lifeblood

[ lahyf-bluhd ]

noun

1. the blood, considered as essential to maintain life:

   to spill one's lifeblood in war.

2. a life-giving, vital, or animating element:

   Agriculture is the lifeblood of the country.

lifeblood

/ ˈlaɪfˌblʌd /

noun

1. the blood, considered as vital to sustain life
2. the essential or animating force

Word History and Origins

Origin of lifeblood¹

First recorded in 1580–90; life + blood

Example Sentences

Recruiting is the lifeblood of any program, and that’s where Frese shines.

From Washington Post

The revenue is the lifeblood of the company and being part of the team gives me sense of fulfillment.

From TechCrunch

Hard “key performance indicators” or KPIs, such as number of calls, meetings, leads, and closes per month, supply the lifeblood to sales teams.

From Fortune

Recruiting is the lifeblood of any program, and historically, the top programs have all been located in fertile recruiting areas.

From FiveThirtyEight

“Innovation is the lifeblood of this company,” Dorer said in an interview this summer.

From Fortune

This is the heart of the agent recruitment process that is the lifeblood of CIA today.

From The Daily Beast

This is because immigrants are the lifeblood of the U.S. economy.

From The Daily Beast

ISTANBUL, Turkey — The lifeblood of the death-dealing Islamic State is diesel fuel.

From The Daily Beast

Negotiation and compromise are the lifeblood of democracy, not poison to the body politic.

From The Daily Beast

As an evangelical, that sort of contrarianism is in my lifeblood.

From The Daily Beast

So speaks he, and takes the sword in his throat unfalteringly, and the lifeblood spreads in a wave over his armour.

From Project Gutenberg

Survey was the soul and lifeblood of the medical services supplied by Hospital Earth to the inhabited planets of the Galaxy.

From Project Gutenberg

The poor victim sank upon the floor, the lifeblood streaming from her heart.

From Project Gutenberg

That cancer is eating away the heart and corrupting the very lifeblood of this nation.

From Project Gutenberg

They delighted too much, to look upon the lifeblood flowing from the heart; and accordingly shed it most profusely.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• aspect
• basis
• bottom line
• character
• core
• crux
• element
• meaning
• nature
• principle
• quality
• reality
• root
• soul
• spirit
• structure
• substance