lifer
noun
lif·er
| \ ˈlī-fər
\
\
Definition of lifer
1
: a person sentenced to imprisonment for life
2
: a person who makes a career of one of the armed forces
3
: a person who has made a lifelong commitment (as to a way of life)
Examples of lifer in a Sentence
He was a lifer at the factory.
Recent Examples on the Web
So, what should pro-lifers do with all this information? — David French, National Review, "In a Post-Roe World, Pro-Lifers Would Still Have a Lot of Work Left to Do," 19 July 2019 Roberts is a baseball lifer with one championship already. — Mike Hutton, chicagotribune.com, "Hutton: Washington Township coach Randy Roberts says, 'We're not going down there hoping to win. We expect to win.'," 15 June 2019 Martelli isn’t just a Philly guy, but a Philly lifer. — Mike Jensen, https://www.inquirer.com, "How did Juwan Howard hire Phil Martelli as his assistant? There’s a tale that involves a lot of hoop coaches.," 4 June 2019 Dennis Muilenburg, Boeing’s boss, is a Bible-reading company lifer who looks the part, from the cut of his jaw to the azure of his eyes. — The Economist, "Boeing’s boss wins a reprieve, not redemption," 21 June 2019 This number of lifers accounts for 59 percent of the graduating class. — Sergio Carmona, sun-sentinel.com, "Caps off to the Claire and Emanuel G. Rosenblatt High School graduates," 13 June 2019 Now, there are 24, containing 48,000 inmates and 5,000 lifers like Barlow. — Samantha Melamed, https://www.inquirer.com, "The last death-row inmate at Eastern State Penitentiary returns after 50 years in prison," 6 June 2019 However, as prisoners age, the medical costs go up and a lot of these lifers have been serving a long time. — John Baer, Philly.com, "Sharif Street is on a mission for criminal justice reform," 29 June 2018 Time Reds manager Jim Riggleman, at 65 and a baseball lifer, would seem like a decidedly old-school manager. — John Fay, Cincinnati.com, "Cincinnati Reds manager Jim Riggleman is a quick hook based on analytics," 22 June 2018These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'lifer.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
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More Definitions for lifer
lifer
noun
English Language Learners Definition of lifer
informal
US
: a person who spends an entire career in the same job
: a criminal who has been sentenced to spend the rest of his or her life in prison
See the full definition for lifer in the English Language Learners Dictionary