Emily Dickinson Lexicon

LIVE, v.i. [liv; Sax. liban, leofan, lifian; Goth. liban; Sw. lefwa; Dan. lever; G. leben; D. lieven. It coincides with leave. The primary sense probably is to rest, remain, abide. If so, the root may be Ar. لَبَّ labba, to be, to abide. Class Lb, No 1.]

1. To abide; to dwell; to have settled residence in any place. Where do you live? I live in London. He lives in Philadelphia. He lives in a large house in Second street. The Swiss live on mountains. The Bedouin Arabs live in the desert.
2. To continue; to be permanent; not to perish. Men's evil manners live in brass; their virtues / We write on water. – Shak.
3. To be animated; to have the vital principle; to have the bodily functions in operation, or in a capacity to operate, as respiration, circulation of blood, secretions, &c.; applied to animals. I am Joseph; doth my father yet live? – Gen. xiv.
4. To have the principles of vegetable life; to be in a state in which the organs do or may perform their functions in the circulation of sap and in growth; applied to plants. The tree will not live, unless watered; it will not live through the winter.
5. To pass life or time in a particular manner, with regard to habits or condition. In what manner does your son live? Does he live in ease and affluence? Does he live according to the dictates of reason and the precepts of religion? If we act by several broken views, we shall live and die in misery. – Spectator.
6. To continue in life. The way to live long is to be temperate.
7. To live, emphatically; to enjoy life; to be in a state of happiness. What greater curse could envious fortune give, / Than just to die, when I began to live? – Dryden.
8. To feed; to subsist; to be nourished and supported in life; as, horses live on grass or grain; fowls live on seeds or insects; some kinds of fish live on others; carnivorous animals live on flesh.
9. To subsist; to be maintained in life; to be supported. Many of the clergy are obliged to live on, small salaries. All men in health may live by industry with economy, yet some men live by robbery.
10. To remain undestroyed; to float; not to sink or founder. It must be a good ship that lives at sea in a hurricane. Nor can our shaken vessels live at sea. – Dryden.
11. To exist; to have being. As I live, saith the Lord. Ezek. xxviii.
12. In Scripture, to be exempt from death, temporal or spiritual. Ye shall therefore keep my statutes and judgments, which if a man do, he shall live in them. Lev. xviii.
13. To recover from sickness; to have life prolonged. Thy son liveth. – John iv.
14. To be inwardly quickened, nourished and actuated by divine influence or faith. – Gal. ii.
15. To be greatly refreshed, comforted and animated. For now we live, if ye stand fast in the Lord. – 1 Thess. iii.
16. To appear as in life or reality; to be manifest in real character. And all the writer lives in every line. – Pope. To live with, to dwell or to be a lodger with. #2. To cohabit; to have intercourse, as male and female. – Shak. To live down, to live so as to subdue, or to live till subdued. – Burke.