life, there's hope, he cry'd. 1738 Pope Universal Prayer 44 Oh lead me whereso'er I go, Thro' this day's Life or Death. 1765 Blackstone Comm. I. i. 94 Life is the immediate gift of God. 1803 Med. Jrnl. X. 516 Deep inspiration, sighing, and other strong symptoms of life. 1808 Monthly Pantheon I. 366/1 Whilst there is life you know there are hopes! 1859 S. Allen Let. 1 Dec. in D. Ayerst Guardian (1971) x. 134 ‘Are not the advertisements grand?’.. ‘There is life in the old dog yet.’ 1880 L. Morris Ode Life 138 Life! what is life, that it ceases with ceasing of breath? 1908 E. J. Banfield Confessions of Beachcomber ii. ii. 301 While there is life there is hope is evidently Nelly's creed. 1940 Time 15 July 49/1 Tallulah Bankhead demonstrated that there's life in Pinero's old girl yet. |
b. In a wider sense: The property which constitutes the essential difference between a living animal or plant, or a living portion of organic tissue, and dead or non-living matter; the assemblage of the functional activities by which the presence of this property is manifested. Often with defining word, as in
animal,
vegetable,
psychical life.
| 1567 J. Maplet Gr. Forest 25 b, In Plantes..is the life vegetative. Ibid. 26 To apprehende the other life above this [i.e. life in the womb] called sensitive. 1678 Cudworth Intell. Syst. i. i. §27. 1813 Sir H. Davy Agric. Chem. (1814) 54 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 Béclard's Anat. 4 Life is seen in organized bodies only, and it is in living bodies only that organization is seen. 1874 Carpenter Ment. Phys. i. ii. §4 (1879) 120 The Cerebrum,—the instrument of our Psychical or inner life. 1884 F. Temple Relat. Relig. & Sci. vi. (1885) 170 There could have been no life when the earth was nothing but a mass of intensely heated fluid. 1889 J. S. Burdon-Sanderson in Nature 26 Sept. 523 Life is a state of ceaseless change. |
c. Continuance or prolongation of animate existence; opposed to
death. (For
tree,
water,
elixir, etc.
of life, see these
ns.)
(a matter, etc.) of life and (also or) death: (something) on which it depends whether a person shall live or die; hence
fig. (a matter) of ‘vital’ importance.
| c 1000 ælfric Gen. ii. 9 Lifes treow omiddan neorxena wange and treow inᵹehydes godes and yfeles. a 1200 Moral Ode 115 Ech Mon scal hin solf demen to deðe oðer to liue. c 1450 ME. Med. Bk. (Heinrich) 138 Ȝef þe netle be alyue, hit is a synge of lyf. 1690 W. Walker Idiomat. Anglo-Lat. 135 To sit upon life and death on a man, De capite alicujus quærere. 1837 Dickens Let. c 20 Apr. (1965) I. 249 It is matter of life or death to us, to know whether you have got Ainsworth's MS yet. 1887 Spectator 3 Sept. 1174 A thoroughly workable mobilisation scheme..is a matter of life and death to the French. 1898 W. J. Locke Idols x. 134 The marriage could be concealed no longer. It was a matter of life or death. 1950 K. Winsor Star Money iii. xxix. 249, I never have made any man a matter of life or death to me. |
d. Animate existence viewed as dependent on sustenance or favourable physical conditions. (For
necessary of life,
staff of life, see those words.)
† Hence, that which is necessary to sustain life; a livelihood, one's living.
Obs.| c 1250 Gen. & Ex. 176 To fode, and srud, to helpen ðe lif. 1387 Trevisa Higden (Rolls) I. 399 Al þat nedeþ to þe lyue Þat lond bryngeþ forþ ful ryue. 1553 R. Ascham in Lett. Lit. Men (Camden) 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 Satir. Poems Reform. xxviii. 88 Of all the barnis my Lady Seltoun bure, Scho me constranit to make Ilk ane a lyfe. 1604 E. G[rimstone] D'Acosta's Hist. Indies ii. ii. 84 Of necessitie it must be contrarie and vnfit for mans life. 1611 Bible Deut. xx. 19 The tree of the field is mans life. 1615 W. Lawson Country Housew. Garden (1626) 3 And by this meanes your plot shall be fertile for your life. 1655 tr. Com. Hist. Francion ix. 7 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. II. i. 15 Cachao is the only place of Trade in the Country, and Trade is the Life of a Chinese. |
e. Attributed hyperbolically to products of plastic or graphic
art.| 1638 F. Junius Paint. Ancients 77 He shall shew you..what marble got life by the carving-iron of the laborious Praxiteles. 1644 Evelyn Diary 1 Mar. (1819) I. 46 The Ecce Homo..for the life and accurate finishing exceeding all description. |
f. to come to life: to recover as from apparent death; to regain consciousness after a swoon. So
to bring to life.
| 1672 Wiseman Treat. Wounds i. ix. 113 We bled him till he came to life. 1678 Lady Chaworth in 12th Rep. Hist. MSS. Comm. App. v. 52 They saw a man drownding... After some howers he came to lyfe. |
2. fig. Used to designate a condition of power, activity, or happiness, in contrast to a condition conceived hyperbolically or metaphorically as ‘death’. Chiefly in biblical and religious use: The condition of those who are raised from the ‘death of sin’ and are ‘alive unto righteousness’; the divinely implanted power or principle by which this condition is produced; also, the state of existence of the souls of the blessed departed, in contrast with that of the lost.
| c 950 Lindisf. Gosp. John iii. 15 Eᵹhuelc seðe ᵹelefeð in ðæm ne losað ah he hæfeð lif ece. c 1200 Vices & Virtues (1888) 9 Ðat we..swa cumeð forð in to ðe eche liue ðe he hafð us behoten. c 1220 Bestiary 46 Ure driȝten..ros fro dede ðo, vs to lif holden. 1382 Wyclif Col. iii. 3 Ȝour lyf is hid with Crist in God. c 1430 Hymns Virg. 9 To lastynge lijf it wole us lede. c 1449 Pecock Repr. v. xi. 539 It is bettir to a man forto entre sureli into lijf with oon yȝe, oon hond, oon foot, et cætera. 1585 C. Fetherstone tr. Calvin on Acts viii. 25 The seede of life began to be sowen throughout the whole region. 1829 Carlyle in Foreign Rev. IV. 129 If our Bodily Life is a burning, our Spiritual Life is a being-burnt, a Combustion. |
3. a. Animate existence (
esp. that of a human being) viewed as a possession of which one is deprived by death,
esp. in
to lose,
save,
lay down one's life, and similar expressions. Formerly
† the life = one's, his (etc.) life. Often idiomatically conjoined with other
ns., as
life and limb (formerly
† life and member),
life and soul.
life for life: one of the phrases expressing the principle of
lex talionis.
| Beowulf 2751 Þæt ic..mæᵹe æfter maððumwelan min alætan lif and leodscipe. c 1000 ælfric Exod. xxi. 23 Sylle lif wið life, eaᵹe wið eaᵹe [etc.]. ? a 1100 O.E. Chron. an. 978 (Laud MS.) Sume hit ne ᵹedyᵹdan mid þam life. c 1175 Lamb. Hom. 71 Þet lif and saule beon iborȝen. a 1200 Moral Ode 120 Al his lif scal bon suilch boð his endinge. a 1225 Leg. Kath. 2441 Þet lif of mi licome. a 1300 Cursor M. 1970 Þar gas na ransun bot liue for lijf. c 1350 Will. Palerne 994 A manes liif to saue. c 1375 Sc. Leg. Saints ii. (Paulus) 702 Nero gert hym lose þe lyf. a 1400–50 Alexander 1918 Of life & o lym my lege men I charge [etc.]. 1477 Earl Rivers (Caxton) Dictes 1 To dispose my recouered lyf to his seruyce. 1556 Chron. Gr. Friars (Camden) 47 The kynge gave them alle there lyffes & pardynd them. 1632 Lithgow Trav. 357 Our lives and liberty is granted. c 1645 Howell Lett. (1650) I. 335 The Turk..meddles not with life and limb to prevent the sense of compassion which may arise that way. 1658–9 Burton's Diary (1828) III. 235 It is not enough to serve you in those offices, unless they venture life and member. 1685 Evelyn Diary 8 July, [They] sold their lives very dearely. 1719 De Foe Crusoe ii. vi. 140 You have..sav'd my Life. 1743 Bulkeley & Cummins Voy. S. Seas 75 Because he who does not value his own Life, has another Man's in his Power. 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. 1849 James Woodman iii, It must..always be a terrible thing to take a life. 1890 Saintsbury in New Rev. Feb. 136 You take your life in your hands, you rebel, and you win or you don't. |
b. In generalized or collective sense.
| 1841 Lane Arab. Nts. I. 92 He will not be appeased with money, nor with anything but life. 1847 Marryat Childr. N. Forest xx, We must not take more life than is necessary. Mod. The sacrifice of life was enormous. These savages have no regard for human life. |
c. † in, upon, under pain of life: subject to the penalty of death.
† for, upon one's life: on a capital charge.
for (one's) life,
for dear life, etc., so as to save, or, as if to save, one's life. Also
hyperbolically in trivial use,
(I cannot) for my life,
for the life of me (see
for prep. 9 c).
| c 1250 [see for A. 9 c]. 1513 Bradshaw St. Werburge i. 1022 Cease of suche busynesse, in peyne of thy lyue. 1613 Sherley Trav. Persia 50 Enioyning them vpon paine of life to take no other sort of reward. 1632 Lithgow Trav. ii. 76 For my life I could neuer attaine to any perfect knowledge thereof. 1650 Howell Giraffi's Rev. Naples i. 77 That all Cavaliers, under paine of life should deliver their Armes. 1667 Pepys Diary 10 Apr., How Sir Thomas Allen..was tried for his life. a 1715 Burnet Own Time (1724) I. 586 He was not, as they said, now in a criminal Court upon his life. 1726 Swift Gulliver ii. i. 6, I saw our Men..rowing for Life to the Ship. 1809 Malkin Gil Blas xi. ii. ¶10 Not knowing how for the life of him to part with those flattering hopes. 1813, 1831 [see for A. 9 c]. 1842 S. Lover Handy Andy xxi, He kept Reddy..singing away for the bare life. 1843 W. T. Thompson Major Jones' Chron. Pineville 93 He..was climbing for dear life. 1849 [see for A. 9 c]. 1872 B. Jerrold London ii. 23 Hard-visaged men, breathlessly competing for ‘dear life’. 1880 Gladstone in Daily News 16 Mar. 2/8, I cannot, for the life of me, see why it should be struck out. 1887 [see for A. 9 c]. 1921 H. Crane Let. 17 Oct. (1965) 68 The man who would preserve them [sc. feelings] must duck and camouflage for dear life. |
d. In asseverative phrases and oaths, as
† by, for, of my life;
God's life, shortened to 'slife,
life.
