life n.
1. as abbr. of SE life sentence.
(a) imprisonment for a life sentence; thus life (up) v., to imprison for life.
![[UK]](/static/img/flags/uk.png "United Kingdom") | ‘Six Years in the Prisons of England’ in Temple Bar Mag. Dec. 76: I got ‘copt’ again, however, and was sent back to do ‘life’. | |
| Leicester Chron. 2 Aug. 12/2: ‘That got us both sent for life.’ ‘Penal servitude for life?’. | |
| Bird o’ Freedom 15 Jan. 2/4: She’s there for life! | |
![[US]](/static/img/flags/us.png "United States") | Powers That Prey 178: See what they did with Bidwell when he made that Bank o’ England touch in the early seventies. Gave him life! | |
| Over the Top 78: It all depends where you are as to what you are called. In France they call you a ‘bomber’ and give you medals, while in neutral countries they call you an anarchist and give you ‘life’. | |
| Man’s Grim Justice in Hamilton Men of the Und. 268: A Southern murderer [...] who was doing life. | |
| ‘Goldfish’ in Red Wind (1946) 148: All they got was him. He got life. | |
| Asphalt Jungle in Four Novels (1984) 130: He got life, but that could mean ten years. | |
| Look Long Upon a Monkey 188: Ain’t Ray doing life? | |
| Saved Scene x: So ’elp me I’ll land yer so bloody ’ard they’ll put me back for life. | |
![[Aus]](/static/img/flags/aus.png "Australia") | Great Aust. Gamble 142: ‘It’ll be more than slander they’ll charge you with, you mug lair [...] And when they do I hope you get life’. | |
| Patriot Game (1985) 24: He’s doing life for that thing and he doesn’t like it. | |
| Vinnie Got Blown Away 33: Dad was doing life. | |
| Guardian 3 Feb. 11: Briton gets life for weapons drop in India. |
(b) in fig. use, i.e. something long-term and permanent but not in prison context.
| Blood Brothers 17: I ain’t never gonna live here. I live in fuckin’ Co-op City an’ that’s straight life. |
2. constr. with the.
(a) the world of prostitution.
| Strange Newes 2: Peg. I meet with merry Hectors [...] they give me Pye-corner Law and Pye-corner Pay, and I am contented to the life. | |
| Harris’s List of Covent-Garden Ladies 27: There is no ascertaining her price [...] and her commodity [...] is always knock’d down to the highest bidder. She has not been in life more than two years. | |
 | Loving-Kindness 79: [note] ‘Nothing but sheer starvation would have forced me to the life,‘ said a girl of eighteen, the other day, who had twice been Mistress of a ‘gay house’. | |
| Lights & Shadows 581: Some have been drawn astray by villains; some have been drugged and ruined, and have fled to these places [i.e. brothels] to hide their shame from their friends; some have adopted the life in order to avoid poverty. | |
| White Slavery 27: The girl expressed her willingness to enter the life. | |
| (con. 1880s–90s) Gangs of Chicago (2002) 121: Then they [i.e. fledgling prostitutes] were broken in to what in red-light circles was known as ‘the life.’. | |
| Never Come Morning (1988) 202: I weighed a hunderd [sic] thirty-four before I entered the Life. | |
| Cast the First Stone 111: Why should prostitutes spend their hard-earned money on men who seemingly give them so little in return? [...] They shrug their shoulders [...] and tell you that that’s ‘the life.’. | |
| in Hellhole 190: Louise [...] would learn from bitter experience after she grew more accustomed to ‘the life.’. | |
| Gentleman of Leisure 40: Lisa had been in the life. | |
| On the Stroll 134: I’ve known hookers who’ve gotten so sick they’ve had to leave the life. | |
| Sweet La-La Land (1999) 38: Why the hell else did anybody think whores call it the life? Because they like it. | |
| (con. 1964-65) Sex and Thugs and Rock ’n’ Roll 133: She freaked but was hooked on the life. | |
| Royal Family 317: [fn] ‘In the life’ usually means being a prostitute, but is sometimes used to refer to other street activities such as pimping, drug pushing, fencing stolen goods, etcetera. | |
| Blacktop Wasteland 45: You were never out of the Life completely. You were always looking over your shoulder. | |
| Orphan Road 33: He respected her the same way he respected any long-term survivor of the life. |
(b) (UK Und.) the professional criminal underworld.
| One More Chance 94: But if it never did pay, why did you so often return to the life? | |
| Carlito’s Way 108: [I]n the life you can know a guy for twenty years and never know his last name. | |
| (con. 1964–8) Cold Six Thousand 20: The Boys are talking and they’re saying he’s lost his taste for the Life. | |
| (con. 1960s) Blood’s a Rover 17: Wayne got a walk on the killings. It left him hollow. He quit the PD and entered The Life. Soldier of fortune. Heroin runner. Assassin. | |
| ‘Lady Madeline’s Dive’ in ThugLit Sept./Oct. [ebook] [T]here were no good guys and bad guys in The Life. Just guys out to make a buck. | |
| Bad Boy Boogie [ebook] ‘We’re in something good here. You should be part of it.’ ‘The life’s not for me, brother,’ Jay said. | |
| Orphan Road 112: ‘He wasn’t in the life. Joined the Marines’. | |
| (con. 1962) Enchanters 90: [H]alf the grips and stuntmen and studio types are in the Life [...] Fox and dickhead criminals go way back [...] Willie Bioff, Ben Siegel, Mickey Cohen’s guys. |
(c) (US black) the subculture of petty crime, pimping, drug dealing etc that makes up the alternative world of the streets.
