[An attributive use of live in on live, ALIVE. Cf. lives in LIFE sb. 15.]
1. That is in the possession or enjoyment of life; living, as opposed to ‘dead.’ Live hair, feathers: hair or feathers pulled from a living animal.
1542. Udall, Apophth. Erasm., 256 b. A liue doggue, a cocke, an adder and an ape.
1548. Udall, etc., Par. Erasm., Mark, 19 b. A liue carkas liuyng only to his payne & torment.
1590. Shaks., Mids. N., II. i. 172. The iuyce of it on sleeping eye-lids laid, Will make or man or woman madly dote Vpon the next liue creature that it sees.
1597. Hooker, Eccl. Pol., V. lxiv. § 5. 155. It seemed in that case not against reason to repute them by a courteous construction of law, as liuemen.
1607. Topsell, Four-f. Beasts (1658), 215. Hairs … pulled off from a live Hare.
1681. Lond. Gaz., No. 1656/4. One who pretends to buy Live Hair to make Periwigs.
1692. R. L’Estrange, Fables, cclxxxvi. 250. I had rather be a Live-Begger then a Dead Countess.
1839–41. S. Warren, Ten Thous. a Yr., II. iv. 99. The only live things visible.
1848. Kingsley, Saint’s Trag., I. i. 126. Shall two hundredweight of hypocrisy bow down to his four-inch wooden saint, and the same weight of honesty not worship his four-foot live one?
1856. Mrs. Carlyle, Lett., II. 288. I brought two live plants in flower pots.
1864. Browning, J. Lee’s Wife, VIII. ii. ’Tis a clay cast … From Hand live once, dead long ago.
1875. Maine, Hist. Inst., iv. 107. It [i.e., the land] has ‘live chattels and dead chattels.’
1897. Allbutt’s Syst. Med., II. 686. The importation of live cattle from countries in which foot-and-mouth disease exists, has been prohibited.
† b. absol. Obs.
1565. T. Stapleton, Fortr. Faith, 125 b. A comfort for the liue, and token of their good heart.
1577. Fulke, Two Treat. agst. Papists, II. 456. One sacrifice for the liue and the deade.
1608. Willet, Hexapla Exod., 486. Both the liue and dead should be equally diuided.
1699. Bentley, Phal., xi. 279. This Gentleman … that can put the Dead and the Live together in Dialogue.
c. Somewhat frequent in jocular use, esp. in ‘a real live —’ (slang occas. of inanimate things).
1887. Fun, 26 Oct. XLVI. 175/1. A real live glass milk-jug … given to every lady that buys one pound of our two shilling Bohea.
1890. W. A. Wallace, Only a Sister? 53. Rosemary had taken a great deal of trouble to catch ‘a real live’ philosopher.
d. A live certainty: app. a nonce-phrase, substituted for a dead certainty (see DEAD a. 18).
1855. Thackeray, Newcomes, II. xlii. 374. Then Mrs. Mackenzie would probably be with them to a live certainty.
2. transf. and fig. in various applications.
a. Of impersonal agencies, conditions, etc.: Full of life or active power; stirring or swarming with living beings; indicating the presence of life; basy, active. (Cf. ALIVE 5, 6.)
1647. H. More, Song of Soul, III. II. xxiv. Flush light she sendeth forth, and live Idees.
1853. M. Arnold, Scholar-Gipsy, ii. All the live murmur of a summer’s day.
1858. Kingsley, Parable from Liebig, viii. (1878), 251. The world is too live yet for thee.
1878. Dowden, Stud. Lit., Geo. Eliot, ii. 296. Style … so live with breeding imagery.
b. (Chiefly U.S.). Of persons: Full of energy and alertness; ‘wide-awake,’ up-to-date. Of questions, subjects of consideration: Of present interest and importance; not obsolete or exhausted.
1877. Besant & Rice, Gold. Butterfly, 147. I shall only get live people to write for me.
1877. Talmage, 50 Serm., 26. In all the world of literature there is no such live book as the Bible.
1888. Bryce, Amer. Commw., III. cviii. 565. An enterprising man … created a new type of ‘live’ newspaper.
1900. Speaker, 8 Sept., 618/1. The strenuous effort of the Republicans to resurrect the money question and make it a live issue is becoming ludicrous.
3. Of combustibles: Flaming, glowing.
1611. Bible, Isa. vi. 6. Then flew one of the Seraphims vnto mee, hauing a liue-cole in his hand.
a. 1626. W. Sclater, Exp. 2 Thess. (1629), 288. Where is any liue sparke or seede of Grace?
