live
/ˈlɪv/ verb, adjective, adverb
- verb (intransitive) To be alive; to have life. “He's not expected to live for more than a few months.”
- verb (intransitive) To have permanent residence somewhere, to inhabit, to reside. “I live at 2a Acacia Avenue. At that time I'd been living in a camper for about six months.”
- verb (intransitive, informal) (of an object) to have its proper place; to normally be stored. “I washed your gravy boat. Where does it live?”
- verb (intransitive) To survive; to persevere; to continue.
- verb (intransitive) To endure in memory; to escape oblivion. “Her memory lives in that song.”
- verb (intransitive, hyperbolic) To cope. “You'll just have to live with it! I can't live in a world without you.”
- verb (intransitive) To pass life in a specified manner. “It is difficult to live in poverty. And they lived happily ever after.”
- verb (transitive) To spend, as one's life; to pass; to maintain; to continue in, constantly or habitually. “To live an idle or a useful life.”
- adjective (only used attributively) Having life; that is alive. “The post office will not ship live animals.”
- adjective Being in existence; actual. “He is a live example of the consequences of excessive drinking.”
- adjective Having active properties; being energized. “Because the vaccinia virus is live, it is important to follow care instructions for the vaccination site.”
- adjective Operational; in actual use rather than in testing etc.
- adjective (programming) Of an object or value: that may potentially be used in the future execution of a program.
- adjective Taken from a living animal. “live feathers”
- adjective (engineering) Imparting power; having motion. “the live spindle of a lathe”
- adjective (sports) Still in active play. “a live ball”
- adverb Of an event, as it happens; in real time; direct. “The concert was broadcast live by radio.”
- adverb Of making a performance or speech, in person. “He'll be appearing live at the auditorium.”
Synonyms
range go on dwell last remain living real in person in the flesh hot alive populate inhabit survive live on go endure hold up hold out exist subsist be know experience unrecorded bouncy lively resilient springy
Antonyms
dead blank dummy neutral recorded prerecorded broadcast animated
Etymology
From Middle English lefe, lifen, libbe, libben, live, luvien, lyven, from Old English libban, lifian (“to live; be alive”), from Proto-West Germanic *libbjan, from Proto-Germanic *libjaną (“to live”), from Proto-Indo-European *leyp- (“to stick”).
Cognate with Yola live (“to live”), North Frisian laawe, lawe, lewe, lewi, lewwe, lääwe (“to live”), Saterland Frisian lieuwje, líeuwje (“to live”), West Frisian libje (“to live”), Alemannic German läbe (“to live”), Cimbrian and Mòcheno lem (“to live”), Dutch leeven, leven (“to live”), German leben (“to live”), German Low German lęven (“to live”), Limburgish leve, léëve (“to live”), Luxembourgish liewen (“to live”), Vilamovian łaowa (“to live”), Yiddish לעבן (lebn, “to live”), Danish and Norwegian Bokmål leve (“to live”), Faroese liva (“to live”), Icelandic lifa (“to live”), Norwegian Nynorsk leva, leve, liva (“to live”), Swedish leva (“to live”), Gothic 𐌻𐌹𐌱𐌰𐌽 (liban, “to live”); also Latin lippus (“half-sighted, myopic”), Greek λίπος (lípos, “fat, tallow”), Lithuanian lipti (“to stick”), Bulgarian лепя́ (lepjá, “to glue, paste, stick; to plaster, smear”), Czech lepit (“to glue, stick”), Macedonian лепи (lepi, “to glue, stick”), Polish lepić (“to mold; to glue, paste; to stick”), Russian лепи́ть (lepítʹ, “to fashion, sculpt, shape”), Serbo-Croatian лепити, лије́пити, lépiti, lijépiti (“to glue, paste; to stick”), Slovak lepiť (“to stick”), Slovene lepiti (“to stick”), Ukrainian ліпити (lipyty, “to mould, shape”), Sanskrit लिप् (lip, “to anoint, smear; to defile, soil, taint”), रिप् (rip, “deceit, fraud; injury; enemy, traitor”).
An apheretic form of alive.
Webster’s 1913
- verb To be alive; to have life; to have, as an animal or a plant, the capacity of assimilating matter as food, and to be dependent on such assimilation for a continuance of existence; as, animals and plants that live to a great age are long in reaching maturity.
- verb To pass one's time; to pass life or time in a certain manner, as to habits, conduct, or circumstances; as, to live in ease or affluence; to live happily or usefully.
- verb To spend, as one's life; to pass; to maintain; to continue in, constantly or habitually; as, to live an idle or a useful life.
- verb To act habitually in conformity with; to practice.
Etymology [OE. liven, livien, AS. libban, lifian; akin to OS. libbian, D. leven, G. leben, OHG. lebn, Dan. leve, Sw. lefva, Icel. lifa to live, to be left, to remain, Goth. liban to live; akin to E. leave to forsake, and life, Gr. lip to anoint, smear; -- the first sense prob. was, to cleave to, stick to; hence, to remain, stay; and hence, to live.]
Etymology [Abbreviated from alive. See Alive, Life.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “live”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details