life

Etymology

From Middle English lyf, from Old English līf, from Proto-West Germanic *līb, from Proto-Germanic *lībą (“life, body”), from *lībaną (“to remain, stay, be left”), from Proto-Indo-European *leyp- (“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; womb”) and Leben (“life”), Danish, Norwegian and Swedish liv (“life; waist”), Icelandic líf (“life”). Related to belive.

noun

1. (uncountable) The state of organisms preceding their death, characterized by biological processes such as metabolism and reproduction and distinguishing them from inanimate objects; 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.
   1. (biology) The 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. The animating principle or force that keeps an inorganic thing or concept metaphorically alive (dynamic, relevant, etc) and makes it a "living document", "living constitution", etc.
   The life of the law has not been logic; it has been experience. 1881, Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., The Common Law
3. Lifeforms, generally or collectively.
   It's life, but not as we know it. She discovered plant life on the planet. The rover discovered signs of life on the alien world.
4. (countable) A living individual; the fact of a particular individual being alive. (Chiefly when indicating individuals were lost (died) or saved.)
   Many lives were lost during the war. Her quick thinking saved many dogs' lives.
   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. 2014-06-14, “It's a gas”, in The Economist, volume 411, number 8891
5. Existence.
   1. 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.
   2. A particular aspect of existence.
      He struggled to balance his family life, social life and work life. sex life, political life
   3. (informal) Social life.
      Get a life.
   4. Something which is inherently part of a person's existence, such as job, family, a loved one, etc.
      She's my love, my life. Running the bakery is her life.
6. A period of time during which something has existence.
   1. The period during which one (a person, an animal, a plant; a civilization, species; a star; etc) is alive.
      Life was something you dominated if you were any good. Life yielded easily to intelligence and effort, or to what proportion could be mustered of both. 1936 Feb., F. Scott Fitzgerald, "The Crack-Up", Esquire
      "Life is pain," his mother said. "Anybody that says different is selling something." 1973, William Goldman, The Princess Bride, page 60
   2. The span of time during which an object operates.
      Even if the bill's life is brief, the member who introduced it can still campaign as its champion. 2016, Christine Barbour, Gerald C. Wright, Keeping the Republic
      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. A particular phase or period of existence.
      This would require that reproductive cells do not exist early on but rather are produced during the organism's adult life from the gemules sent from the various organs. 2011, Ehud Lamm, Ron Unger, Biological Computation, page 90
   5. A period extending from a when a (positive or negative) office, punishment, etc is conferred on someone until that person dies (or, sometimes, reaches retirement age).
      Typically, an appointed judge is appointed for life. 2001, Cynthia L. Cates, Wayne V. McIntosh, Law and the Web of Society, page 73
      As a general rule the judges of the administrative courts are appointed for life, i.e., they continue in their office till the completion of sixty-eight years in the Federal Administrative Court[.] 2013, Mahendra P. Singh, German Administrative Law, page 108
      1. (colloquial) A life sentence; a period of imprisonment that lasts until the convict's death (or, sometimes, parole).
7. Animation; spirit; vivacity.
   No notion of life and fire in fancy and in words. 1711, Henry Felton, Dissertation on Reading the Classics
   That gives thy gestures grace and life. 1807, William Wordsworth, To A Highland Girl
   1. The most lively component or participant.
      "Don't I know that it is you who is the life of this house. Two delightful children!" 1970, Mathuram Bhoothalingam, The finger on the lute: the story of Mahakavi Subramania Bharati, National Council of Educational Research and Training, p.87
      And he is the life of the party at the Musgroves for precisely this reason: the navy has made him into a great storyteller. 1998, Monica F. Cohen, Professional domesticity in the Victorian novel: Women, work and home, Cambridge University Press, page 32
8. A biography.
   His life of the founder is finished, except for the title.
   Writers of particular lives[…]are apt to be prejudiced in favour of their subject. 1741, Conyers Middleton, Life of Cicero
9. Nature, reality, and the forms that exist in it.
   The experts also agree that the bushmen only painted from life. This belief is borne out by the other Gorozamzi Hills cave paintings, which represent elephants, hippos, deer, and giraffe. 2010, Brad Steiger, Real Monsters, Gruesome Critters, and Beasts from the Darkside
10. An opportunity for existence.
    1. (video games) One of the player's chances to play, lost when the player's character dies or when certain mistakes are made.
       Scoring 1000 points is rewarded with an extra life.
       Spend the time killing things and there's a bonus for each hit - but only for fatalities notched up since the start of your current life. 1988, David Powell, Rygar (video game review) in Your Sinclair issue 25
    2. (baseball, softball, cricket) A chance for the batter (or batting team) to bat again, given as a result of an misplay by a member of the fielding team.
       Borda sent a hot liner to G. Kugler, who made a nifty pick-up, but threw wild at first, giving the batter a life. 1915 June 24, Philadelphians on the Diamond, in The New York Lumber Trade Journal, volume 59, oage 42
       But shortstop Tenney, on what should have been the game's last out, gave a First Team batter a life on first, when he let a ground ball slip between his legs. 1930 May, Boys' Life, page 49
    3. One of a player's chances to play in various children's playground games, lost when a mistake is made, for example being struck by the ball in dodgeball.
11. (uncountable, insurance) The life insurance industry.
    I work in life.
12. (countable) A life assured under a life assurance policy (equivalent to the policy itself for a single life contract).
    He renewed two lives which had dropped. 1862, Ellen Wood, The Channings

verb

1. (aviation) To replace components whose operational lifetime has expired.
   Now, the aim of the design is to extract more cycles from the component under study, at each new engine generation requirements are driving a reduction in the margin for the error, as parts cannot stand any drop in properties. Thus, the lifing procedures are refined by means of new models or additional specific testing for limiting features to increase the life of the components; […] Ignacio Fernandez, ACCENT: Adaptive Control of Manufacturing Processes for a New Generation of Jet Engine Components, in 2012, D. Knörzer, J. Szodruch, Innovation for Sustainable Aviation in a Global Environment (page 302)
   A decision was made as a matter of internal policy that all 'lifed' components on the two Royal aircraft would be removed at half-life and fitted to the two support aircraft, where the remaining life would be used prior to overhaul at the normal time. 2013, Chris Clark, From Hitler's U-Boats to Kruschev's Spyflights, page 180

intj

1. (obsolete) Synonym of God's life (an oath)