Contextualizebeta

lifer

noun
/ˈlaɪfə(ɹ)/

Etymology

From life + -er.

  1. derived from *leyp-✻ — “to stick, glue”
  2. inherited from *lībą✻ — “life, body”
  3. inherited from *līb✻
  4. inherited from līf
  5. inherited from lyf
  6. suffixed as lifer — “life + er”

Definitions

  1. A prisoner sentenced to life in prison.

  2. A prisoner sentenced to transportation for life.

    • They know what a clever lad he is; he'll be a lifer. They'll make the Artful nothing less than a lifer.

  3. A person with a singular career path, especially in the military.

    • "[…]The Top's not a lifer; he's a career Marine. Lifers are a breed. A lifer is anybody who abuses authority he doesn't deserve to have. There are plenty of civilian lifers."
  4. ›+ 1 more definition

    1. A species seen for the first time by a birder or other naturalist who is keeping a list…

      A species seen for the first time by a birder or other naturalist who is keeping a list of all the species they have seen.

      • We have concurred that it was clearly Problema byssus, the byssus skipper: a lifer for me.
      • I saw six species of honeyeaters new to me and went home with 16 lifers and some bad sandfly bites.

The neighborhood

Derived

nonlifer

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for lifer. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA