life : Dictionary / Wörterbuch (BEOLINGUS, TU Chemnitz)

English Dictionary: life	by the DICT Development Group
7 results for life
From WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006) [wn]:
life n a characteristic state or mode of living; "social life"; "city life"; "real life" the experience of being alive; the course of human events and activities; "he could no longer cope with the complexities of life" Synonym(s): life, living the course of existence of an individual; the actions and events that occur in living; "he hoped for a new life in Australia"; "he wanted to live his own life without interference from others" 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" Synonym(s): animation, life, living, aliveness the period during which something is functional (as between birth and death); "the battery had a short life"; "he lived a long and happy life" Synonym(s): life, lifetime, life-time, lifespan the period between birth and the present time; "I have known him all his life" the period from the present until death; "he appointed himself emperor for life" a living person; "his heroism saved a life" animation and energy in action or expression; "it was a heavy play and the actors tried in vain to give life to it" Synonym(s): liveliness, life, spirit, sprightliness living things collectively; "the oceans are teeming with life" the organic phenomenon that distinguishes living organisms from nonliving ones; "there is no life on the moon" an account of the series of events making up a person's life Synonym(s): biography, life, life story, life history a motive for living; "pottery was his life" a prison term lasting as long as the prisoner lives; "he got life for killing the guard" Synonym(s): life sentence, life
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]:
Life \Life\ (l[imac]f), n.; pl. {Lives} (l[imac]vz). [AS. l[imac]f; akin to D. lijf body, G. leib body, MHG. l[imac]p life, body, OHG. l[imac]b life, Icel. l[imac]f, life, body, Sw. lif, Dan. liv, and E. live, v. [root]119. See {Live}, and cf. {Alive}.] 1. The state of being which begins with generation, birth, or germination, and ends with death; also, the time during which this state continues; that state of an animal or plant in which all or any of its organs are capable of performing all or any of their functions; -- used of all animal and vegetable organisms. 2. Of human beings: The union of the soul and body; also, the duration of their union; sometimes, the deathless quality or existence of the soul; as, man is a creature having an immortal life. She shows a body rather than a life. --Shak. 3. (Philos) The potential principle, or force, by which the organs of animals and plants are started and continued in the performance of their several and co[94]perative functions; the vital force, whether regarded as physical or spiritual. 4. Figuratively: The potential or animating principle, also, the period of duration, of anything that is conceived of as resembling a natural organism in structure or functions; as, the life of a state, a machine, or a book; authority is the life of government. 5. A certain way or manner of living with respect to conditions, circumstances, character, conduct, occupation, etc.; hence, human affairs; also, lives, considered collectively, as a distinct class or type; as, low life; a good or evil life; the life of Indians, or of miners. That which before us lies in daily life. --Milton. By experience of life abroad in the world. --Ascham. Lives of great men all remind us We can make our lives sublime. --Longfellow. 'T is from high life high characters are drawn. --Pope 6. Animation; spirit; vivacity; vigor; energy. No notion of life and fire in fancy and in words. --Felton. That gives thy gestures grace and life. --Wordsworth. 7. That which imparts or excites spirit or vigor; that upon which enjoyment or success depends; as, he was the life of the company, or of the enterprise. 8. The living or actual form, person, thing, or state; as, a picture or a description from the life. 9. A person; a living being, usually a human being; as, many lives were sacrificed. 10. The system of animal nature; animals in general, or considered collectively. Full nature swarms with life. --Thomson. 11. An essential constituent of life, esp. the blood. The words that I speak unto you . . . they are life. --John vi. 63. The warm life came issuing through the wound. --Pope 12. A history of the acts and events of a life; a biography; as, Johnson wrote the life of Milton. 13. Enjoyment in the right use of the powers; especially, a spiritual existence; happiness in the favor of God; heavenly felicity. 14. Something dear to one as one's existence; a darling; -- used as a term of endearment. Note: Life forms the first part of many compounds, for the most part of obvious meaning; as, life-giving, life-sustaining, etc. {Life annuity}, an annuity payable during one's life. {Life arrow}, {Life rocket}, {Life shot}, an arrow, rocket, or shot, for carrying an attached line to a vessel in distress in order to save life. {Life assurance}. See {Life insurance}, below.
From Jargon File (4.2.0, 31 JAN 2000) [jargon]:
life n. 1. A cellular-automata game invented by John Horton Conway and first introduced publicly by Martin Gardner ("Scientific American", October 1970); the game's popularity had to wait a few years for computers on which it could reasonably be played, as it's no fun to simulate the cells by hand. Many hackers pass through a stage of fascination with it, 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 much more likely to mean this game than the magazine, the breakfast cereal, or the human state of existence. 2. The opposite of {Usenet}. As in "{Get a life!}"
From The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (15Feb98) [foldoc]:
LIFE Logic of Inheritance, Functions and Equations. An {object-oriented}, {functional}, {constraint}-based language by Hassan Ait-Kacy et al of {MCC}, Austin TX, 1987. LIFE integrates ideas from {LOGIN} and {LeFun}. 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]. [{Jargon File}] (1995-04-21)
From The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (15Feb98) [foldoc]:
Life 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! (http://www.yahoo.com/Science/Artificial_Life/Conway_s_Game_of_Life/)}. {Demonstration (http://www.research.digital.com/nsl/projects/life/)}. ["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]. [{Jargon File}] (1997-09-07)
From The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (15Feb98) [foldoc]:
life The opposite of {Usenet}. As in "{Get a life!}" [{Jargon File}] (1995-04-21)
From Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary [easton]:
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).