† Also in oath-words formed with diminutive suffixes,
lifekins,
lifelikins,
lifelings. Phr.
not on your life, not on any account, by no means.
| a 1400 Cursor M. 2719 (Gött.) At mi gaincum, bi mi lyf [earlier text (Cott.), if I haue lijf; vita comite, Vulg.] A son sal haue sare þi wijf. 1590 Marlowe Edw. II, i. iv. (1598) C, She smiles, now for my life, his minde is chang'd. 1599 Porter Angry Wom. Abingt. vi. (Percy Soc.) 34 Ile holde my life, Your minde was to change maidenhead for wife. 1600 Shakes. A.Y.L. iv. i. 159 By my life, she will doe as I doe. 1601 ― Twel. N. v. i. 188 Odd's lifelings. 1604 Gods life [see god n. 14 a]. 1606 Day Ile of Guls G, Of my life we are come to the birth of some notable knauery. 1611 Middleton & Dekker Roaring Girl D 1 b, Life, sh'as the Spirit of foure great parishes. 1668 Shadwell Sullen Lovers iv. Wks. (1720) I. 72 Cods my life-kins! 1692 R. L'Estrange Fables ccccxxviii. 404 Lifelikins, says she, I know no more Reason I have to Obey my Husband, then my Husband has to Obey me. 1777 Sheridan Sch. Scand. v. ii, Gad's life, ma'am, not at all. 1896 W. C. Gore in Inlander Jan. 149 ‘Say, Jack, are you going to bolt?’ ‘Not on your life.’ 1905 N.Y. Even. Post 19 Aug. 2 The congressman was asked if there had been any gambling during the trip. ‘Not on your life,’ he said. 1913 Kipling Diversity of Creatures (1917) 294 ‘Not on your life!’ says Lundie. 1944 Living off Land 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. 1962 F. Norman Guntz i. 7 My life (I thought) what chance am I going to have if I produce this letter. 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.’ |
e. A vital or vulnerable point of an animal's body; the ‘life-spot’.
| 1850 Scoresby Cheever's Whalem. Adv. iii. (1859) 35 This he did so well as to hit the ‘fish's life’ at once. |
4. a. Energy in action, thought, or expression; liveliness in feeling, manner, or aspect; animation, vivacity, spirit.
spec. in
Cricket, that quality in the pitch which causes the ball to rise abruptly or unevenly after pitching.
| 1583 T. Stocker Civ. Warres Lowe C. iii. 96 a, The rest, full of lyfe in the heeles, saued themselues. 1593 Shakes. Lucr. 1346 When, seelie Groome (God wot) it was defect Of spirite, life, and bold audacitie. 1597 Morley Introd. Mus. 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 26 Rem negligenter agit. He goes carelesslie about the matter. He puts no life into the matter. 1669 Bunyan Holy Citie Pref. A iij, I thought I should not have been able to speak..five words of Truth with Life and Evidence. 1692 Burnet Past. Care ix. 115 That a Discourse he heard with any Life, it must be spoken with some. a 1715 ― Own Time iii. (1724) I. 392 His preaching was without much life or learning. 1838 Lytton Alice xi. ii, There was no lustre in her eye, no life in her step. 1858 Hawthorne Fr. & It. Jrnls. II. 59 The most picturesque aspect of the scene was the life given to it by the many faces. 1884 Manch. Exam. 28 Oct. 5/6 The comedy..is heavy, and all the briskness of actor and actress is exerted in vain to give life to it. 1888 A. G. Steel in Steel & Lyttelton Cricket 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 348 ‘Life’ from the pitch implies the pitch and sting at or with which the ball leaves the ground. |
† b. to give life to: to bring into active use; to impart an impetus to.
Obs.| 1622 G. Wither Christmas Carol iii, Fair Virtue O 3 b, Young Men and Mayds, and Girles & Boyes, Giue life, to one anothers Ioyes. 1622 Lett. to Conde Gondomar in Rushw. Hist. Collections (1659) I. 69 To give life and execution to all Penal Laws now hanging over the heads of Catholicks. 1625 Burges Pers. Tithes 48 The Statute of 32. Hen. 8. was principally intended both to giue life to the former Statute. 1631 T. Adams in Lett. Lit. Men (Camden) 150 To give life and beginning to the publick Lecture. 1721 R. Bradley Philos. Acc. Wks. Nat. 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. |
5. a. The cause or source of living; the vivifying or animating principle; he who or that which makes or keeps a thing alive (in various senses); ‘soul’; ‘essence’. Hence (
poet. nonce-use)
= ‘life-blood’. Also in collocation
life and soul.
| 1340 Hampole Pr. Consc. 1692 Als þe saule es lyf of þe body, Swa þe lyfe of þe saule es God allmyghty. 1382 Wyclif Prov. iv. 13 Hold discipline..kep it, for it is thi lyf. 1606 Shakes. Tr. & Cr. ii. ii. 194 Why? there you toucht the life of our designe. 1607–12 Bacon Ess., Despatch (Arb.) 249 Order, & distribution is the life of dispatche. 1611 Bible Gen. ix. 4 But flesh with the life thereof, which is the blood thereof, shall you not eate. a 1618 Raleigh Disc. Invent. Ships Wks. 1829 VIII. 323 The length of the cable is the life of the ship in all extremities. 1683 Tryon Way to Health iv. (1697) 79 Water and Air are the true Life and Power of every Being. 1712 J. James tr. Le Blond's Gardening 198 'Tis the Life of fine Water-works to be well fed. Ibid. 201 Water-Works are the Life of a Garden. 1715–20 Pope Iliad iv. 609 The warm Life came issuing from the Wound. 1720 Defoe 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 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 Malkin Gil Blas vii. xiii. (Rtldg.) 14 Ballets incidental to the piece are the very life and soul of the play. 1814 Jane Austen Mansf. Park II. i. 9 Sir Thomas was indeed the life of the party. 1844 Dickens Mart. Chuz. xliii, Mr. Pecksniff's young gentlemen were the life and soul of the Dragon. 1861 Hughes Tom Brown at Oxf. iv. (1889) 33 At this very wine-party he was the life of everything. 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 [see borsch]. 1965 Melody Maker 17 July 9 Offstage..Dudley doesn't strike you as being the life and soul of the party. 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. |
b. my life: my beloved, my dearest. Not now in familiar use.
| [a 1225 Leg. Kath. 1531 He is mi lif & mi luue. Ibid. 2478 Mi lif, and mi leofmon, Iesu Crist, mi lauerd.] 1540 Palsgr. Acolastus iii. v. R j b, I can not but I must needes or algates enbrace the my lyfe. 1595 Spenser Colin Clout 16 Colin, my liefe, my life. 1611 Shakes. Cymb. v. v. 226 O Imogen! My Queen, my life, my wife. 1706 Addison Rosamond i. vi. (1707) 12 Where is my Life! my Rosamond! [1731 Swift Strephon & Chloe 208 On Box of Cedar sits the Wife, And makes it warm for Dearest Life.] 1766 Goldsm. Vic. W. xvii, Let us have one bottle more, Deborah, my life. 1837 Dickens Pickw. xiii, ‘P. my dear—’ said Mrs. Pott. ‘My life’, said Mr. Pott. 1847 Tennyson Princess vii. 339 My bride, My wife, my life. |
6. In various concrete applications.
† a. A living being, a person. [So
OS.,
OFris. lîf.]
Obs.| c 1330 R. Brunne Chron. (1810) 27 Sex sonnes and auht douhtres, þo were faire lyues. 13.. Gaw. & Gr. Knt. 1780 Ȝif ȝe luf not þat lyf þat ȝe lye nexte. 1390 Gower Conf. II. 204 Tuo cofres..So lich that no lif..That on mai fro that other knowe. c 1400 Destr. Troy 1499 The last of þos lefe children was a lyffe [printed lysse] faire. 1423 Jas. I Kingis Q. xxviii, Ane wofull wreche that..of euery lyvis help hath nede. 14.. Sir Beues 1963 + 1 (MS. E.) Iosyan, þat ffayre lyff. c 1450 Erle Tolous 562 Than answeryd that lovely lyfe. |
† b. One's family or line.
Obs.| a 1400–50 Alexander 599 Bot of þe lyfe þat he liȝt off he like was to nane. a 1450 Knt. de la Tour 59 And there [in Hell] she [Eve] and her husbonde and all thaire lyff [F. leur lignée] was in prison unto the tyme that God deied on the crosse. |
c. nonce uses. Vitality as embodied in an individual person or thing.
| 1587 Golding De Mornay v. 51 Euery life (if I may so speake) begetteth..issue..in it selfe afore it send it out. 1605 Shakes. Macb. v. viii. 2 Why should I play the Roman Foole, and dye On mine owne sword? whiles I see liues, the gashes Do better vpon them. 1850 Tennyson In Mem. xiii, An awful thought, a life removed, The human-hearted man I loved. 1864 ― En. Ard. 75 Philip..like a wounded life Crept down into the hollows of the wood. |
d. Vitality or activity embodied in material forms; living things in the aggregate.
| 1728–46 Thomson Spring 187 Well-shower'd earth Is deep enrich'd with vegetable life. 1732 Pope Ess. Man i. 215 From the life that fills the Flood, To that which warbles thro' the vernal wood. 1850 Tennyson In Mem. vii, The noise of life begins again. 1858 Hawthorne Fr. & It. Jrnls. (1872) I. 11 The life of the scene, too, is infinitely more picturesque than that of London. 1865 Dickens Mut. Fr. i. xiv, Very little life was to be seen on either bank. |
7. a. (In early use commonly
the life.) The living form or model; living semblance; life-size figure or presentation. Also
life itself.
after, from (or † by) the life: (drawn) from the living model.
as large as († the) life, life-size; hence
humorously, implying that a person's figure or aspect is not lacking in any point. Hence
larger-than-life;
larger-than-lifeness (nonce).
small life: ? somewhat less than life-size.
| 1599 Shakes. Much Ado iii. ii. 110 There was neuer counterfeit of passion, came so neere the life of passion as she discouers it. 1607 Beaum. & Fl. Woman-hater ii. i, It doth shew So neere the life as it were naturall. 1607–12 Bacon Ess. Beauty (Arb.) 210 That is the best part of beauty which a picture cannott expresse, noe nor the first sight of the life. 1625 ― Ess., Friendship (Arb.) 179 The best Way, to represent to life the manifold vse of Frendship. 1634 Peacham Gentl. Exerc. 24 Which shadow..if you draw by the life must be hit at an haires breadth. 1641 Evelyn Mem. (1857) I. 36 A glorious crucifix..greater than the life. 1689 Lond. Gaz. No. 2420/4 Two Medals, One of his Highness the Prince of Orange, done by the Life. 1758 Johnson Idler No. 50 ¶9 The picture is..bigger than the life. 1762–71 H. Walpole Vertue's Anecd. Paint. (1786) I. 229 The figures are less than life, and about half lengths. Ibid. IV. 24 A light flimsy kind of fan-painting as large as the life. 1802 C. Wilmot Let. 17 Dec. in Irish Peer (1920) 129 A beautiful piece of clockwork representing Apollo with his lyre... It was as large as life. 1807 Sir R. C. Hoare Tour Irel. 235 Two curious old portraits..the one of King Henry VIII, the other of Anna Bullen, small life. 1816 W. Hollar Dance Death 7 He was drawing a figure after the 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. c 1840 Lady Wilton Art of Needlework xxi. 334 Birds..being, in proportion to other figures, certainly larger than life, and ‘twice as natural’. 1853 ‘C. Bede’ Verdant Green i. vi, An imposing-looking Don, as large as life, and quite as natural. 1859 Gullick & Timbs Paint. 312 The study from ‘the Life’. 1871 ‘L. Carroll’ Through Looking-Glass vii. 150 It's as large as life, and twice as natural! 1891 G. Moore Impressions & Opinions 89 The illusion is complete; it is just, as the phrase goes, like life itself. 1898 G. B. Shaw Mrs. Warren's Profession ii. i. 176 This is George Crofts, as large as life and twice as natural. 1926 G. Hunting Vicarion i. 21 What she had seen and heard had been life itself! 1930 J. Dos Passos 42nd Parallel 46 Doc Bingham was sitting as large as life in a rocking chair. 1937 M. Allingham Dancers in Mourning i. 12 A larger-than-life edition of his stage self. 1947 L. MacNeice Dark Tower 70 Larger-than-lifeness need not be part of the recipe. 1953 K. Amis Lucky Jim i. 7 Anyway, there it was in the Post as large as life. 1959 Viewpoint July 12 Larger-than-life faces on television. 1966 R. A. Downie tr. O. del Buono's Bond Affair 18 Allen Dulles insisted on regarding James Bond as a larger-than-life character. |
b. to the life: with life-like presentation of or resemblance to the original (said of a drawing or painting); with fidelity to nature; with exact reproduction of every point or detail;
† Formerly
const. of.
