[f. LIVE v. + -ING2.]
1. Predicatively, or attrib. following the sb.: Alive, or when alive. † Also in the absolute construction, living —, = ‘in the lifetime of —.’
c. 825. Vesp. Psalter, liv. [lv.] 16. Astiʓen hie in helle lifʓende.
c. 900. trans. Bæda’s Hist., I. viii. (Schipper), 29. Constantius … be Diocletiane lyfʓendum Gallia rice … heold.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 4847. Elleuen breþer es we liuand.
1375. Barbour, Bruce, II. 547. The wiffis had him till his cuntre, Quhar wes na man leifland bot he.
c. 1460. Towneley Myst., xx. 459. Ye shall se me well certan, and lyfand shall I be.
1535. Coverdale, 2 Esdras xii. 33. He shal sett them lyuynge before the iudgment.
1572. Satir. Poems Reform., xxxviii. 60. Thou hes left leifand bot few in that land.
1641. Bp. Mountagu, Acts & Mon. (1642), 267. Living his mother Alexandra, he had been with the High Priesthood nine yeares.
1771. Junius Lett., xlix. 254. As long as there is one man living who thinks you worthy of his confidence.
1827. Jarman, Powell’s Devises, II. 357. Where a testator … gives to his four children then living.
1830. R. B. Peake, Crt. & City, I. ii. You are the only man living that can serve my brother!
2. attrib. That lives or has life.
a. said of the Deity (after Biblical use).
c. 900. trans. Bæda’s Hist., IV. xxviii. (Schipper), 523. Ealle … hine þurh þone lifiʓendan Dryhten halsedon.
1535. Coverdale, Ps. xli. 2. My soule is a thurste for God, yee euen for the lyuynge God.
1567. Satir. Poems Reform., vii. 231. The Leuing Lord bring thame to this gude end!
1732. Berkeley, Serm. to S. P. G., Wks. III. 240. The church of the living God.
1852. Dickens, Bleak Ho., liv. By the living Lord it flashed upon me … that she had done it.
b. of human beings, animals, and plants, or their parts. In mod. use sometimes used for ‘now (or at the time spoken of) existing or living,’ ‘contemporary.’
† Living stock = LIVE STOCK. Living skeleton: an individual with an extremely emaciated frame.
a. 1225. Leg. Kath., 1529. Þæt ne mei hit … strengðe … of na liuiende mon leowsin.
a. 1240. Ureisun, in Cott. Hom., 193. Ne non liuiinde þing woc þer nis ne ȝeomer.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 1689. Þou sal tak tuin Of ilk liuand best.
1340–70. Alisaunder, 790. A libbing lud lay in hur armes.
1362. Langl., P. Pl., A. VIII. 64. Libbinde Laborers þat libben bi heore hondes.
c. 1375. Sc. Leg. Saints, v. (Johannes), 577. Þar wes na liffand man þat mycht se hym for þat mekil lycht.
c. 1400. trans. Secreta Secret., Gov. Lordsh., 59. Oþer many euelys comyn, þurgh whilk many leuand creatures ar perschyd.
1501. Douglas, Pal. Hon., Prol. 112. Saw neuer man so faynt a leuand wicht.
1559. W. Cunningham, Cosmogr. Glasse, 43. Th’ Earth … is called … the norishe of lyving creatures,… the sepulchre of the dead.
1567. Gude & Godlie Ball. (S.T.S.), 116. All leuing man in to this warld sa round Sall loue thy name.
1611. Bible, Gen. vi. 19. And of euery liuing thing of all flesh, two of euery sort shalt thou bring into the Arke.
1690. Luttrell, Brief Rel. (1857), II. 37. Destroying the living stock.
1736. Butler, Anal., I. i. 41. The supposed likeness which is observed between the decay of vegetables and of living creatures.
1791. Burke, App. Whigs, Wks. VI. 115. That he preferred a dead carcase to his living children.
1825. Ann. Reg. (1826), LXVII. 239*/1. The name of the Living Skeleton is C. A. Seurat.
1841–71. T. R. Jones, Anim. Kingd. (ed. 4), 733. The Crocodile … likewise kills living prey.
1849. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., xiv. II. 457. He was generally esteemed the greatest living master of the art of war.
1859. Ruskin, Two Paths, ii. (1891), 82. He went to Rome and ordered various works of living artists.
1860. Tyndall, Glac., I. xxvii. 197. After this we encountered no living thing.
1875. Bennett & Dyer, trans. Sachs’ Bot., 1. The living succulent parts of plants.
1878. Huxley, Physiogr., 81. A fresh supply of air is constantly required by a living animal.
c. absol. The living: those who are alive. The land of the living: see Ps. xxvii. 13, lii. 5; Isaiah xxxviii. 11, liii. 8.
c. 825. Vesp. Hymns, iii. 3. Ic ne ʓesio dryhten god in eorðan lifʓendra.
a. 1175. Cott. Hom., 223. Hi is aelra libbinde moder.
13[?]. E. E. Allit. P., A. 699. For non lyuyande to þe is Iustyfyet.
c. 1470. Golagros & Gaw., 954. Lord … thow life lent to levand in leid.
1535. Coverdale, Eccl. vi. 8. What helpeth it the poore, that he knoweth to walke before the lyuynge?
1611. Bible, Ruth ii. 20. He … hath not left off his kindnesse to the liuing and to the dead.
1672. Petty, Pol. Anat. (1691), Ded. Your Generosity … takes all occasions of exerting it self towards the Living.
1778. Miss Burney, Evelina (1791), II. xxxvii. 242. I’m glad to see you still in the land of the living.
1793. Burke, Corr. (1844), IV. 185. The true way to mourn the dead, is to take care of the living who belong to them.
1859. Tennyson, Elaine, 1359. If one may judge the living by the dead.
d. transf. (a) In various phrases of biblical origin. Of water: Constantly flowing; also, refreshing. (b) Of coals: Burning, flaming. Cf. LIVE a. 3. (c) Of rock, stone: Native; in its native condition and site, as part of the earth’s crust. Cf. LIVELY 1 b.
