living

1. participlepresentpresent participle of live

1. not comparableHaving life; alive.

   a living, breathing child

   2 more examples

   Respect for the dead does not preclude respect for the living.

   It is also pertinent to note that the current obvious decline in work on holarctic hepatics most surely reflects a current obsession with cataloging and with nomenclature of the organisms—as divorced from their study as living entities.

   1992, Rudolf M[athias] Schuster, The Hepaticae and Anthocerotae of North America: East of the Hundredth Meridian, volume V, Chicago, Ill.: Field Museum of Natural History, →ISBN, page ix

   Synonyms: extant

2. not comparableIn use or existing.

   Hunanese is a living language.

   1 more example

   The cab pulled up in front of a tumbledown cheap ‘villa’ in an unfinished cheap neighbourhood, — the whole place a living monument of the defeat of the speculative builder.

   1897, Richard Marsh, The Beetle

   Synonyms: extant

3. not comparableTrue to life.

   This is the living image of Fidel Castro.

4. not comparableOf rock or stone, existing in its original state and place.

   This we followed for about five paces, when it suddenly widened out into a small chamber, about eight feet square, and hewn out of the living rock.

   1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, →OCLC

5. not comparableContinually updated; not static

   HTML is a living standard.

6. not comparableUsed as an intensifier.

   He almost beat the living daylights out of me.

plural livings

1. uncountableThe state of being alive.
2. countableuncountableFinancial means; a means of maintaining life; livelihood

   it's a living

   2 more examples

   What do you do for a living?

   Career opportunity […] is the one who never knocks — especially not on the doors of women, who are still hooking, housewifing and hairdressing for their livings.

   1983 December 10, Jolanta Benal, “The Second Revolution”, in Gay Community News, volume 11, number 21, page 14

3. countableuncountableA style of life.

   plain living

   1 more example

   The National Brewing Company declared that the Chesapeake Bay region was the Land of Pleasant Living.

4. countableuncountablewith definite articleThose who are alive: living people.

   in the land of the living

   2 more examples

   Glad to see you're still among the living! [good-humored greeting]

   Some say that the spirits of the departed walk among the living, though most of us do not see them.

   Synonyms: quick · Antonyms: dead, deceased, departed

5. countableuncountablecanon lawA position in a church (usually the Church of England) that has attached to it a source of income; an ecclesiastical benefice.

   The patron of the living who had the right to nominate a particular priest might make the choice, but the living was actually granted by the local bishop.

   2015, GR Evans, Edward Hicks: Pacifist Bishop at War

   1 more example

   A Rectory or Parſonage, is a Spirituall liuing, compoſed of Land, Tythe, and other Oblations of the people, ſeparate or dedicate to God in any Congregation, for the ſeruice of his Church there, and for the maintenance of the Gouernour or Miniſter thereof, to vvhoſe charge the ſame is committed.

   1616, Henry Spelman, De Non Temerandis Ecclesijs [Churches Not to Be Violated]. A Tract of the Rights and Respect Due unto Churches. […], 2nd edition, London: […] Iohn Beale, →OCLC, pages 2–3