Forms: 1 líf, 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 lífes, 2–7 lives, 3 lifves, 4–5 lyfes, lyvis, -ys, 4–6 -es, 5 -ez, lyfes, 6 liffis. Dat. sing. 1 life, 2–5 live, 3 liwe, 4–5 lyve; see also ALIVE. Plural. 4 lyfis, 4–6 lyves, -is, 4–7 lifes, 5 lywes, lijfis, lyvis, -ess, 6 lyffes, lyfes, lieves, 4– lives. [OE. líf 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. líf neut., life, occas. body (Sw. lif, Da. liv life, body):—OTeut. *liƀom, f. Teut. root *lĭƀ-, whence LIVE v., OE. belífan 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.
Beowulf, 2471. Þa he of life ʓewat.
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. Maundev. (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.
1560. Daus, trans. 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.
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.
1738. Pope, Universal Prayer, 44. Oh lead me wheresoe’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. & Phys. Jrnl., X. 516. Deep inspiration, sighing, and other strong symptoms of life.
1880. L. Morris, Ode Life, 138. Life! what is life, that it ceases with ceasing of breath?
b. In a wider sense: The property that 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. 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. Burdon-Sanderson, in Nature, 26 Sept., 523/1. 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 sbs.) (A matter, etc.) of life and 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 inʓehydes 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 sygne of lyf.
1690. W. Walker, Idiomat. Anglo-Lat., 135. To sit upon life and death on a man, De capite alicujus quærere.
1824. Byron, Def. Transf., III. i. No bugle awakes him with life-and-death call.
1887. Spectator, 3 Sept., 1174. A thoroughly workable mobilisation scheme … is a matter of life and death to the French.
d. Animate existence viewed as dependent on sustenance or favorable 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 Þai 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 Jeltoun bure, Scho me constranit to make Ilk ane a lyfe.
1604. E. G[rimstone], D’Acosta’s Hist. Indies, II. iii. 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. trans. 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. 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 March (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. Eʓhuelc seðe ʓelefeð 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. Fetherstone, trans. 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. 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 sbs., 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 … mæʓe æfter maððumwelan min alætan lif and leodscipe.
c. 1000. Ælfric, Exod. xxi. 23. Sylle lif wið life, eaʓe wið eaʓe [etc.].
a. 1100[?]. O. E. Chron., an. 978 (Laud MS.). Sume hit ne ʓedyʓdan 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 recouerd 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 W. de Eresby in C. K. Sharpe’s Corr. (1888), II. 495. Mrs. Villiers, in galloping to cover…, was pitched off,… but mercifully escaped with life and limb.
1849. G. P. R. 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 April. 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, 1849, 1887. [see FOR A. 9 c].
1842. S. Lover, Handy Andy, xxi. He kept Reddy … singing away for the bare life.
1880. Gladstone, in Daily News, 16 March, 2/8. I cannot, for the life of me, see why it should be struck out.
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.
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. Shaks., A. Y. L., IV. i. 159. By my life, she will doe as I doe. Ibid. (1601), Twel. N., V. i. 188. Odd’s lifelings.
1604. Gods life [see GOD sb. 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, D1 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.
e. A vital or vulnerable point of an animal’s body; the ‘life-spot.’
1850. Scoresby, Cheever’s Whaleman’s Adv., iii. (1859), 35. This he did so well as to hit the ‘fish’s life’ at once.
4. Energy in action, thought or expression; liveliness in feeling, manner or aspect; animation, vivacity, spirit.
1583. Stocker, Civ. Warres Lowe C., III. 96 a. The rest, full of lyfe in the heeles, saued themselues.
1593. Shaks., 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, trans. 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 be heard with any Life, it must be spoken with some. Ibid. (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.
† 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. 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.
c. 1340. Richard Rolle of Hampole, Prick of Conscience, 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. Shaks., 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, trans. 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.
1809. Malkin, Gil Blas, VII. xiii. (Rtldg.), 14. Ballets incidental to the piece are the very life and soul of the play.
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.
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. Shaks., 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. James 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. Shaks., 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. Ibid. (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. (In early use commonly the life.) The living form or model; living semblance; life-size figure or presentation. 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. Small life: ? somewhat less than life-size.
1599. Shaks., 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. Ibid. (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.
1807. Sir R. C. Hoare, Tour Irel., 235. Two curious old portraits in the style of Holbein; the one of King Henry VIII. the other of Anna Bullen, small life.
1816. W. Hollar, Holbein’s Dance of Death, 7. He was drawing a figure after the life.
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.’
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. Wherein … 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. 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.
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. 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, trans. 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 dispeopled in the Life of one Man.
1791. Mrs. Radcliffe, Rom. Forest, i. Early in life he had married Constance Valentia.
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.
1895. Bookman, Oct., 23/1. The disastrous effects of the blunders of his middle life.
b. For life: for the remaining period of the person’s life. A lease, grant, etc., for (two, three, etc.) lives: one that 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 downward.
