> as lemmas

1557 R. Edgeworth Serm. very Fruitfull xiiii. f. ccxxi^v We muste not leaue anye litell sinne alyue, but kyll theim all.

1602 R. Carew Surv. Cornwall i. f. 38^v Cornish Gentlemen vse all possible remedies..to keepe it [sc. a custom] on liue.

a1616 W. Shakespeare Measure for Measure (1623) iii. i. 484 There is scarse truth enough aliue to make Societies secure. View more context for this quotation

1710 S. Palmer Moral Ess. Prov. 245 A jest keeps an ill story alive and in countenance, and gives it a rotation.

1756 E. Burke Vindic. Nat. Society 77 Our boasted Liberty..has been only kept alive by the Blasts of continual Feuds.

1849 T. B. Macaulay Hist. Eng. I. 74 He kept discontent constantly alive.

1876 E. A. Freeman Hist. Norman Conquest III. xiii. 277 The political constitution once common to every Teutonic people was still alive in England.

1929 E. V. Lucas Turning Things Over 50 When verbs are formed from criminals' names their fame or infamy is kept alive for ever.

1989 D. H. Fischer Albion's Seed 44 The memory of their depredation was very much alive in 1630.

2011 P. McGregor tr. A. Vaksberg Toxic Politics xviii. 206 Moscow..kept alive the hope that Ukraine would move closer to Russia.

1571 J. Bridges Serm. Paules Crosse 84 There is nought in vs but death of synne, there is no sparke alyue.

1626 T. Adams Five Serm. i. 8 Humilitie is not onely a vertue it selfe, but a vessell to containe other vertues: like embers, which keepe the fire aliue that is hidden vnder it.

1698 J. Fryer New Acct. E.-India & Persia 265 Attributing Divine Honour to the Fire, maintaining it always alive in the Delubriums, or Places set apart for their Worship.

a1734 R. North Examen (1740) iii. vi. §69. 474 The Dutch had acted the volant, and done enough, on the one Side or the other, to have kept the Fire alive.

1779 N. W. Wraxall Let. 2 Feb. in Mem. Courts (1799) II. 139 The utmost care is necessary to keep the lamps perpetually alive.

1819 W. Irving Sketch Bk. ii. 113 They still kept alive the sparks of future friendship.

1897 B. Stoker Dracula xxvii. 374 It is morning, and I write by a fire which all the night I have kept alive.

1916 M. A. Cannon Educ. Women during Renaissance (Ph.D. thesis, Catholic Univ. of Amer.) iv. 137 Marguerite kept alive the flames of contempt for religious authority enkindled by her mother.

1965 Boys' Life Jan. 16/3 When the coal was gone, he splintered a seat board with the steel ice spud, then another, struggling to keep his fire alive.

2008 J. Quinn Goodnight Ballivor xxi. 109 The fire in the kitchen was kept alive by a bellows.

1778 W. Pryce Mineralogia Cornubiensis 315/2 Alive, that part of the Lode which contains Tin, Copper, or Lead, and is worth the saving and dressing for the furnace, in opposition to that part of the Lode which is dead or barren, and holds no Metal.

1845 S. Judd Margaret ii. i. 186 Her Mother ‘stirs it off’ and a due quantity of the ‘quick’ and ‘alive’ crystal sweet is the result.

1892 A. C. Gunter Miss Dividends xvi. 234 The locomotives..are moving about slowly, with a view to keeping themselves what is technically called ‘alive’—that is their steam up, sufficient to give them power of motion.

1937 Times 13 Apr. p. xxv/2 The spare parts department..carries approximately 40,000 different components, all of which are kept ‘alive’ for a period of no less than five years.

1943 ‘T. Dudley-Gordon’ Coastal Command ii. 20 It [sc. a torpedo] becomes ‘alive’ only after running through the water for a certain distance, so that the arming vane rotates a certain number of times.

2010 L. Burn Drag Racing iii. 102 I had to pump the throttle hard to keep the engine alive.