Link Centre Dictionary

live

UK/ˈlaɪ̯v/ US/ˈlaɪ̯v/ very common informal slang
verb (7) adjective (11) adverb (1)

verb

1.

make one''s home or live in

  • “She resides officially in Iceland”
  • “I live in a 200-year old house”
  • “These people inhabited all the islands that are now deserted”
  • “The plains are sparsely populated”
Synonyms
2.

lead a certain kind of life; live in a certain style

  • “we had to live frugally after the war”
3.

continue to live; endure or last

  • “We went without water and food for 3 days”
  • “These superstitions survive in the backwaters of America”
  • “The race car driver lived through several very serious accidents”
  • “how long can a person last without food and water?”
Synonyms
4.

support oneself

  • “he could barely exist on such a low wage”
  • “Can you live on $2000 a month in New York City?”
  • “Many people in the world have to subsist on $1 a day”
Synonyms
5.

have life, be alive

  • “Our great leader is no more”
  • “My grandfather lived until the end of war”
Synonyms
6.

have firsthand knowledge of states, situations, emotions, or sensations

  • “I know the feeling!”
  • “have you ever known hunger?”
  • “I have lived a kind of hell when I was a drug addict”
  • “The holocaust survivors have lived a nightmare”
  • “I lived through two divorces”
Synonyms
7.

pursue a positive and satisfying existence

  • “You must accept yourself and others if you really want to live”

adjective

1.

actually being performed at the time of hearing or viewing

  • “a live television program”
  • “brought to you live from Lincoln Center”
  • “live entertainment involves performers actually in the physical presence of a live audience”
Synonyms
Antonyms
Similar
2.

showing characteristics of life; exerting force or containing energy

  • “live coals”
  • “tossed a live cigarette out the window”
  • “got a shock from a live wire”
  • “live ore is unmined ore”
  • “a live bomb”
  • “a live ball is one in play”
Antonyms
Similar
3.

highly reverberant

  • “a live concert hall”
Similar
4.

charged with an explosive

  • “live ammunition”
  • “a live bomb”
Similar
5.

rebounds readily

  • “clean bouncy hair”
  • “a lively tennis ball”
  • “as resiliant as seasoned hickory”
  • “springy turf”
Synonyms
Similar
6.

abounding with life and energy

  • “the club members are a really live bunch”
Similar
7.

in current use or ready for use

  • “live copy is ready to be set in type or already set but not yet proofread”
Similar
8.

of current relevance

  • “a live issue”
  • “still a live option”
Similar
9.

charged or energized with electricity

  • “a hot wire”
  • “a live wire”
Synonyms
Similar
10.

having life

  • “a live canary”
  • “hit a live nerve”
  • “famous living painters”
  • “living tissue”
Similar
11.

of e.g. volcanos; not erupting and not extinct

  • “a dormant volcano”
Synonyms
Similar

adverb

1.

not recorded

  • “the opera was broadcast live”

Origin

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”)...

Phrases

  • as I live and breathe
  • can't live with them, can't live without them
  • die how one lived
  • die just how one lived
  • die just like one lived
  • die just the way one lived
  • die like one lived
  • die the way one lived
  • draw live Terms derived from the adjective live
  • live action Terms derived from the adjective live
  • live actor Terms derived from the adjective live
  • live actress Terms derived from the adjective live

Related words

Word family

Broader terms

Narrower terms

See also

Related verbs

Entails

WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.