Word: live Part of Speech: verb 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”). Pronunciation: /ˈlɪv/, [ˈlɪv] 1. To be alive; to have life. Labels: intransitive Example: He's not expected to live for more than a few months. 2. To have permanent residence somewhere, to inhabit, to reside. Labels: intransitive Example: I live at 2a Acacia Avenue. At that time I'd been living in a camper for about six months. Example: 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. 3. To have permanent residence somewhere, to inhabit, to reside. Labels: informal, intransitive Example: I washed your gravy boat. Where does it live? 4. To survive; to persevere; to continue. Labels: intransitive Example: 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. To endure in memory; to escape oblivion. Labels: intransitive Example: Her memory lives in that song. Example: 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. To cope. Labels: excessive, intransitive Example: You'll just have to live with it! I can't live in a world without you. 7. To pass life in a specified manner. Labels: intransitive Example: It is difficult to live in poverty. And they lived happily ever after. 8. To spend, as one's life; to pass; to maintain; to continue in, constantly or habitually. Labels: transitive Example: To live an idle or a useful life. Example: Many people write their romances, others live them; Honore de Balzac did both. 9. To act habitually in conformity with; to practice; to exemplify in one's way of life. Labels: transitive Example: to live the Gospel Example: The key to our freedom then, isn't begging for tolerance, but living our full rights. 10. To live as; to live being. Labels: obsolete, transitive Example: at leaſt admit vs libertie, Euen as thou hopſt to be eternized, By liuing Aſias mightie Emperour. 11. To outlast danger; (of a ship or boat) to float. Labels: ambitransitive Example: That rockslide trapped me in a cave, and I was trapped for three days, but I lived. Example: No ship could live in such a storm. 12. To maintain or support one's existence; to provide for oneself; to feed; to subsist. Labels: intransitive Example: It is hard to live on the minimum wage. They lived on stale bread. Man shall not live by bread alone. 13. To make the most of life; to experience a full, rich life. Labels: informal, intransitive Example: I'm sick of spending every day studying at home: I want to go out there and live! 14. To spend a great deal of time in a particular place. Labels: figuratively, intransitive Example: She lives on the Internet.