2007-11-29 13:50:53 · 5 answers · asked by Jophes A 1 in Education & Reference ➔ Words & Wordplay
It is an intensifier, meaning"at all", as in "for the life of me I don't know", means "I do not know at all, I absolutely do not know (have no idea, etc)"
The sense of "for" here is "for the sake of", so the whole expression has the idea of "if my life depended on it"
http://dict.die.net/for%20the%20life%20of%20me/
But it seems to be used only in strong NEGATIVE statements such as "can't for the life of me" and the example given above, to stress that, EVEN if my life depended on it, I could not. . .
Another similar expression is "By my life", which is the type of formula someone might use in an oath, and which might explain the origin of "for the life of me". (Such informal oath formulas to intensify a statement are common.)
I've never seen any other meanings for this expression. So for the example "For the life of me, how could you ... " if used properly, the sense is more "How could you?!"/"I can't believe you would do that!" (that is, "I absolutely cannot believe that you . . . " or "I swear I can't believe you would. . . ")
2007-11-29 23:07:52 · answer #1 · answered by bruhaha 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It means that you could not do something even if it would save your life to do so.
However, we use the term frivolously. I can't "for the life of me" get out of bed early on Saturday morning. It is an expression that we should be more careful when using.
A more appropriate use: The robber demanded my money and my jewels. For the life of me, I had none.
2007-11-30 11:59:13 · answer #2 · answered by eek 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
To me it means I've run across something I have yet to see in my life.
I've heard some say it when they are frightened by someone who is actually an old friend or something... Ex: "For the life of me, how could you sneak up like that!"-- so I guess it can also mean 'spare my life', something along those lines.
2007-11-29 14:11:08 · answer #3 · answered by LK 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
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RE:
what do you mean by the phrase: "for the life of me".?
2015-08-18 17:41:29 · answer #4 · answered by Henriette 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It is used to give the rate of decay of radioactive substances. Roughly it mans that in, for instance, six months it will only be half as radioactive as it was at the start. Then after another six months it will have decayed another 50% from that, and so on. Some substances have a half life of thousands of years.
2016-03-19 18:31:56 · answer #5 · answered by ? 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
In all my years.
2007-11-29 14:01:12 · answer #6 · answered by holly 7 · 0⤊ 1⤋
if you say you can't for the life of you remember something, you mean that you cannot remember it at all.
2007-11-29 14:10:43 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