† to set oneself out to the life: to adorn oneself with the utmost pains.
| 1603 B. Jonson K. Jas's. Entertain. Wks. (1616) 848 Where⁓in..the very site, fabricke, strength, policie, dignitie, and affections of the citie were all laid downe to life. 1626 Massinger Rom. Actor ii. (1629) D 2, A Tragedie..in which a murther Was acted to the life. 1641 Milton Ch. Govt. v. Wks. 1851 III. 119 To frame out of their own heads as it were with wax a kinde of Mimick Bishop limm'd out to the life of a dead Priesthood. 1647 N. Bacon Disc. Govt. Eng. To Consideration, I propound not this Discourse as a pattern drawn up to the life of the thing. 1662 Stillingfl. Orig. Sacr. ii. vii. §12 The shadow or dark representation of that which was to be drawn afterwards to the greatest life. 1703 Rules Civility 195 To reflect upon a Lady..for having set her self out to the Life in order to some evil Design. a 1758 Ramsay Some of Contents Evergreen vii, The girnand wyfe, Fleming and Scot haif painted to the lyfe. 1809 Malkin Gil Blas ii. vii. ¶20, I can take off a cat to the life. 1825 Lamb Elia ii, Stage Illusion, They please by being done under the life, or beside it; not to the life. 1860 Reade Cloister & H. xxxvii. (1896) 107 Where is the coquette that cannot scream to the life? 1863 Cowden Clarke Shaks. Char. xvii. 427 The several characteristics of the men are set forth to the very life. |
II. With reference to duration.
8. a. The animate terrestrial existence of an individual viewed with regard to its duration; the period from birth to death. Also adverbially,
all my (his, etc.) life:
= in or during all my (etc.) life;
† formerly sometimes without
all.
of one's life, denoting the most important event of its kind in one's life. See also
time n. 6. Phr.
for once in my (etc.) life.
| c 1020 Rule St. Benet (Logeman) i. 10 On eallon heora life. a 1175 Cott. Hom. 225 Noe lefede on all his life niȝon hund ȝeare and fifti. 1297 R. Glouc. (Rolls) 6125 Febleliche he liuede al is lif & deyde in feble deþe. a 1300 Cursor M. 12246 For sagh i neuer nan swilk mi liue. c 1384 Wyclif Sel. Wks. III. 443 Aftur a man deserves while he lyves here schal he be rewardid aftur his lyife. c 1385 Chaucer L.G.W. Prol. 59 Ther loved no wight hotter in his lyve [other texts lyfe]. 1433 Rolls of Parlt. IV. 472/1 [To] receive the saide annuitee, terme of his lyve. 1460 J. Capgrave Chron. (Rolls) 176 That he schuld..nevir his live dwelle in no soile longing to the Kyng of Ynglond. c 1470 G. Ashby Dicta Philos. 680 Poems (E.E.T.S.) 73 Considre that your liff is shorte. 1561 T. Hoby tr. Castiglione's Courtyer i. A ij b, So did he end his lief with glorye. 1611 Bible Prov. xxxi. 12 She will doe him good, and not euill, all the dayes of her life. 1650 Trapp Comm. Num. 50 They would..live all their lives-long in Dalilah's lap. 1718 J. Chamberlayne Relig. Philos. I. xii. §25 This Globe..would be quite dis⁓peopled in the Life of one Man. 1791 Mrs. Radcliffe Rom. Forest i, Early in life he had married Constance Valentia. 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. 1849 Macaulay Hist. Eng. i. I. 47 There is a season in the life both of an individual and of a society, at which [etc.]. 1872 Morley Voltaire 8 Every day of our lives. 1887 A. M. Sullivan Let. 13 Nov. in H. Keller Story my Life (1903) iii. iii. 340 We took Helen to the circus, and had ‘the time of our lives’! 1895 Bookman Oct. 23/1 The disastrous effects of the blunders of his middle 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. |
b. for life: for the remaining period of the person's life.
a lease, grant, etc. for (two, three, etc.) lives: one which is to remain in force during the life of the longest liver of (two, three, etc.) specified persons. Hence
occas. the persons on whose length of life the duration of a lease depends are called the
lives.
| 1470 in Fortescue Abs. & Lim. Mon. (1885) 351 That no patente be made..for terme of lyfe, or yeres countervailing terme of lyffe. 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 Milton Ch. Govt. ii. Introd. Wks. (1847) 43/1 As men buy Leases, for three lives and down⁓ward. 1692 R. L'Estrange Fables xci. (1708) 106 A Gentle⁓man 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. 1705 Addison Italy Wks. 1856 I. 363 The administration of this bank is for life. 1712–14 Pope Rape Lock i. 80 Nymphs..For Life predestin'd to the Gnomes Embrace. 1818 Cruise Digest (ed. 2) IV. 211 To the use of himself for life, remainder to his wife for life. 1834 Macaulay Pitt Ess. (1887) 321 Newcastle offered him..the Duchy of Lancaster for life. 1849 ― Hist. Eng. vi. II. 156 Four thousand pounds a year for two lives. 1885 Act 48 & 49 Vict. c. 77 §7 If any land is comprised in a lease for a life or lives. |
c. The term of duration of an inanimate thing; the time that a manufactured object lasts. In
Physics applied
spec. to the average duration of existence of the members of a population of identical particles or states (equal to the period in which the population decreases by a factor
e).
The half-life is equal to the (mean) life multiplied by log
e 2 (about 0·693).
| 1703 T. N. City & C. Purchaser 210 Mosaick,..an Ornament of much Beauty, and long Life. 1876 Preece & Sivewright Telegraphy 37 From eighteen to twenty months is the average life assigned to them [battery cells]. 1889 Scribner's Mag. Aug. 219/2 The average life of the steel rails. 1892 Sir A. Kekewich in Law Times Rep. LXVII. 141/1 The short life of the company, and the subsequent liquidation. 1903 Rutherford & Soddy in Phil. Mag. V. 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. 1926 R. W. Lawson tr. Hevesy & Paneth's Man. Radioactivity vii. 64 In this so-called ‘normal state’ the hydrogen atom can persist permanently, whereas the ‘life’ of all other stationary states is very short. Ibid. xii. 111 Each group [of radioactive substances] is arranged in the order of diminishing half-value period, and begins with the member of longest life. 1926 Sci. Abstr. A. XXIX. 170 Using the observation that so long as these lines are absorbed, atoms must be in the s3 and s5 states, a determination is made of the mean life of these states. 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. 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. 1968 M. S. Livingston Particle Physics x. 178 The quantity 2πΓ/h is the probability of decay per unit time, or the reciprocal of the mean life τ of the state. Mean life is defined as the time for the population of the state to be reduced to 1/e of its initial value... This means that, because of the finite lifetime of an excited state, the energy of the state cannot be sharply defined but is intermediate within the energy spread Γ. 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. |
d. Imprisonment for life; a life sentence.
slang.| 1903 [see cell v. b]. 1924 E. Wallace Room 13 i. 10 He shot a copper and got life. 1967 [see blow v.1 27 b]. 1975 Times 29 Apr. 4/6 Although the sentence is life, they all want parole. |
9. Life assurance.
a. A person considered with regard to the probable future duration of his life.
a good life: one whose life is exposed to no exceptional risks, and who is likely to live at least to the term assigned as the average ‘expectation’ at his age. So
a bad life,
a first-class life.
b. Any particular amount of expectation of life.
c. ‘An insurance on a person's life; a life insurance policy’ (Ogilvie, 1882).
| 1692–3 Halley in Phil. Trans. XVII. 601 How to make a certain Estimate of the value of Annuities for Lives. Ibid. 602 The Price of Insurance upon Lives ought to be regulated. 1777 Sheridan Sch. Scand. iii. iii, I suppose you're afraid that Sir Oliver is too good a life? 1838 De Morgan Ess. Probab. 212 The rules in the preceding chapter, though the status mentioned are technically called lives, are equally true for any species of circumstances. 1896 Allbutt's 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. |
10. pl. in proverbial expressions referring to tenacity of life.
| 1562 [see cat n.1 13 b]. 1599 Massinger, etc. Old Law v. i, I believe now a father Hath as many lives as a mother! 1859 M{supc}Clintock Voy. ‘Fox’ Arct. Seas 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. |
11. Transferred uses in various games.
Cards (‘
Commerce’). One of three counters, which each player has; so called because, when he has lost all of them, he falls out of the game.
Pool. One of three chances which each player has.
Cricket. The continuation of a batsman's innings after a chance has been missed of getting him out. Similarly in
Baseball.
| 1806–7 J. Beresford Miseries Hum. Life (1826) iii. xxiii, 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. 1856 ‘Capt. Crawley’ Billiards (1858) 120 The first player who loses his three lives has the privilege of purchasing what is called a star. 1865 Bell's Life 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. 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. |
III. 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.
(anything, nothing) in life: ‘in the world’, at all;
such is life!: see
such dem. adj. and pron. 2; similarly
that's life,
life's like that;
to live one's (own) life: to conduct oneself without reference to the opinions of others;
this is the life: an expression of satisfaction;
it's a great life (if you don't weaken): an ironic comment on the difficulties of one's situation;
what a life!: an expression of discontent;
how's life?: how are you faring?
| c 900 tr. Bæda's Hist. iv. xxxi. [xxx.] (1890) 378 Ða sume we ᵹeare for ᵹemynde awriton in ðære bec Cuðbertes lifes. ? a 1100 O.E. Chron. an. 1016 (Laud. MS.) He ᵹeendode his daᵹas..æfter mycclum ᵹeswince..his lifes. c 1175, etc. [see lead v.1 12]. a 1300–1400 Cursor M. 252 (Gött.) Till þaim..þat ledis þair liues [a. 1425 Trin. lyues] in mekil wast. 1513 Douglas æneis iii. v. 66, I leif..and ledis life as ȝe se. 1540 R. Hyrde tr. Vives' Instr. Chr. Wom. (1592) N ij, They that marry for love, shall lead their life in sorrow. a 1598 Spenser Hymn Heavenly Love 183 He our life hath left unto us free. 1667 Milton P.L. vii. 193 To know That which before us lies in daily life. Ibid. xi. 606 Studious they appere Of Arts that polish Life. 1736 Butler Anal. i. iii. Wks. 1874 I. 50 Those persons, whose course of life from their youth up has been blameless. 1796 W. J. Temple Diary 7 Apr. (1929) 167 This interruption is very teasing; but such is Life. 1837 Dickens Pickw. l, ‘Hallo!’ responded that gentleman, looking over the side of the chaise with all the coolness in life. 1843 Dickens Mart. Chuz. (1844) xxix. 347 ‘Sairey,’ says Mrs. Harris, ‘sech is life. Vich likeways is the hend of all things!’ 1849 N. Kingsley Diary (1914) 52 For my part [I] could almost wish myself in the same Latitude..but such is life. 1853 C. Brontë Villette I. xiii. 229 Thinking meantime my own thoughts, living my own life, in my own still shadow-world. 1865 [see such pron. 2]. 1868 M. Pattison Academ. Org. 5 One who owes to College endowments all that he has and is in life. 1872 Morley Voltaire 2 They realised life as a long wrestling with unseen and invincible forces of grace, election, and fore-destiny. 1875 Jowett Plato (ed. 2) I. 221 There is nothing in life that would be a greater gain to me than that. 1879 Mallock (title) Is Life worth living? 1903 ‘T. Collins’ (title) Such is life. 1911 D. H. Lawrence White Peacock iii. iii. 397 At home you cannot live your own life. 1917 Ladies' Home Jrnl. Mar. 46 (Advt.), This is the life. There are two ways to live nowadays. One way is the life that is daily chock full of healthy activity, wholesome fun and lots of fresh air. 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.’ 1919 Wodehouse My Man Jeeves 234 She's glued to a chair, with this-is-the-life written all over her, taking it in through the pores. 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. 1926 S. Jameson Three Kingdoms x. 301 After all, she had chosen to stand apart from him and to live her own life, as the moderns have it. 1926 R. Macaulay Crewe Train xi. 213 This was the life. 1930 J. B. Priestley Angel Pavement i. 49 She groaned as she stuck another sheet of paper into the typewriter. ‘What a life!’ 1933 D. L. Sayers Murder must Advertise i. 10 There goes my thousand quid! Oh, well, that's life. 1935 N. L. McClung Clearing in West xxv. 205 Still Will had his own life to live and must make his own choice. 1935 N. Mitchison We have been Warned v. 511 I've been very busy... How's life? 1943 K. Tennant Ride on Stranger xviii. 202 Oh, it was a great life, if you liked that sort of a life. 1959 M. Gilbert Blood & Judgement ix. 102 We weren't sharing rooms... She was living her life, I was living mine. 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’. 1972 G. Bell Villains Galore viii. 104 ‘Nothing ventured, nothing lost either,’ muttered Boote miserably. ‘Gawd! What a life!’ 1973 J. McClure Four & Twenty Virgins ii. 22 The sports car accelerated away before she reached the end of the path. ‘That's life,’ said Kegg. |
b. The Biblical phrase
this life (
Vulg. hæc vita,
Gr. ἡ ζωή αὕτη, 1
Cor. xv. 19) is used (as also
the or this present life) to denote the earthly state of human existence in contradistinction to
the future life (
occas. another life, etc.), the state of existence after death. (Phr.
to depart this life,
from this life: see
depart v. 7, 8.) Hence arises an occasional use of
life for: Either of the two states of human existence separated by death.
| c 1000 Ags. Gosp. Luke viii. 14 Þa ðe..of carum..þiss lifes synt for-þrysmede. c 1175 Lamb. Hom. 9 Er ure drihten come to þisse liue. c 1375 Sc. Leg. Saints ii. (Paulus) 219 Eftire þis lyfe transitore euire-lestand lyfe is me before. c 1380 Wyclif Serm. Sel. Wks. II. 229 Here in þis liif. 1549 Bk. Com. Prayer, Communion (Prayer Ch. Milit.), All them, whyche in thys transytory life be in trouble, sorowe, nede [etc.]. 1579 Fenton Guicciard. vii. 363 King Phillip..had chaunged this life for a better within the towne of Burgos. 1751 Jortin Serm. (1771) II. xix. 376 This was an effectual confutation of Sadducean notion that there was no life besides the present. 1852 H. Rogers Ecl. Faith (1853) 98 Regard this life—as what it is..a pilgrimage to a better. |
c. A particular manner or course of living: characterized as
good,
bad,
happy,
wretched, etc. Phr.
anything for a quiet life.
| a 1025 Wulfstan Hom. (Napier) 270 Ealle hiᵹ wæron haliᵹes lifes menn. c 1200 Ormin 4516 Þatt mann..maȝȝ..cwemenn Godd wiþþ haliȝ lif. c 1230 Hali Meid. 5 Heo stont þurh heh lif iþe tur of ierusalem. a 1300 Cursor M. 13830 Þe lijf he ledes mai nan lede. 1377 Langl. P. Pl. B. ix. 62 That liueth synful lyf here her soule is liche the deuel. ? a 1400 Arthur 554 He toke þe qwene, Arthourez wyff, Aȝenst goddes lawe & gode lyff. c 1400 Destr. Troy 8939 To discharge me as cheftain, & chaunge my lif. c 1400 Mandeville (Roxb.) viii. 30 Þai er deuote men and ledez pure lyf. 1536 Wriothesley Chron. (1875) I. 33 Queene Katherin..departed from her worldlie lief at Bugden. 1594 Hooker Eccl. Pol. i. x. §2 All men desire to lead in this world a happy life. 1611 Tourneur Ath. Trag. v. ii. Wks. 1878 I. 139 My powertie compels My life to a condition lower than My birth or breeding. 1624 T. Heywood Captives (1885) iii. iii. 169 Anythinge For a quiett lyfe. 1638 Baker tr. Balzac's Lett. (vol. II.) 213 One that partakes of the life of a schollar and of a Courtier. 1754 Earl of Chatham Lett. Nephew iv. 20 Be sure to associate..with men of decent and honourable lives. 1759 Townley (title of play) High life below stairs. 1800 M. Edgeworth Parent's Assistant (ed. 3) VI. 123 Any thing for a quiet life. 1837 Dickens Pickw. xlii. 463 Anythin' for a quiet life, as the man said ven he took the sitivation at the light-house. 1847 Marryat Childr. N. Forest xiii, They live a roving life. 1859 Tennyson Idylls Ded. 24 Wearing the white flower of a blameless life. 1875 Jowett Plato (ed. 2) III. 151 The life of Sparta was the life of a camp. 1968 ‘L. Marshall’ Blood on Blotter v. 40 I'm a born appeaser... Anything for a quiet life. |
d. In
mod. use: The conspicuously active or practical part of human existence; the business, active pleasures, or pursuits of the world. Often with reference to social gaieties or vicious pleasures,
esp. in
phr. to see life. Also, the position of participating in the affairs of the world, of being a recognized member of society;
esp. in phrases
to begin life or
enter life,
to be settled in life.
| 1771 Mackenzie Man Feel. (1886) 26 She had been ushered into life (as that word is used in the dialect of St. James's) at seventeen. 1784 Unfort. Sensib. II. 182 The disadvantages of entering life without money. 1809 Malkin Gil Blas i. i. ¶5, I was dying to see a little of life. 1819 Sporting Mag. V. 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. 1972 L. Meynell Death by Arrangement i. 9 The spires of Oxford could go on dreaming..for all he cared; he set about getting himself a degree in the university of life. |
e. the life of the mind: intellectual or aesthetic pursuits, scholarship; meditation, the realm of the imagination.
| 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. 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. 1972 Guardian 1 Nov. 14/5 Universities exist to promote the life of the mind... They should create and discover knowledge. |
13. A written account of a person's ‘life’ (sense 12); a biography. So
Life and Times, a biography combined with a study of the public events of the character's lifetime;
life-and-work(s, a biography combined with a study of the writings of the subject.
| [c 900: see 12.] a 1225 St. Marher. 317 Hit were god thet hi radde hire lyf. c 1375 Sc. Leg. Saints Prol. 28, I writ þe lyf of sanctis sere. c 1386 Chaucer Manciple's T. 50 Thus writen olde clerkes in hir lyves. c 1450 St. Cuthbert (Surtees) 967 Saint cuthbert lyfe may he rede. 1641 J. Jackson True Evang. T. i. 42 Many for feare fled into desarts and caves, witnesseth S. Ierome in the life of Paul the Eremite. 1758 Johnson Idler No. 102 ¶2 Few authors write their own lives. 1849 Macaulay Hist. Eng. vii. II. 203 The fifty poets whose lives Johnson has written. 1850 L. Hunt Autobiog. I. Pref. 6 Coleridge's Literary Life is professedly autocritical. c 1889 W. Pater Let. 30 Apr. (1970) 94, I wish I could undertake a life for your admirable Series. 1933 J. Thurber (title) My life and hard times. 1951 G. Greene End of Affair v. v. 204 ‘You seem interested in General Gordon.’ ‘They want me to do a Life.’ 1957 Times Lit. Suppl. 25 Oct. 640/2 Mr. Wilson's life-and-work summaries are excellent. 1959 Listener 9 Apr. 643/2 This is to be a life-and-works, not pure biography. Ibid. 3 Dec. 1005/1 It is a ‘Life’, not a ‘Life and Times’, that he has written. 1962 Ibid. 15 Nov. 804/1 To use a man's letters and all related correspondence to produce a reasonably short life and times. 1975 Listener 16 Jan. 93/1 Cavafy is..more biographical than critical, but a ‘life’ was needed and this is the fullest so far. |
† IV. 14. Phrases formed with preps. with the meaning ‘alive’.
a. on live (
OE. on l{iacu}fe),
o live, etc.: see
alive.
b. upon live.
| c 1374 Chaucer Troylus ii. 981 (1030) Þe beste harpour vpon lyue. c 1400 Destr. Troy 11275 Ne ȝou sechis no socour..Of no lede vppon lyue. c 1420 Anturs of Arth. 279 Es noghte a lorde in þat lande appone lyfe leuede. |
c. of live, later
of life.
| c 1375 Cursor M. 7934 (Fairf.) Be god of liue [Cott. o-liue, Gött. a-liue] he square his aþ. 1375 Barbour Bruce i. 293 Wes nane off lyve that hym ne dred. c 1435 Torr. Portugal 299 Alle men of lyve wakythe hym nowght. 1444 Rolls of Parlt. V. 70/1 If they ben of lyff. a 1658 Little Musgrave x. in Child Ballads II. 244 As thou art a man of life. |
d. to live (
OE. tó l{iacu}fe),
north. atte live.
| c 1000 ælfric Num. xxxi. 15 Moises..axode hwi hiᵹ heoldon þa wifmenn to life. c 1250 Gen. & Ex. 629 And leten [weren] ðe oðre to liue gon. c 1320 Sir Tristr. 1022 Wheþer our to liue go, He haþ anouȝ of þis. c 1375 Cursor M. 5180 (Fairf.) Bot I ne kepped na langer atte liue. |
e. in live,
in lif(e,
with life.
| c 1250 Gen. & Ex. 1364 To sechen ysaac hom a wif, Of his kinde ðe ðor was in lif. a 1300 Cursor M. 1839 Na creatur in liue [Fairf. on liue]. c 1375 Ibid. 6492 (Fairf.) Atte he was liuande and in life sulde be. a 1425 Ibid. 11834 (Trin.) Miȝt no mon wiþ lif [Fairf. in life, Gött on lijf] haue more. |
f. of lives,
on lives,
in lives. [
Cf. ]
| c 1250 Gen. & Ex. 2834 If hise breðere of liues ben. a 1300 Cursor M. 8373 Þou has in liues Mani childer wit þi wiues. Ibid. 9676 In all þis world left [na] ma in liues [Trin. on lyues]. Ibid. 6794 Ȝour barns haf na faders in liues [c 1375 Fairf. on liuis]. |
† V. 15. Lives (
OE. l{iacu}fes), the
gen. sing. used
a. predicatively
= alive;
occas. as
n., those who are alive, the living.
| c 900 tr. Bæda's Hist. v. xvii. [xix.] (1890) 462 He..nemne ðynre eðunge anre ætywde þæt he lifes wæs. c 1175 Lamb. Hom. 31 He nat to soðe þet heo beoð liues. c 1250 Gen. & Ex. 3802 He..Ran and stod tuen liues and dead. c 1300 Havelok 1307 Al..That euere was in Denemark lyues. 13.. Guy Warw. (A.) 5459 Niȝt no day swiken Y nille, Liues or deþes þat ich him se. c 1380 Sir Ferumb. 3685 Y nolde þe lete lyues bee. |
b. attributively
= live, living.
| c 1200 Trin. Coll. Hom. 67 Habbe nu sehtnesse and luue to ech liues man. c 1320 Cast. Love 1422 Heo seȝen him alyue a lyues-mon. c 1386 Chaucer Merch. T. 620 No lyues creature Be it of fyssh, or bryd, or beest, or man. c 1450 Lonelich Grail xxxix. 373 Non lyves body there-Inne he say. 1548 Udall Erasm. Par. Luke xi. 110 The yearth shal yelde hym again a liuesman on the third daie. ? a 1550 in Dunbar's Poems (1893) 324 Now glaidith euery liffis creature. 1600 Holland Livy xl. viii. 1064 It is the..gift..of God that I am a livesman [L. vivus] at this houre. |
VI. Combinations.
16. General combs.
a. simple
attrib., as
life-activity,
life-air,
life-anger,
life-bark,
life-battle,
life-beauty,
life-body,
life-centre,
life-chance,
life-course,
life-current,
life-demand,
life-drama,
life-electron,
life-experience,
life-flame,
life-flow,
life-food,
life-germ,
life-group,
life-guidance,
life-habit,
life-idea,
life-instinct,
life-journey,
life-mate,
life-meaning,
life-mystery,
life-orientation,
life-path,
life-pattern,
life-phase,
life-plan,
life-principle,
life-process,
life-quick,
life-responsibility,
life-situation,
life-space,
life-story,
life-stream,
life-stuff,
life-tackle,
life-thread,
life-transit,
life-urge,
life-vein,
life-wish,
life-wreck, etc.
| 1914 R. M. Jones Spiritual Reformers 16th & 17th Cent. p. xvii, Undivided faith attitudes always liberate within the field of consciousness energy for *life-activity. 1937 R. A. Wilson Birth of Lang. 83 The modern error..of characterizing life-activity as mechanism. |
| 1820 Keats Hyperion i. 119 Space regioned with *life-air. |
| 1924 Lawrence & Skinner Boy in Bush 203 It was the anger, the deep, burning *life-anger which was the kinship. |
| 1847 Card. Wiseman Unreality Anglican Belief Ess. 1853 II. 421 Seated at the helm of his *life-bark, that defies every storm. |
| 1837 Carlyle Fr. Rev. I. i. ii, He marches and fights, with victorious assurance, in this *life-battle. |
| a 1843 Southey Comm.-pl. Bk. IV. 274 The trees in their full *life-beauty. |
| 1920 S. Alexander Space, Time & Deity II. 355 Hunger and thirst..are the affections of its *life-body. 1923 D. H. Lawrence Birds, Beasts & Flowers 54 Fragile-tender, fragile-tender life-body, More fearless than iron all the time. |
| 1902 Westm. Gaz. 2 Apr. 10/2 As a *life-centre Lake Eyre has long lost its importance. 1942 R. A. Knox In Soft Garments xi. 85 We have got to go back to the life of Jesus of Nazareth, isolating the life-centre from which this vast organism of Christianity has sprung. |
| 1944 Politics I. 273/2 However strongly *life chances may be differentiated, this fact in itself..by no means gives birth to ‘class action’. 1958 W. J. H. Sprott Human Groups 60 The life-chances of children..are almost entirely determined by their position in the kinship scheme. |
| a 1930 D. H. Lawrence Phoenix (1936) v. i. 609 This reversal of the *life-course. 1970 R. J. Hollingdale tr. Schopenhauer's Ess. & Aphorisms 144 The entire life-course, i.e., the inner and outer history, of each one [sc. man] differs..from that of all the others. |
| 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. |
| 1929 D. H. Lawrence Pansies 21 A new demand on his intelligence, A new *life-demand. |
| 1872 Porcupine 12 Oct. 443/2 He wanted to be left to work out his own *Life-Drama. 1915 D. H. Lawrence Rainbow x. 262 On Easter Sunday the life-drama was as good as finished. |
| a 1930 ― Etruscan Places (1932) 58 So within each man is the quick of him..some spark, some unborn and undying vivid *life-electron. |
| 1852 Robertson Serm. Ser. iii. xiii. 160 Blessed is the man..whose *life-experience has taught a confiding belief. |
| 1906 Macm. Mag. Apr. 436 Two of these *life-flames were burning brightly..in the adjacent theatre. 1960 Spectator 14 Oct. 556 English is the true education of the life-flame. |
| 1903 Ibid. 11 Apr. 565 The *life-flow of justice..ceased to course through her heart. a 1930 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. |
| c 1475 Pict. Voc. in Wr.-Wülcker 788/20 Hic victus, *lyfefode. |
| 1875 E. White Life in Christ i. (1876) 12 *Life-germs, which are all born together, do not die together. |
| 1849 Murchison Siluria ii. (1867) 24 Clearly developed and abundant *life-groups. |
| 1891 C. L. Morgan Animal Sk. 214 To watch his *life-habits with sympathetic interest. |
| 1923 D. H. Lawrence Kangaroo xvi. 338 As some great *life-idea cools down and sets upon them. |
| 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 Life instinct [see death-instinct (death n. 19)]. |
| 1831 Carlyle Sart. Res. (1858) 182 Some months of our *Life-journey. |
| 1906 Westm. Gaz. 17 Feb. 6/3 Each with the *life-mate who should guide his way. 1922 Joyce Ulysses 413 Faithful lifemate. |
| 1923 D. H. Lawrence Kangaroo xii. 283 It is gruesome, with no *life-meaning. |
| 1927 ― Lovely Lady (1932) 230 He deemed it [sc. sex], as the Chinese do, one of the great *life-mysteries. |
| 1936 Wirth & Shils tr. Mannheim's Ideology & Utopia i. i. 22 The point of view of *life-orientation and conduct. 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. |
| 1950 Psychiatry XIII. 2 He [sc. Freud] provides the texts..for contradictory *life⁓paths and social policies. 1955 Auden Shield of Achilles iii. 76 A fortuitous intersection of life-paths. |
| 1920 T. P. Nunn Education i. 6 There is no limit to the number of *life-patterns into which good or blameless actions may be woven. 1972 Sci. Amer. Jan. 39/1 Although sex-role ideology may be developed in early childhood, it is usually not until adolescence that a girl begins to apply her system of beliefs to her life pattern. |
| 1849 Miss Mulock Ogilvies (1875) 28 The real nature of the *life-phase which was opening upon her. |
| 1849 Robertson Serm. Ser. i. xv. (1866) 257 Each man..must take up his *life-plan alone. |
| 1851 H. Melville Moby Dick III. xxi. 146 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. |
| 1889 Mivart Truth 389 Our merely organic *life-processes. |
| 1923 D. H. Lawrence Stud. Classic Amer. Lit. vi. 119 Nowadays society is evil. It finds subtle ways of torture, to destroy the *life-quick, to get at the life-quick in a man. |
| 1928 ― Lady Chatterley x. 131 What man with a spark of honour would put this ghastly burden of *life-responsibility upon a woman. |
| 1936 Wirth & Shils tr. Mannheim's Ideology & Utopia i. i. 10 Constantly varying social strata and *life-situations. 1969 America 5 July 17/2 The mass media have formed many of our responses to life situations. |
| 1935 Psychol. Abstr. Jan. 3/2 The psychological *life-space (Lebensraum) is a general hodological space, which shows certain relativities. 1957 R. K. Merton Social Theory (rev. ed.) 384 The social life-space of an individual. |
| 1853 Jerdan Autobiog. III. 51 The self-revelations I have deemed essential to my *life-story. 1930 C. Beaton Diary Dec. in Wandering Yrs. (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.’ |
| 1879 Browning Dram. Idylls 128 ‘Look unto me and be ye saved!’ saith God: ‘I strike the rock, outstreats the *life-stream at my rod!’ 1941 Wyndham Lewis Let. 10 Aug. (1963) 295 The character..is so deeply stained with the deposits on the obscure bed of the life-stream. |
| 1880 Wesleyan-Methodist Mag. Aug. 621/1 To say that the *life-stuff of the lowest fungus and that of the most powerful human brain are identical, is absurd. 1956 A. H. Compton Atomic Quest 160 The life-stuff of intense effort. |
| 1831 Carlyle Sart. Res. (1858) 38 The same viscera, tissues, livers, lights, and other *Life-tackle. |
| 1862 Merivale Rom. Emp. (1865) VI. l. 210 The *life-thread..had been severed by the fatal shears. |
| 1843 Carlyle Past & Pr. iv. iv, In this your brief *Life-transit. |
| 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 18, I had become an automaton—little better than a beetle obeying the secret dictates of what I believe they call the Life-Urge. |
| c 1530 Hickscorner 117 Death.. Taketh his swerde and smyteth asonder the *lyfe vayne. |
| 1944 R. Lehmann Ballad & Source 13 A *life-wish so crackling with energy that it could overcome no matter what minatory fate. |
| 1890 ‘Rolf Boldrewood’ Miner's Right (1899) 166/1 Failures and *life-wrecks. |
b. Objective and
obj. gen., as
life-abhorring,
life-affirming,
life-bearing,
life-begetting,
life-breathing,
life-bringing,
life-creating,
life-denying,
life-destroying,
life-devouring,
life-enhancing,
life-hugging,
life-outfetching,
life-poisoning,
life-preserving,
life-quelling,
life-reaving,
life-rendering,
life-renewing,
life-restoring,
life-sapping,
life-sustaining,
life-working, (etc.)
adjs.;
life-brightener,
life-denier,
life-enhancer,
life-lover.
| 1812 Byron Ch. Har. i. lxxxiii, *Life-abhorring gloom. |
| 1947 A. Einstein Mus. 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. 1966 Observer 6 Nov. 27/4 This instinctual, familial, life-affirming note of Tolstoy's. |
| 1867 G. Macdonald Poems 13 This old *life-bearing earth. |
| 1648 Herrick Hesper. (1869) 175 Stay but till my Julia close The *life-begetting eye. |
| 1819 Shelley Prometh. Unb. ii. i, The folded depth of her *life-breathing bosom. |
| 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. 1922 Joyce Ulysses 497 It's a lifebrightener, sure. |
| 1561 T. Norton Calvin's Inst. iv. 121 Y{supt} *lifebringing worde of the Father. |
| 1868 J. H. Newman Verses Var. Occas. 187 *Life-creating Paraclete. |
| 1955 L. P. Hartley Perfect Woman xxiii. 202 Jeremy, with his insistence on rules and regulations, his instinct for decorum in all things, seemed to her a spoil-sport and a *life-denier. |
| 1962 J. B. Priestley Margin Released ii. v. 137 He would be twisted..malevolent, *life-denying. 1973 Times Lit. Suppl. 21 Dec. 1554/1 Dame Rebecca's Augustine is..introspective and life-denying, disgusted by physical existence... He bequeathed to posterity a complex of life-denying and art-denying ideas. |
| a 1600 in Farr S.P. Eliz. (1845) II. 437 More strong then *life-destroying death. |
| 1590 Spenser F.Q. ii. vii. 17 Avarice..kindled *life-devouring fire. |
| 1955 S. Spender Making of Poem ii. vi. 102 The golden Romantic poet then is more than *life-enhancer... He is the magician who..turns all his experience..into molten imagination. 1964 Economist 8 Aug. 530/2 That purely modern life-enhancer, the private car. |
| 1896 B. Berenson Florentine Painters xi. 67 The contemplation of his [sc. Leonardo da Vinci's] personality is *life-enhancing as that of scarcely any other man. 1960 Guardian 18 Nov. 7/6 His passionately serious novel..is a life-enhancing work. 1971 Ibid. 4 Jan. 10/2 The search for safer life-enhancing drugs. |
| 1633 Ford Love's Sacr. v. iii, Let *life-hugging slaves..be loath to die! |
| 1597 Middleton Wisd. Sol. i. 1 Her *life-infusing speech doth thus begin. |
| 1675 Brooks Gold. Key Wks. 1867 V. 203 Making good the philosopher's notion, that man is a *life-lover. |
| 1647 H. More Oracle 79 In friendly feasts, and *life-outfetching kisse. |
| 1592 Shakes. Ven. & Ad. cxxiii, *Life-poisoning pestilence. |
| 1590 ― Com. Err. v. i. 83 *Life-preseruing rest. 1895 S. R. Hole Tour Amer. 24 Life-preserving belts. |
| 1632 Lithgow Trav. x. 10 Each halfe houre a hell of infernall paine, and betweene each torment, a long distance of *life-quelling time. |
| 1602 Carew Cornwall 58 *Lif-reauing knocks. |
| 1602 Shakes. Ham. iv. v. 146 Like the kinde *Life-rend'ring Politician. |
| 1781 Cowper Conversat. 504 Your heart shall yield a *life-renewing stream. |
| 1781 ― Hope 456 The trumpet of a *life-restoring day. |
| 1909 Daily Chron. 3 Sept. 1/1 The weather improved, but there still remained a light *life-sapping wind which drove despair to its lowest recess. 1928 A. Huxley in Sunday Dispatch 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. |
| 1645 Quarles Sol. Recant. v. 17 His very *life-sustaining diet. 1862 H. Spencer First Princ. ii. ix. §80 (1875) 241 Life-sustaining power. |
| 1613 Jackson Creed ii. ii. iii. §8 The silliest soule among them, might sooner bee partaker of their *life-working sense. 1855 Pusey Doctr. Real Presence Note S. 638 Although the nature of the flesh is in itself powerless to give life, yet it will inwork this when it has the life-working Word. |
c. Instrumental and parasynthetic, as
life-clouded,
life-crowded,
life-deserted,
life-eyed,
life-oriented,
life-penetrated,
life-sentenced,
life-teeming,
adjs.| 1921 D. H. Lawrence Tortoises 18 Life establishing the first eternal mathematical tablet, Not in stone..or bronze, but in *life-clouded..tortoise-shell. |
| 1839 Bailey Festus (1852) 132 Its seas *life-crowded. |
| 1727–46 Thomson Summer 818 Solitary tracts Of *life-deserted sand. |
| 1839 Bailey Festus (1852) 170 O beauty, holy and divine, *Life-eyed, soul-crowned. |
| 1968 Sun (Baltimore) 4 July A 16/3 Speakers were using such terms..as *life-oriented curriculum..and multi-media and multi-mode curriculum. |
| 1893 Month Jan. 52 A potent and *life-penetrated organism. |
| 1901 Chambers's Jrnl. Nov. 744/2 This hapless man had completed seventeen of the twenty years which all *life-sentenced prisoners must serve before release on license. |
| 1847 Herschel tr. Schiller's Spaziergang 3 *Life-teeming fields. |
d. In adverbial relations of various kinds, chiefly with
adjs. and
pples. = ‘in, of, for, with, or as life’; as
life-bereft,
life-blissful,
life-divine,
life-empty,
life-lengthened,
life-lorn,
life-lost,
life-old,
life-spent,
life-stupid,
life-sweet,
life-thirsting,
life-weary, (
life-weariness);
life-struggle.
† Also
occas. = lifelike, as
life expression.
| 1896 Sir T. Martin Virgil vi. 219 The bodies *life-bereft Of heroes of renown. |
| 1923 D. H. Lawrence Birds, Beasts & Flowers 54 Flaked out and come unpromised, The tree being life-divine, Fearing nothing, *life-blissful at the core Within iron and earth. |
| 1921 ― Let. c 8 May (1962) II. 653 Everybody nice, but rather spent, rather *life-empty. |
| 1621–31 Laud Serm. (1847) 98 Another King, but the same *life expression of all the royal and religious virtues of his father. |
| a 1770 Chatterton in Europ. Mag. (1804) XLV. 86 The drowning, *life-infatuate fool. |
| 1608 Sylvester Du Bartas ii. iv. iv. Decay 10 *Life-lengthned Ezechiah. |
| 1871 Palgrave Lyr. Poems 80 The *life-lorn hillside. |
| 1598 S. Rowlands Betray. Christ G ij, His *life-lost blood. |
| 1859 H. Kingsley G. Hamlyn (1900) 87/2 The rupture of *life-old associations. |
| 1633 Ford Broken H. iv. ii, *Life-spent Penthea. |
| 1898 Q. Rev. July 103 The bitter *life-struggle of primitive society. |
| 1922 D. H. Lawrence Fantasia of Unconscious vii. 115 We are really far, far more *life-stupid than the dead Greeks. |
| 1871–4 J. Thomson City Dreadf. Nt. x. vii, Deathstill, *lifesweet, with folded palms she lay. |
| 1859 Dickens T. Two Cities iii. ix. (1872) II. 174 A *life-thirsting..juryman. |
| 1870 E. Peacock Ralf Skirl. III. 168 His illness had been more *life-weariness than organic disease. |
| 1592 Shakes. Rom. & Jul. v. i. 62 The *life-wearie taker may fall dead. 1866 Carlyle Remin. (1881) I. 112 The most life-weary looking mortal I ever saw. |
e. In
adj. or
advb. relation: Lasting for a life-time, lifelong; during one's whole life, for life.
| 1648 Herrick Hesper. (1869) 117 Though hourely comforts from the Gods we see, No life is yet life-proofe from miserie. 1773 Gentl. Mag. XLIII. 618 A bill for raising 265,000l. by life-annuities. 1791 Gibbon Autobiog. (1896) 341 The heir most gratefully subscribed an agreement which rendered my life-possession more perfect. 1813 J. Forsyth Excurs. Italy 85 Extending the livelli, or life-leases. 1840 Carlyle Heroes (1858) 224 Working-out his life-task in the depths of the Desert there. 1849 Grote Greece ii. xlvi. V. 483 The life-sitting elders at Athens. 1868 M. Pattison Academ. Org. v. 127 Colleges were homes for the life-study of the highest and most abstruse parts of knowledge. 1884 Symonds Shaks. Predecess. Pref. 9 Elizabethan Dramatic Literature is..important enough to occupy a man's life-labours. 1893 Pall Mall Mag. Christmas No. 224 He..had received a life sentence. |
f. In senses relating to
Art:
= ‘from the life or living model’, as
life-drawing,
life-study; ‘for the study of the life’, as
life academy,
life-class,
life-school; or ‘imparting life’, as
life-touch.
| 1849 Chambers's Inform. II. 638/2 In London and elsewhere there are *life academies. |
| 1891 A. Beardsley Let. 13 Oct. (1971) 30, I eventually selected the Impressionist Academy as my school of art... It will not be so very long before I get into the *life class. 1897 Mag. 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. |
| 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. |
| 1899 M. Deane Bk. Dene, etc., 85 The difficulty of obtaining a *life-study of a..phœnix. |
| 1668 Dryden Evening's Love Pref., It is fancy that gives the *life-touches. 1678 Norris Coll. Misc. (1699) 173 Moses drew out the main Lineaments, the Skeleton of the Picture,..but Christ..gave it all it's Graces, Air, and Life-touches. |
17. Special combinations:
life-arrow, a barbed arrow with a line attached, which is fired from a gun in order to establish communication with a ship in distress (Cassell 1884);
life-assurance (see
assurance 5);
life-belt, a belt of inflated indiarubber, of cork, or other buoyant material, used to support the body in the water;
life-breath, the breath which supports life; also
fig.;
life-buoy (see
buoy n. 1 b);
life-company, a life-insurance company;
† life-cord = life-string;
life-craft, a small craft, carried on board a larger one, by which escape may be made in an emergency;
† life-dead, suffering a living death;
life-drop, a drop of one's heart's-blood;
life-estate, an estate, the tenure of which is measured by a person's life:
life expectancy, expectation of life; also
transf. and
attrib.;
life-force, vital energy; so
life-forcer, a believer in a philosophy of the
élan vital;
life-gun, a gun used for sending life-saving apparatus to ships;
life-history, (
a)
Biol.,
= life cycle; also
transf. with reference to inanimate things; (
b) life-story, the narrative of the career of a person;
life-hold, applied to property which is held for a life or lives; hence
life-holder, one who holds such property;
life-index (see
quot. 1915);
life-insurance (see
insurance 4); so
life-insurance policy [
policy n.2]; also
fig.;
life-interest, an interest or estate which terminates with the life of the holder or some other person;
life-jacket, a life-saving contrivance in the form of a jacket;
life-knot (see
quot.);
life-member, one who has acquired lifelong membership of a library, society, etc.; so
life membership;
life-mortar, a mortar for discharging a life-rocket (Ogilvie, 1882);
life net U.S. (see
quot. 1969);
life-office, ‘an office or institution where life-insurances can be effected’ (Cassell);
life-peer, a peer whose title lapses at his death; so
life-peerage; also
life-peeress;
life-plant, a name for plants of the genus
Bryophyllum (family Crassulaceæ), which will grow without being rooted in soil;
life-policy = life-insurance policy;
life-raft, a kind of raft for saving life in a shipwreck;
life-rate, ‘the rate or amount for which a life is insured’ (Ogilvie);
† life-regiment, ? a regiment of life-guards;
life-ring N. Amer., a life-buoy;
life-rocket, a rocket which carries with it a rope to establish communication with those on board a ship in distress (Ogilvie);
life-root, the Golden Ragwort,
Senecio aureus (
Syd. Soc. Lex. 1888);
life science, any of the sciences (such as zoology, bacteriology, or sociology) which deal with living organisms; such sciences collectively;
life-seat, a seat contrived to be a life-saving appliance in case of a boat being capsized;
life-shot, ‘a shot carrying a line, and used for the same purpose as a life-arrow’ (Cassell);
† life-sin, actual sin;
† life-sith, lifetime;
life-span [
span n.1 4], lifetime; period of duration (of an animate or inanimate thing);
† life-spencer, a cork jacket for saving life at sea;
life-spot Whaling, the vulnerable point behind the fin of the whale into which the lance is thrust to kill the animal (
Cent. Dict.);
life-spring, the spring or source of life;
life-string, a string or nerve supposed to be essential to life;
pl. what is essential to the support of life;
life-support a., applied to equipment designed to make possible the continued normal functioning of the body in hostile or dangerous environments;
life-table, ‘a statistical table exhibiting statistics as to the probability of life at different ages’ (Webster 1864);
life-tenant = life-holder; so
life-tenancy;
life test, a test made on a sample of components in specified operating conditions, either for a certain length of time or until failure occurs, to determine the reliability of the components; hence (with hyphen) as
v. trans., to perform a life test on;
life-testing vbl. n.;
† life-thraw, lifetime;
life-tide,
† (
a) ? lifetime; (
b) the tide or stream of life;
life-token = life-index;
life-tree = ‘tree of life’;
life vest U.S. = life-jacket;
life-while arch., lifetime;
life-work, the work of a lifetime; the work which is the object of a person's whole life;
life-world Philos. [
tr. G.
