qui vive

[ kee veev ]

1. who goes there? (used as a sentry's challenge)

qui vive

/ ˌkiː ˈviːv /

noun

1. on the qui vive
   on the alert; attentive

Word History and Origins

Origin of qui vive¹

1720–30; < French: literally, (long) live who? (i.e., on whose side are you?)

Word History and Origins

Origin of qui vive¹

C18: from French, literally: long live who?, sentry's challenge (equivalent to "To whose party do you belong?" or "Whose side do you support?")

Idioms and Phrases

Idioms

1. on the qui vive, on the alert; watchful:

   Special guards were on the qui vive for trespassers.

Example Sentences

Alternatively, in “JFK and Mary Meyer,” Kornbluth — a veteran magazine journalist and beholder of the salon set where Mary rotated — delivers a slimmer but saucier fictionalization of the diary, one that feels and sounds more bemused, on the qui vive and reflective of the intellectual charmer whom Kennedy had been flirting with since his days as a student at Choate.

From New York Times

“Like hungry little foxes,” her co-conspirators are “always on the qui vive, looking to squeeze out every bit of fun they could in the thicket of rules and regulations.”

From New York Times

She looked quite stunning as she walked across the dining room to the table, not at all unlike a girl on the qui vive appropriate to a big college weekend.

From Literature

It did keep the Germans and their henchmen in the police force on the qui vive, but there remained “the ethical questions that would haunt France for decades: Which actions, exactly, constitute collaboration and which constitute resistance?”

From Washington Post

Thus, without waiting to be marshaled, the soldiers will be constantly on the qui vive; without waiting to be asked, they will do your will; without restrictions, they will be faithful; without giving orders, they can be trusted.

From Forbes