"for the life of one" meaning in English

See for the life of one in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Prepositional phrase

Head templates: {{head|en|prepositional phrase|head=}} for the life of one, {{en-PP}} for the life of one
  1. (colloquial, only with a negative) Even if one's (own) life depended on it; at all. Tags: colloquial Synonyms: for toffee, for sour apples, for beans, to save one's life Related terms: like one's life depended on it Translations (if my life depended on it): 無論如何 (Chinese Mandarin), 无论如何 (wúlùnrúhé) (Chinese Mandarin), 怎麼也 (Chinese Mandarin), 怎么也 (zěnme yě) (Chinese Mandarin), kuolemakseen (Finnish), même si sa vie en dépendait (French), im Leben (German), beo (Irish), za Boga (Polish), za skarby świata (Polish), хоть убе́й (xotʹ ubéj) (Russian), ged a mharbhadh tu mi, chan urrainn do (Scottish Gaelic)

Download JSON data for for the life of one meaning in English (3.3kB)

{
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "prepositional phrase",
        "head": ""
      },
      "expansion": "for the life of one",
      "name": "head"
    },
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "for the life of one",
      "name": "en-PP"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "prep_phrase",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with language name categories using raw markup",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with language name categories using raw markup",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English negative polarity items",
          "parents": [
            "Negative polarity items",
            "Terms by semantic function"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys",
          "parents": [
            "Terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys",
            "Entry maintenance"
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        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Mandarin terms with redundant transliterations",
          "parents": [
            "Terms with redundant transliterations",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "For the life of me, I can't remember the name of that song.",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "text": "Not for the life of him could he remember it.",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "text": "They were unable, for the life of them, to remember.",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2020-04-09, Sam Jones, “Spanish writer spills beans on UK's saucy secrets”, in The Guardian, →ISSN",
          "text": "[…]Peyró can’t for the life of him fathom why “it’s had less success abroad than Ringo Starr’s solo career”.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Even if one's (own) life depended on it; at all."
      ],
      "id": "en-for_the_life_of_one-en-prep_phrase-SZF6JhIu",
      "links": [
        [
          "at all",
          "at all"
        ]
      ],
      "qualifier": "only with a negative",
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(colloquial, only with a negative) Even if one's (own) life depended on it; at all."
      ],
      "related": [
        {
          "word": "like one's life depended on it"
        }
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "for toffee"
        },
        {
          "word": "for sour apples"
        },
        {
          "word": "for beans"
        },
        {
          "word": "to save one's life"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "colloquial"
      ],
      "translations": [
        {
          "code": "cmn",
          "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
          "sense": "if my life depended on it",
          "word": "無論如何"
        },
        {
          "code": "cmn",
          "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
          "roman": "wúlùnrúhé",
          "sense": "if my life depended on it",
          "word": "无论如何"
        },
        {
          "code": "cmn",
          "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
          "sense": "if my life depended on it",
          "word": "怎麼也"
        },
        {
          "code": "cmn",
          "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
          "roman": "zěnme yě",
          "sense": "if my life depended on it",
          "word": "怎么也"
        },
        {
          "code": "fi",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "sense": "if my life depended on it",
          "word": "kuolemakseen"
        },
        {
          "code": "fr",
          "lang": "French",
          "sense": "if my life depended on it",
          "word": "même si sa vie en dépendait"
        },
        {
          "code": "de",
          "lang": "German",
          "sense": "if my life depended on it",
          "word": "im Leben"
        },
        {
          "code": "ga",
          "lang": "Irish",
          "sense": "if my life depended on it",
          "word": "beo"
        },
        {
          "code": "pl",
          "lang": "Polish",
          "sense": "if my life depended on it",
          "word": "za Boga"
        },
        {
          "code": "pl",
          "lang": "Polish",
          "sense": "if my life depended on it",
          "word": "za skarby świata"
        },
        {
          "code": "ru",
          "lang": "Russian",
          "roman": "xotʹ ubéj",
          "sense": "if my life depended on it",
          "word": "хоть убе́й"
        },
        {
          "code": "gd",
          "lang": "Scottish Gaelic",
          "sense": "if my life depended on it",
          "word": "ged a mharbhadh tu mi, chan urrainn do"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "for the life of one"
}
{
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "prepositional phrase",
        "head": ""
      },
      "expansion": "for the life of one",
      "name": "head"
    },
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "for the life of one",
      "name": "en-PP"
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  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "prep_phrase",
  "related": [
    {
      "word": "like one's life depended on it"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
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        "English entries with language name categories using raw markup",
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        "English multiword terms",
        "English negative polarity items",
        "English prepositional phrases",
        "English terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "English terms with usage examples",
        "Mandarin terms with redundant transliterations"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "For the life of me, I can't remember the name of that song.",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "text": "Not for the life of him could he remember it.",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "text": "They were unable, for the life of them, to remember.",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2020-04-09, Sam Jones, “Spanish writer spills beans on UK's saucy secrets”, in The Guardian, →ISSN",
          "text": "[…]Peyró can’t for the life of him fathom why “it’s had less success abroad than Ringo Starr’s solo career”.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Even if one's (own) life depended on it; at all."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "at all",
          "at all"
        ]
      ],
      "qualifier": "only with a negative",
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(colloquial, only with a negative) Even if one's (own) life depended on it; at all."
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "for toffee"
        },
        {
          "word": "for sour apples"
        },
        {
          "word": "for beans"
        },
        {
          "word": "to save one's life"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "colloquial"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "translations": [
    {
      "code": "cmn",
      "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
      "sense": "if my life depended on it",
      "word": "無論如何"
    },
    {
      "code": "cmn",
      "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
      "roman": "wúlùnrúhé",
      "sense": "if my life depended on it",
      "word": "无论如何"
    },
    {
      "code": "cmn",
      "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
      "sense": "if my life depended on it",
      "word": "怎麼也"
    },
    {
      "code": "cmn",
      "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
      "roman": "zěnme yě",
      "sense": "if my life depended on it",
      "word": "怎么也"
    },
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "if my life depended on it",
      "word": "kuolemakseen"
    },
    {
      "code": "fr",
      "lang": "French",
      "sense": "if my life depended on it",
      "word": "même si sa vie en dépendait"
    },
    {
      "code": "de",
      "lang": "German",
      "sense": "if my life depended on it",
      "word": "im Leben"
    },
    {
      "code": "ga",
      "lang": "Irish",
      "sense": "if my life depended on it",
      "word": "beo"
    },
    {
      "code": "pl",
      "lang": "Polish",
      "sense": "if my life depended on it",
      "word": "za Boga"
    },
    {
      "code": "pl",
      "lang": "Polish",
      "sense": "if my life depended on it",
      "word": "za skarby świata"
    },
    {
      "code": "ru",
      "lang": "Russian",
      "roman": "xotʹ ubéj",
      "sense": "if my life depended on it",
      "word": "хоть убе́й"
    },
    {
      "code": "gd",
      "lang": "Scottish Gaelic",
      "sense": "if my life depended on it",
      "word": "ged a mharbhadh tu mi, chan urrainn do"
    }
  ],
  "word": "for the life of one"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-03-12 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-03-01 using wiktextract (68773ab and 5f6ddbb). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.