I. VERB USES
/lɪv/
( lives, living, lived)
Frequency: The word is one of the 700 most common words in English.
Please look at category 8 to see if the expression you are looking for is shown under another headword.
1.
If someone lives in a particular place or with a particular person, their home is in that place or with that person.
She has lived here for 10 years...
She always said I ought to live alone...
Where do you live?...
He still lives with his parents.
VERB : V adv / prep , V adv / prep , V adv / prep , V adv / prep
2.
If you say that someone lives in particular circumstances or that they live a particular kind of life, you mean that they are in those circumstances or that they have that kind of life.
We lived quite grandly...
Compared to people living only a few generations ago, we have greater opportunities to have a good time...
We can start living a normal life again now.
VERB : V adv / prep , V adv / prep , V n
3.
If you say that someone lives for a particular thing, you mean that it is the most important thing in their life.
He lived for his work.
VERB : V for n
4.
To live means to be alive. If someone lives to a particular age, they stay alive until they are that age.
He’s got a terrible disease and will not live long...
He lived to be 103...
Matilda was born in northern Italy in 1046 and apparently lived to a ripe old age...
The blue whale is the largest living thing on the planet...
VERB : V adv , V to-inf , V to n , V-ing
5.
If people live by doing a particular activity, they get the money, food, or clothing they need by doing that activity.
...the last indigenous people to live by hunting...
These crimes were committed largely by professional criminals who lived by crime.
VERB : no cont , V by -ing / n , V by -ing / n
6.
If you live by a particular rule, belief, or ideal, you behave in the way in which it says you should behave.
They live by the principle that we are here to add what we can to life, not to get what we want from it.
VERB : V by n
7.
see also living
8.
to live hand to mouth: see hand
to live beyond your means: see means
to live in sin: see sin
II. ADJECTIVE USES
/laɪv/
Frequency: The word is one of the 3000 most common words in English.
1.
Live animals or plants are alive, rather than being dead or artificial.
...a protest against the company’s tests on live animals.
...baskets of live chickens.
≠ dead
ADJ : ADJ n
2.
A live television or radio programme is one in which an event or performance is broadcast at exactly the same time as it happens, rather than being recorded first.
Murray was a guest on a live radio show.
...we were laughing and gossiping, oblivious to the fact that we were on live TV...
A broadcast of the speech was heard in San Francisco, but it is not known if this was live.
ADJ
•
Live is also an adverb.
It was broadcast live in 50 countries...
We’ll be going live to Nottingham later in this bulletin.
ADV : ADV after v
3.
A live performance is given in front of an audience, rather than being recorded and then broadcast or shown in a film.
The Rainbow has not hosted live music since the end of 1981...
A live audience will pose the questions...
The band was forced to cancel a string of live dates.
ADJ : usu ADJ n
•
Live is also an adverb.
Kat Bjelland has been playing live with her new band.
ADV : ADV after v
4.
A live recording is a recording of a band playing at a concert, rather than in a studio.
This is my favourite live album of all time...
ADJ : usu ADJ n
5.
A live wire or piece of electrical equipment is directly connected to a source of electricity.
The plug broke, exposing live wires...
He warned others about the live electric cables as they climbed to safety.
ADJ : usu ADJ n
6.
Live bullets are made of metal, rather than rubber or plastic, and are intended to kill people rather than injure them.
They trained in the jungle using live ammunition.
ADJ : usu ADJ n
7.
A live bomb or missile is one which has not yet exploded.
A live bomb had earlier been defused.
ADJ : usu ADJ n