| Howard Street 161: It was an integral part of the Life, and she’d known the Life from childhood. | |
| Street Players 81: A good prostitute could just about choose any man she wanted who was in the life. | |
| Pulp Fiction [film script] 146: ‘You’re really gonna quit?’ ‘The life, most definitely.’. | |
| Layer Cake 12: We’ve got a Junior-Yuppie-Mafia thang going down, living the life, with JPG suits, Suzuki jeeps, Champagne and whistle all the way. | |
| Night Gardener 101: Darwinism put in motion by those in the life. | |
| What They Was 104: These man ain’t got heart like you [...] but they try fronting about dat life . |
(d) (US gay) the world of homosexuality.
| Homosexual in America 90: The estimate will seem conservative rather than large to those of us who are ‘in the life’. | |
| Guild Dict. Homosexual Terms 24: in the life (adj.): Being in the gay (homosexual) subculture, committed to its activities and association with its members. | |
| Cross of Lassitude 103: The oblique and penetrating language of the life. ‘Broad, give me some sky ...’ ‘Nothing doing. I’ll go freak off with another Jasper. Both of us go for what we know...’. | |
| Queens’ Vernacular. | |
| Maledicta IX 144: The U.K. hustler is in the life, an iron (from ‘iron hoof,’ rhymes with pouf = U.S. fag). | |
| Rebecca’s Dict. of Queer Sl. 🌐 in the life — being out as queer and living in the queer community. | |
| Fabulosa 293/2: in the life gay. |
(e) (US drugs) the world of drug addiction.
| Drugs from A to Z (1970) 142: life, the The drug addict’s characteristic life pattern, revolving around hustling, copping (see cop), the fix, interaction with fellow addicts, dealing with pushers, and so on. | |
| Ripping and Running 161: The Life – Life of a heroin addict. | |
| Cutter and Bone (2001) 20: And the drugs — I was in the life myself for a few years, so I have some idea what it cost him. | |
| Motown and Didi 26: [He] would be to use his touch with the life to keep himself straight. |
In compounds
(US prison) a pardon or the commutation of a sentence.
| ‘Criminal Sl.’ in Amer. Law Rev. LII (1918) 891: A ‘lifeboat’ is a pardon. | |
| Keys to Crookdom 410: Life boat. A reprieve or pardon. [Ibid.] 343: Release from prison, life boat, life liner, saver. | |
| San Quentin Bulletin in L.A. Times 6 May 7: LIFEBOAT, a pardon, a commutation of sentence. | |
| Criminal Sl. (rev. edn). | |
| et al. DAUL 125/1: Life-boat. (P., rare) A pardon or commutation of sentence; a stay of execution in capital punishment cases. | |
| Prison Sl. 105: When an inmate who has been sentenced to death gets his death sentence overturned or commuted to a life sentence, it is said that he got a ‘lifeboat.’. |
In phrases
(UK Und.) to give someone a life sentence.
| Layer Cake 221: How fucked up is that, geezers getting lifed-off doing less bird? | |
| Stump 35: Should be fuckin inside, you! Shoulda got fuckin lifed up! |
a succession of sentences as served, with periods of freedom, by a recidivist; thus on the installment plan phr.
| Regiment 23 Apr. 53/1: [H]e was asked how long he was doing. McEwin, who had done the same sentence on two previous occasions, replied, ‘Well, sor [...] oim phwat yez might call doin’ a loife sintence on the instalment system’. | |
| Wash. Post 11 Nov. Miscellany 3/6: The vendor [of bad cheques] is the ‘layer’ who from all accounts does life on the installment plan so hazardous has become his vocation. | |
| Man’s Grim Justice 5: He was doing a life term [...] on the installment plan. He was in to-day and out to-morrow, in and out for ten or twelve years. | |
| Criminal Sl. (rev. edn). | |
| et al. DAUL 125/1: Life on the installment plan. 1. Successive parole violations and return to prison. [...] 2. Recidivism. | |
| Cool Hand Luke (1967) 8: I too have committed my crime [...] the one which has put me in debt to Society and which I am gradually paying off on the installment plan. | |
| Prison Sl. 28: Life on the Installment Plan Coming back to prison repeatedly. ‘Hey Hank, back again? What are you doing, life on the installment plan?’. | |
| You Got Nothing Coming 207: Narducci, a real hard case doing Life on the Installment Plan. | |
| (con. 2013) We Own This City 41: He was [...] in and out of jail for years. It got to the point where I just figured he would wind up dead or doing life in installments. |
SE in slang uses
In compounds
(US campus) a condom.
| Sl. U. | |
| ‘University Euphemisms in Calif. Today’ 🌐 You do not have to use the word ‘condom’ if you know the innocent-sounding words ‘lifejacket’, ‘raincoat’ or ‘party hat’. |
1. the penis [pun on SE life preserver, a loaded bludgeon].
| Sl. and Its Analogues. | |
| Vocabula Amatoria (1966) 59: Chair, f. The penis; ‘the life-preserver’. |
2. (US) a doughnut [resemblance to SE life preserver, a life-buoy].
| Sun (NY) 28 Mar. 2/6: The doughnuts [...] have been honored with the new title of ‘life preservers’. | |
| Coconino Sun (Flagstaff, AZ) 26 Dec. 2/3: Railroad Eating House Lingo [...] ‘Cut the cowcar off the java train,’ continued the boomer, [...] ‘and switch me a couple of life preservers’. | |
| Eve. Public Ledger (Phila., PA) 17 May 8/5: The correct name for those round life-preserver shaped pastries is ‘doughnuts’. | |
| Railroad Avenue 326: Switch me a coupla life preservers. |
(Irish) a condom.
![[Ire]](/static/img/flags/ire.png "Ireland") | Everyday Eng. and Sl. 🌐 50p lifesaver (n): condom. |
In phrases
see under grin n.3
see separate entry.
see separate entry.
see life of Riley n.
see separate entry.
(N.Z. prison) any variety of drugs.
![[NZ]](/static/img/flags/nz.png "New Zealand") | Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 108/1: life’s little pleasures drugs . |
| Nottingham Eve. Post 12 Feb. 5/5: Not-on-your-life! Miss Knowall. | |
| A Milk White Flag Act I: lieut.: And are they to know you’re not dead? luce: Not on your life. | |
| ‘Red Mike’ in Sandburrs 57: Nit! Not on your life insurance! | |
| Powers That Prey 213: ‘Suppose you let me put my hands down.’ ‘Not on your life.’. | |
| Varmint 97: Not on your life! | |
| Psmith Journalist (1993) 174: ‘Not on your life, sonny,’ he said. | |
| Working Bullocks 263: Not me ... not on your life, Boss! | |
| London Town 103: ‘Not on your life!’ was the little lady’s curt reply. | |
| Hell Hounds of France 48: ‘I guess, Barrington, you should come fifty-fifty with me on this, you big hobo.’ ‘Not on your sweet life, boy!’ . | |
| Foveaux 263: Do I go gettin’ dressed up and drillin’? Not on yer sweet life. | |
| Loving (1978) 146: ‘You mean he said that the ring was stolen?’ Miss Burch cried [...] ‘Not on your life,’ Charlie took her up. | |
| Derby Dly Teleg. 4 Oct. 5/2: They do not. Not on your life. | |
| Dud Avocado (1960) 137: Not on your sweet life. | |
| Burnt Ones 129: I’m not gunna stand around exchanging words with any long-haired nong [...] Not on yours! | |
| Yarns of Billy Borker 23: One bloke suggested he should send his kids to the university. ‘What,’ he answered. ‘And turn them into toffs and scabs? Not on your bloody life.’. | |
| Burn 56: Ever swallowed a grub? Not on yer sweet life you haven’t. | |
| Picture Palace 63: I thought: Not on your life, sister. | |
| Lingo 197: it’s not on expresses disagreement and dissatisfaction as do not on your life. |
the profession of prostitution.
| Elizabeth Canning (2 edn) 9: [T]he old Gipsy Woman took hold of her by the Hand, and promised to give her fine Cloaths if she would go their Way, which Expression she understanding to mean the becoming a Prostitute. | |
| ‘Miscellaneous’ in Fancy I IV 102: Then, vie should anybody as happens to be poor, or in the way of life, be put upon by this Alldeman Vood; so help me Bob! | |
| Dict. of the Turf, the Ring, the Chase, etc. 191: ‘Way of life’ (the) — a state of prostitution. |
In exclamations
an affirmation of absolute truth in the face of an audience’s scepticism.
![[Scot]](/static/img/flags/sco.png "Scotland") | Justified Sinner 77: ‘Who has he quarrelled with?’ asked a third. ‘Don’t know.’— ‘Can’t tell, on my life’. | |
| Eng. Spy I 190: For cabriolets she’s the dame, / A dasher, on my life. | |
| ‘Wonderful Times’ in II (1979) 223: An Old sailor dwelt in Windsor, it’s true upon my life. | |
| Cheltenham Chron. 13 Mar. 6/1: ‘If it is not so I will cross my breath,’ means, among boys, an oath [...] equivalent to ‘on my life!’. | |
| Western Times 24 Dec. 8/1: Well, you’d never believe, but he did — on my life — that impudent rascal kissed my own wife. | |
| Gilt Kid 53: God’s truth. On my life. | |
| Hazell and the Three-card Trick (1977) 74: Jim Hazell pon my life [...] ain’t seen you in donkey’s. |