| 释义 |
lifer slang.|ˈlaɪfə(r)|
[f. life n. + -er1.]
1. One sentenced to penal servitude (or earlier, transportation) for life.
1830R. Dawson Pres. State Australia 201 Some were seven years' men, and others were what they call ‘lifers’. 1838Dickens O. Twist xliii, ‘They'll make the Artful nothing less than a lifer’. 1872M. E. Braddon To Bitter End III. 266 ‘I'm a lifer’, said Richard grimly.
2. A sentence for life.
1832Fraser's Mag. V. 530 Is it not a shame to give me a lifer, and they only a month each? 1886Besant Childr. Gibeon ii. xi, He got five-and-twenty years, which Joe said was as good as a lifer.
3. One who leads a life of a specified character.
Properly the second element of a compound.
1906Daily Chron. 11 May 6/4 The Gospel did not commend itself to the simple lifers of the country-side, but spread like wildfire among the complex lifers of the Greek cities.
4. A life-peer.
1959Economist 31 Jan. 397/1 An infusion of ‘lifers'’ half blue blood. 1969Sunday Tel. 30 Mar. 2/8, I will not..turn out for Lifers. |