living soul

plural living souls

1. idiomaticA person

   However, I’ll tell you this much . . . and if nothing comes of it you must never breathe a word about it to a living soul.

   1909 September, L[ucy] M[aud] Montgomery, “The Prince Comes Back to the Enchanted Palace”, in Anne of Avonlea, Boston, Mass.: L[ouis] C[oues] Page & Company, →OCLC, pages 341–342

   3 more examples

   We may add a table, a seat, perhaps two stools. A poor dwelling and very bare; but then it is furnished with a living soul! The fire cheers her, the blessed box-twigs guard her bed, accompanied now and again by a pretty bunch of vervein.

   1862, Jules Michelet, La Sorcière: The Witch of the Middle Ages

   ‘When I was a young man out there in the scrubs, me and Dougald tailing them beasts from one melon hole to another day after day, never seeing another living soul, I'd ride along dreaming of a girl like you and forget where I was.’

   2002, Alex Miller, Journey to the Stone Country, Allen & Unwin, published 2003, page 247

   "My Gruncle built it himself. 'Log by log, with only my own two bare hands, without the help of another living soul,'” she said in her best Gruncle imitation.

   2023 May 23, Erik Jon Slangerup, Molly and the Machine, Simon and Schuster, →ISBN, page 152