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Allin

live

verbadjectiveadverbtop 1 000 in film dialogue

  • //ˈlɪv//
  • /[ˈlɪv]/
  • //ˈlaɪ̯v//
  • /[ˈlaɪ̯v]/
  • //ˈlaːv//
  • /[ˈlaːv]/

To be alive; to have life.

verb

  1. 1

    To be alive; to have life.

    He's not expected to live for more than a few months.

  2. 2

    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.

    Athelstan Arundel walked home all the way, foaming and raging. No omnibus, cab, or conveyance ever built could contain a young man in such a rage. His mother lived at Pembridge Square, which is four good measured miles from Lincoln's Inn.

    It was a joy to snatch some brief respite, and find himself in the rectory drawing–room. Listening here was as pleasant as talking; just to watch was pleasant. The young priests who lived here wore cassocks and birettas; their faces were fine and mild, yet really strong, like the rector's face; and in their intercourse with him and his wife they seemed to be brothers.

  3. 3

    informalTo have permanent residence somewhere, to inhabit, to reside. (of an object) to have its proper place; to normally be stored.

    I washed your gravy boat. Where does it live?

  4. 4

    To survive; to persevere; to continue.

    When Lazarus left his charnel-cave, ⁠And home to Mary’s house return’d, […] ‘Where wert thou, brother, those four days?’ ⁠There lives no record of reply, ⁠Which telling what it is to die Had surely added praise to praise.

  5. 5

    To endure in memory; to escape oblivion.

    Her memory lives in that song.

    He has now overseen three straight victories since taking over from Claudio Ranieri and this latest win, against one of the best teams in Europe, will live long in the memory for every Leicester supporter.

  6. 6

    To cope.

    You'll just have to live with it! I can't live in a world without you.

  7. 7

    To pass life in a specified manner.

    It is difficult to live in poverty. And they lived happily ever after.

  8. 8

    To spend, as one's life; to pass; to maintain; to continue in, constantly or habitually.

    To live an idle or a useful life.

    Many people write their romances, others live them; Honore de Balzac did both.

    But poverty’s scourge is fiercest below $1.25 (the average of the 15 poorest countries’ own poverty lines, measured in 2005 dollars and adjusted for differences in purchasing power): people below that level live lives that are poor, nasty, brutish and short.

  9. 9

    To act habitually in conformity with; to practice; to exemplify in one's way of life.

    to live the Gospel

    The key to our freedom then, isn't begging for tolerance, but living our full rights.

    Change happens from the inside out and this great resource can show you how to live the habits that build personal and professional effectiveness.

    In short, he argues, in the modern era, “The only way to build a brand is to live that brand. You have to live the values and the mission, then let the customer decide.”

  10. 10

    obsoleteTo live as; to live being.

    at leaſt admit vs libertie, Euen as thou hopſt to be eternized, By liuing Aſias mightie Emperour.

  11. 11

    To outlast danger; (of a ship or boat) to float.

    That rockslide trapped me in a cave, and I was trapped for three days, but I lived.

    No ship could live in such a storm.

    (in a video game) I don't know how I lived that, I should've died like 8 times.

    a strong mast that lived upon the sea

  12. 12

    To maintain or support one's existence; to provide for oneself; to feed; to subsist.

    It is hard to live on the minimum wage. They lived on stale bread. Man shall not live by bread alone.

  13. 13

    informalTo make the most of life; to experience a full, rich life.

    I'm sick of spending every day studying at home: I want to go out there and live!

  14. 14

    figurativeTo spend a great deal of time in a particular place.

    She lives on the Internet.

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”). Cognates 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”).

adjective

  1. 1

    Having life; that is alive.

    The post office will not ship live animals.

  2. 2

    Being in existence; actual.

    He is a live example of the consequences of excessive drinking.

  3. 3

    Having active properties; being energized.

    Because the vaccinia virus is live, it is important to follow care instructions for the vaccination site.

  4. 4

    Operational; in actual use rather than in testing etc.

  5. 5

    Operational; in actual use rather than in testing etc. Of an object or value: that may potentially be used in the future execution of a program.

    An object in the heap is live if its address is held in a root, or there is a pointer to it held in another live heap node.

  6. 6

    Taken from a living animal.

    live feathers

  7. 7

    Imparting power; having motion.

    the live spindle of a lathe

    a live, or driving, axle

  8. 8

    Still in active play.

    a live ball

  9. 9

    Of a card: not yet dealt or played.

    As a beginner, when you are in a hand, you should practice counting your outs, or those live cards left in the deck that can improve your hand.

  10. 10

    Being broadcast (“on the air”), as it happens.

    The station presented a live news program every evening.

    Are we live?

  11. 11

    In person.

    This nightclub has a live band on weekends.

  12. 12

    Recorded from a performance in front of an audience.

    a live album

  13. 13

    Able to fire or explode (of firearms or explosives).

    The air force practices dropping live bombs on the uninhabited island.

  14. 14

    Of an environment where sound is recorded: having noticeable reverberation.

    A good experiment is to have a friend stand in a fixed position in a moderately live room and talk in a clear voice.

    It sounds like the instruments were recorded in a fairly live room with reverb added.

  15. 15

    Electrically charged or energized, usually with a risk of causing electrocution if touched.

    Use caution when working near live wires.

  16. 16

    Being a bet which can be raised by the bettor, usually in reference to a blind or straddle.

    Tommy's blind was live, so he was given the option to raise.

  17. 17

    Featuring humans; not animated, in the phrases “live actors” or “live action”.

  18. 18

    Being in a state of ignition; burning.

    a live coal; live embers

    Call it a dead language if you want to—it looks to me like those Latinites were the live boys when it came to putting a whole lot of meaning into just two or three words.

  19. 19

    obsoleteVivid; bright.

    the live carnation

  20. 20

    datedEnergetic, attentive, active.

    a live man, or orator

    Now then, Bill, I've recommended to the troop that they take you in, and the fellows have all voted in favor of you. These scouts are a live bunch and they all expect you to make good.

  21. 21

    slangOutstanding, top-notch, exhilarating.

    The party was live, and the music was jammin. All over the beach people in colorful swimsuits were moving to the beat.

  22. 22

    Of a syllable in languages such as Thai and Burmese: resonating, not ending abruptly.

Etymology

An apheretic form of alive.

adverb

  1. 1

    Of an event, as it happens; in real time; direct.

    The concert was broadcast live by radio.

  2. 2

    Of making a performance or speech, in person.

    He'll be appearing live at the auditorium.

Forms

comparative
more live
superlative
most live
past tense
lived
past participle
lived
present participle
living
third person singular
lives
The neighbouring pagesAlphabetical order follows the rules of the language, not byte values: an accent decides only between two otherwise identical words, and Spanish files Ñ as a letter of its own.

Lexical content from Wiktionary, under CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source entry · Data version 2026-08-23

Rank among the words of the OpenSubtitles 2018 corpus — film and television subtitles, so spoken rather than written usage (CC BY-SA 3.0).