Definify.com

Webster 1913 Edition

Life

Life

(līf)
,
Noun.
;
pl.
Lives
(līvz)
.
[AS.
līf
; akin to D.
lijf
body, G.
leib
body, MHG.
līp
life, body, OHG.
līb
life, Icel.
līf
, life, body, Sw.
lif
, Dan.
liv
, and E.
live
, v. √119. See
Live
, and cf.
Alive
.]
1.
The state of being which begins with generation, birth, or germination, and ends with death; also, the time during which this state continues; that state of an animal or plant in which all or any of its organs are capable of performing all or any of their functions; – used of all animal and vegetable organisms.
2.
Of human beings: The union of the soul and body; also, the duration of their union; sometimes, the deathless quality or existence of the soul;
as, man is a creature having an immortal
life
.
She shows a body rather than a
life
.
Shakespeare
3.
(Philos.)
The potential principle, or force, by which the organs of animals and plants are started and continued in the performance of their several and cooperative functions; the vital force, whether regarded as physical or spiritual.
4.
Figuratively: The potential or animating principle, also, the period of duration, of anything that is conceived of as resembling a natural organism in structure or functions;
as, the
life
of a state, a machine, or a book; authority is the
life
of government.
5.
A certain way or manner of living with respect to conditions, circumstances, character, conduct, occupation, etc.; hence, human affairs; also, lives, considered collectively, as a distinct class or type;
as, low
life
; a good or evil
life
; the
life
of Indians, or of miners.
That which before us lies in daily
life
.
Milton.
By experience of
life
abroad in the world.
Ascham.
Lives
of great men all remind us
We can make our
lives
sublime.
Longfellow.
’T is from high
life
high characters are drawn.
Pope
6.
Animation; spirit; vivacity; vigor; energy.
No notion of
life
and fire in fancy and in words.
Felton.
That gives thy gestures grace and
life
.
Wordsworth.
7.
That which imparts or excites spirit or vigor; that upon which enjoyment or success depends;
as, he was the
life
of the company, or of the enterprise
.
8.
The living or actual form, person, thing, or state;
as, a picture or a description from, the
life
.
9.
A person; a living being, usually a human being;
as, many
lives
were sacrificed
.
10.
The system of animal nature; animals in general, or considered collectively.
Full nature swarms with
life
.
Thomson.
11.
An essential constituent of life, esp: the blood.
The words that I speak unto you . . . they are
life
.
John vi. 63.
The warm
life
came issuing through the wound.
Pope
12.
A history of the acts and events of a life; a biography;
as, Johnson wrote the
life
of Milton
.
13.
Enjoyment in the right use of the powers; especially, a spiritual existence; happiness in the favor of God; heavenly felicity.
14.
Something dear to one as one's existence; a darling; – used as a term of endearment.
☞ Life forms the first part of many compounds, for the most part of obvious meaning; as, life-giving, life-sustaining, etc.
Life annuity
,
an annuity payable during one's life.
–
Life arrow
,
Life rocket
,
Life shot
,
an arrow, rocket, or shot, for carrying an attached line to a vessel in distress in order to save life.
–
Life assurance
.
See
Life insurance
, below.
–
Life buoy
.
See
Buoy
.
–
Life car
,
a water-tight boat or box, traveling on a line from a wrecked vessel to the shore. In it person are hauled through the waves and surf.
–
Life drop
,
a drop of vital blood.
Byron.
–
Life estate
(Law)
,
an estate which is held during the term of some certain person's life, but does not pass by inheritance.
–
Life everlasting
(Bot.)
,
a plant with white or yellow persistent scales about the heads of the flowers, as
Antennaria
, and
Gnaphalium
; cudweed.
–
Life of an execution
(Law)
,
the period when an execution is in force, or before it expires.
–
Life guard
.
(Mil.)
See under
Guard
.
–
Life insurance
,
the act or system of insuring against death; a contract by which the insurer undertakes, in consideration of the payment of a premium (usually at stated periods), to pay a stipulated sum in the event of the death of the insured or of a third person in whose life the insured has an interest.
–
Life interest
,
an estate or interest which lasts during one's life, or the life of another person, but does not pass by inheritance.
–
Life land
(Law)
,
land held by lease for the term of a life or lives.
–
Life line
.
(a)
(Naut.)
A line along any part of a vessel for the security of sailors.
(b)
A line attached to a life boat, or to any life saving apparatus, to be grasped by a person in the water.
–
Life rate
,
rate of premium for insuring a life.
–
Life rent
,
the rent of a life estate; rent or property to which one is entitled during one's life.
–
Life school
,
a school for artists in which they model, paint, or draw from living models.
–
Lifetable
,
a table showing the probability of life at different ages.
–
To lose one's life
,
to die.
–
To seek the life of
,
to seek to kill.
–
To the life
,
so as closely to resemble the living person or the subject;
as, the portrait was drawn
to the life
.

