lifeblood

noun
/ˈlaɪfˌblʌd/US

Etymology

From life + blood. Compare English heart-blood (“lifeblood”).

  1. inherited from *bʰel-
  2. inherited from *blōþą
  3. inherited from *blōd
  4. inherited from blōd
  5. inherited from blood
  6. compounded as lifeblood — “life + blood

Definitions

  1. Blood that is needed for continued life

    Blood that is needed for continued life; blood regarded as the seat of life.

    • [Y]ou desire his mana, yet you respect his tabu, for in you and him alike runs the common life-blood.
    • You didn't come to me in time. And by the time you came to me that fool of a doctor had bled and leeched the lifeblood out of Timmy.
    • Beowulf's body was wet with his life-blood: it came welling out.
  2. That which is required for continued existence or function.

    • Gasoline is the lifeblood of the modern city.
    • Information is the lifeblood of the United States and the world.
    • The road brought invaders who left them hungry and dug up the dead. The road took living children away and made them dead to home. It was as if the roads were veins that bled off lifeblood but never pumped it back in.

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for lifeblood. 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