live
Definitions
General English
General Science
- adjective carrying out metabolism
- adjective in active use
- verb to exist or make a home
Construction
- Descriptive of a wire or cable connected to a voltage source.
- A descriptive term for a room with a very low level of sound absorption.
Cricket
- adjective (of the ball) still in play; not dead Citation ‘The ball becomes live when the bowler takes the first pace of his approach to the wicket’ (Oslear & Mosey 1993)
Electronics
- Anything connected electrically to a source of voltage. Also known as energized (1), alive, or hot (1).
- A broadcast occurring at the actual time events take place. Also called live broadcast, or real-time broadcast.
Media Studies
- adjective referring to the broadcasting of an event while it is happening
- adverb so as to be broadcast at exactly the same time as a performance or event happens
Military
- adjective relating to real ammunition, which is designed to kill (as opposed to blank ammunition, which is designed to simulate the firing of a weapon)
Slang
- adjective excellent, exciting. A vogue term since 2000, probably from the notion of the superiority of live music or from the urgency of live broadcasts.
Sports
- adjective of an event, appearing, performing, or performed in front of an audience or in person, rather than recorded or filmed
- adjective in sports such as baseball or football, used to describe a ball that remains in play because officials have not halted action
Travel
- adjective carrying an electric current
Origin & History of “live”
modern English live represents a conflation of two Old English verbs, libban and lifian, both of which go back ultimately to the same prehistoric Germanic source, *lib- ‘remain, continue’. Variants of this produced leave ‘depart’ and life. The adjective live (16th c.) is a reduced form of alive, which derived from life.
