blive

B3L1I1V4E1
/blaɪv/

adverb

quickly; forthwith

OriginMiddle English blive →
RareScrabble 10
Ask AI about this wordChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

Meanings

blive1

verbblive (third-person singular simple present blives, present participle bliving, simple past blove, past participle bliven)

present singular third person blives · participle present bliving · past blove · participle past bliven

  1. alternativeintransitiveAlternative form of belive ("to remain").

blive2

adverbblive (comparative more blive, superlative most blive)

comparative more blive · superlative most blive · alternative belive

  1. obsoletequickly; forthwith

    “Perdy, ſir knight,” ſaide then th’ enchaunter blive […]

    1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto III”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 18, page 223

Origin

blive · verb

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

Full word history & related roots →

blive · adverb

  1. Middle Englishblive“actively, vigorously, eagerly, gladly, quickly, at once”
  2. Englishblive

From Middle English blive (“actively, vigorously, eagerly, gladly, quickly, at once”), with unsyncopated alternative form bilive. The adverb is from a contraction of by /bi + live (dative form of lyf, "life"), literally, "by life".

More words from Middle English

Full word history & related roots →

Rhymes & wordplay

Anagrams

bevil
Cite this entry
APA

blive. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/blive

MLA

“blive.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/blive. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “blive,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/blive.

Source: blive on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.