Webster 1828 Edition

Life

LIFE

,
Noun.
plu lives. [See Live.]
1.
In a general sense, that state of animals and plants, or of an organized being, in which its natural functions and motions are performed, or in which its organs are capable of performing their functions. A tree is not destitute of life in winter, when the functions of its organs are suspended; nor man during a swoon or syncope; nor strictly birds, quadrupeds or serpents during their torpitude in winter. They are not strictly dead, till the functions of their organs are incapable of being renewed.
2.
In animals, animation; vitality; and in man, that state of being in which the soul and body are united.
He entreated me not to take his life.
3.
In plants, the state in which they grow or are capable of growth, by means of the circulation of the sap. The life of an oak may be two, three, or four hundred years.
4.
The present state of existence; the time from birth to death. The life of man seldom exceeds seventy years.
If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable. 1Cor. 15.
5.
Manner of living; conduct; deportment, in regard to morals.
I will teach my family to lead good lives.
6.
Condition; course of living, in regard to happiness and misery. We say, a man's life has been a series of prosperity, or misfortune.
7.
Blood, the supposed vehicle of animation.
And the warm life came issuing through the wound.
8.
Animals in general; animal being.
Full nature swarms with life.
9.
System of animal nature.
Lives through all life.
10.
Spirit; animation; briskness; vivacity; resolution.
They have no notion of life and fire in fancy and words.
11.
The living form; real person or state; in opposition to a copy; as, a picture is taken from the life; a description from the life.
12.
Exact resemblance; with to, before life.
His portrait is draw to the life.
13.
General state of man, or of social manners; as the studies and arts that polish life.
14.
Condition; rank in society; as high life and low life.
15.Common occurrences; course of things; human affairs.
But to know that which before us lies in daily life, is the prime wisdom.
16.
A person; a living being; usually or always, a human being. How many lives were sacrificed during the revolution?
17.
Narrative of a past life; history of the events of life; biographical narration. Johnson wrote the life of Milton, and the lives of other poets.
18.
In Scripture, nourishment; support of life.
For the tree of the field is man's life. Deut. 20.
19.
The stomach or appetite.
His life abhorreth bread. Job. 33.
20.
The enjoyments or blessings of the present life.
Having the promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come. 1Tim. 4.
21.
Supreme felicity.
To be spiritually minded is life and peace. Romans 8.
22.
Eternal happiness in heaven. Romans 5.
23.
Restoration to life. Romans 5.
24.
The author and giver of supreme felicity.
I am the way, the truth, and the life. John 14.
25.
A quickening, animating and strengthening principle, in a moral sense. John 6.
26.
The state of being in force, or the term for which an instrument has legal operation; as the life of an execution.

Definition 2024

Life

Life

See also: life

English

Proper noun

Life

  1. (Christian Science) God.

Anagrams

Irish

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): [l̠ʲɪfʲə]

Proper noun

an Life f ‎(genitive na Life)

  1. the Liffey

life

life

See also: Life

English

Noun

life ‎(usually uncountable, plural lives)

