(lives)
Frequency: The word is one of the 700 most common words in English.
1.
Life is the quality which people, animals, and plants have when they are not dead, and which objects and substances do not have.
...a baby’s first minutes of ~...
Amnesty International opposes the death penalty as a violation of the right to ~.
...the earth’s supply of ~-giving oxygen.
N-UNCOUNT
2.
You can use ~ to refer to things or groups of things which are alive.
Is there ~ on Mars?...
The book includes some useful facts about animal and plant ~.
N-UNCOUNT: with supp
3.
If you refer to someone’s ~, you mean their state of being alive, especially when there is a risk or danger of them dying.
Your ~ is in danger...
A nurse began to try to save his ~...
The intense fighting is reported to have claimed many lives.
N-COUNT: usu poss N
4.
Someone’s ~ is the period of time during which they are alive.
He spent the last fourteen years of his ~ in retirement...
For the first time in his ~ he regretted that he had no faith.
N-COUNT: poss N
5.
You can use ~ to refer to a period of someone’s ~ when they are in a particular situation or job.
Interior designers spend their working lives keeping up to date with the latest trends...
That was the beginning of my ~ in the television business.
N-COUNT: with supp, usu poss N
6.
You can use ~ to refer to particular activities which people regularly do during their lives.
My personal ~ has had to take second place to my career...
Most diabetics have a normal sex ~.
N-COUNT: supp N
7.
You can use ~ to refer to the events and experiences that happen to people while they are alive.
Life won’t be dull!...
It’s the people with insecurities who make ~ difficult.
N-UNCOUNT
8.
If you know a lot about ~, you have gained many varied experiences, for example by travelling a lot and meeting different kinds of people.
I was 19 and too young to know much about ~...
I needed some time off from education to experience ~.
N-UNCOUNT
9.
You can use ~ to refer to the things that people do and experience that are characteristic of a particular place, group, or activity.
How did you adjust to college ~?
...the culture and ~ of north Africa...
N-UNCOUNT: usu supp N
10.
A person, place, book, or film that is full of ~ gives an impression of excitement, energy, or cheerfulness.
The town itself was full of ~ and character...
N-UNCOUNT approval
11.
If someone is sentenced to ~, they are sentenced to stay in prison for the rest of their ~ or for a very long time. (INFORMAL)
He could get ~ in prison, if convicted.
N-UNCOUNT
12.
The ~ of something such as a machine, organization, or project is the period of time that it lasts for.
The repairs did not increase the value or the ~ of the equipment.
N-COUNT: with poss
13.
If you bring something to ~ or if it comes to ~, it becomes interesting or exciting.
The cold, hard cruelty of two young men is vividly brought to ~ in this true story...
Poems which had seemed dull and boring suddenly came to ~.
PHRASE: V inflects
14.
If something or someone comes to ~, they become active.
The volcano came to ~ a week ago.
PHRASE: V inflects
15.
If you say that someone is fighting for their ~, you mean that they are in a very serious condition and may die as a result of an accident or illness. (JOURNALISM)
He was in a critical condition, fighting for his ~ in hospital.
PHRASE: V inflects
16.
For ~ means for the rest of a person’s ~.
He was jailed for ~ in 1966 for the murder of three policemen...
She may have been scarred for ~...
PHRASE: PHR after v, n PHR
17.
If you say that someone does something for dear ~ or for their ~, you mean that they do it using all their strength and effort because they are in a dangerous or urgent situation. (INFORMAL)
I made for the ~ raft and hung on for dear ~.
PHRASE: PHR after v emphasis
18.
If you tell someone to get a ~, you are expressing frustration with them because their ~ seems boring or they seem to care too much about unimportant things. (INFORMAL)
PHRASE disapproval
19.
You can use in all my ~ or in my ~ to emphasize that you have never previously experienced something to such a degree.
I have never been so scared in all my ~...
PHRASE: usu with brd-neg, usu PHR after v emphasis
20.
If you say that someone or something is larger than ~, you mean that they appear or behave in a way that seems more exaggerated or important than usual.
...not that we should expect all good publishers to be larger than ~...
Throughout his career he’s always been a larger than ~ character.
PHRASE: v-link PHR, PHR n
21.
If someone lays down their ~ for another person, they die so that the other person can live. (LITERARY)
Man can have no greater love than to lay down his ~ for his friends.
PHRASE: V inflects, usu PHR for n
22.
If someone risks ~ and limb, they do something very dangerous that may cause them to die or be seriously injured.
Viewers will remember the dashing hero, Dirk, risking ~ and limb to rescue Daphne from the dragons.
PHRASE: V inflects
23.
If you refer to someone as the ~ and soul of the party, you mean that they are very lively and entertaining on social occasions, and are good at mixing with people. In American English, you usually say that they are the ~ of the party.
PHRASE: usu v-link PHR approval
24.
If something starts ~ or begins ~ as a particular thing, it is that thing when it first starts to exist.
Herr’s book started ~ as a dramatic screenplay.
PHRASE: V inflects, usu PHR as n
25.
If someone takes another person’s ~, they kill them. If someone takes their own ~, they kill themselves. (FORMAL)
Before execution, he admitted to taking the lives of at least 35 more women...
He helped his first wife take her ~ when she was dying of cancer.
PHRASE: V and N inflect
26.
You can use expressions such as to come to ~, to spring to ~, and to roar into ~ to indicate that a machine or vehicle suddenly starts working or moving. (LITERARY)
To his great relief the engine came to ~...
In the garden of the Savoy Hotel the sprinklers suddenly burst into ~.
PHRASE: V inflects
27.
a matter of ~ and death: see death
a new lease of ~: see lease
to have the time of your ~: see time
true to ~: see true
see also fact of ~ , kiss of ~