Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) - Cite This Source - Share This

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) - Cite This Source - Share This

American Heritage Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

live 1       (lĭv)  Pronunciation Key  v.   lived, liv·ing, lives v.   intr. To be alive; exist. To continue to be alive: lived through a bad accident. To support oneself; subsist: living on rice and fish; lives on a small inheritance. To reside; dwell: lives on a farm. To conduct one's life in a particular manner: lived frugally. To pursue a positive, satisfying existence; enjoy life: those who truly live. To remain in human memory: an event that lives on in our minds. v.   tr. To spend or pass (one's life). To go through; experience: lived a nightmare. To practice in one's life: live one's beliefs. Phrasal Verb(s): live down To overcome or reduce the shame of (a misdeed, for example) over a period of time. live in To reside in the place where one is employed: household servants who live in. live out To live outside one's place of domestic employment: household servants who live out. live with To put up with; resign oneself to: disliked the situation but had to live with it. Idiom(s): live it up Slang To engage in festive pleasures or extravagances. Idiom(s): live up to To live or act in accordance with: lived up to their parents' ideals. To prove equal to: a new technology that did not live up to our expectations. To carry out; fulfill: lived up to her end of the bargain. [Middle English liven, from Old English libban, lifian; see leip- in Indo-European roots.]

American Heritage Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

liv·ing       (lĭv'ĭng)  Pronunciation Key  adj.   Possessing life: famous living painters; transplanted living tissue. In active function or use: a living language. Of persons who are alive: events within living memory. Relating to the routine conduct or maintenance of life: improved living conditions in the city. Full of life, interest, or vitality: made history a living subject. True to life; realistic: the living image of her mother. Informal Used as an intensive: beat the living hell out of his opponent in the boxing match. n.   The condition or action of maintaining life: the high cost of living. A manner or style of life: preferred plain living. A means of maintaining life; livelihood: made their living by hunting. Chiefly British A church benefice, including the revenue attached to it. Synonyms: These adjectives mean possessed of or exhibiting life. Living, alive, and live refer principally to organisms that are not dead: living plants; the happiest person alive; a live canary. Animate applies to living animal as distinct from living plant life: Something animate was moving inside the box. Animated suggests renewed life, vigor, or spirit: The argument became very animated. Vital refers to what is characteristic of or necessary to the continuation of life: You must eat to maintain vital energy.

Online Etymology Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This
living  (adj.)

WordNet - Cite This Source - Share This

living
adjective
1.	pertaining to living persons; "within living memory"
2.	true to life; lifelike; "the living image of her mother"
3.	(informal) absolute; "she is a living doll"; "scared the living daylights out of them"; "beat the living hell out of him"
4.	still in existence; "the Wollemi pine found in Australia is a surviving specimen of a conifer thought to have been long extinct and therefore known as a living fossil"; "the only surviving frontier blockhouse in Pennsylvania" [syn: surviving]
5.	still in active use; "a living language"
6.	(used of minerals or stone) in its natural state and place; not mined or quarried; "carved into the living stone";
noun
1.	the experience of being alive; the course of human events and activities; "he could no longer cope with the complexities of life" [syn: life]
2.	people who are still living; "save your pity for the living" [ant: dead]
3.	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]
4.	the financial means whereby one lives; "each child was expected to pay for their keep"; "he applied to the state for support"; "he could no longer earn his own livelihood" [syn: support]

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

living

Dead\ (d[e^]d), a. [OE. ded, dead, deed, AS. de['a]d; akin to OS. d[=o]d, D. dood, G. todt, tot, Icel. dau[eth]r, Sw. & Dan. d["o]d, Goth. daubs; prop. p. p. of an old verb meaning to die. See Die, and cf. Death.]

1. Deprived of life; -- opposed to alive and living; reduced to that state of a being in which the organs of motion and life have irrevocably ceased to perform their functions; as, a dead tree; a dead man. "The queen, my lord, is dead." --Shak.

The crew, all except himself, were dead of hunger. --Arbuthnot.

Seek him with candle, bring him dead or living. --Shak.

2. Destitute of life; inanimate; as, dead matter.

3. Resembling death in appearance or quality; without show of life; deathlike; as, a dead sleep.

4. Still as death; motionless; inactive; useless; as, dead calm; a dead load or weight.

5. So constructed as not to transmit sound; soundless; as, a dead floor.

6. Unproductive; bringing no gain; unprofitable; as, dead capital; dead stock in trade.

7. Lacking spirit; dull; lusterless; cheerless; as, dead eye; dead fire; dead color, etc.

8. Monotonous or unvaried; as, a dead level or pain; a dead wall. "The ground is a dead flat." --C. Reade.

9. Sure as death; unerring; fixed; complete; as, a dead shot; a dead certainty.

I had them a dead bargain. --Goldsmith.

