The AI-powered English dictionary
usually uncountable, plural lifebloods
Blood that is needed for continued life; blood regarded as the seat of life. quotations examples
[Y]ou desire his mana, yet you respect his tabu, for in you and him alike runs the common life-blood.
1920, Edward Carpenter, Pagan and Christian Creeds, New York: Harcourt, Brace and Co., page 62
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.
circa 1980, George Spelvin, Petticoat Loose, Act II, Scene 1, published in George Spelvin's theatre book, volume 3
It was she who stopped the lifeblood flow when Karl misswung an axe until Herta could come.
2014, Andre Norton, Tales from High Hallack
(figuratively) That which is required for continued existence or function. quotations examples
Information is the lifeblood of the United States and the world.
1991, Winn Schwartau, Terminal Compromise
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.
2006, James E. Kibler, Memory's Keep, page 55
'We want to be able to market some of these small stations and the lifeblood lines where we currently have short trains in service.'
2019 October, Tony Miles, Philip Sherratt, “EMR kicks off new era”, in Modern Railways, page 56
Like most Victorian Railways, freight was the line's lifeblood.
2020 May 20, Paul Bigland, “East London Line's renaissance”, in Rail, page 46