1692. R. L’Estrange, Fables, xci. (1708), 106. A Gentleman that had an Estate for Lives, and two of his Tenants in the Lease…. The Man … had Poyson’d himself, and the Revenge upon his Landlord was the Defeating him of his Estate by Destroying the Last Life in the Lease.
1705. Addison, Italy, Wks. 1856, I. 363. The administration of this bank is for life.
1712–4. 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. Ibid. (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.
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. B. Norton, in Scribner’s Mag., Aug., 219/2. Heavier and faster trains have tended to reduce the average life of rails.
1892. Sir A. Kekewich, in Law Times Rep., LXVII. 141/1. The short life of the company, and the subsequent liquidation.
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. 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.
10. pl. in proverbial expressions referring to tenacity of life.
1562. [see CAT sb.1 13 b].
1599. Massinger, etc., Old Law, V. i. I believe now a father Hath as many lives as a mother!
1859. M‘Clintock, Voy. ‘Fox,’ x. 176. We are only now about 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.
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.
1883. Daily Tel., 15 May, 2/7. The captain … received a life … in the slips.
III. Course, condition or manner of living.
12. 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.
c. 900. trans. Bæda’s Hist., IV. xxxi. [xxx.] (1890), 378. Ða sume we ʓeare for ʓemynde awriton in ðære bec Cuðbertes lifes.
a. 1100[?]. O. E. Chron., an. 1016 (Laud MS.). He ʓeendode his daʓas … æfter mycclum ʓeswince … 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. Hyrde, trans. 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.
1837. Dickens, Pickw., l. ‘Hallo!’ responded that gentleman, looking over the side of the chaise with all the coolness in life.
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?
b. The Biblical phrase this life (Vulg. hæc vita, Gr. ἡ ζωή αὔτη, 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.
a. 1025. Wulfstan, Hom. (Napier), 270. Ealle hiʓ wæron haliʓes 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. Maundev. (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.
1638. R. Baker, trans. Balzac’s Lett. (vol. II.), 213. One that partakes of the life of a schollar and of a Courtier.
1754. Earl 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.
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.
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 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. Unfortunate Sensibility, 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.
1874. Dasent, Half a Life, III. 123. Her only great object and ambition now was to see me happily settled in life.
1885. ‘E. Garrett’ (Mrs. Mayo), At Any Cost, vii. 112. Does a man want ‘live’ in affluence and beneficence on his paternal farm, or to ‘see life’ in metropolitan boulevards and continental spas?
13. A written account of a person’s ‘life’ (sense 12); a biography.
[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.
† IV. 14. Phrases formed with preps. with the meaning ‘alive.’ a. On live (OE. on lífe), 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 lífe), north. atte live.
c. 1000. Ælfric, Num. xxxi. 15. Moises … axode hwi hiʓ 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]. Ibid. (c. 1375), 6492 (Fairf.). Atte he was liuande and in life sulde be. Ibid. (a. 1425), 11834 (Trin.). Miȝt no mon wiþ lif [Fairf. in life, Gött. on lijf] haue more.
f. Of lives, on lives, in lives. [Cf. ALIVES.]
c. 1250. Gen. & Ex., 2834. If hise breðere of liues ben.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 8373. Þou has in liues Mani childer wit þi wines. Ibid., 9676. In all þis world left [na] ma in liues [Trin. on lyues]. Ibid., 6794. Ȝour barns har na faders in liues [c. 1375 Fairf. on liuis].
† V. 15. Lives (OE. lífes), the gen. sing. used a. predicatively = alive; occas. as sb., those who are alive, the living.
c. 900. trans. 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-air, -bark, -battle, -beauty, -experience, food, -germ, -group, -guidance, -journey, -phase, -plan, -process, -tackle, -thread, -transit, -vein, -wreck, etc.
1820. Keats, Hyperion, I. 119. Space regioned with *life-air.
1847. Cardl. 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.
1852. Robertson, Serm., Ser. III. xiii. 160. Blessed is the man … whose *life-experience has taught a confiding belief.
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.
1831. Carlyle, Sart. Res. (1858), 182. Some months of our *Life-journey.
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.
1889. Mivart, Truth, 389. Our merely organic *life-processes.
1853. Jerdan, Autobiog., III. 51. The self-revelations I have deemed essential to my *life-story.
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.
c. 1530. Hickscorner, 117. Death … taketh his swerde and smyteth asonder the *lyfe vayne.
1890. ‘R. Boldrewood,’ Miner’s Right (1899), 166/1. Failures and *life-wrecks.
b. Objective and obj. gen., as life-abhorring, -bearing, -begetting, -breathing, -bringing, -creating, -destroying, -devouring, -hugging, -outfetching, -poisoning, -preserving, -quelling, -reaving, -rendering, -renewing, -restoring, -saving, -sustaining, -working (etc.) adjs.; life-lover, -saver.
