life-lease

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English[edit]

Noun[edit]

life-lease (plural life-leases)

  1. (dated) A lifetime appointment, a condition that exists or service that is provided for the duration of an individual's lifetime or for the remainder of a individiual's life.
    • 1853, Herman Melville, Bartleby, the Scrivener, in Billy Budd, Sailor and Other Stories, New York: Penguin Books, 1968; reprint 1995 as Bartleby, ISBN 0 14 60.0012 9, p.2:
      I had counted on a life-lease of the profits, whereas I only received those of a few short years.