- living
- living adj Living, alive, animate, animated, vital mean endowed with or manifesting life. In their primary senses where life means that character or quality which is peculiar to things that are capable of growth, reproduction, and, often, motion and which is lost by death, they come very close to each other.Living and alive are opposed to dead and, therefore, are applied to organic bodies which have life as distinguished from those from which life has departed; they are distinguishable chiefly by the fact that alive follows the noun it modifies either directly or as a predicative adjective{
among living men
}{among men still alive
}{all living things
}{of all it ever was my lot to read, of critics now alive, or long since dead— Cowper
}{our appreciations of living or dead writers— T. S. Eliot
}Animate is opposed to inanimate and is applied to living organic bodies as contrasted with dead organic bodies or, more often, with inorganic bodies having no capacity for life{those who ignore the natural world around, animate and inanimate— Spencer
}Animated (see also LIVELY); compare animate under QUICKEN vb) is opposed to lifeless or inert, and may apply to something which, once devoid of life, becomes alive{viruses that may behave as animated bodies or as lifeless crystals
}or may be used to perfect a comparison of something by its nature lifeless with something living{a large Australian phasmid popularly known as the animated stick
}{the moral relativism engendered by the notion that man is nothing more than an animated machine— Nagel
}Vital is applied chiefly to qualities (as power, force, energy, or motion) which result naturally from or are associated with life in distinction from qualities which result from purely physical or chemical causes{vital functions
}{it derived its growth and movement from its internal vital force, not from external sources of energy— S. F. Mason
}When these words are applied to things which have not life in the sense defined, they form other groupings. All, however, stress qualities suggestive of life.Living usually suggests continued or continuous existence with no diminution of activity or efficacy{a living principle
}{a living force
}{ballet as an art form was living and not dead— Coleman
}Alive and vital are very close in their emphasis on abundance of vigor, on capacity for development, or on powers of endurance; both are applicable to persons as well as to things{we are not sufficiently alive to feel the tang of sense nor yet to be moved by thought— Dewey
}{Queen Victoria remains . . . one of the most absorbing figures of her time. Obviously she is still alive enough to be condemned— Times Lit. Sup.
}{the veterans insist that college be made alive, dynamic, vital— Fine
}Alive and animated often imply the presence of living things in great numbers{the stream is alive with trout
}{as animated as water under a microscope— Hardy
}Animated also may stress endowment with qualities suggestive of life, especially motion{animated pictures
}{an animated doll
}{the animated signs that blink, bubble, and bedazzle visitors to Times Square— Fixx
}Antonyms: lifelessContrasted words: *dead, defunct, deceased, departed, inanimateliving n Living, livelihood, subsistence, sustenance, maintenance, support, keep, bread, bread and butter are comparable when they denote the means, especially the amount of money or goods, required to keep one supplied with the necessities of life (as food, housing, and clothing) and sometimes also the nonessentials that with the necessities supply the needs of a full life.Living is perhaps the most general term since it may denote either the necessities and provisions with which one supports life or the income with which these may be obtained{had undertaken to work as a manager in return for a living and a share of the crops— Glasgow
}{many of his other customers had gone ... so that his own poor living was cut in impossible half— Malamud
}{an industrial community, in which livings are insecure, incomes are inadequate— W. H. Hamilton
}Typically it is used in a few simple idioms; thus, a man usually earns or makes or gets a or his living; he does something (as writing, spinning, or farming) for a or his living; someone or something owes or provides him a living{I am quite pleased to make my living by what I write, but the attempt to write for my living would be hopeless, for I can write nothing that is not in itself a pleasure to me to write— Ellis
}{men who start out with the notion that the world owes them a living— Sumner
}Livelihood may be indistinguishable in meaning from living{the population derives its livelihood from farming— Americana Annual
}{the livelihood of the people of Malaya has always been uncertain because of the narrow base of their economy— Langdon
}{the profession is of necessity a means of livelihood or of financial reward— Maclver
}but unlike the latter it may apply specifically to the means (as a trade, profession, or craft) by which one earns a living{education is a preparation for life, not merely for a livelihood, for living not for A living— Sampson
}{it is their profession and livelihood to get their living by practices for which they deserve to forfeit their lives— South
}{had a low opinion of politics as a livelihood— White
}Subsistence may be a close synonym of living{Harbor Springs relies for its subsistence chiefly on the summer vacationist trade— Amer. Guide Series: Mich.
}{between disappointment and expectation, is soon disgusted, and returns to pursue his more legitimate means of subsistence— Burroughs
}but often it more specifically denotes means sufficient merely to maintain life and implies an amount of money or supply of goods that provides a person or his family with no more than basic necessities (as of housing, food, and clothing){the question whether people on relief shall be provided only with subsistence
}{only in the meanest and most limited sense is subsistence a standard of living— Harper's
}Sustenance is often used in place of living when the emphasis is upon the food that is necessary not only to one's existence but to one's well-being{he was able to wring only a bare sustenance from his farm
}{that thin layer of topsoil that. . . provides sustenance for our growing population— K. D. White
}But it is also often used to imply all the necessaries of life{it was the fur trade . . . which gave early sustenance and vitality to the great Canadian provinces— Irving
}Maintenance usually denotes either a complex of necessities such as food, lodging, and laundry, and sometimes clothing or the amount needed to supply such a complex{advertised ... for a general resident doctor at $300 a month and maintenance— Greer Williams
}{enough to give him books, and a moderate maintenance— Cibber
}{at least half of them are living parasitically on the other half instead of producing maintenance for themselves— Shaw
}Support applies not only to the amount of money that provides maintenance but to the person who provides the means by which others are maintained{he is the sole support of his family
}{they look for their support to him
}{each son was expected to contribute to his own support— C. L. Thompson
}Keep is a less dignified synonym of maintenance and is applicable not only to men but to animals{the horse is scarcely worth his keep
}{hired men could no longer be had for ten or fifteen dollars a month and keep— White
}Bread and bread and butter are synecdoches for living or sustenance, partly as a result of the use of the former in the Lord's Prayer "Give us this day our daily bread"{he is a fine poet, but he makes his bread and butter selling insurance
}
New Dictionary of Synonyms. 2014.
