Forms: see LIFE and TIME. The time that one’s life continues, duration of life.
c. 1220. Bestiary, 696. Wu laȝelike ȝe [ðe turtre] holdeð luue al hire lif time.
c. 1350. Will. Palerne, 999. I graunt him greþli … mi loue for euer al mi lif time.
1480. Caxton, Chron. Eng., ccxxxii. 251. Alle these forsayd thynges trewelych for to kepe … alle his lyf time.
1553. Eden, Treat. Newe Ind. (Arb.), 5. In hys lyfe tyme by hys owne marcial affayres.
1642. trans. Perkins’ Prof. Bk., viii. § 571. 248. Cause them to be given or delivered unto them in their live times.
1732. Lediard, Sethos, II. VII. 80. Unless they … restore … them to their favour in their life-time.
1875. Jowett, Plato (ed. 2), III. 183. A lifetime might be passed happily in such pursuits.
transf. 1858. Hawthorne, Fr. & It. Jrnls., I. 167. Durable for whatever may be the lifetime of the world.
