[lahyf] 
noun, plural lives [lahyvz] , adjective | 1. | the condition that distinguishes organisms from inorganic objects and dead organisms, being manifested by growth through metabolism, reproduction, and the power of adaptation to environment through changes originating internally. |
| 2. | the sum of the distinguishing phenomena of organisms, esp. metabolism, growth, reproduction, and adaptation to environment. |
| 3. | the animate existence or period of animate existence of an individual: to risk one's life; a short life and a merry one. |
| 4. | a corresponding state, existence, or principle of existence conceived of as belonging to the soul: eternal life. |
| 5. | the general or universal condition of human existence: Too bad, but life is like that. |
| 6. | any specified period of animate existence: a man in middle life. |
| 7. | the period of existence, activity, or effectiveness of something inanimate, as a machine, lease, or play: The life of the car may be ten years. |
| 8. | a living being: Several lives were lost. |
| 9. | living things collectively: the hope of discovering life on other planets; insect life. |
| 10. | a particular aspect of existence: He enjoys an active physical life. |
| 11. | the course of existence or sum of experiences and actions that constitute a person's existence: His business has been his entire life. |
| 12. | a biography: a newly published life of Willa Cather. |
| 13. | animation; liveliness; spirit: a speech full of life. |
| 14. | resilience; elasticity. |
| 15. | the force that makes or keeps something alive; the vivifying or quickening principle: The life of the treaty has been an increase of mutual understanding and respect. |
| 16. | a mode or manner of existence, as in the world of affairs or society: So far her business life has not overlapped her social life. |
| 17. | the period or extent of authority, popularity, approval, etc.: the life of the committee; the life of a bestseller. |
| 18. | a prison sentence covering the remaining portion of the offender's animate existence: The judge gave him life. |
| 19. | anything or anyone considered to be as precious as life: She was his life. |
| 20. | a person or thing that enlivens: the life of the party. |
| 21. | effervescence or sparkle, as of wines. |
| 22. | pungency or strong, sharp flavor, as of substances when fresh or in good condition. |
| 23. | nature or any of the forms of nature as the model or subject of a work of art: drawn from life. |
| 24. | Baseball. another opportunity given to a batter to bat because of a misplay by a fielder. |
| 25. | (in English pool) one of a limited number of shots allowed a player: Each pool player has three lives at the beginning of the game. |
| 26. | for or lasting a lifetime; lifelong: a life membership in a club; life imprisonment. |
| 27. | of or pertaining to animate existence: the life force; life functions. |
| 28. | working from nature or using a living model: a life drawing; a life class. |
| 29. | as large as life, actually; indeed: There he stood, as large as life. Also, as big as life. |
| 30. | come to life,
|
| 31. | for dear life, with desperate effort, energy, or speed: We ran for dear life, with the dogs at our heels. Also, for one's life. |
| 32. | for the life of one, as hard as one tries; even with the utmost effort: He can't understand it for the life of him. |
| 33. | get a life, to improve the quality of one's social and professional life: often used in the imperative to express impatience with someone's behavior. |
| 34. | not on your life, Informal. absolutely not; under no circumstances; by no means: Will I stand for such a thing? Not on your life! |
| 35. | take one's life in one's hands, to risk death knowingly: We were warned that we were taking our lives in our hands by going through that swampy area. |
| 36. | to the life, in perfect imitation; exactly: The portrait characterized him to the life. |
| life (līf) n. pl. lives (līvz)
[Middle English, from Old English līf; see leip- in Indo-European roots.] |
life (līf)
n. pl. lives (līvz)
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.
LIFE language
Logic of Inheritance, Functions and Equations.
An object-oriented, functional, constraint-based language by Hassan Ait-Kacy
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].
[The Jargon File]
(1995-04-21)
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!.
Demonstration.
["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].
[The Jargon File]
(1997-09-07)
life jargon
The opposite of Usenet. As in "Get a life!"
[The Jargon File]
(1995-04-21)
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).
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).