10. Bringing death; deadly. --Shak.

11. Wanting in religious spirit and vitality; as, dead faith; dead works. "Dead in trespasses." --Eph. ii. 1.

12. (Paint.) (a) Flat; without gloss; -- said of painting which has been applied purposely to have this effect. (b) Not brilliant; not rich; thus, brown is a dead color, as compared with crimson.

13. (Law) Cut off from the rights of a citizen; deprived of the power of enjoying the rights of property; as, one banished or becoming a monk is civilly dead.

14. (Mach.) Not imparting motion or power; as, the dead spindle of a lathe, etc. See Spindle.

Dead ahead (Naut.), directly ahead; -- said of a ship or any object, esp. of the wind when blowing from that point toward which a vessel would go.

Dead angle (Mil.), an angle or space which can not be seen or defended from behind the parapet.

Dead block, either of two wooden or iron blocks intended to serve instead of buffers at the end of a freight car.

Dead calm (Naut.), no wind at all.

Dead center, or Dead point (Mach.), either of two points in the orbit of a crank, at which the crank and connecting rod lie a straight line. It corresponds to the end of a stroke; as, A and B are dead centers of the crank mechanism in which the crank C drives, or is driven by, the lever L.

Dead color (Paint.), a color which has no gloss upon it.

Dead coloring (Oil paint.), the layer of colors, the preparation for what is to follow. In modern painting this is usually in monochrome.

Dead door (Shipbuilding), a storm shutter fitted to the outside of the quarter-gallery door.

Dead flat (Naut.), the widest or midship frame.

Dead freight (Mar. Law), a sum of money paid by a person who charters a whole vessel but fails to make out a full cargo. The payment is made for the unoccupied capacity. --Abbott.

Dead ground (Mining), the portion of a vein in which there is no ore.

Dead hand, a hand that can not alienate, as of a person civilly dead. "Serfs held in dead hand." --Morley. See Mortmain.

Dead head (Naut.), a rough block of wood used as an anchor buoy.

Dead heat, a heat or course between two or more race horses, boats, etc., in which they come out exactly equal, so that neither wins.

Dead horse, an expression applied to a debt for wages paid in advance. [Law]

Dead language, a language which is no longer spoken or in common use by a people, and is known only in writings, as the Hebrew, Greek, and Latin.

Dead letter. (a) A letter which, after lying for a certain fixed time uncalled for at the post office to which it was directed, is then sent to the general post office to be opened. (b) That which has lost its force or authority; as, the law has become a dead letter.

Dead-letter office, a department of the general post office where dead letters are examined and disposed of.

Dead level, a term applied to a flat country.

Dead lift, a direct lift, without assistance from mechanical advantage, as from levers, pulleys, etc.; hence, an extreme emergency. "(As we say) at a dead lift." --Robynson (More's Utopia).

Dead line (Mil.), a line drawn within or around a military prison, to cross which involves for a prisoner the penalty of being instantly shot.

Dead load (Civil Engin.), a constant, motionless load, as the weight of a structure, in distinction from a moving load, as a train of cars, or a variable pressure, as of wind.

Dead march (Mus.), a piece of solemn music intended to be played as an accompaniment to a funeral procession.

Dead nettle (Bot.), a harmless plant with leaves like a nettle (Lamium album).

Dead oil (Chem.), the heavy oil obtained in the distillation of coal tar, and containing phenol, naphthalus, etc.

Dead plate (Mach.), a solid covering over a part of a fire grate, to prevent the entrance of air through that part.

Dead pledge, a mortgage. See Mortgage.

Dead point. (Mach.) See Dead center.

Dead reckoning (Naut.), the method of determining the place of a ship from a record kept of the courses sailed as given by compass, and the distance made on each course as found by log, with allowance for leeway, etc., without the aid of celestial observations.

Dead rise, the transverse upward curvature of a vessel's floor.

Dead rising, an elliptical line drawn on the sheer plan to determine the sweep of the floorheads throughout the ship's length.

Dead-Sea apple. See under Apple.

Dead set. See under Set.

Dead shot. (a) An unerring marksman. (b) A shot certain to be made.

Dead smooth, the finest cut made; -- said of files.

Dead wall (Arch.), a blank wall unbroken by windows or other openings.

Dead water (Naut.), the eddy water closing in under a ship's stern when sailing.

Dead weight. (a) A heavy or oppressive burden. --Dryden. (b) (Shipping) A ship's lading, when it consists of heavy goods; or, the heaviest part of a ship's cargo. (c) (Railroad) The weight of rolling stock, the live weight being the load. --Knight.

Dead wind (Naut.), a wind directly ahead, or opposed to the ship's course.

To be dead, to die. [Obs.]

I deme thee, thou must algate be dead. --Chaucer.

Syn: Inanimate; deceased; extinct. See Lifeless.