10  definitions  found 
 
  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["o]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  WordNet  r  1.6  [wn]: 
 
  life 
  n  1:  a  characteristic  state  or  mode  of  living;  "social  life"; 
  "city  life";  "real  life" 
  2:  the  experience  of  living;  the  course  of  human  events  and 
  activities;  "he  could  no  longer  cope  with  the  complexities 
  of  life"  [syn:  {living}] 
  3:  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" 
  4:  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"  [syn:  {animation},  {living},  {aliveness}] 
  5:  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"  [syn:  {lifetime},  {lifespan}] 
  6:  the  period  between  birth  and  the  present  time;  "I  have  known 
  him  all  his  life" 
  7:  the  period  from  the  present  until  death;  "he  appointed 
  himself  emperor  for  life" 
  8:  a  living  person;  "his  heroism  saved  a  life" 
  9:  animation  and  energy  in  action  or  expression;  "it  was  a 
  heavy  play  and  the  actors  tried  in  vain  to  give  life  to 
  it"  [syn:  {liveliness},  {spirit},  {sprightliness}] 
  10:  living  things  collectively;  "the  oceans  are  teeming  with 
  life" 
  11:  the  organic  phenomenon  that  distinguishes  living  organisms 
  from  nonliving  ones;  "there  is  no  life  on  the  moon" 
  12:  an  account  of  the  series  of  events  making  up  a  person's  life 
  [syn:  {biography},  {life  story},  {life  history}] 
  13:  a  motive  for  living;  "pottery  was  his  life" 
 
  From  Jargon  File  (4.2.3,  23  NOV  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  (13  Mar  01)  [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  (13  Mar  01)  [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  (13  Mar  01)  [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). 
 
 
  From  V.E.R.A.  --  Virtual  Entity  of  Relevant  Acronyms  13  March  2001  [vera]: 
 
  LIFE 
  Laboratory  for  International  Fuzzy  Engineering  [research]  (MITI) 
 
 
 
  From  V.E.R.A.  --  Virtual  Entity  of  Relevant  Acronyms  13  March  2001  [vera]: 
 
  LIFE 
  Logistics  Interface  For  manufacturing  Environment 
 
 
 
  From  THE  DEVIL'S  DICTIONARY  ((C)1911  Released  April  15  1993)  [devils]: 
 
  LIFE,  n.  A  spiritual  pickle  preserving  the  body  from  decay.  We  live 
  in  daily  apprehension  of  its  loss  yet  when  lost  it  is  not  missed. 
  The  question,  "Is  life  worth  living?"  has  been  much  discussed; 
  particularly  by  those  who  think  it  is  not  many  of  whom  have  written 
  at  great  length  in  support  of  their  view  and  by  careful  observance  of 
  the  laws  of  health  enjoyed  for  long  terms  of  years  the  honors  of 
  successful  controversy. 
 
  "Life's  not  worth  living,  and  that's  the  truth," 
  Carelessly  caroled  the  golden  youth. 
  In  manhood  still  he  maintained  that  view 
  And  held  it  more  strongly  the  older  he  grew. 
  When  kicked  by  a  jackass  at  eighty-three, 
  "Go  fetch  me  a  surgeon  at  once!"  cried  he 
  Han  Soper 
 
 

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