life sentence
76
5.7
- noun
- /laɪf ˈsɛntəns/
:
cadena perpetua
- Armed robbery carries a life sentence in Florida.
- serve a life sentence
Cruz, ended up getting a life sentence instead of being put to death.
- Cruz, ended up getting a life sentence instead of being put to death.
- Every inmate that had a life sentence was not getting out.
- He was convicted of of terrorism and given a life sentence.
- Now he's now he's in prison doing, I think, multiple life sentences.
- And I was indicted in three in Miami in in Florida, Louisiana and Arkansas facing three life sentences.
- He timed walking up to that bench in such a way as he was able to get there and turn around and look at me as the judge was handing down the life sentence.
- I thought about this because I believed that we should save her life because she was facing like a life sentence.
- You actually get a, you almost have a, a higher status if you're on death row than if you're doing a life sentence, right?
- Since the book went to press, Ulbricht has gotten a life sentence and you know, that's a punishment that was widely decried as as unfair.
- There's there's a case of a person you mentioned that received the life sentence for selling weed.
- Many women are serving life sentences behind killing their attackers, their abusers.
- More like they're all sitting in prison with life sentences and you're a rich TV star slash movie star.
- Death row life sentence, you're free.
Examples
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The judge sentenced the perpetrator to a life sentence without the possibility of parole for his repeated offenses.
-
We see by your file that you've served twenty years of a life sentence.
Fiction book (1994) -
Yeah, he he he got a life sentence when he was young.
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This prisoner is in for two life sentences.
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If found guilty, she can face up to two life sentences, or the death penalty for the double homicide.
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Suddenly after serving five years of a life sentence without parole he's back on the street, a free man.
-
Aqsa's father and brother received life sentences with eligibility for parole after 18 years.
Academic text (2015) -
I was given a life sentence and incarcerated in the Atlanta Federal Penitentiary.
Fiction book (1994) -
That's a life sentence.
-
Reporter: Proposition 36 would help other nonviolent felons serving life sentences get out of prison faster.
Blog text (27)
Synonyms
∞
9.5
A prison sentence that lasts until a person dies
15
4.7
A sentence that keeps someone in prison for the rest of their life
Antonyms
How Long
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'a prison term that lasts for the prisoner's life' is directly and compositionally derived from 'life' (the duration of a person's life) + 'sentence' (a court-ordered punishment). This noun-noun combination is transparent and cross-linguistically common, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents will readily infer the MWE meaning.
Etymology
Life sentence: The noun life sentence comes from court language. A sentence is the punishment a judge gives and life means a person's whole life, so it pictures a punishment that lasts until the person dies, which is why it means 'a prison term that lasts for the prisoner's natural life'.