life ( P ) Pronunciation Key (lf)
n. pl. lives (lvz)
The property or quality that distinguishes living organisms from dead organisms and inanimate matter, manifested in functions such as metabolism,
growth, reproduction, and response to stimuli or adaptation to the environment originating from within the organism.
The characteristic state or condition of a living organism.
Living organisms considered as a group: plant life; marine life.
A living being, especially a person: an earthquake that claimed hundreds of lives.
The physical, mental, and spiritual experiences that constitute existence: the artistic life of a writer.
The interval of time between birth and death: She led a good, long life.
The interval of time between one's birth and the present: has had hay fever all his life.
A particular segment of one's life: my adolescent life.
The period from an occurrence until death: elected for life; paralyzed for life.
Slang. A sentence of imprisonment lasting till death.
The time for which something exists or functions: the useful life of a car.
A spiritual state regarded as a transcending of corporeal death.
An account of a person's life; a biography.
Human existence, relationships, or activity in general: real life; everyday life.
A manner of living: led a hard life.
A specific, characteristic manner of existence. Used of inanimate objects: “Great institutions seem to have a life of their own, independent of those
who run them” (New Republic).
The activities and interests of a particular area or realm: musical life in New York.
A source of vitality; an animating force: She's the life of the show.
Liveliness or vitality; animation: a face that is full of life.
Something that actually exists regarded as a subject for an artist: painted from life.
Actual environment or reality; nature.
adj.
Of or relating to animate existence; involved in or necessary for living: life processes.
Continuing for a lifetime; lifelong: life partner; life imprisonment.
Using a living model as a subject for an artist: a life sculpture.
Idioms:
as big as life
Life-size.
Actually present.
bring to life
To cause to regain consciousness.
To put spirit into; to animate.
To make lifelike.
come to life
To become animated; grow excited.
for dear life
Desperately or urgently: I ran for dear life when I saw the tiger.
for life
Till the end of one's life.
for the life of (one)
Though trying hard: For the life of me I couldn't remember his name.
not on your life Informal
Absolutely not; not for any reason whatsoever.
take (one's) life
To commit suicide.
take (one's) life in (one's) hands
To take a dangerous risk.
take (someone's) life
To commit murder.
the good life
A wealthy, luxurious way of living.
the life of Riley Informal
An easy life.
the life of the party Informal
An animated, amusing person who is the center of attention at a social gathering.
to save (one's) life
No matter how hard one tries: He can't ski to save his life.
true to life
Conforming to reality.
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[Middle English, from Old English lf. See leip- in Indo-European Roots.]
[Download Now or Buy the Book]
Source: The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
life
In addition to the idioms beginning with life, also see bet one's ass (life); big as life; breathe new life into; bring to life; change of life;
charmed life; come alive (to life); dog's life; facts of life; for dear life; for the life of; get a life; good life; late in life; lay down
(one's life); lead a double life; matter of life and death; new lease on life; not on your life; of one's life; once in a lifetime; prime of
life; risk life and limb; run for it (one's life); staff of life; story of my life; take someone's life; to save one's life; to the
life; true to (life); variety is the spice of life; walk of life; while there's life there's hope; you bet (your life).
Source: The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer.
Copyright © 1997 by The Christine Ammer 1992 Trust. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.
life (lf)
n. pl. lives (lvz)
The property or quality that distinguishes living organisms from dead organisms and inanimate matter, manifested in functions such as metabolism,
growth, reproduction, and response to stimuli or adaptation to the environment originating from within the organism.
The characteristic state or condition of a living organism.
Living organisms considered as a group.
A living being, especially a person.
Source: The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Main Entry: life
Pronunciation: 'lIf
Function: noun
Inflected Form: plural lives /'lIvz/
1 a : the quality that distinguishes a vital and functional plant or animal from a dead body b : a state of living characterized by capacity for
metabolism, growth, reaction to stimuli, and reproduction
2 a : the sequence of physical and mental experiences that make up the existence of an individual b : a specific part or aspect of the process of
living <sex life> <adult life> —life·less /'lIf-l&s/ adjective
Source: Merriam-Webster's Medical Dictionary, © 2002 Merriam-Webster, Inc.