1388. Wyclif, John vi. 51. Yam lyuynge breed, that cam doun fro heuene.
c. 1400. Maundev. (1839), iv. 29. The Welle of Gardyns and the Dyche of lyvynge Waters.
1483. Caxton, G. de la Tour, lxxxvii. L j b. [He] made … to … come out of the stone lyuyng and swete water.
1567. Gude & Godlie Ball. (S.T.S.), 16. Christis blude … is ane leuand well Celestiall.
1697. Dryden, Virg. Æneid, I. 78. In a spacious cave of living stone. Ibid., VIII. 547. And living Embers on the Hearth they spred.
1726. Leoni, Alberti’s Archit., I. 64/1. A high bold shore of living craggy Rock.
1735. Somerville, Chase, I. 59. What remains On living Coals they broil.
1821. Joanna Baillie, Metr. Leg., Wallace, xxxviii. His soldiers firm as living rock.
1837. Youatt, Sheep, xi. 452. He got another pond of living water, and sustained in that season no loss to his flock.
1843. Le Fevre, Life Trav. Phys., II. I. xiv. 45. The fish ponds … were fed by a living stream.
1893. Budge, Mummy, 14. The Sphinx is hewn out of the living rock.
e. Of a language: Still in vernacular use. (Cf. dead language s.v. LANGUAGE 1.)
1706. A. Bedford, Temple Mus., ii. 45. The Hebrew ceasing to be a Living Language.
1749. Numbers in Poet. Comp., 12. Not only in English but French, and … every living Language in Europe.
1807. Crabbe, Library, 66. Here all the living languages abound.
1845. [see LANGUAGE 1].
f. fig. in various uses. Living pledge (see quot. 1767). Living death: a state of misery not deserving the name of life.
1388. Wyclif, 1 Pet. i. 3. The fadir of oure Lord Ihesu Crist … bigat vs aȝen in to lyuynge [1382 quik] hope by the aȝen risyng of Ihesu Crist.
1611. Speed, Hist. Gt. Brit., VI. xlvi. 261. So Constantines glorious life drew to an end, though his liuing-glory shall be endlesse.
1671. Milton, Samson, 100. To live a life half-dead, a living death, and buried.
1738. Wesley, Psalms, LI. xx. Their every Thought, and Word, and Deed, That from a living Faith proceed.
1750. Gray, Elegy, 48. Or wak’d to Extacy the living Lyre.
1767. Blackstone, Comm., II. 157. Vivum vadium, or living pledge, is when a man borrows a sum (suppose 200l.) of another; and grants him an estate, as, of 20l. per annum, to hold till the rents and profits shall repay the sum so borrowed.
1853. Kingsley, Hypatia, i. 5. Each man had … living trust in the continual care of Almighty God.
1863. O. W. Holmes, Old Vol. Life, iii. (1891), 78. It is the living question of the hour, and not the dead story of the past, which forces itself into all minds.
1869. Seeley, Lect. & Ess. (1870), 77. Not that there is anything in a living Christianity incompatible with liberty.
1871. Farrar, Witn. Hist., ii. 65. The idea … was created solely by the living fact.
3. Of or pertaining to a living person or what is living. † Living-fence: a fence formed of living wood, esp. hawthorn. Within living memory: in the recollection of persons still alive. Living force = VIS VIVA.
1676. Glanvill, Ess., iii. 6. Death having overcome that Envy which dog’s living Virtue to the Grave.
1686. Plot, Staffordsh., 357. For a living-fence, I met with none so … serviceal as those, made by the planching of Quicksets.
1836. J. H. Newman, Par. Serm. (1837), III. xxiii. 351. It is as if a living hand were to touch cold iron.
1855. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., xiv. III. 438. There had within living memory been no equally serious encounter between the English and French.
1864. Lond. Rev., 27 Aug., 247/2. Psychonomy … illustrated by tracings from living hands.
1876. Tait, Rec. Adv. Phys. Sci. (1885), 360. That which is denoted by the term Living Force, though it has absolutely no right to be called force, is something as real as matter itself.
1877. W. Morris, in Mackail, Life (1899). I. 341. The newly-invented study of living history is the chief joy of so many of our lives.
1888. Burgon, Lives 12 Gd. Men, II. v. 1. No ecclesiastic within living memory … has enjoyed a larger share of personal celebrity.
4. With prefixed adv.: That passes life in a specified manner.
c. 1380. Wyclif, Wks. (1880), 33. Vnkunnynge & euyl leuynge prelatis.
1901. Daily Chron., 19 Oct., 3/1. Richardson … was … a good and virtuous-living man.
5. = LIVELY a. in senses 4, 5 and 6. Living gale Naut. (see quot. 1883).
a. 1718. Penn, Life, Wks. 1726, I. 231. During her Illness she uttered many Living and Weighty Expressions.
1816. Byron, Dream, ii. A most living landscape.
1844. Stanley, Arnold, I. ii. 46. The sight of the city and of the neighbourhood, to which he devoted himself … gave him a living interest in Rome.
1851. Ruskin, Stones Ven. (1874), I. App. 370. Bold, and rich, and living architecture.
1876. Freeman, Norm. Conq., V. xxii. 47. The portrait of William is drawn … in living colours, by the Chronicler.
1883. Clark Russell, Sailors’ Lang., Living gale, a tremendous gale.
1888. Burgon, Lives 12 Gd. Men, I. Pref. 9. Faithfully to commit to paper a living image of the man.
