Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. Means of support; subsistence.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. Liveliness; cheerfulness.
- n. Way of life; living; means of maintaining life; support of life; maintenance; the occupation which furnishes means of support.
- n. Synonyms Support, Subsistence, etc. See living.
Wiktionary
- n. obsolete liveliness; appearance of life
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. Subsistence or living, as dependent on some means of support; the means for support of life; maintenance.
- n. obsolete Liveliness; appearance of life.
WordNet 3.0
- n. the financial means whereby one lives
Etymologies
- From Middle English liflode, from Old English līflād ("course of life, conduct"), from līf (“life”) + lād (“course, journey”), later altered under the influence of lively, -hood. More at life, lode. (Wiktionary)
- Middle English livelyhed, alteration (influenced by liflihed, liveliness, energy, vigor) of livelode, from Old English līflād : līf, life; see life + lād, course. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Greg Sandoval looks at the growing fear among local TV stations that their livelihood is at risk in part due to the rise of the Internet.”
“The high schoolers say the landscape changes when a livelihood is at stake.”
“Now their livelihood is being jeopardized and I think we need to support them.”
“Also when your livelihood is in a creative field, especially if you work for yourself, the work never ends.”
All Things Girl » All Things Girl » Blog Archive » Author Insight: Kim Johnson Gross
“It's ironic for a journalist, someone whose livelihood is protected by the First Amendment, to be seemingly threatening to curtail the speech of a military person," said James Naughton, president of the Poynter Institute, a journalism school in St. Petersburg, Fla.”
“Obama and the dems will pass something, their political livelihood is dependent on it, but alot less than the monstrosity they are currently advocating. truthsayer”
“Or that for the state to arrest someone, or deprive them of livelihood, is no less repugnant simply because it does not reach the level of physical torture?”
“You get your livelihood from the masters of society, and whoever feeds a man is that man's master.”
“Then payouts to big oil execs and the fisherman who make their livelihood from a single shrimp boat are oil out of luck.”
Senator: BP CEO balks at paying damages beyond $75 million cap
“What distinguishes a merchant from other trades, is that he makes his livelihood from the profit of exchanging of goods none of which he has produced or contributed toward producing; yet according to Smith, exchanges are made of equal value for equal value, hence according to his own laws, not only is every man not a merchant, but merchants cannot exist.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘livelihood’.
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Hoods
Inspired by comments over on muffinhood.
muffinhood, Robin Hood, maidenhood, knighthood, neighborhood, thiefhood, monkshood, childhood, manhood, little red riding..., falsehood, fatherhood and 71 more...
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big book gre
abase, abbess, abbey, abbot, abdicate, abdomen, abdominal, abduction, abed, aberration, abet, abeyance and 6691 more...
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my dictionary
able, abnormally, abroad, absent, abstract, acceptable, acceptance, access, accessible, accession, according to, account and 4551 more...
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etymophily
Interesting gobbets of etymology
boudoir, down, sudoku, marijuana, venal, wedlock, decussate, dive, gloaming, coach, baptize, maroon and 13 more...
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Still Oners, so far...
Non-made up words listed only by oroboros. EDIT: Since Wordnik took over Wordie, I relinquish all claims to unique listing for these words.
pocito, snowcrash, diktytaxitic, goody-two-shoes, janus-word, bathyscape, audioanimatronic, tres bon, euphonism, imperience, eidolic, ontogenic and 39 more...
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hood
hood mockingbird, hood ornament, the hood, robin hood, under the hood, hood wink, hood blink, Hood River, childhood, bachelorhood, livelihood, neighborhood and 8 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for livelihood.
qroqqa Not, in its principal sense, a compound of either 'lively' or the suffix '-head'. It's 'life' + the word giving modern English 'load', 'lode': thus meaning "provisions for life".
In the 1500s a transparent homophone meaning "liveliness" was created. Sep 8, 2009
oroboros A crook on ritalin. --from Wiley's Dictionary, B.C. comic strip. Aug 11, 2007