Nota: A tradução desta entrada está atualmente em revisão de qualidade, portanto parte do conteúdo é exibida temporariamente apenas em inglês.
Este verbete ainda não foi traduzido para o seu idioma, portanto o original é exibido abaixo.
lifer
This term carries a heavy emotional weight depending on the context. In a legal or penal sense, it is a stark, clinical label for someone whose freedom has been permanently revoked, often evoking themes of hopelessness or finality. It is common in crime reporting and legal discourse.
When applied to professional careers, particularly in the military or corporate world, the word shifts toward a sense of loyalty, institutionalization, or perhaps a lack of ambition to venture outside a known system. In these contexts, it can be used with respect for dedication or with a slight hint of irony regarding someone who has become a permanent fixture of an organization.
Meanings
Examples
He is a lifer who has spent thirty years in the same cell.
The warden treats the lifers with a strange kind of respect.
My father was an army lifer and never considered a civilian job.
He looks like a typical lifer with those calloused hands and distant eyes.
I wonder if I will end up as a lifer in this bureaucracy.
The prison library is mostly managed by a few lifers.
She is a total lifer when it comes to the teaching profession.