  1. The state that follows birth, and precedes death; the state of being alive and living.
    Having experienced both, the vampire decided that he preferred (un)death to life.  He gave up on life.‎
    • 2013 June 1, “Towards the end of poverty”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8838, page 11:
      But poverty’s scourge is fiercest below $1.25 (the average of the 15 poorest countries’ own poverty lines, measured in 2005 dollars and adjusted for differences in purchasing power): people below that level live lives that are poor, nasty, brutish and short.
    1. A living being.
      Many lives were lost during the war.‎
      • 2014 June 14, “It's a gas”, in The Economist, volume 411, number 8891:
        One of the hidden glories of Victorian engineering is proper drains. Isolating a city’s effluent and shipping it away in underground sewers has probably saved more lives than any medical procedure except vaccination.
    2. (biology) A status possessed by any of a number of entities, including animals, plants, fungi, bacteria, and sometimes viruses, which have the properties of replication and metabolism.
  2. (heading) A period of time.
    1. The period during which one (a person, an animal, a plant, a star) is alive.
      • 1908, W[illiam] B[lair] M[orton] Ferguson, Zollenstein, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, OCLC 29686887 , chapter IV:
        “My Continental prominence is improving,” I commented dryly. ¶ Von Lindowe cut at a furze bush with his silver-mounted rattan. ¶ “Quite so,” he said as dryly, his hand at his mustache. “I may say if your intentions were known your life would not be worth a curse.”
      • 1916, Ezra Meeker, The Busy Life of Eighty-Five Years of Ezra Meeker
    2. The span of time during which an object operates.
      This light bulb is designed to have a life of 2,000 hours.‎
    3. The period of time during which an object is recognizable.
      The life of this milk carton may be thousands of years in this landfill.‎
    4. (colloquial) A life sentence; a term of imprisonment of a convict until his or her death.
  3. (heading) Personal existence.
    1. (philosophy) The essence of the manifestation and the foundation of the being.
      • 1918, Edgar Rice Burroughs, The Land That Time Forgot, Ch.VI:
        " […] I realize as never before how cheap and valueless a thing is life. Life seems a joke, a cruel, grim joke. You are a laughable incident or a terrifying one as you happen to be less powerful or more powerful than some other form of life which crosses your path; but as a rule you are of no moment whatsoever to anything but yourself. You are a comic little figure, hopping from the cradle to the grave. Yes, that is our trouble—we take ourselves too seriously; but Caprona should be a sure cure for that." She paused and laughed.
    2. (phenomenology) The subjective and inner manifestation of the individual.
      • 1898, Winston Churchill, chapter 1, in The Celebrity:
        The stories did not seem to me to touch life. They were plainly intended to have a bracing moral effect, and perhaps had this result for the people at whom they were aimed. They left me with the impression of a well-delivered stereopticon lecture, with characters about as life-like as the shadows on the screen, and whisking on and off, at the mercy of the operator.
    3. The world in general; existence.
      Man's life on this planet has been marked by continual conflict.‎
    4. A worthwhile existence.
      He gets up early in the morning, works all day long — even on weekends — and hardly sees his family. That's no life!  His life was ruined by drugs.‎
    5. Animation; spirit; vivacity.
    6. The most lively component or participant.
      • 1970, Mathuram Bhoothalingam, The finger on the lute: the story of Mahakavi Subramania Bharati, National Council of Educational Research and Training, p.87:
        "Don't I know that it is you who is the life of this house. Two delightful children!"
      • 1998, Monica F. Cohen, Professional domesticity in the Victorian novel: Women, work and home, Cambridge University Press, page 32:
        And he is the life of the party at the Musgroves for precisely this reason: the navy has made him into a great storyteller.
    7. Something which is inherently part of a person's existence, such as job, family, a loved one, etc.
      She's my love, my life.‎
    8. (informal) Social life.
      Get a life.‎
      • 1915, George A. Birmingham, “chapter I”, in Gossamer (Project Gutenberg; EBook #24394), London: Methuen & Co., published 8 January 2013 (Project Gutenberg version), OCLC 558189256:
        It is never possible to settle down to the ordinary routine of life at sea until the **** begins to revolve. There is an hour or two, after the passengers have embarked, which is disquieting and fussy.
    9. A biography.
      His life of the founder is finished, except for the title.‎
      • Conyers Middleton (1683-1750)
        Writers of particular lives […] are apt to be prejudiced in favour of their subject.
  4. (video games) One of the player's chances to play, lost when a mistake is made.
    Scoring 1000 points is rewarded with an extra life.‎

Quotations

  • (philosophy, essence of manifestation and foundation of being): 1994: Violet Quill, Robert Ferro:
    Most things in life, including life itself, seemed to have articulated sections, discrete and separate and straightforward.

Synonyms

  • (philosophy, essence of manifestation and foundation of being): existence, experience
  • (the world in general): time

Antonyms

  • (the state that precedes death): death
  • (biology): coma
  • (philosophy): void

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

External links

Statistics

Most common English words before 1923: too · every · think · #130: life · went · back · under

Anagrams

Etymology

From Middle English lif, lyf, from Old English līf ‎(“life, existence; life-time”), from Proto-Germanic *lībą ‎(“life, body”), from *lībaną ‎(“to remain, stay, be left”), from Proto-Indo-European *leyp-, *lip- ‎(“to stick, glue”). Cognate with Scots life, leif ‎(“life”), North Frisian liff ‎(“life, limb, person, livelihood”), West Frisian liif ‎(“belly, abdomen”), Dutch lijf ‎(“body”), Low German lif ‎(“body; life, life-force; waist”), German Leib ‎(“body”), Swedish liv ‎(“life; waist”), Icelandic líf ‎(“life”). Related to belive.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /laɪf/, enPR: līf
  • Rhymes: -aɪf

Similar Results