1812. Byron, Ch. Har., I. lxxxiii. *Life-abhorring gloom.
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.
1561. T. Norton, Calvin’s Inst., IV. 121. Yt *lifebringing worde of the Father.
1868. J. H. Newman, Verses Var. Occas., 187. *Life-creating Paraclete.
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.
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. Shaks., Ven. & Ad., cxxiii. *Life-poisoning pestilence. Ibid. (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. Shaks., Ham., IV. v. 146. Like the kinde *Life-rend’ring Politician.
1781. Cowper, Conversat., 504. Your heart shall yield a *life-renewing stream. Ibid. (1781), Hope, 456. The trumpet of a *life-restoring day.
1883. Daily News, 5 July, 3/1. Minor *life-savers, such as mattresses, deck furniture, belts, dresses, buoys, &c.
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-crowded, -deserted, -eyed, -penetrated, -teeming adjs.
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.
1893. Month, Jan., 52. A potent and *life-penetrated organism.
1847. Herschel, trans. 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, -lengthened, -lorn, -lost, -old, -spent, -sweet, -thirsting, -weary (-weariness); life-struggle. † Also occas. = lifelike, as life expression.
1896. Sir T. Martin, Virgil, VI. 219. The bodies *life-bereft Of heroes of renown.
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, III. 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.
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. Shaks., 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 lifetime, 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.
1837. Syd. Smith, Lett. 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.
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. Predecessors, 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-study; ‘for the study of the life,’ as life academy, -class, -school; or ‘imparting life,’ as life-touch.
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.
1849. Chambers’s Inform., II. 638/2. In London and elsewhere there are life academies.
1897. Mag. Art, Sept., 252. The life class should be confined to the study of the figure for purposes of design only.
1899. Mary Deane, Bk. Dene, etc. 85. The difficulty of obtaining a life-study of a … phœnix.
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 india-rubber, of cork, or other buoyant material, used to support the body in the water; life-breath, the breath that supports life; also fig.; life-buoy (see BUOY sb. 1 b); † life-cord = life-string; life-cycle Biol. = life-history; † 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-history Biol., the series of developments that an organism undergoes in the course of its progress from the egg to the adult state; also, an account of these developments; life-hold, applied to property that is held for a life or lives; hence life-holder, one who holds such property; life-insurance (see INSURANCE 4); life-interest, an interest or estate that 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-line, a line or rope that is intended to be instrumental in saving life, such as the rope attached to a life-buoy, etc.; life-mortar, a mortar for discharging a life-rocket (Ogilvie, 1882); 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; life-plant, a name for plants of the genus Bryophyllum (N.O. Crassulaceæ), which will grow without being rooted in soil; 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-rocket, a rocket that 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-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-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-table, ‘a [statistical] table exhibiting statistics as to the probability of life at different ages’ (Webster, 1864); life-tenant = life-holder; † life-thraw, lifetime; life-tide, † (a) ? lifetime; (b) the tide or stream of life; life-tree = ‘tree of life’; life-while arch., lifetime; life-work, the work of a lifetime; the work that is the object of a person’s whole life; life-writer, a biographer; so life-writing sb., 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.
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.
1894. Pop. Sci. Monthly, June, 272/2. Each species [of salpa] has two generations in its *life-cycle, known as the solitary generation and the aggregated generation.
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.
1879. Dallinger, Lect. 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.
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.
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.
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.
1794. Rigging & Seamanship, I. 169. *Life-lines, for the preservation of the seamen.
1840. R. H. Dana, Bef. Mast, Gloss., Life-lines, ropes carried along yards, etc., for men to hold on by.
1895. Daily News, 2 Jan., 3/3. He observed a rocket, and informed the coastguard, who arrived with the lifelines.
1869. Earl Russell, in Hansard, Parl. Deb., 3rd Ser. CXCV. 454. That a great number of *life Peers may be created.
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.
1851. Gosse, Nat. in Jamaica, 61. The Leaf of Life, or the *Life Plant.
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.
1723. Lond. Gaz., No. 6199/1. The Squadron of Life-Guards, two Squadrons of the *Life-Regiment.
1857. Thoreau, Maine W. (1894), 121. She was a well-appointed little boat,… with patent *life-seats and metallic life-boat.
a. 1641. Bp. Mountagu, 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.
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 wt 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.
1865. Reader, 25 Feb., 213/1. Every insurance office bases its transactions upon an instrument which is called a *‘Life Table.’
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.
1649. J. Ellistone, trans. 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?
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. M. Pattison, Milton, xiii. 167. In 1638 … Milton has already determined that this lifework shall be a poem, an epic poem.
1737. Warburton, Lett. 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. lífes tíd; = LIFETIME), etc.; now rare exc. in life’s end (somewhat arch.); also † lives-wet = blood.
c. 900. trans. 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. Ibid. (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), Cc 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.