lebenswelt], all the immediate experiences, activities, and contacts that make up the world of an individual, or of a corporate, life;
life-writer, a biographer; so
life-writing n., biography;
adj. writing biographies.
| 1830 Herschel Stud. Nat. Phil. 58 The institution of *life-assurances. 1866 Crump Banking iii. 84 Life-assurance policies. |
| 1858 Simmonds Dict. Trade, *Life-belt. 1875 Bedford Sailor's Pocket Bk. viii. (ed. 2) 286 The Life Belts supplied to men-of-war weigh 5 pounds. |
| 1597 J. King Jonas (1618) 87 This is the band wherby the common wealth hangeth together, the *life-breath which these many thousand creatures draw. 1875 Stubbs Const. Hist. II. xvii. 621 That constitutional spirit which was the life-breath of parliamentary growth. |
| 1801 Naval Chron. VI. 342 The *life buoy being caught hold of. 1875 Bedford Sailor's Pocket Bk. viii. (ed. 2) 283 The Service Life Buoy is supposed to be capable of keeping four men afloat. |
| 1907 Westm. Gaz. 10 Apr. 10/1 That is sufficient justification for the *life-company amalgamation. |
| a 1631 Donne Progr. Soul 394 This mouse..to the brain..went, And gnaw'd the *life-cords there. 1840 Browning Sordello vi. 733 Fate shears The life-cord prompt enough. |
| 1970 Sci. Jrnl. June 9/1 Plastic *lifecrafts carried aboard spaceships much as lifeboats are carried by ocean liners, have been advocated. 1970 New Scientist 22 Oct. 178/1 A computer would calculate the position of the lifecraft with an accuracy of one to ten miles. |
| a 1586 Sidney Arcadia ii. (1629) 222 This *life-deadman in this old dungeon flong. |
| 1807 Byron Nisus & Euryalus 48 And hostile *life-drops dim my gory spear. |
| 1753 Chambers Cycl. Supp., *Life estates..are either for the life of the owner, or for the life of another, or others. |
| 1935 Jrnl. Amer. Med. Assoc. 17 Aug. 514/2 Today, *life expectancy at birth is 57 years. 1956 A. H. Compton Atomic Quest 330 Life expectancy in our country increased by 50 per cent, from 46 years to 69 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. 1972 Guardian 15 Aug. 4/5 One of the reasons for higher life expectancy in India today is a better public health system. |
| 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. 109 And these are the creatures in whom you discover what you call a Life Force! Ibid. 137 Wagner once drifted into Life Force worship, and invented a Superman called Siegfried. 1920 D. H. Lawrence Lost Girl xii. 309 Even the will of God is a life-force. 1952 C. Day Lewis tr. Virgil's 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. |
| 1931 T. S. Eliot Thoughts after Lambeth 9 These two depressing *life-forcers [sc. Bertrand Russell and Aldous Huxley]. 1935 Auden & Isherwood Dog beneath Skin i. (chorus betw. sc. ii & iii) 43 The naughty life-forcer in the norfolk jacket Was the rebels' only uncle. |
| 1910 Chambers's Jrnl. Mar. 159/2 The *life-gun which is used by the rescuers for shooting lines to the vessel. |
| 1870 D. J. Kirwan Palace & Hovel xxvi. 393 Those street hawkers..will relate their checkered *life-histories with great eagerness. 1873 Monthly Microsc. Jrnl. X. 53 (title) Researches on the life history of a cercomonad. 1879 Dallinger Lett. Min. Forms Life, We were able in the course of four years' steady work to complete the life history of six distinct forms. 1898 Allbutt's Syst. Med. V. 401 The life-history of the white corpuscles. 1909 ‘Mark Twain’ Is Shakes. Dead? 141 Philosophers, burglars..surgeons—you can get the life-histories of all of them but one [sc. Shakespeare]. 1920 Discovery Apr. 111/2 The average value of the uranium present during the life-history of the mineral. 1927 R. Fry Let. 31 Aug. (1972) II. 609 The old man..poured out his whole life-history. 1935 B. Malinowski Coral Gardens II. vi. 232 The development of speech within the life history of the individual. 1950 K. A. Bisset (title) The cytology and life-history of bacteria. 1962 Life history [see astrophysics]. |
| a 1843 Southey Comm.-pl. Bk. IV. 359 My father's Aunt Hannah had a *life⁓hold estate. 1813 Vancouver Agric. Devon 428 Lifehold tenures. 1887 Athenæum 31 Dec. 883/2 A small lifehold farm. |
| 1802–12 Bentham Ration. Judic. Evid. (1827) IV. 635 The axe of the..malicious *life-holder is levelling to the ground the lofty oaks. |
| 1884 Steel & 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. |
| 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. 1862 R. H. Newell Orpheus C. Kerr Papers 1st Ser. 360 He's not an economical man if he don't destroy his life-insurance policy. 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. 1970 T. Hughes Crow 29 Words came with Life Insurance policies—Crow feigned dead. |
| 1849 Macaulay Hist. Eng. v. I. 657 He had only a *life interest in his property. 1868 Freeman Norm. Conq. (1876) II. App. 564 His life-interest in his prebend was forfeited. |
| 1883 Fisheries Exhib. Catal. 38 Cork *Life Jackets. |
| 1855 Mayne Expos. Lex., *Life-knot, a term applied to the neck, or point between the root and stem of plants, because if this part in a young plant be seriously injured it will die, whereas the root or stem may be removed without detriment. |
| 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 the Rabbi took Off ii. 22 The by-laws made all past presidents life members of the board. |
| 1859 in H. R. Fletcher Story R. Hort. Soc. (1969) xii. 187 It is proposed to raise the money by Donation, by *Life Memberships of 40 Guineas and 20 Guineas. 1867 Harper's Mag. Aug. 349/1 A most laudable charity—put me down for a life-membership by all means. |
| 1909 Daily Chron. 11 Mar. 6/3 New York... Many leapt from the windows and were caught in the *life nets. 1947 Chicago Tribune 20 July (Comics) 4 Let's see some action—grab that life net! 1969 Publ. Amer. Dial. Soc. lii. 33 Life net, a net used to catch people who must jump from a building. |
| 1879 *Life-office [see experience table]. 1972 Accountant 28 Sept. 388/2 Rates of interest quoted by life offices at the moment are not so attractive as they were when borrow-all policies were popular. |
| 1869 Earl Russell in Hansard Parl. Deb. 3rd Ser. CXCV. 454 That a great number of *life Peers may be created. 1948 H. Nicolson Diary 28 May (1968) 141 If they reform the House of Lords, they are certain to make me a life-peer. 1961 Spectator 20 Jan. 63 Six new life peers were created. 1973 Times 16 May 18/5 The making of life peers rather than hereditary peers (the present Conservative Government has given no hereditary titles) will gradually leave the Crown in increasing isolation as an hereditary institution. |
| 1863 H. Cox Instit. i. vii. 68 No *life-peerages had been created for several centuries. 1869 Earl Russell in Hansard Parl. Deb. 3rd Ser. CXCV. 454 A life peerage had been granted to Lord Wensleydale. 1958 Times 24 July 8/7 (heading) Life peerages for four women. 1967 Listener 20 Apr. 533/1 Her Labour Party allegiance..took her through local government..to a life peerage. |
| 1958 Times 24 July 8/7 The wives..of life peers, and the sons and daughters of..life peers and *life peeresses shall be treated..in the same way as the wives..and children of hereditary barons. |
| 1851 Gosse Nat. in Jamaica 61 The Leaf of Life, or the *Life Plant. |
| 1881 Harper's Mag. Jan. 274/2 Most of their bargains with the public are made in the shape of *life policies. 1907 ‘Mark Twain’ in North 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 LI. 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’. 1972 Accountant 28 Sept. 388/1 There are various schemes by which funds can be borrowed to buy shares at the outset, with a life policy being used to repay the loan in due course. |
| 1819 Trans. Soc. Arts XXXVII. 110 The Gold Medal of the Society was this Session voted to Mr. Thomas Cook, Lieut. R.N. for a *Life Raft. 1903, 1922 Life-raft [see Carley]. 1958 [see air-sea rescue (air n.1 III. 1)]. 1962 S. Carpenter in Into Orbit 60, I had a smaller version of it in my liferaft as part of the emergency kit. 1973 Times 9 Mar. 26/8 In emergency situations, such as aircrashes, liferafts are automatically inflated. |
| 1723 Lond. Gaz. No. 6199/1 The Squadron of Life-Guards, two Squadrons of the *Life-Regiment. |
| 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, B.C.) 11 Jan. 7/1 The aircraft sighted..a life-ring bearing the ship's name. |
| 1941 G. W. Hunter (title) *Life science. A social biology. 1958 M. A. Graubard (title) The foundations of life science. 1959 Vistas in Astronautics II. 139 (heading) The utilization of a satellite laboratory for life science studies. 1970 C. J. & O. B. Goin (title) Man and the natural world: an introduction to life science. 1973 Freedom 2 June 3/4, I regard my own specialism, psychology, as a continuing part of the Darwinian revolution in the Life Sciences. |
| 1857 Thoreau Maine W. (1894) 121 She was a well-appointed little boat,..with patent *life-seats and metallic life-boat. |
| a 1641 Bp. R. Montagu Acts & Mon. (1642) 532 Concerning actuall, or *life-sinne. |
| c 1230 Hali Meid. 45 Al hare *lifsiðe. a 1240 Sawles Warde in Cott. Hom. 249 Euch sunne..þat he..wrahtte in al his lif siðe. |
| 1918 W. B. Yeats Per Amica Silentia Lunae 38 Some..have foreknown the event and pricked upon the calendar the *life-span of a Christ, a Buddha, a Napoleon. 1937 B. H. L. Hart Europe in Arms xxii. 290 He [sc. Napoleon] took short views, since his horizon was his own life-span. 1953 J. S. Huxley Evolution in Action iv. 103 Their life-span..may extend over several decades. 1957 G. E. Hutchinson Treat. Limnol. I. ii. 177 The life span of the lake. 1966 C. R. Tottle Sci. Engin. Materials x. 235 The life-span of the neutron depends on its kinetic energy, and on the material through which it passes. 1974 A. Huxley Plant & Planet xviii. 189 Plants are too varied to have an average lifespan. Ibid., As soon as we move to multi-cellular plants the lifespans increase. |
| 1820 Trans. Soc. Arts XXXVIII. 164 *Life-spencer. |
| 1794 Mathias Purs. Lit. (1798) 310 The *life-springs of taste and of good conduct. 1859 K. Cornwallis New World I. 14 Hope is the life-spring of enterprise. |
| c 1522 More De quat. noviss. Wks. 77/2 Breaking thy vaines & thy *life stringes w{supt} like pain & grief. 1767 G. S. Carey Hills Hybla 39 Thy words have cut my life-string thro'. 1827 Keble Chr. Y. Tuesday bef. Easter, One by one The life-strings of that tender heart gave way. |
| 1959 Adv. Space Sci. & Technol. I. 174 (heading) *Life support system. 1962 F. I. Ordway et al. Basic Astronautics xiii. 509 A life support system for a manned base on the Moon..will be exceedingly complex. 1962 D. Slayton in Into Orbit 20 NASA decided we would adopt the U.S. Navy pressure suit for our spacesuit, so Wally Schirra..started work on the life-support system which we would need to keep the pilot alive and comfortable. 1969 Guardian 21 July 1/6 Before take-off the spacecraft's pressurisation system is tested while the astronauts are still in their life-support suits. 1970 McGraw-Hill Yearbk. Sci. & Technol. 280/2 All submersibles require life-support systems. |
| 1865 Reader 25 Feb. 213/1 Every insurance office bases its transactions upon an instrument which is called a ‘*Life Table’. |
| 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. |
| 1837 Syd. Smith Let. to Archd. Singleton 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. |
| 1893 G. S. Ram Incandescent Lamp xv. 196 A great many carefully-ascertained *life tests of different lamps have..been reported. 1911 Chem. Abstr. V. 1371 (heading) Life test of metallic filament lamps. 1929 Jrnl. Sci. Instrum. VI. 247 The life test load accommodated by this regulator consists of twenty 2-volt 1-ampere miners' lamps screwed into bus bars. 1958 Biometrika XLV. 521 A second difficulty encountered in using conventional experimental methods in industrial life tests is the expense and time involved in waiting for all of the test items to fail. 1959 Engineering 20 Feb. 256/2 First on the market, some months ago, was the Hamilton electric watch, which was life tested for several years before the first one was sold, and which has proven itself a most reliable and accurate timekeeper. 1961 Times 31 May 18/4 Yet another machine life-tests switches. 1972 R. C. Winans in D. Baker et al. Physical Design Electronic Syst. IV. viii. 368 As a control on time-dependent characteristics, life tests are made on samples from each production lot. These life tests are usually for periods ranging from 100 to 1000 hours, under maximum rated power, temperature, and/or voltage conditions. |
| 1926 J. W. T. Walsh Photometry xvi. 449 An important branch of the work of a photometric laboratory is, frequently, the *life testing of lamps. 1957 Ann. Math. Statistics XXVIII. 432 Life-testing situations where population properties are of greater interest than sample properties usually involve inanimate objects such as automobile tires, light bulbs, etc. |
| c 1375 Sc. Leg. Saints xli. (Agnes) 332 A lame quhytare þane ony snaw Þat euir þai schaw of þe *lif-thraw. |
| 1610 Holland Camden's Brit. i. 245 [She] endowed the same with her owne Patrimonie and *Livetide. 1859 Dickens T. Two Cities iii. xiii, The life-tide of the city. |
| 1899 R. C. Temple in Folk-Lore X. 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. 1915 Life-token [see life-index]. |
| 1649 J. Ellistone tr. Behmen's Epist. (1886) vij/2 A Christian..desire after the same *life-tree of Christ. 1821 Byron Cain i. i. 292 Wherefore pluck'd he not The life-tree? |
| 1962 S. Carpenter in 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. 1970 Washington Post 30 Sept. D6/1 (Advt.), Fiber⁓glas hardtop,..2 wipers, 6 life vests, 2 fire ext. and bell. |
| a 1300 Siriz in Wright Anecd. Lit. (1844) 5 Never more his *lif wile. a 1849 J. C. Mangan Poems (1859) 321 The life-while of a world. |
| 1871 E. F. Burr Ad Fidem iii. 43 Your great *life-work. 1879 Pattison Milton xiii. 167 In 1638..Milton has already determined that this lifework shall be a poem, an epic poem. |
| 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. 1960 D. Cairns tr. Husserl's Cartesian Meditations §8. 19 Not just corporeal Nature but the whole concrete surrounding life-world is for me..only a phenomenon of being, instead of something that is. 1964 Philos. Rev. LXXIII. 418 Merleau-Ponty analyzes what..Husserl had termed the ‘life-world’ (‘Lebenswelt’). 1969 M. Farber in R. Klibansky Contemp. Philos. III. 167 There are life-worlds for ordinary experience, varying from person to person, from group to group, and from time to time. There are also life-worlds as viewed on the basis of the sciences. 1972 D. F{obar}llesdal in Olson & Raul 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). |
| 1737 Warburton Let. to Birch 24 Nov. in Boswell Johnson (1831) I. Introd. 50 Almost all the *life-writers we have had before Toland and Desmaiseaux are indeed strange insipid creatures. |
| 1772 Ann. Reg., Misc. Ess. 193 Of all the fantastic amusements in which modern genius indulges itself, the most whimsical is *Life-writing. Ibid. 169/1 This life-writing part of the world. 1889 Lowell Latest Lit. Ess. (1891) 76 It..comes nearer to him [Plutarch] than any life-writing I can think of. |
18. The
gen. sing. life's (12–17th c.
lives) was formerly much used in certain syntactical combs., as
lives book,
life's day (
= life-day),
lives food,
life's time (
OE. l{iacu}fes t{iacu}d;
= lifetime), etc.; now
rare exc. in
life's end (somewhat
arch.); also
† lives-wet = blood.
| c 900 tr. Bæda's Hist. iii. xiv. [xix.] (1890) 216 Ealle his lifes tiid. c 1205 Lay. 229 Þis lond he hire lende, þat come hir lifes ende. c 1220 Bestiary 287 Seke we ure liues fod. a 1225 Leg. Kath. 707 Þu schalt..libben liues ende wið Iesu Crist. a 1225 Ancr. R. 246 God hat writen o liues boc al þet heo seið. a 1300 Cursor M. 28889 Men agh noght warn him liues fode. c 1381 Chaucer Parl. Foules 53 Oure present wordis lyuys space Nys but a maner deth. c 1385 ― L.G.W. 1624 Medea, I wot wel that..myn labour May nat disserue it in myn lyuys day. c 1420 Anturs of Arth. 702 A kniȝte of þe table ronde, To his lyues ende. c 1430 Lydg. Compl. Bl. Knt. 674 (Lenvoy) Go, litel quayre, vnto my lyues queen. c 1449 Pecock Repr. 536 For eny certein while or for al hir lyuys tyme. a 1533 Ld. Berners Gold. Bk. M. Aurel. (1546) C c j b, We can never passe one good lyves daie. 1599 Marston Sco. Villanie i. iv. 187 Cold, writhled Eld, his liues-wet almost spent. 1600 Certain Prayers in Liturg. Serv. Q. Eliz. (1847) 692 On whose life dependeth the life and life's-joy of so many thousands! 1637 Sc. Prayer Bk., Catechism, That I may continue in the same unto my lives end. 1654 Gayton Pleas. Notes iii. xii. 156 In the lives-time of their dearly Beloveds deceas'd. 1683 Tryon Way to Health 613 There is but little Sand left in their Lives Glass. 1830 Song in praise of beer, And I'll contend to my life's end There's nothing to tipple like Beer. |
Add:
[III.] [12.] f. the life (
U.S. slang): (
a) prostitution (
cf. game n. 5 f);
usu. in
phr. in the life; (
b) any unorthodox lifestyle.
| 1960 R. G. Reisner Jazz Titans 160 Life, the, the world of prostitution. 1961 T. I. Rubin In the Life Preface 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’. 1973 C. & R. Milner Black Players 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. 1976 M. Machlin Pipeline viii. 97 They say I'm too nice a girl to be in the life. 1983 Maledicta 1982 VI. 135 Gay women are far less promiscuous and in the life than gay men. 1986 T. McGuane To Skin Cat (1989) 184 Say, is that the young lady—is she in the life? 1988 D. French Working 6 All of the prostitutes' names, the madams' names, the agents' names, and the clients' names have been changed... Even so, in essence, my life and my account of The Life are intact. |
[VI.] [17.] life list Ornith., a list of the different kinds of bird recorded by an observer during his or her life.
| 1959 Audubon Mag. LXI. 201/2 (caption) His ‘*life’ list of birds seen was well over 3,000 species. 1987 Natural World Winter 27/1 The park..is mainly renowned for its birds, and even if you are a keen birdwatcher you could almost certainly add several species to your life-list here. 1990 Birder's World Aug. 64/2 A Slaty-backed Gull sent birders trekking to Delta, British Columbia, while at Sandy Hook, New Jersey, life lists were extended after the sighting of a Little Gull. |
life scientist, an expert in or student of a life science.
| 1969 Sci. Res. (N.Y.) 3 Feb. 24/2 When statisticians are working with *life scientists in basic research areas, too many assume that the purpose of this kind of experimentation is to produce statistically valid tests for something. 1976 Soucek & Carlson Computers in Neurobiol. & Behavior i. 3 Behavioral biologists, neurophysiologists, and other life scientists. 1984 Peptide & Protein Rev. IV. p. iv, This volume should..be of the utmost interest to all scientists working in the area of protein structure..as well as in general medical and life scientists. 1990 S. Maitland Three Times Table (1991) i. ii. 17 ‘Real scientists,’ said Simon tauntingly, ‘not life scientists like you.’ |
▸
a new life n. (and variants) part of a person's life regarded as entirely different or distinct from his or her previous experience; a different way of living, a new beginning, a fresh start.
In early use
new life specifically connotes spiritual or moral reform: see
quot. 1552;
cf. new adj. 4c.
| 1474 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. 1552 Bk. Com. Prayer Communion, Ye that do..intend to lead a new life following the Commandments of God. 1677Lady 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 Roxana 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 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. 1860 ‘G. Eliot’ Mill on Floss III. vii. v. 295 She must be a lonely wanderer; she must go out among fresh faces..; she must begin a new life. 1913 Collier's 26 July 7/3 And down the aisle..they come in ones and twos and dozens, until 476 have stood before that multitude 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. |
▸
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.
| 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! a 1911 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? 1977F. 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. |
▸
slang (
usu. 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. Freq. in
imper. (
esp. as a rebuke): stop being so boring, conventional, old-fashioned, etc.; start living a fuller or more interesting existence.
| 1983 Washington Post 23 Jan. (Mag. section) 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 Suppl.) 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!’ |
▸
life care n. † (a) worldly care, anxiety about life (
obs.);
(b) U.S. long-term residential care,
esp. for the elderly, in which accommodation and medical services are purchased for life;
freq. attrib.| OE Andreas 1427 Is me feorhgedal leofre mycle þonne þeos *lifcearo. OE Genesis A 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 Calif. Supreme Court Rep. (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 Star (Nexis) 31 Mar. 1 There currently are 750 residents at the life care community. |
▸
life coach n. orig. U.S. a person who offers advice and guidance on how to achieve personal and professional goals.
| 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 {pstlg}1,000 for three 45-minute sessions telling you how to fix yourself. |
▸
life coaching n. orig. U.S. the provision of advice and guidance on how to achieve personal and professional goals; the work of a life coach.
| 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 the Ordinary 73 Unlike therapy, life coaching doesn't focus on the past, but on the present. |
▸
life-expired adj. chiefly
Brit. (
orig. Railways) (of equipment, machinery, etc.) no longer suitable for use due to age, wear, or obsolescence.
| 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 Aberdeen Press & Jrnl. (Nexis) 18 Feb. 4 Fourteen schools are categorized as being in poor condition, of which five have life-expired heating systems. |
▸
life partner n. either member of a couple in a romantic relationship which is regarded as permanent; a spouse;
cf. partner n.1 7a.
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.
| 1809 Lett. from Irish Student to Father II. xxxv. 273 The lady whom he had chosen as a *life-partner. 1913 MacLean's Mag. 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-threatening adj. (chiefly of an illness or injury) that endangers life; potentially fatal.
| 1759 H. Venn Sermons vii. 167 Your Minister now standing before you—chastened and corrected, of a long Season, with a *life-threatening Malady. 1850 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. |
▪ II. life, v. rare.
[f. life n.] trans. To give life to. Hence
ˈlifing ppl. a.| 1880 G. Macdonald Diary Old Soul Jan. 9, I see him all in all, the lifing mind, Or nowhere. Ibid. Mar. 27 As to our mothers came help in our birth—Not lost in lifing us, but saved and blest. |
▪ III. life obs. form of
lief.