1756–7. trans. Keysler’s Trav. (1760), III. 34. The scorpion, when hemmed in with live coals … stings himself in the head.
1840–2. Geo. Eliot, in Academy, 20 Jan. (1894), 56/3. Philanthropy, kindled by the live coal of gratitude and devotion to the Author of all things.
1865. Swinburne, Dolores, 245. When thy gardens were lit with live torches.
1887. Bowen, Virg. Æneid, V. 103. Under the spits live embers place.
transf. and fig. 1658–9. Burton’s Diary (1828), III. 278. We come to set up votes that are live quarrels, like York and Lancaster.
1728–46. Thomson, Spring, 964. Now from the virgin’s cheek a fresher bloom Shoots less and less the live carnation round.
1873. T. W. Higginson, Oldport Days, 199. There is to-day such a live sparkle on the water, such a luminous freshness on the grass.
1902. Blackw. Mag., May, 646/1. ‘Dead’ and ‘live’ were terms used in speaking of dull opal that could be made to flash as if alive by the application of water.
4. Containing unexpended energy. Of a shell, a match, etc.: Unkindled, unexploded. Of a rail, wire, etc.: Charged with electricity. Of a cartridge: Containing a bullet, opposed to blank.
1799. Naval Chron., I. 440. A quantity of six-inch live shells fired.
1833. Alison, Hist. Europe (1849–50), XI. lxxvii. § 6. 506. Live shells were placed along the top of the rampart.
1890. Daily News, 4 Jan., 6/6. Touching a live electric wire somewhere in the city.
1894. Times, 29 May, 6/6. I have repeatedly found matches about the ground…. They were ‘live’ matches.
1897. Daily News, 10 March, 7/4. The accused said, ‘You are a —— fine pal to give me a live cartridge.’
1898. Westm. Gaz., 11 July, 2/1. The rails are said to be ‘live’ when charged with the electric current.
1898. Allbutt’s Syst. Med., V. 856. A person for example may be seriously injured … through an iron tool in his hand by which accidental contact is made with live metal.
5. a. Of a mineral, a rock: Native, unwrought; = L. vivus. b. Of air: In its native state, pure.
1661. Lovell, Hist. Anim. & Min., 22. Live brimstone, boiled to the thicknesse of Honey.
1778. Pennant, Tour in Wales, II. 307. A well cut in the live rock.
1855. Browning, Old Pictures in Flor., ii. Through the live translucent bath of air.
1855. Tennyson, Maud, I. xiii. 11. His essences turn’d the live air sick.
1875. Browning, Aristoph. Apol., 1526. The live rock latent under wave and foam.
6. Said of parts of machines or apparatus that either themselves move or impart motion to others. (Cf. DEAD a. 23.)
1825. J. Nicholson, Operat. Mechanic, 325. The dead pulley is fixed to the axis and turns with it, and the other, which slips round it, is called the live pulley.
c. 1860. H. Stuart, Seaman’s Catech., 74. There is a live sheave for the working top pendant, and a dumb one for the hawser.
1875. Knight, Dict. Mech., Live-axle, one communicating power; in contradistinction to a dead or blind axle. Ibid., Live-head, the head-stock of a lathe, which contains the live-spindle.
1878. Lockyer, Stargazing, 308. Three conical rollers carried by a loose or ‘live’ ring.
1882. Nares, Seamanship (ed. 6), 53. The metal rollers are each made to revolve round their own pins, which are secured to a plate, called the live ring.
1884. Knight, Dict. Mech., Suppl., Live Ring, a circular gang of wheels, as used in the turn-tables of draw-bridges, and in those for locomotives.
1884. F. J. Britten, Watch & Clockm., 156. [A] Live Spindle … [is] a rotating spindle; applied generally to the rotating mandrel of a lathe.
7. Of or pertaining to a living being. † Live voice: the voice of a living man. (Cf. vivâ voce.) Live weight: the weight of an animal while living.
1613. Jackson, Creed, II. 367. For the begetting of true and liuely faith, we suppose the liue voice of an ordinary Ministery as the Organe, whereby [etc.].
1649. J. H., Motion to Parl. Adv. Learn., 32. Ineffectuall … if not quickned with some live-voyce and knowing assistance.
