life peeragen.
/ˌlʌɪf ˈpɪərɪdʒ/, U.S. /ˈlaɪf ˈpɪ(ə)rɪdʒ/ In the United Kingdom: a peerage (peerage n. 2) which is conferred on a person for life (rather than one which is hereditary).Life peers created under the Life Peerages Act of 1958 and meeting certain eligibility criteria have the right to sit in the House of Lords. Previously (since 1876) this privilege had been extended only to senior judges who were life peers (the Lords of Appeal in Ordinary).
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society > society and the community > social class > nobility > rank > lord or lady > [noun] > peer or lord of parliament > whose title lapses at death > the office of
life peerage1791
1791 Moderate Politics 166 A new order of Peers, recommended by nine-tenths of the whole Commons, and by the same proportion of the Lords, to the King, for life-peerages only, might have great public advantages.
1863 H. Cox Inst. Eng. Govt. i. vii. 68 No life-peerages had been created for several centuries.
1869 Earl Russell in Parl. Deb. 3rd Ser. 195 454 A life peerage had been granted to Lord Wensleydale.
1910 J. A. R. Marriott Second Chambers ii. 15 An attempt made in 1856 to confer a life peerage upon a distinguished lawyer was foiled by the action of the Peers themselves.
1958 Times 24 July 8/7 (heading) Life peerages for four women.
1999 J. Arnott Long Firm ii. 52 All those years of service & all I've got to show for it is a measly life peerage. Kicked upstairs.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2009; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1791