life

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
life/lʌɪf/

▶noun (pl. lives)

• 1 the condition that distinguishes animals and plants from inorganic matter, including the capacity for growth, functional activity, and continual change preceding death.

  ■ living things and their activity.

• 2 the existence of an individual human or animal.

  ■ a particular type or aspect of human existence: school life.

  ■ a biography.

  ■ informal a sentence of imprisonment for life.

  ■ (in some games) each of a specified number of chances each player has before being put out.

• 3 the period during which something continues to exist, function, or be valid.

• 4 vitality or energy.

• 5 [as modifier] (in art) based on a living rather than an imagined form: a life drawing.

– phrases
come (or bring) to life

• 1 regain or cause to regain consciousness.

• 2 become or make active, lively, or interesting.

for dear (or one's) life as if or in order to escape death.
for the life of me informal however hard I try.
as large as (or larger than) life informal conspicuously present.
larger than life attracting attention because of unusual and flamboyant appearance or behaviour.
life-and-death deciding whether someone lives or dies; vitally important.
the life and soul of the party a vivacious and sociable person.
a matter of life and death a matter of vital importance.
not on your life informal emphatically not.
see life gain a wide experience of the world.
take one's life in one's hands risk being killed.

– origin OE līf, of Gmc origin; rel. to live1.