noun
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the blood, considered as vital to sustain life
-
the essential or animating force
Etymology
Origin of lifeblood
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
The protagonist of Ibsen’s play, Dr. Thomas Stockmann, is a staff physician at the municipal spa baths, the town’s economic lifeblood.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 26, 2026
Lender losses drive a contraction of credit availability, the lifeblood of modern economies, leading to slowing economic activity and driving further iterations of the pernicious cycle.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 9, 2026
If Mad Men-esque creatives defined the last era of advertising, AI-powered campaigns and digital-native creators, who dominated the action along the Croisette, are now the industry’s lifeblood.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 29, 2026
"If you're competing for media dollars, which is the economic lifeblood of every sport in this country, you need to be constantly improving the product," he said.
From BBC ● Jun. 23, 2026
In 1884, at the age of twenty-seven, he moved to New York City, to be closer to the financial markets that pumped the lifeblood of the new industrial age.
From "The Best of Enemies" by Osha Gray Davidson
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