life
n 1: a characteristic state or mode of living; "social life"; "city life"; "real life" 2: the course of existence of an
individual; the actions and events that occur in living; "he hoped for a new life in Australia"; "he wanted to live his own life
without interference from others" 3: the experience of living; the course of human events and activities; "he could no longer cope with the
complexities of life" [syn: living] 4: the condition of living or the state of being alive; "while there's life there's
hope"; "life depends on many chemical and physical processes" [syn: animation, living, aliveness] 5: the period during which something
is functional (as between birth and death); "the battery had a short life"; "he lived a long and happy life" [syn: lifetime,
lifespan] 6: the period between birth and the present time; "I have known him all his life" 7: animation and energy in action or expression;
"it was a heavy play and the actors tried in vain to give life to it" [syn: liveliness, spirit, sprightliness] 8: an account of the series
of events making up a person's life [syn: biography, life story, life history] 9: the period from the present until death; "he appointed
himself emperor for life" 10: a living person; "his heroism saved a life" 11: living things collectively; "the oceans are teeming
with life" 12: a motive for living; "pottery was his life" 13: the organic phenomenon that distinguishes living organisms from
nonliving ones; "there is no life on the moon" 14: a prison term lasting as long as the prisoner lives; "he got life for killing the
guard" [syn: life sentence]
Source: WordNet ® 2.0, © 2003 Princeton University
life
<language> Logic of Inheritance, Functions and Equations.
An object-oriented, functional, constraint-based
language by Hassan Ait-Kacy <hak@prl.dec.com> et al of MCC,
Austin TX, 1987. LIFE integrates ideas from LOGIN and
LeFun.
Mailing list: life-users@prl.dec.com.
See also Wild_LIFE.
["Is There a Meaning to LIFE?", H. Ait-Kacy et al, Intl Conf
on Logic Prog, 1991].
[Jargon File]
(1995-04-21)
Source: The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing, © 1993-2005 Denis Howe
life
<games> The first popular cellular automata based
artificial life "game". Life was invented by British
mathematician John Horton Conway in 1970 and was first
introduced publicly in "Scientific American" later that year.
Conway first devised what he called "The Game of Life" and
"ran" it using plates placed on floor tiles in his house.
Because of he ran out of floor space and kept stepping on the
plates, he later moved to doing it on paper or on a
checkerboard, and then moved to running Life as a computer
program on a PDP-7. That first implementation of Life as a
computer program was written by M. J. T. Guy and
S. R. Bourne (the author of Unix's Bourne shell).
Life uses a rectangular grid of binary (live or dead) cells
each of which is updated at each step according to the
previous state of its eight neighbours as follows: a live cell
with less than two, or more than three, live neighbours dies.
A dead cell with exactly three neighbours becomes alive.
Other cells do not change.
While the rules are fairly simple, the patterns that can arise
are of a complexity resembling that of organic systems -- hence
the name "Life".
Many hackers pass through a stage of fascination with Life,
and hackers at various places contributed heavily to the
mathematical analysis of this game (most notably Bill Gosper
at MIT, who even implemented Life in TECO!; see
Gosperism). When a hacker mentions "life", he is more
likely to mean this game than the magazine, the breakfast
cereal, the 1950s-era board game or the human state of
existence.
Yahoo!
(
http://www.yahoo.com/Science/Artificial_Life/Conway_s_Game_o...).
Demonstration
(
http://www.research.digital.com/nsl/projects/life/).
["Scientific American" 223, October 1970, p120-123, 224;
February 1971 p121-117, Martin Gardner].
["The Garden in The Machine: the Emerging Science of
Artificial Life", Claus Emmeche, 1994].
["Winning Ways, For Your Mathematical Plays", Elwyn
R. Berlekamp, John Horton Conway and Richard K. Guy, 1982].
["The Recursive Universe: Cosmic Complexity and the Limits of
Scientific Knowledge", William Poundstone, 1985].
[Jargon File]
(1997-09-07)
Source: The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing, © 1993-2005 Denis Howe
life
<jargon> The opposite of Usenet. As in "Get a life!"
[Jargon File]
(1995-04-21)
Source: The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing, © 1993-2005 Denis Howe
life
n. 1. A cellular-automata game invented by John Horton
Conway and first introduced publicly by Martin Gardner ("Scientific
American", October 1970); the game's popularity had to wait a few
years for computers on which it could reasonably be played, as it's
no fun to simulate the cells by hand. Many hackers pass through a
stage of fascination with it, and hackers at various places
contributed heavily to the mathematical analysis of this game (most
notably Bill Gosper at MIT, who even implemented life in TECO!;
see Gosperism). When a hacker mentions `life', he is much more
likely to mean this game than the magazine, the breakfast cereal, or
the human state of existence. 2. The opposite of Usenet. As in
"Get a life!"
Source: Jargon File 4.2.0
life
generally of physical life (Gen. 2:7; Luke 16:25, etc.); also used figuratively
(1) for immortality (Heb. 7:16); (2) conduct or manner of life (Rom. 6:4); (3)
spiritual life or salvation (John 3:16, 17, 18, 36); (4) eternal life (Matt.
19:16, 17; John 3:15); of God and Christ as the absolute source and cause of
all life (John 1:4; 5:26, 39; 11:25; 12:50).
Source: Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary
life
LIFE: in Acronym Finder
Source: Acronym Finder, © 1988-2004 Mountain Data Systems
life
life: in CancerWEB's On-line Medical Dictionary
Claritius Maximus
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