1872. Baker, Nile Tribut., xv. 261. The live weight of the male would be about five hundred pounds.
1898. Trans. Highl. & Agric. Soc., 286. The live-weights of the individual sheep were ascertained three times during the experiment.
8. In various collocations and combinations: † live anatomy, vivisection (see ANATOMY 1 b); live-asunder ? nonce-wd., (torn) apart while living (as a limb from the body); live-birth, the fact of a child’s being born alive; live-born a., born alive; live-broken a., broken alive; live-cannibalism, the practice of eating the flesh of human victims still living; live-gang U.S. (see quot.); † live-goods, ? = LIVE-STOCK; live-hole Brickmaking (see quot.); † live-like a., resembling a living person; live matter (see quot.); † live-personal a., made by the person himself; † live-shape, living form; live-steam (see quot.); live-thorn a., constructed of living thorn (cf. quickthorn QUICK D); live-vat (see quot.); † live-wight, a living thing; live-work (see quot.). Also LIVE-BAIT, LIVE-OAK, LIVE-STOCK.
a. 1834. Coleridge, in Lit. Rem. (1836), II. 248. He has by guilt torn himself *live-asunder from nature, and is, therefore, himself in a preter-natural state.
1889. Syd. Soc. Lex., s.v. Live-birth, The aerated condition of the lungs is no proof of *live-birth in the legal sense.
1797. Mrs. A. M. Bennett, Beggar Girl, II. iii. 41. The self same house … where they had nine children *live born and christened.
1824. Campbell, Theodoric, Wks. (1837), 55. A wretch *live-broken on misfortune’s wheel.
1804. Ann. Rev., II. 199/1. After these atrocities it would seem trifling to speak … of the *live-cannibalism of Tongataboo.
1875. Knight, Dict. Mech., *Live-gang, a gang-saw mill, so arranged as to cut through and through the logs without previous slabbing.
1626. Jackson, Creed, VIII. xiii. § 1. To exercise the like rage upon his person or *live-goods, which did the wrong, could be no satisfaction either to the law, or party wronged.
1836. Penny Cycl., V. 408/2. Clamp-bricks are burned in the following manner:—The flues or *live holes—are carried up two courses high through the clamp.
1614. Jackson, Creed, III. xii. § 3. Hauing now met them as *liue-like as they themselues were.
1875. Knight, Dict. Mech., *Live-matter (Printing), type in page or column ready for printing.
1614. Jackson, Creed, III. xvii. § 6. Moses’ *live-personal proposal.
1851–61. Mayhew, Lond. Labour, II. 193. Some of the most experienced *‘live salesmen’ and ‘dead salesmen.’
1626. Jackson, Creed, VIII. x. § 1. The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, tooke their distinct specificall being, or *live-shape, from the first sinne.
1875. Knight, Dict. Mech., *Live-steam, 1. Steam from the boiler at its full pressure; in contradistinction to dead-steam. 2. Steam from the boiler; in contradistinction to exhaust-steam.
1889. Pall Mall Gaz., 21 Oct., 3/2. The heat is supplied by the waste steam, supplemented if necessary by live steam.
1893. Daily News, 29 June, 5/2. Enclosed with a strong *live-thorn palisade impenetrable to arrows.
1852. Morfit, Tanning & Currying (1853), 163. The fresh, or *live vat, is that which has not yet been worked.
1657. W. Rand, trans. Gassendi’s Life Peiresc, II. 148. All which he possesses, seems to be no lesse common to all learned men, then the Air and Water are to all *Live-wights.
1668. Culpepper & Cole, Barthol. Anat., I. xx. 51. Those Live-wights which have no Lungs, have no bladder.
1855. Cornwall, 148. We might distinguish these two kinds of work as dead and *live work—the dead being that which proceeds in the dead rock, and the live that which is concerned in extracting and pulverizing the ores.
b. In the names of various contrivances for holding living objects or for examining them microscopically, as live-box, -car, -trap, -well.
1862. Gosse, in Pop. Sci. Rev., I. 41, note. Specimens hatched in the same live-box, in the same water, from the same brood, and on the same day.
1875. Knight, Dict. Mech., Live-trap, a device for imprisoning living microscopic objects. It consists of three parallel glass slips; the middle one has a circular perforation forming the cell, while the other ones constitute the sides.
1883. Fisheries Exhib. Catal., 199. Live-car, full size, for keeping fish alive.
1893. Funk’s Stand. Dict., Live-well, a well in a fishing-boat for keeping fish alive.
