lifer
Americannoun
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a person sentenced to or serving a term of life imprisonment.
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a person committed to a professional lifetime career in the military.
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a person who has devoted a lifetime to a profession, occupation, or pursuit.
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(in birding)
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Also called life bird. a species of bird not seen previously and that will therefore be added to the bird watcher's life list.
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the sighting of a bird of a previously unseen species.
It seems like forever since I've had a lifer!
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noun
Etymology
Origin of lifer
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.
It’s one of the great power ballads of the last 25 years, with a chorus as cathartic as any in modern pop; Cyrus, the showbiz lifer, surely understood the payoff she was building toward.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 17, 2026
Martin Lehmann, another lifer at the Zwickau plant, hopes that day never comes.
From Barron's ● Sep. 4, 2026
Until that point, the football lifer from Eufaula, Ala., had done everything by the book.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 28, 2026
He joined the group in 1987 - a 2017 press release announcing his appointment as chairman described him as a "Tata lifer".
From BBC ● Aug. 12, 2026
Whether or not she had it planned at the time, Mary Jackson was on her way to becoming a Langley lifer.
From "Hidden Figures" by Margot Lee Shetterly
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
